Moore Montessori Expanding Middle School

By MARY KATE MURPHY || mkmurphy@thepilot.com. Jan 22, 2023 Updated Jan 23, 2023

Moore Montessori Community School might be the most recent addition to the charter school scene locally, but it has steadily gained ground toward filling its educational niche.

Now, in its second full year on its historic May Street campus, the school has grown into its original vision of a K-6 school. It originally opened on Pennsylvania Avenue with kindergarten through second grade in 2018 before buying the former Southern Pines Elementary from Moore County Schools.

In the next two years, the school’s leaders plan to expand that original vision to add seventh and eighth grades.

“We feel like there's an opportunity in the community for a small middle school program that is really designed for self-motivated and curious children who want to learn not only the (state) Standard Course of Study, but beyond that,” said Head of School Katherine Rucker.

“It’s an ideal fit for students who want to take an active role in their education and have real-world learning experiences.”

Moore Montessori currently enrolls just over 200 K-6 charter school students as well as private preschool students. Like a typical Montessori program, classrooms incorporate mixed-age groups: pre-K3 through kindergarten in Primary, grades one through three in Lower Elementary and grades four through six in Upper Elementary.

Addition of seventh and eighth grade will bring the school to 250 public school students in 2025. Current sixth-graders have priority for next year’s seventh-grade class, but about 15 spaces will be open for new students.

“We've always, from our founding here, had a small group of, I think they were second graders when they started with us,” Rucker said. “So we're in a position to add children whose families think they would benefit from a Montessori middle school program next year.”

The Montessori program for early childhood strives to develop each student’s intrinsic motivation for discovery and the pursuit of knowledge. So learning is largely self-guided based on each child’s individual interests, with support from a lead teacher and assistant.

Rebecca Few is taking the lead in developing Moore Montessori’s middle school program. Few has been an Upper Elementary classroom assistant at the charter school for the last two years, and previously taught at New Century Middle School in Carthage.

She will be the humanities teacher for the new seventh-grade class this fall, as well as for eighth grade when it’s added next year. The school is currently scouting for a middle school math and science teacher.

Few has observed middle school programs at other Montessori schools in preparation for expanding Moore Montessori’s program.

“Having that middle school mindset and education background, I feel like the way they do middle school at the Montessori schools was the way middle school was meant to be taught and I feel like it’s the way children learn,” she said.

She said that the middle school will be a “hybrid” between the relaxed structure of a Montessori classroom and the more focused instruction of a traditional middle or high school.

The interdisciplinary approach to learning will still be in place, but instead of mixed-age classrooms instruction will be tailored specific to grade level.

“Some of the Montessori elements of choice and freedom of movement will still be in place. Students learn best and become invested in their education when they are put in charge of it, so that will still be an element of our middle school program,” Few said.

“We really feel like this would be a good time for students to join who haven’t had that Montessori background. Because it’s kind of a hybrid and we’re preparing them for high school this would be a good time to bring in some new families.”

An element of middle school Montessori education that will be new to the school is the “microeconomy:” a student-led small business endeavor that Maria Montessori envisioned as a real-world way for preteens to learn basic economic principles.

The current class of sixth graders has already begun brainstorming ideas for what will probably be an agriculturally-based business. Students will also have to work together to decide how to spend any proceeds: into program materials, expansion, or to cover costs for a field trip to Washington, D.C.

“I love middle school because 12-to-14-year-olds are the perfect age. They’re young enough to still have fun, but they’re old enough to really have mature, intellectual conversations,” she said.

“They’re ready for that, they're eager to be taken seriously. Also I feel like it’s such a malleable time in their lives and if you can set them on the right trajectory they’re going to be set for life.”

Open seventh-grade seats, as well as seats for the incoming kindergarten class and any available seats in first through sixth grade will be filled through Moore Montessori’s enrollment lottery.

Interested families can enter the lottery through Jan. 31. To enter, visit mooremontessori.org or call the school for more information at (910) 636-1325.