Program Information
Overview of Program Structure
Oak Farm Montessori High School (OFMHS) curriculum is individualized by students in collaboration with teacher guides and provides bountiful opportunities to prepare for adulthood as well as citizenship.
OFMHS is an integration of the current research in adolescent brain development, best practices in education, STEAM and the Montessori philosophy. The goal of the program is to provide opportunities for students to gain self-confidence, self-knowledge, and practical life skills for adulthood while in a community that supports their creation of a personal vision for their present and future.
- Learner-centered individualized environment
- Teaching team of AMS credentialed licenced teachers with additional adult resources
- Community partnerships
- Student-family-teacher partnerships with students leading
- Multi age groupings of Freshman & Sophomores and Juniors & Seniors
- Large blocks of work time
- Peer teaching
- STEAM integrated into curriculum
- Multi-sensory space
- Continuously refined to meet needs of young adults
Trips
Twice a year the regular schedule stops for fall trip and spring intersession; when students participate in two immersion studies, each lasting one week. Each fall, the high school community will go on a fall trip that will focus on exploration and community building.
Spring Intersessions: Outdoor Education and Cultural Immersion
Each student will have the opportunity to go on three spring intersession trips during their high school career. During 9th and 10th years, they will experience trips that are focused around ecology, hydrology, sociology and history as they travel to rural and urban destinations, such as New River Gorge, West Virginia and to New York City, New York. During their 11th year, students will go on a cultural immersion international trip, focused on language immersion.
College and Careers
Community
“This respect for the children is of the greatest importance and must be observed in practice. The adolescent must never be treated as a child, for that is a stage of life that he has surpassed. It is better to treat an adolescent as if he had greater value than he actually shows than as if he had less and let him feel that his merits and self-respect are disregarded” - Dr. Montessori, From Childhood to Adolescence
In the Oak Farm Montessori High School environment, students find a place where they can feel known and accepted. Each student’s voice is important and held in high regard. Each individual is celebrated and seen as a key member of the community. Student ownership within the environment is encouraged, allowing them to make decisions that have long term impacts on the community.
In a healthy Montessori community, holistic development of each student is a priority. Academics are a key focus of our school, but in order to find achievement in this area, students must also be healthy physically, socially, and emotionally. This holistic development is promoted through healthy peer to peer relationships, community meetings, moments of celebration, trips, and healthy teacher to student relationships. Through these relational moments, students have the opportunity to grow in effective communication and conflict resolution skills. The OFMHS community also consists of close relationships with parents. Parents are a key part of the holistic development of each student, and a healthy relationship between parents, educators, and students is encouraged and sought out.
