At Winfield, we pride ourself on providing an authentic and robust educational experience, very much based on the writings and teachings of Maria Montessori. Each of our classrooms have at least one credentialed Montessori teacher on the team, and we pay for teachers to obtain their Montessori credential.

In addition, we undertake a voluntary accreditation process with AMS, the American Montessori Society. Every seven years, this brings with it a year-long self-study and an onsite visit which evaluates and validates our approach.

At its heart, a Montessori program is one that places children at the front of every decision, and commits itself to continuous self-reflection and improvement. You will find all of that at Winfield!

Our goal with this website and our admissions process is to provide you with information about how we approach early childhood education, what is important to us as an accredited Montessori school, and the experience that we are offering to our families.

What we cannot answer for you is whether this approach aligns with the educational plan that you have for your child. To be certain we have had hundreds of Winfield families find a very happy home for their child here, so we start every relationship with the assumption that it will be a good fit, but acknowledge that there are some parents who are looking for something different, and that is OK. We want every child to find a placement that works for them, whether or not that is Winfield.

This article from the Montessori Foundation provides additional detail around this question.

Our Toddler House is for children at least 16 months by the start of school through three years old.

Our Children’s House is for children 3 through 6, including their Kindergarten year.

We have chosen to focus on creating a robust early childhood program with a goal of preparing our students for whatever comes next for them. We are not preparing them specifically for public school, nor for a specific private school. We want them to leave Winfield with a love of learning, and a sense of confidence in themselves as learners, and in their ability to fit into a community. With that in place, you are free to focus on deciding what the best next school is for your child, knowing that they will thrive wherever they are planted!

For our Toddler House, children must be walking independently and steadily, and be down to one nap, which takes place in the afternoon. While they do not need to be independently using utensils, they must be able to feed themselves with finger food. We can help them to learn to use utensils, but we are not able to spoon-feed children.

Students entering the Children’s House must be well on their way to independently using the toilet. This includes wearing underpants and being able to take care of most toileting functions such as wiping, pulling up own pants, etc. Teachers are on hand to provide assistance, but not to manage every aspect of the child’s toileting.

We know that a Montessori classroom can support a wide variety of learning styles, and we appreciate the diversity that all of those different children bring to our classrooms.

The natural accommodations that are afforded to every child in a Montessori classroom are often sufficient to support most children. But our teachers and admin staff are also adept at identifying children who may benefit from additional evaluation or outside services, and providing the classroom support necessary to allow those interventions to succeed, where possible.

We look at every child’s support individually, and weigh the needs of the individual child with the needs of the entire classroom community. We will always strive to be open and transparent with our families in those instances where another school or environment may be the best decision for both. Ultimately our goal is success for all children that Winfield touches, even if that success is best found with another program.

Our current tuition information is typically sent along with the application material after the completion of your tour. We review our tuition rates every year to ensure that we are remaining competitive with other comparable preschools in the area.

Our primary focus during the tour and application process is to ensure that we are philosophically aligned with you as a parent. There are different ways to approach early childhood education, and while we are very confident in the program that we are offering as a school, we want to make sure that you are looking for the same thing, and are willing to fully support that approach.

With that alignment in place, we trust that the child relationship will naturally flourish, so we do not have child screening as any part of our application process.

Occasionally, we will ask to meet children who are first entering as a kindergartener, given their particular role as classroom leaders in the multi-age classroom. In those cases, we will coordinate a time for them to visit one of our classrooms and have the chance to interact with teachers and other children.

Winfield is very fortunate to have a talented and professional teaching team!

As an accredited Montessori school, each of our classrooms are required to have at least one credentialed Montessori teacher, although we have multiple credentialed teachers in several of our classrooms.

Winfield pays for our teachers to attend the year-long program necessary to receive a Montessori credential. Our goal is to ensure that teachers with a passion to pursue Montessori as a career aren’t limited by the financial implications.

Our Children’s House classrooms also need to have teachers with a State teaching license as part of being a State-approved Kindergarten. We have many teachers who hold both their Montessori credential and State teaching license.

Our teachers also have access to professional development throughout the year, both during our in-service days, as well as through opportunities to attend other training programs.

Our goal is to provide an environment where teachers are valued for their expertise and have the continued opportunity to develop professionally as educators.

As a result, our turnover is relatively low, and we are usually filling only a couple of positions each year.

We have some teachers who have been here for over 20 years, some who only stay with us for a year, and everything in between! We expect that everyone completes their contract for each school year, but we want everyone to find fulfillment in their work, even if that ultimately isn’t at Winfield.

But we also know that every teacher, no matter their tenure, has had a positive impact on our community and curriculum, and that Winfield is a wonderful blend of all of those years of expertise!

In the Toddler House, our classrooms are 10 children with two teachers, plus a fifth float teacher who divides their time between the two rooms.

In the Children’s House, two of our classrooms are 14 children with two teachers, and two are 20 children with three teachers.

Parent engagement is a critical part of a child’s Winfield experience. But that can take many forms, and we also know that families are busier than ever. So we offer opportunities throughout the year, but they are truly opportunities, and never obligations.

We have an annual family picnic in the fall, and parents are invited to our Solstice celebration in December. We have a parent open house in the fall, and Bring Your Parent to School Night twice a year.

Parents have the opportunity to participate in our snack program and shop with their children on the weekend to provide snacks for their classroom.

In the Children’s House, the classrooms have a weekly Mystery Reader than parents can sign up for to come in and read a story.

Those are many of the scheduled events, but within each classroom, they will often have chances for parents to connect with the room, whether it is helping to carve jack o’ lanterns for Celebrate the Night, or share your experiences traveling to a country the class is studying.

Or maybe you have a special hobby or talent that would be of interest to the children. Sharing enriching experiences from the world is a key part of the Montessori curriculum, and we welcome those chances for you to share!

About two thirds of our families live in Falmouth, Cumberland, North Yarmouth, or Yarmouth, with the majority of those coming from Falmouth. While we have had families come from as far afield as Mechanic Falls and Biddeford, most of the rest of our families typically hail from Brunwick and Freeport in the north to Portland and Scarborough in the south.

Our schedule options are thoughtfully planned to allow children to have the best success in setting in to the routines of school. We have found that three mornings is the minimum that gives children that opportunity - any less than that, and they never really have a chance to develop a sense of routine and community with their classroom.

In almost all instances, even children who have never been outside of the home will quickly settle into school, as long as they are provided consistency in routines for arrival and attendance. Because the classrooms are all designed with their success in mind, children quickly become very comfortable in their classrooms.

There is no requirement to start in the Toddler House in order to be eligible for enrollment in the Children’s House. Many of our Winfield families start with us when their child ages into the Children’s House program.

The outdoors is an integral part of every day, not simply a requirement that we are checking a box for.

In both programs, we are outside for a minimum of 45 minutes over the course of the morning, and another 45 minutes in the afternoon.

In the Children’s House, each classroom also has one day a week when their Outdoor Ed session is scheduled, which is an additional hour for that day on top of the scheduled time.

We are outside in all weather, year round, unless the conditions get dangerous due to temperature extremes, storms, etc.

In all instances, teachers have the flexibility and staffing to be able to take additional excursions outside, whether it is to gather material for an art project, to take a sensory walk, or a nature walk to the Falmouth Land Trust trails across the street, or to respond to a need in their classroom to spend some extra time outside.

In addition to our school-year program schedule, we also offer six weeks of summer camp from June to August.

Our camp is only open to enrolled Winfield children. It serves as an excellent opportunity for families who are looking for consistency in routines and expectations for their children year-round.

The offered daily and weekly schedules are the same during camp as they are during the school year. It is an option to attend for a more reduced schedule over camp than your child may attend during the school year.