Dear WMS families
In April 2026 WMS will have its 25th birthday.
When I opened the school on that first day on 23rd April 2001 I don’t think I could ever have imagined that I would still be doing this and still loving it a quarter of a century later… Neither could I have imagined the endless work it would take to keep a school running, and that has without doubt become harder over the years. It is truly relentless.
With my own daughter, who was just two years of age at the time, as pupil number 1 when we opened it was a very very steep learning curve indeed. At that point, I had been a Montessori teacher for 11 years already by that stage and I had been an employed head of a school for a few years.
But nothing prepares you for running a business with that business being a school which is so completely regulated and complex to run.
During the last 25 years much has happened and the world is a different place in so many ways.
We have moved buildings, put on big productions twice a year, met the Queen, been on many school trips had many visitors to the school and educated and cared for over a thousand young children.
It has truly been a rollercoaster and an incredible journey.
At the heart of it all has always been my desire to create a really lovely Montessori education for the children of Walthamstow. Montessori education is my passion and it is what drives me even after 36 years. My work training and examining teachers observing them in other schools and providing consultancy for other schools and parents has also been an important part of the journey.
At the moment I’m spending time with each family in our Children’s House; explaining to them what it’s like for the children to experience a Montessori education.
I’m really enjoying this period of observation, reflection and connection with our families.
It’s not always easy to be able to put ourselves on display in this way, we simply don’t have the time however it seemed very fitting, as the school’s birthday approaches, to be able to let parents see what a Montessori education from the age of two has brought your child by the time they are four years of age and the independent and confident little people they have become, and what an amazing community is created in a true Children’s House.
In the period, leading up to our special birthday at WMS, I will be reflecting more upon the school, the experiences of running a school, the children, the staff and the events.
I will be involving other former pupils and staff in this process so that they share their experiences with you as well. I hope you will enjoy this.
I will be extending invitations to some former pupils and staff to come and see us on our birthday, and they will be recording their own messages to share with you over the next few weeks.
At WMS we will be marking the school’s special birthday in a number of different ways. On the 23rd of April, we will be having a party in the afternoon, and more details will be shared about this closer to the time.
We will also be involving all WMS children in the creation of some memorable permanent artwork for the school. We did this 10 years ago and the work that we created is still on display outside the front of the school albeit it needs a little bit of work now, to keep it going for another 10 years!
If you are a particularly arty and creative person, then please do step forward and be involved in this process. I would be very grateful!
We will be having a beautiful cake made by the same lady who has always made the special cakes for the school on our previous milestone birthdays.
They are incredible works of art in their own right, which always have lots of intricate models of Montessori equipment on it, along with the school logo, models of children and a model of me sitting on the floor always with my sunglasses on my head!
Each child will be given a piece of celebration cake. It will all be made very carefully and will be vegan, nut and gluten-free as I have allergies to lots of those things and I want to be able to eat some of the cake myself too!
We would love to have a 25th birthday card from each WMS family.
We would like this to be something that you make with your child at home so I’m giving you plenty of time to work on this!
You might like to take inspiration from our logo or something to do with our buildings, or Walthamstow, or of you and your family, please do all contribute something.
On our 10th anniversary, we decided it would be nice to also have a lasting memory of each family who were at the school at that time and we invited parents to donate a book and put a bookplate with their families name in inside the front cover of the book. These books have been loved and treasured, and some of them still exist, but it is time for a new group of families to contribute to the WMS history and to mark this moment in time.
After Easter, we will be sending out printed book plates, and if you would like to take part in this, we will create a list of the books that our teachers would love to have in their classes and that will be part of WMS for a long time.
This is entirely optional, of course, but he’s a lovely way for your child to give a gift to the school on its own birthday.
To note that we also share a birthday with William Shakespeare and St George too!
My own family have been in Walthamstow for over 150 years and although I no longer live in the area , I certainly did when I opened WMS and it’s always felt very special to me that I am still connected to the area.
My own daughter is a teacher now with five years of teaching experience in the state sector with older children, she still comes along for holiday school at WMS.
I will be sharing her reflections of her own Montessori experiences.
Lastly, of course, I couldn’t have done any of this without having fantastic staff behind me.
My longest serving member of staff has clocked up an amazing 24 years of service and support. Many others have been at WMS for 14 years or more.
But of course, none of this would be at all possible without the support, trust and involvement of you, our Walthamstow families.
I never forget that you have a choice about where to send your child to be cared for and educated, it’s a humbling feeling even now.
So thank you to you all for believing in what we offer in our little corner of Walthamstow.
With very best wishes
Miss Lorna
