The Upper School at MMUMS

We are so excited to announce to you that MMUMS is growing! We will be launching our MMUMS Adolescent Program in the fall of 2026!

 

As many of you know, the Nido (infant program) started as a dream of Rachel's out of her own home. MINE (Montessori Infant Nido Environment) was founded in 2013 and began with enrollment of five students ages 4 months through 3 years old. After a year in her home, the school experienced growth and needed more space and capacity. It was moved out of her house and into a local storefront in Blacksburg, Virginia.

 

In 2014, Montessori Infant Nido Environment opened its doors to 13 children in a store front in First & Main in Blacksburg where the Primary program began. It remained there for three years before needing even more space for growth. At that time in 2017, the school enrolled 45 children and had begun its Lower Elementary program. The school moved to its current location in the Corporate Research Center.

 

The new location has allowed the school to grow even further, enrolling over 80 children. We introduced the Montessori Upper Elementary Fall 2021. Now, here we are a few years later preparing to respond to the growing need among our families to include an adolescent program.

 

We're so happy you're all on this journey with us - it's been an incredible 12 years! 

 

We know there will be a lot of questions as we move forward in building this program and we are happy to answer all of them. We may not have ALL of the answers, but we can start with telling you the progress we've made so far:

• We have built a team within the existing MMUMS faculty community to begin with the vision of this program. This team has reviewed the tenets of Montessori adolescence and how the children will move to the next plane of development (3rd plane).

• We discussed the qualifications needed for a MMUMS Lead Guide and plans for recruiting and training with focus on how that person will begin their integration into the MMUMS community. We are actively recruiting, so share any leads you may have ;) 

• Because this program will require space for larger bodies and even bigger work, we will need to expand our physical property as well. We have connected with a few real estate resources to identify a location/property to house the program and are actively searching for the ideal location.

• Finally, as you'll discover, the adolescent program thrives with many partnerships with the local community. We have started compiling a list and actively building partnerships with local farms, agriculture business, research labs, etc. We are currently drawing on the extensive network of our internal community, but look to open that up more broadly very soon.

 

What happens next (within the coming couple of months)?

• We will be scheduling a meeting with MMUMS parents to solicit information on resources to consider across the community and discuss the process of teacher recruitment.

• We will solidify the plan for location/setting that would be ideal for this program.

• We will host a parent interest meeting where we discuss the adolescent plane of development (ages 12-15), outline this stage of Montessori education, how the program will be run, and what to expect for those children.

• MMUMS faculty and administration will be visiting existing adolescent programs to observe and meet with other adolescent teachers and administrators to help us refine our vision.

​

​We will keep this page updated with any new information about the exciting upcoming Montessori adolescent program at MMUMS!