Dear MTA member,

As we are wrapping up the year, it’s a good chance to reflect on MTA’s successes in 2025 and look ahead to 2026.

Thanks to everyone who came to the social gathering at Chrysalis Montessori School. Extra thanks to Mark and the team who organised catering and drinks (and, no doubt, the lovely weather). It was a wonderful, gentle way to connect at a busy time of the year, and great to see people from a number of Montessori schools, including admin staff who work so hard to
make the classroom staff look good!

The “Books and Food” event held in term 3 was a huge success. The session with
author/artist James Foley at Paper Bird Books, Fremantle, inspired attendees to be more creative with their approach to writing. It was particularly invigorating to see Montessori practitioners from all cycles adapt and integrate what we were being shown in order to truly follow the children in their own classrooms. Lunch at Gage Roads after the workshop was a
chance to chat, share experiences and build community. Thanks to Caroline from Perth Montessori for organising the event, and for Tina from Beehive for doing a lot of behind the scenes work regarding ticketing. Combining two joys of teaching life – books and food – was
genius!

This year’s conference in April was tremendous. Working with current and emerging Whadjuk elders, MTA provided the opportunity to learn from and engage with Noongar culture. Information about language, cultural practices and ways of knowing was invaluable, as was the emphasis on ideas of Country and starting local when working with broader curriculum areas.

The events in 2025 were the culmination of a more general project to re-energise the MTA. The Montessori Teachers Association of W.A. was formed in 1989 to provide professional development to local Montessori teachers. The objectives of the association are to:

1. Provide ongoing professional development for Montessori teachers in order to
   expand knowledge and expertise, and promote their professional standing.
2. Further community and professional awareness of Montessori education.
   

Over the past few years, the community and professional awareness focus has been ongetting more schools and centres involved at the committee and membership levels, and on building a sustainable service for Montessori practitioners that is inclusive and locally
relevant. To that end, it‘s been a process of gentle trial and error, with some significant
successes. At the committee level, MTA has expanded to currently include representation from five schools. The public face of the committee is the events we organise, however there has been a lot of background work regarding constitutional development and financial
integrity which means the Association can be sustainable. Another aspect to community and professional awareness has been the introduction of school memberships, in addition to individual memberships. This is a more flexible, collegiate approach to membership which
allows schools and centres to maintain their individual character alongside their Montessori focus. Schools and centres can now include their education assistants and specialists in their membership, while Montessori professionals not working in a Montessori setting can stay connected through individual memberships.

Re-introducing the conferences has been the main professional development focus, as per the first objective. The approach to conference organization has been to trial formats, delivery platforms and content based on membership surveys. The past four conferences were:

An online event on Reconciliation with Rhys Paddick from Acknowledge This!

• A half day hybrid face to face / online keynote presentation plus Q & A on
  neurodiverse learners in a Montessori classroom with Aleks Zajacs;
• A full day face to face only with a keynote presentation and practical workshops on
  Montessori dance with Kei Ikeda as well as opportunities for practitioner workshops
  and networking led by people from local Montessori schools;
• A full day face to face only event with mix of keynote presentation, seminars and
  practical workshops led by present and emerging Whadjuk elders including Kerry-Ann
  Winman, Robyn Collard and Dylan Collard.

Feedback from all conferences has been welcomed and then used to plan future events. The
optimum combination seems to be presentations and practical workshops based on a theme
plus opportunities for local networking. This will be front of mind as we work on the 2026 conference.

The term 4 social gathering was also re-introduced to support networking and community awareness. While there is no non-busy time to get together, a November Friday afternoon seems the best opportunity to wind up the year and have a look at other’s prepared environments. As with the conferences, the social event is designed to include as many attendees as possible.

2025 saw the introduction of a smaller, limited participation event in term 3. Feedback from participants was overwhelmingly positive and we’ll be looking to organise something similar
next year.

The MTA committee is currently working on its strategic plan for the next few years. There are a few areas to work on, including developing our website and social media presence.
We’d also like to maintain the advances we’ve made in the areas of community inclusion and local relevance.

Looking ahead to 2026:

• Monday 20th April, 2026 – MTAWA Conference – details distributed in Term 1, 2026.
• Thursday 18th June, 2026 – AGM
• Term 3, 2026 – Workshop + Chat event
• Term 4, 2026 – Social Gathering – to be hosted by Bluegum Montessori

Have a lovely summer break. See you in 2026!