News & Events: Student Story



“You’re learning from the best Montessorians in the world”

Phoebe Hollings graduated from our one year AMI Diploma 3-6. She works at the Maria Montessori School in Hampstead and her future dreams include lobbying for change in the government’s approach to early education. She shares her experience of training with us and her career so far: I have always been drawn to doing meaningful, […]

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“I Realised My Dream of Opening My Own Montessori School”

  Lucy Forrester graduated from our AMI Diploma 3-6 course in 1992 and has had a varied career teaching in Montessori schools. She now runs her own Children’s House, the East Sussex Montessori School in a beautiful church building in the village of Alfriston. She shares her experience of training and working in Montessori: “When I was studying for my A […]

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“A Journey of Discovery that Maintained My Curiosity Until the Very End”

Kalamun Nehar took our AMI Diploma 3-6, graduating in summer 2022. She explains how Montessori teacher training gave her “so much more than she expected”. My Discovery of Montessori I came across Montessori education some time ago when I was completing my Product Design degree. I found it comforting just to discover that such a […]

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Elementary teacher: “I really wish I had had this education myself”

Pablo Gonzalvo graduated from the AMI Diploma 3-6 in and 2018 and AMI Diploma 6-12 in 2021 and is a Lead Teacher at the Maria Montessori School, he says: I came to Montessori because a friend of mine suggested it as I was interested in working with children but wasn’t sure what I wanted to […]

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Montessori Training Leads to a Specialism in Multilingualism

Gabrielle Kotkov graduated with an AMI Diploma 3-6 in 2017 and her training was a stepping stone to a varied career focused on bilingualism and language acquisition, she explains: I did the full-time AMI Diploma 3-6 course in 2016-2017. One thing that I always tell colleagues that was so special about my training cohort was […]

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Traditional Teacher Retrains in Montessori

Stephanie Garrett trained as a Montessori Elementary teacher graduating with an AMI Diploma 6-12 in 2009. She says: My decision to become a teacher came after art college and having children. I trained as a “traditional” teacher, gaining a PGCE (Post Graduate Certificate of Education). I taught in state primary schools in the Brighton area […]

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Leslie Droege – From Mainstream Teaching to Montessori Elementary

Leslie Droege graduated from the AMI Diploma 6-12 in 2002 and is a Lead Teacher at the Maria Montessori School, she says: Before I started on my Montessori journey, I had been teaching earth and physical sciences in secondary prep schools for about 12 years. As a teacher I was continually disappointed with working in […]

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Sarah Emerson – The AMI Diploma 0-3 is a “Once in a Lifetime” Experience

Sarah Emerson AMI Diploma 0-3 graduate says: “Having worked in early childhood education for 20 years, I have been very lucky to have had some fantastic training opportunities. I’ve got four Montessori courses, an undergraduate degree, a master’s degree, a postgraduate certificate, plus adult and early years teaching qualifications under my belt. But one course, […]

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