Farmhouse Montessori School

The Farmhouse Montessori School is an independent school across two campuses on the lower Northern Beaches. The school was established by a group of committed parents in 1982 with a preschool of 16 students, and has now grown to about 150 children across both campuses.

How we evolved

In December 1981, a group of parents, who had been unsuccessful in their endeavours to place their children into a Montessori School, agreed to form the Manly Warringah Montessori Society. This was the first step in starting a Montessori school in the Manly Warringah area. Five and half months of hard work culminated in the opening of the school on 7 June 1982 at the Farmhouse, Manly Vale, within a community centre.

Without the valued assistance of the Warringah Shire Board and the Farmhouse Management Committee, the school would not be the reality it is today. In 2002, the school moved from the Campbell Pde site to a temporary site in King Street, and after 2 years of dedication, it finally moved onto the present site at 9, Bardoo Avenue, North Balgowlah.

Our Expansion

In 2014, the school expanded to open a primary school in the Gatehouse of the old School of Artillery, within the stunning grounds of North Head Sanctuary, Manly. The school started with four students, and in its first three years grew to 35, with enrolments still growing year on year.

Surrounded by pristine bushland overlooking the harbour, the primary school provides the perfect environment for our students to further develop their love of learning, independence and curiosity. The recent appointment of a new principal is a milestone in the continuing growth and development of our school.

Principal's Message

Gavin McCormack

Montessori education is an education that caters for the whole child, emotionally, socially and academically. At Farmhouse Montessori, we strive to understand, observe and direct children as they navigate their way through the hurdles of life, towards their full potential. As teachers and leaders of the community, our job is to understand and listen to the voices of the children who we teach. Education is a journey, one that should inspire, create, develop and change as the child reaches new milestones.

My role as a community leader is to empower, encourage and guide the school community as we all strive for a better, more peaceful world. Montessori designed her system to educate children of the world and she understood that children had a great deal of potential from an early age. Through her pedagogy and her carefully designed materials, she developed trainers and teachers who were not the centre of the room, or the font of all knowledge, but the mere bridge between the child and the materials, which will ultimately guide the child towards their educational, social and emotional potential. And through this, we inspire a generation to understand the influence one can have on the world and the generations to come.

Farmhouse Montessori School is one that follows the philosophy of Maria Montessori. We understand that each child is unique, we know that each and every one of us has our niche, and we believe that independence and the will to learn is crucial to the children of the future.