Welcome to Mia Montessori Academy!

Our name is an homage to the woman behind the philosophy and the philosophy itself… Firstly, ‘Mia’ means ‘My’ in Italian, Italy being Maria Montessori’s birthplace. Beyond this tribute to Dr. Montessori herself, we celebrate how the Montessori approach is designed to ensure the student comes to see and think of it as “my education, my future, my journey.” Unlike traditional educational philosophies, it creates a context where the student is the owner of their education as opposed to having education be something that is done to them. And so, “Mia Education – My education” is what the Montessori approach and our school instills in students.

Our vision is to create a learning environment true to Maria Montessori’s philosophy and we are proud to be one of 5 AMI (Association Montessori International, the organisation established by Maria and her son Mario Montessori) Member Schools across the Lower Mainland, and the only one in Richmond.

As Montessori is not a trademarked name, any school can adopt the name without necessarily adhering to the principles of consistency and quality expected by AMI. The Montessori Quality Assurance (MQA) program was established in Canada to help parents identify AMI Member schools. Our accreditation is under Canada’s MQA program. All our teachers are AMI Diploma holders, and/or have been certified by a MACTE (Montessori Accreditation Council for Teacher Education) accredited program. They all participate in on-going professional development and mentorship to ensure that they are engaged in reflective practice to maintain the highest level of authenticity

In a Montessori classroom, instead of expecting that the child pay attention to the teacher in front of a class full of children, the Montessori teacher pays attention to each child. This is permitted by the structure of the classrooms themselves (never more than 25 children per class) and the delivery of learning material. 

Learning is delivered through activities, as opposed to “front of room” delivery from teachers. The choice of activity and progress through the same are driven by the students with timely support from the teachers. There are no tests. There are no grades. Our aim is to enable each student to progress through the curriculum at their own developmental capacity with the teachers guiding them through the requirements of the public school curriculum as determined by Independent Schools. Our world doesn’t need more test takers, memorizers or followers. Now more than ever, we need critical thinkers, entrepreneurs and leaders.