The document summarizes a Montessori early childhood program for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in Australia. Key points: 1) The program aims to provide Montessori education to all Australian children regardless of location or socioeconomic status, and help break cycles of welfare dependency. 2) It partners with local organizations to provide Montessori programs for children aged 3-6 and 6-9 in the Torres Strait. 3) Using a Montessori approach, the programs focus on developing children's independence, concentration, and social/emotional skills through practical activities connected to their culture and environment. 4) The programs emphasize long-term commitment, community engagement, and empowering families to support children

1. Montessori Early Childhood
Programmes in the Torres
Strait, Australia

2. Australia’s Indigenous Peoples
Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander

4. Physical evidence of occupation 2,500 40,000-60,000 years of occupation
years ago.
Settled from Papua New Guinea Settled via land bridge from SE Asia
Village based fishing and cropping Hunter-gatherer economies - seasonal
economies movement through estates
First contacts with Europeans though Spread of European colonies from
trading from mid-late 1800s 1788 decimates aboriginal populations.
Contact with missionaries preceded Missions often established to protect
colonisation – Christianity embraced survivors.
early and enthusiastically.

6. Wellbeing in early childhood
The Australian Early Development Index measures outcomes
for children in the areas of:
• Physical health and wellbeing
• Social competence
• Emotional maturity
• Language and cognitive skills
• Communication skills and general knowledge

7. 2009 outcomes
Vulnerable in one or more Vulnerable in two or more
areas areas
National Torres Strait National Torres Strait
average average average average
59.9%
39.2%
23.6%
11.8

8. Health outcomes
• Low birthweight twice as common for Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander babies as for other Australian
babies.
• Ear and hearing problems more than 3 times as
common among Indigenous children.
• Oral health -higher levels of tooth decay and lower
levels of access to dental care.
• Life expectancy estimated to be 11.5 years lower for
males and 9.7 years lower for females.

9. Aims:
• All children in Australia will have the
possibility of attending a Montessori program
regardless of their location or socio-economic
circumstances.
• Bring hope to those who have been unable to
break a cycle of dependence and who live in
poverty in Australia.

10. Challenge and response
• How can we break the cycle of welfare dependency
when so many have failed?
– Family life and the socialisation of children are the
foundation of any society, and fundamentally affect the
future of both individuals and the community itself.
– Early childhood provides the maximum point of leverage for
growth and development, including the development of pre-
literacy and numeracy skills and dispositions.
– The child, and the value accorded children by almost all
adults, is the key point of leverage for maximum family and
community engagement.
– Generational change starting with the child
– Commitment in perpetuity

11. MCF partners with Torres Strait
organisations
• Tagai State College
to provide
Montessori
programs for
children aged 3-6 &
6-9
• Torres Strait
Islanders’ Regional
Education Council
to provide birth to
age 3 programs

12. TheStrait Start programs – birth to age 3
A Montessori approach to the early years

13. The first years of life
• … the early years … have the most important influence of any time in the
life cycle on brain development and subsequent learning, behaviour and
health. The effects of early experience, particularly during the first three
years, on the wiring and sculpting of the brain's billions of neurons, last a
lifetime.
• The evidence is clear that good early child development programs that
involve parents or other primary caregivers of young children can
influence how they relate to and care for children in the home, and can
vastly improve outcomes for children's behaviour, learning and health in
later life.
• The earlier in a child's life these programs begin, the better.
Mustard, J. Fraser; McCain, Margaret N. 1999. Reversing the real brain drain: Early years final study report.
Ontario. Ministry of Children and Youth Services.

14. The family is fundamental

15. Sharing knowledge and skills with
parents and caregivers

19. Prepared environments foster
development through sensorial
experiences

22. Movement

23. emotional development – identity
ABOUT STRAIT START

25. Practical life activities

27. Independence

29. Concentration

32. Social competence

35. Connected to culture, community and
environment

37. Establishing, maintaining, supporting
and growing our work
• What makes a difference?
– Community engagement, which is particularly
complex in Indigenous settings
– Slow delicate complex work of building trust,
relationships and shared understanding and
commitment
– Working towards sustainability through training
and government engagement

42. Guiding Principles
• Help me to do it by myself
• Trust, observation, reflection, respect
• Long-term commitment
• Sustainable and scalable infrastructure and resources
• Community engagement around the child
• We must become less as the children, families and
communities become more
• Independence

45. Mentoring
• Non judgemental, supportive, friendly and open,
observant, effective communication, sensitivity to
personality needs of coordinator
• Cultural awareness and knowledge; being prepared to
seek this knowledge and awareness
• Non interfering but able to sensitively raise awareness
of coordinator to issues they may not see
• Knowledgeable and experienced in Montessori 0-3
• Ability to be in the background, to act with humility and
a sense of humour
• Ability to work out ways to empower the coordinator

46. Government engagement

48. Research
• We want to know what impact the Strait Start
program has over time on:
– the perceptions, attitudes and practices of parents
and carers to fostering the development of children
though family interactions and environments.
– the development of children across key
developmental domains (emotional, social, language,
physical, cognitive)
– the level of children’s engagement with and
performance in formal schooling.

51. The research process
• Collating baseline data
– Existing and future school data on:
• Attendance
• Literacy
• Numeracy
– AEDI
– Human Development Index
– LSIC
• Documentation of programs
– Background
– Rollout
– Challenges and responses
– Reflections

52. • Qualitative data
– Background material
• Ethnographies
• Community profiles
• Family profiles
– Ongoing collection
• Classroom observations
• Regular family and community interviews
• Quantitative data
– Background material
• AEDI
• School performance data
– Ongoing collection
• Annual testing using some AEDI tools
• Range of tests (children)
• Long-term tracking using school performance data
• Health and well-being measures