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Cycle 3 – Year 4 to Year 6

As students make the transition from Cycle 2 to Cycle 3, a more extensive exploration into Cosmic Education facilitates:

  • Engagement in the inquiry based learning in Language (including LOTE), Mathematics, Art, Music, History, Geography, Science and Physical Education
  • Students are encouraged to ask questions and make proposals for research
  • An inclusive approach to education which fosters a feeling of connectedness to all humanity
  • The natural desire to make a contribution to the world

As Cosmic Education begins in Cycle 2, you can read more detail about what it entails here. During Cycle 3 we continue to introduce your child to the repeating natural cycles in our world, and the connectedness of all living things. We show your child how all content areas – history, science, environment – are interconnected. In turn, Cosmic Education ensures that your child is developing as an independent, socially responsible and emotionally intelligent individual, whilst providing them with the academic rigour required for their secondary school experiences, and beyond into tertiary education an adulthood.

"The essence of independence is to be able to do something for one’s self. Adults work to finish a task, but the child works in order to grow, and is working to create the adult, the person that is to be. Such experience is not just play... it is work he must do in order to grow up."
Dr Maria Montessori

The purpose of Cosmic Education is to look towards the future – to prepare your child to live in the world, and prepare them for the future, within the full range of educational disciplines.

Language

In Language, children strive to put language in context, to explore the reasons for the why it is constructed and to use language beyond its literal use. Your child will experience areas of study including spoken and written language, the history of language, the functions of words and effective communication.

Mathematics

Whilst your child will continue to learn mathematical principles through the manipulation of concrete materials, these materials are stepping stones to the door of abstraction, which will they move on to when they are ready. This approach enables your child to grasp mathematical concepts by first experiencing and manipulating them in concrete form.

Your child will begin to use quantities with precision, and be reason using logic and abstract patterning based on observation and imagination. Your child will work with measurements, patterns, sequences and mathematical relationships, applying these concepts to practical projects.

History

Our approach to history in Cosmic Education is through introducing your child to the ‘big picture’ through a series of ‘great stories’, which reveal the overlap and interplay between all subject areas. The focus in not to remember dates and famous people, but rather to introduce your child to what was happening to ‘ordinary people’ (like themselves), as it is the efforts of the everyday people to survive and make life easier for themselves that contributed to the progress of humanity and to the benefits we have inherited.

Geography

Within Geography we show your child how the physical configurations of the earth have contributed to the study of history. Your child will discover that everything, living and non-living, is interconnected and interdependent and worlds together to make up an ecological whole. Physical geography provides an understanding of how the earth was formed and the laws that underpin the formation of the earth by examining the solar system and the earth, mapping, weather and seasons and the physical make-up of the oceans, rivers, mountains and winds as well as the geographical regions of the earth.

Science and Technology

Science curriculum at North-Eastern is experiential in nature, so that your child learns about science in the same way that scientists learn about science – by actually experimenting with it, researching it and experiencing it. Your child will experience the science of chemistry, biology, physics, zoology and understand how it science is interwoven with geography and history.

Technology skills and knowledge at North-Eastern are introduced within all areas of the curriculum, within the holistic research and experimentation they will naturally undertake in pursuing their passions and interest in particular subject areas. The use of technology will be gradually built upon as your child develops an ethical approach to the use of information and communication technologies. In this way, digital technologies become part of a balanced program without displacing paper-based skills and face-to-face communication.

Students at the Plenty Valley International Montessori School St Helena Melbourne

Our School tours are perfect to learn more about Cycle 3

As your child concludes their time at North-Eastern, we ensure that not only will they remember their experience here with fondness, but also that they transition well to secondary school. Our experience is that children educated in the Montessori tradition cope very well in other schools.

A successful transition, both emotionally and academically is not a random outcome, but something for which your child has been well prepared.

The Montessori approach aims to encourage children to be independent, responsible, well-organised, inquisitive, self-motivated and adaptable. These qualities play an important part in successful transition and achievement throughout secondary school.

To enquire about our Cycle 3 program, please contact our Registrar on 03 9438 3202 or by email

"Adults work to finish a task, but the child works in order to grow and is working to create the adult, the person that is to be.”
Dr Maria Montessori