Our Community

Orion Montessori School (OMS) is founded on three basic yet key principles-benevolence, professional integrity, and passionate professionalism. We interact and reciprocate using these vital tools in all our operation and communication both, internally and externally.

Our goal is to prepare the children of our school community in their whole being for the adventure of life, empower tomorrow’s leaders, and provide an education for life. We consider the respective families of our community as our partners in that process. We enroll a family, not just a child. We believe that the true meaning and essence of education comes to life when home and school partner as collaborators in educating a child. We actively encourage parents and other significant people to be involved in the OMS experience.

Parent involvement ranges from being informed about the ongoings at OMS, to participating in our many school events, providing us feedback about what you like and what we can improve: just as we expect the children at OMS to learn and grow, so we work to constantly improve; and your candid, kind feedback helps us do that. We do not, however, expect parents to work at the school—there are no mandatory work expectations.

Montessori family involvement opportunities include:

• Participation in our parent education program. We start each year with a Parent Orientation Evening, to introduce parents to the school and answer any questions they may have. We then hold a series of five Parent Education Evenings every year. During these events, we not only provide you with an overview of the Montessori education your child will experience, but each Parent Education Evening is facilitated by an acclaimed external education expert in the field. 
• Active communications. Throughout the year, we communicate regularly with you—informally via e-mail, and formally, via written reports and two parent-teacher conferences each year. We also encourage you to participate in our annual ‘Observation Days’, wherein parents schedule a formal 30 minutes observation in class, so you can watch your child, their peers, and the authentic Montessori environment in action. Additionally, we also accommodate informal observation sessions schedule and time permitting. 
• Joining your child for special events. Throughout the year, there may be informal events at the school and parents are invited to attend with their child. Additionally, we host an annual ‘Parent-Child Luncheon’. During this event, parents are encouraged to schedule a formal 45 minutes luncheon with their child. 

We also encourage participation in our Elementary program:

• Parent education opportunities. It is important to us that you understand what we teach, so we can partner in your child’s education. We host an annual ‘Silent Journey and Discovery’ event, which allows parents to attend an evening in their child’s classroom and experience the environment in its entirety as their child does on a daily basis. The night is coupled with a discovery component, which provides parents the opportunity to watch lesson presentations provided by the teachers in each program level, adding more insight into the authentic AMI (Association Montessori Internationale) learning pattern and style of Montessori education. 
• Active communication. We are very active communicators. We make sure that the way we communicate with you is effective, so that you can be a partner—rather than overloading you with paperwork and perfunctory responsibilities. You will regularly hear from us in different forms. Additionally, we use an online parent platform ‘Transparent Classroom’ to track the progress of each child, in addition to maintaining class records. ‘Transparent Classroom’ allows parents to access their child’s portal, follow their academic progress, and view their individual gallery of pictures. 

Children bring their work home four times a year. In the interim, their work is stored as portfolios in their classrooms, so the children and their respective teachers are able to track their progress and continue working on a material until its natural completion without the added pressure of producing a product for their parent on a weekly basis. We place more importance in the process of how a child understands a lesson, concept, and material, and believe the product is a natural outcome of the process, once the latter is fully internalized.

• Active participation in field trips & special events. We start each school year with our annual ‘Breakfast in the Park’. This is a great opportunity to meet teachers, fellow parents and their children. Furthermore, we host an annual ‘Family Field Trip’ during the end of the academic year as a way to culminate the year and express our gratitude towards the entire community for another phenomenal school year! At the Elementary level, parents also volunteer as chaperones in their class field trips and ‘Going Out’ events. 

Finally, among the other hosted events at OMS which are detailed in our school calendar and provided to families upon enrollment, we celebrate our children and their accomplishment every year through a grand ‘Promotions and Graduation’ ceremony, which is open to all family members and friends.