What is Multi-age Education?
Multi-age education is simply the “little red schoolhouse of old”. More than one age
group of children learn together in the same classroom. Your child will stay with the
same teacher for two years. They will engage in learning with children of varying ages
and will benefit from the many advantages that a non-graded classroom offers. Multi-
age grouping is a feature of the classroom curriculum that will afford students many
opportunities for additional growth. The traditional school setting is the one place in
our lives that people are grouped by age. Affording students the opportunity to learn
and grow beside people of varying ages allows them to see many perspectives and
allows for children to move in and out of the teaching and learning role.
A multi-age setting also allows students, parents, and teachers to get to know each
other much better as they spend two and sometimes three years learning together.
This continued interaction from year to year allows teachers and students to start the
year off on the first day with many classroom routines and procedures already
established and the veteran students teaching the new students how things work.
The classroom culture grows in amazing ways when kids have time to really get to
know each other over a long period of time. The whole purpose of the multi-age
grouping is to allow children to develop at their own pace and do so in a nurturing,
developmentally appropriate environment.
