IB Primary Years or Montessori?

The difference between IB Primary Years and Montessori is mostly one axis: mixed ages. IB Primary Years sits toward classes of the same age; Montessori sits firmly toward mixed-age groups. They agree, more than most people expect, on what the family can put in, money and distance and when formal academics start. Neither is the correct one. What follows is what each asks of a parent, and where the difference actually shows up on a Tuesday.

IB Primary Years

Children investigate big transdisciplinary questions rather than subjects, within a framework that is specified in considerable detail. It is the most internationally portable education available, built for families who may move, and it is explicit about wanting to produce a certain kind of person — open-minded, inquiring, principled — which is an admirable aim and also a worldview.

What it asks of you

Fees almost everywhere, and usually substantial ones
Comfort with a school that states the disposition it is trying to produce
Tolerance for a lot of process language — the framework is heavily specified
A reason to want portability, or you are paying for something you will not use

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

IB Primary Years is the filled marker, Montessori the hollow one. Widest difference first.

E1Mixed ages

classes of the same agemixed-age groups

IB Primary Years sits toward classes of the same age; Montessori sits firmly toward mixed-age groups.

E3Technology at school

kept out until latebuilt in from the start

IB Primary Years sits toward built in from the start; Montessori sits toward kept out until late.

L3Measuring it

no grades, no testsgraded and tested regularly

IB Primary Years sits between the two; Montessori sits firmly toward no grades, no tests.

V3What it is for

childhood is the pointit should set up university and a career

IB Primary Years sits toward it should set up university and a career; Montessori sits a little toward childhood is the point.

L1Who directs the day

the child chooses what to dotimetabled, and directed by adults

IB Primary Years sits a little toward timetabled, and directed by adults; Montessori sits a little toward the child chooses what to do.

L5What a teacher is

a guide who steps backan authority who instructs

IB Primary Years sits between the two; 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

IB Primary Years sits between the two; Montessori sits toward it emerges from the children.

Where they agree

Usually more than the argument between them suggests.

What the family can put in. Both sit between the two.
Money and distance. Both sit toward we can pay, and we can travel.
When formal academics start. Both sit between the two.
Outdoors and the body. Both sit between the two.
Who else is there. Both sit between the two.

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