Our school provides lifelong benefits for its students. Giving your child a Santa Cruz Montessori education is the most important investment you can make in his or her future. The results are clear: children gain strong academic skills and become self-motivated caring individuals who make positive contributions to the community. Whether they find their passion in science, art, business, or education, our alumni achieve their goals in traditional subjects and as whole people.

We achieve excellence through the Montessori philosophy and methods, which extend beyond the classrooms to its beautiful campus, an attractive and generous space that encourages children to engage in organized as well as informal sports and games, care for chickens and rabbits, garden, climb and swing, and invent novel forms of play and cooperative fun.

Meet some of our alumni

Alumni Profiles

In the Classroom

The classrooms offer low student: teacher ratios and mixed-age student groups. This arrangement provides older children an opportunity to reinforce their own skills and gain leadership experience by helping younger classmate and presents younger children with slightly older role models, who they are eager to emulate. Because children remain in the same multi-age classroom for three years, they form a rich bond with their teachers, who come to know their personalities and learning styles in a way that is not possible in a traditional classroom. Once children are enrolled, they can look forward to spending many years with their peers, as the school nurtures children from age 18 months through 15 years. It is the only school in the Monterey Bay Area that offers Montessori programs for such a large age range.

SCM’s teachers have been certified by either the American Montessori Society (AMS) or the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI). Our head teachers have an average tenure of 13 years, an achievement that the board of trustees has fostered in numerous ways. It has delivered on a long-standing commitment to providing the faculty with professional salaries and benefits, and it cultivates a stable, supportive environment that allows teachers to fulfill their mission as Montessori educators. SCM serves as a model Montessori program that attracts many observers and student teachers from training programs across the country.

Toward the Future

Your child will develop responsibility, independence, and respect for self, others, and our world—all wrapped within a robust curriculum of rigorous academics plus arts, drama, and foreign language. Whether you measure the results of an SCM education by the top-notch high schools and colleges our students attend, the large number of high school valedictorians that come from SCM, the joy alumni find in their career choices, or by your child’s enduring love of learning, you’ll feel comfortable knowing that you have bestowed the best gift any parent can give.

We are so blessed to be a part of this amazing school and community.  Our children are thriving in the environment and wake up happy to go to school everyday.

SCM Parent