At Murray-LaSaine, our mission is to educate the whole child. Murray-LaSaine, a public Montessori school, is helping all students develop the World Class Skills of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate in our beautifully prepared environments with highly trained, well-qualified teachers and assistants while keeping students at the heart of our work. We partner with our students’ first teachers, their parents, and do our work with a deep respect for the child in front of us. We work to meet their needs wherever they are along their developmental path. We hold in mind Montessori’s words that “within the child lies the fate of the future”. We prepare children not just for school, but for life.
Our students develop creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, and communication skills on a daily basis in their mixed-aged classrooms. Creativity abounds not only in our art and music classes but as students figure out how to solve math problems or STEM challenges and in their writing samples and creative writing tasks. There is daily collaboration among students, staff, teachers, and parent volunteers. Whether it’s working together on a science fair project, teaming up to do recycling, or practicing math facts, we work together to reach our goals.
Our students learn to communicate with one another, teachers, other staff members, and the community through real-world situations and everyday opportunities. The answers are not provided to students, they must seek out the knowledge they need. With a diverse student body, students learn to be respectful and understanding of differences; they learn that every living thing has something or some way to positively contribute to our world. Our students hold class meetings, where they learn to advocate for their needs, offer solutions to problems, and take responsibility for their actions.
This year, students used critical thinking to determine how to raise funds for outings while also ensuring they contribute to the world they live in. Our sixth grade students raised money to fund their trip to Disney, and as part of giving back as we are able, they raised over $1,000 for the charity Give Kids the World. Our Adolescent students showed innovation when they started a business selling jewelry stamped with words of intent and later learned to grow and harvest herbs to make tea; they also gave back to the community by helping on a farm and doing community service.
Students showed growth in both soft skills and academic skills this school year. Our data shows our students outperformed the district average for students meeting their growth target in all grades (2nd-7th) in reading and in grades 5-7 in math.
At Murray-LaSaine, as throughout all schools, we know our students are “both the hope and promise for mankind” (M. Montessori).
Meredith Wallace, Principal
Jamie Meissner, SIC Chair
