Lexington Montessori School

LMS follows the Montessori method rather than an international diploma programme, teaching through self-directed discovery in multi-age classrooms with uninterrupted work periods. The school frames its academic goals around creative thinking, solution seeking, ethical decision-making, communication, collaboration and innovation, and its Montessori beliefs hold that children are naturally eager to learn, that all aspects of a child need nurturing, that freedom within an ordered environment builds independence, and that peer learning across ages develops interpersonal skills. The programme ends with middle school, after which students move on to secondary schools in the Boston area; the school publishes an 'After LMS' section about that transition.

The school is organised in Montessori stages. The Toddler programme takes children from about twenty-one months; Children's House covers ages three to six; Lower Elementary covers Grades 1 to 3 and Upper Elementary Grades 4 to 6; and the Middle School covers Grades 7 and 8, where students also take part in extended athletics and in sports teams. Each stage uses multi-age classrooms so that children learn alongside peers of different ages, and tuition is published separately for each stage, with half-day and full-day options in the toddler and Children's House years.

The school's approach rests on the Montessori premise that children are bright, good and want to learn, and that each brings different gifts. Its stated priorities are developing the many aspects of each child, understanding equity and practising inclusiveness, and caring for the self and the environment. Its diversity statement commits the school to teaching children to value multiple perspectives, reject stereotypes and work for equity and justice. Sustainability is treated as integral to the mission, taught through awareness and action.

The campus covers twenty-three acres in total. Four acres hold the school buildings and play yards; the other nineteen, bought in 2018, are woods, streams, wetlands and an athletic field that teachers use for hiking, nature walks and outdoor science, engineering, art and mathematics lessons. Middle school students built an A-Frame structure on that land which is now used as a meeting space and for group lessons. The school also has a greenhouse and a food forest supporting its farming programme, where students take part in seed starting, potting up seedlings, planting, weeding, pest management, watering, composting, harvesting and selling the produce.

The Before and After School Program takes children from toddler age through middle school, with drop-off from 7:45am and pick-up as late as 5:30pm, charged separately from tuition at rates published by age group. Tuition itself is inclusive: no extra fees are billed for school-hour activities, materials or required trips. Need-based financial aid is offered through an application on Clarity, with notification given alongside the admission decision. Academic support is available on campus alongside the classroom teachers.

Upper Elementary and Middle School students can join LMS sports teams. In 2009 the school joined twelve other local Montessori schools to form the Montessori Athletic Conference, known as BIG M.A.C., in which LMS has fielded teams in soccer, basketball, cross-country and flag football; teams train once a week and play a fixture once a week, coached by LMS teachers and parents. Middle School students also take an extended athletics session of two and a half hours a week at off-campus facilities, which has included swimming, rock climbing, rowing, fencing, archery, tennis, golf and strength training. The farming programme and the outdoor classrooms run alongside this.