About Us

Lakeland Montessori Schools are approved Polk County Charter Schools serving children age 3 through 8th Grade

Lakeland Montessori Schoolhouse
Age 3 through 6th grade

Our Mission: Learning that Sparks Curiosity

It is our mission to facilitate the well-rounded, advanced and challenging authentic Montessori curriculum that instills a sense of wonder and awareness about the universe and the child’s place within that universe. We wish to provide an educational environment that sparks curiosity and nurtures a love of learning along with teaching the skills to succeed academically. We are committed to providing a safe environment that is psychologically and emotionally nurturing and which is conducive to learning—equally about academics as well as oneself.

Lakeland Montessori adheres to the point-of-view that intelligence is not rare and that self-realization is the foundation for all future fulfillments. Lakeland Montessori is dedicated to teaching the core values of peace, integrity, community, and tolerance through a scientific and culturally oriented Montessori curriculum that reveals to the child the diversity and richness of human experience. The future for our children is one that holds a solid foundation in self-direction, interdependence, humanitarianism, and outreach to families and the community.

We are a community with students, parents, families, faculty and friends working together to assure the success of our mission. Montessori schools give children the sense of belonging to a family and help them learn how to live with other human beings. Children learn to be a part of families, learn to care for younger children, learn from older people, trust one another, and find ways to be properly assertive rather than aggressive. By creating a bond between parents, teachers and children, we seek to create a community where individuals learn to be empowered.

The mission statement of Lakeland Montessori is to provide an environment which emphasizes the development of character, particularly the virtues of Respect, Responsibility, and Resourcefulness.

Respectful, Responsible, Resourceful

Children are encouraged to become respectful by being in an environment where children of mixed ages, abilities, and backgrounds work together: where adults model respectful behavior and where the manners and courtesies of our culture are presented and practiced.

Children become responsible by caring for themselves, their environment, and their community and by experiencing the results of their choices.

Children become resourceful by directing the course of their own day, making decisions and solving problems as they arise.

Our Unique Approach

Academically, children are encouraged to move ahead in a challenging curriculum that is supported by ingenious and time-tested materials designed by Dr. Maria Montessori and other Montessori-trained educators. Children are able to work at their own pace with materials they have chosen. They work either in small groups or individually.

While students are expected to master the same standards required of them in any public school curriculum, there is flexibility inherent in the system to accommodate each student’s academic interests and potential. The aim is to encourage active, self-directed learning and to strike a balance of individual mastery with group collaboration. Our pioneering spirit is strong and our enthusiasm for success is soaring!

Lakeland Montessori Middle School
Grades 7 & 8

Mission

Lakeland Montessori Middle School provides students with a holistic, developmentally responsive Montessori environment which allows for individual expression and encourages growth into active, responsible participants in society.

Vision

Lakeland Montessori Middle School inspires academic success through authentic Montessori and personally relevant education; improves adolescent/ community interaction through service learning; nurtures student curiosity, creativity and efficacy by encouraging self-directed education; and focuses on the student as a vital participant in his or her learning community.

Core Values

Service-learning

LMMS incorporates a Service-learning component into the curriculum. This will allow students to serve the Lakeland community, and to learn from their experience.

Peace education

LMMS believes that teaching our students how to be peaceful within themselves and with others allows them to be stewards of their community. Peace education is woven throughout the entire curriculum.

Self‐motivation

Montessori education teaches students to be intrinsically motivated in their educational pursuits as well as self‐aware of their needs. LMMS equips students with the methodology to becoming productive learners.

Compassion

As an extension of peace education, LMMS strives for its students to understand and respect diversity in all of its forms.

Academics

LMMS strives to maintain an authentic Montessori middle school education as well as maintain high academic standards and achievement.

Population

LMMS serves a population of approximately 30 students from the Lakeland area who demonstrate the ability to be academically and socially successful in a Montessori environment. Lakeland Montessori Schoolhouse sixth graders receive automatic entrance into seventh grade. LMMS seeks diversity in all forms in its population.

Academic Design

Lakeland Montessori Middle School uses a proven Montessori curriculum which accents the integrated quality of education. All of the core academic areas are fully integrated within each other, resulting in a remarkably authentic education which mimics the nature of society. Integrated curricula tend to make the study of individual subjects or ideas more relevant and related, creating a natural and authentic education. The eccentricities of Montessori education are what make it innovative and effective.

Montessori education is also unique in the manner in which the school day is structured. Each student participates in the community by defining and pursuing his or her own needs and interests. It is truly student directed, teacher‐facilitated education. This differs from the traditionally teacher‐centered classroom and allows for more freedom and personal ownership of the process. For example, students choose their work plan—deciding which assignment and tasks to complete according to their own individual styles. Mixed in with individual work is expected group work which joins students together for opportunities to approach tasks with their peers. In these groups, students will learn to work cooperatively toward a goal while mentoring each other and being guided by the classroom teachers.

Service Learning

Service Learning is an integral part of authentic learning in a Montessori classroom. In service learning, students learn through their engagement in community service planning, action, reflection and demonstration. Students choose the projects in which they engage and share their results with the community. Service Learning allows adolescents to learn and develop skills that will make them better citizens in a local and global community.

Montessori at Work

Montessori education is innovative and effective. Students who attend Lakeland Montessori Schoolhouse have excellent academic results in an authentic Montessori classroom. Lakeland Montessori Middle School follows in the tradition and example of Lakeland Montessori Schoolhouse.

LMMS students are guided by their Montessori‐trained teachers and encouraged to develop individual strengths in a carefully designed work space. Students learn through individualized work plans that have been developed with that particular student’s academic needs in mind.

For those interested in reviewing our excellent State of Florida Department of Education standardized test scores and school grades, please visit our State Test Scores page.