Ladybird Montessori School
The Scout Hall, Sheldon Avenue, London N6 4ND [ map ]
Principal: Nicki Parish [Email],
Head: Clara Stewart [Email]
Tel: 020 8348 3054 (mornings), 020 7359 9389 or 020 7586 0740
Teachers
Nicki Parish, Principal
Nicki is the founder-principal. She was born in Somerset and educated privately at a West Country boarding school. After leaving school, she studied home economics and was for 14 years a home economist for the Eastern Gas Board, based at Colchester in Essex, where she met her husband, K.K.Tse, who was studying pharmacy at Essex University. After marriage, Nicki, who had always wanted to work with children, studied for a teacher’s diploma at the St. Nicholas Montessori College and worked for six years at a Montessori School in Muswell Hill, North London.
At the suggestion of a group of parents, who admired her work and way with children, she opened her own Ladybird Montessori School in 1990. She now lives in Hampstead and Henley on Thames with her husband and daughter.
Clara Stewart, Head Teacher
Clara, was born in Cali, Colombia, and was educated to secondary level, before graduating to the Colombo Americano College to start bi-lingual (Spanish/English) business studies. After working for a number of multi-nationals, she joined the Colombia branch of an English public-relations’ company, where it was suggested she came to the UK to improve her English.
She came in 1992 to a London language college and financed her journey by working as a nanny in Kensington, West London. There she realised that the guidance of children was an over-riding interest in her life, so, as soon as she had gained her Cambridge Certificate in English, she took a Diploma course at the St. Nicholas College. In 1996 she joined Nicki Parish at the Ladybird Montessori School as a trainee teacher, and graduated later that year, After two years, she left to run the Montessori class at an Early Years’ Centre near her home in Islington, North London, and was invited back to Ladybird as Head in the Spring of 1999.
Clara holds a National Vocational Qualification level 3 in Child Care and Education
Our Staff
Only fully-qualified Montessori teachers are accepted on the staff, with dedicated assistants and students gaining teaching experience as part of their Montessori diploma-course.
We like to think of teachers as friendly, approachable directresses - because they direct the child, rather than teach. They are especially trained to observe, to respond to the needs of the individual as well as guide the whole group. They are particularly concerned with their total development - physical, social, emotional and intellectual.
Under the modern Montessori concept, as developed here at Ladybird, staff recognise the child’s readiness to move on and the balance between the environment and the child’s needs. They take a positive approach and themselves demonstrate respect and courtesy.
They have one guiding aim, to show the true purpose of learning - the inner drive to make it all meaningful. The child learns to learn - throughout life!