School choice

Bilingual / international or Montessori?

The difference between Bilingual / international and Montessori is mostly one axis: mixed ages. Bilingual / international sits toward classes of the same age; Montessori sits firmly toward mixed-age groups. They agree, more than most people expect, on a view of the world, who else is there and what the family can put in. Neither is the correct one. What follows is what each asks of a parent, and where the difference actually shows up on a Tuesday.

Bilingual / international

Teaching runs in two languages, often with a national curriculum on one side and another on the other, in a cohort assembled from several countries. For a family that has moved, may move again, or wants a heritage language kept alive at school rather than only at home, it resolves something no local school can. The academic programme is usually conventional and demanding; the language is the differentiator.

What it asks of you

  • Fees, and usually a commute
  • Accepting slower early progress in both languages before it compounds
  • A cohort that turns over as families relocate, and friendships that go with them
  • Supporting the weaker language at home, which lands on the parents

Montessori

Children choose their own work from carefully designed materials, in mixed-age classes, across a long uninterrupted morning. The structure is in the environment rather than in the timetable: what is available is tightly controlled, and what a child does with it is not. Adults observe far more than they instruct.

What it asks of you

  • Accepting a school where nobody will tell you what your child did at 10am
  • Trusting a long ramp — the method front-loads independence and back-loads visible output
  • Checking the school rather than the name, which anyone may use
  • Usually fees, since state Montessori is rare outside a few systems
Side by side

Where they differ

Bilingual / international is the filled marker, Montessori the hollow one. Widest difference first.

E1Mixed ages
classes of the same agemixed-age groups

Bilingual / international sits toward classes of the same age; Montessori sits firmly toward mixed-age groups.

L3Measuring it
no grades, no testsgraded and tested regularly

Bilingual / international sits a little toward graded and tested regularly; Montessori sits firmly toward no grades, no tests.

V3What it is for
childhood is the pointit should set up university and a career

Bilingual / international sits toward it should set up university and a career; Montessori sits a little toward childhood is the point.

E3Technology at school
kept out until latebuilt in from the start

Bilingual / international sits toward built in from the start; Montessori sits toward kept out until late.

L5What a teacher is
a guide who steps backan authority who instructs

Bilingual / international sits a little toward an authority who instructs; Montessori sits toward a guide who steps back.

L4Where the curriculum comes from
it emerges from the childrena fixed body of knowledge, set in advance

Bilingual / international sits a little toward a fixed body of knowledge, set in advance; Montessori sits toward it emerges from the children.

L1Who directs the day
the child chooses what to dotimetabled, and directed by adults

Bilingual / international sits toward timetabled, and directed by adults; Montessori sits a little toward the child chooses what to do.

Where they agree

Usually more than the argument between them suggests.

  • A view of the world. Both sit a little toward school should stay neutral.
  • Who else is there. Both sit between the two.
  • What the family can put in. Both sit between the two.
  • Money and distance. Both sit toward we can pay, and we can travel.

Neither of these is the correct one

Which fits depends on what you value and on what your week actually allows — and the second of those is the half nobody writes about. The questionnaire scores both.

See which one you are already doing