Hay Montessori

With all the drama surrounding the rebuilding of Hay School, it's easy to miss other developments in the world of education.
One of these is the idea of "free schools". This seems to be one of Michael Gove's bright ideas (I suppose he's got to have a good one occasionally). This is a school which is free for the children to attend, but which is not part of a Local Education Authority, and which does not have to follow the National Curriculum.
Montessori Schools have been around for years, very successfully - there's one in Monmouth, and there's a group of parents who are hoping that there will soon be one in the Hay area.
They're holding coffee mornings all across Powys to get other interested parents together to discuss the idea. For the Hay area, they are meeting from 9.30 - 11am at Whitney Church Barn Farm Shop cafe on Wednesdays. The first one was today, but they're doing it again next Wednesday, the 24th, and on the 31st.
For the Kington and Hereford area, they are meeting at Kinnersley Castle from 10.30 - 12 noon, on Monday 22nd and 29th. (One of the organisers, Diahann Hughes Hawkins, organised a play group at Kinnersley Castle for two years).
For Presteigne, they will be meeting from 2 - 3.30pm at Bamford's Cafe on Thursday 25th, and November 1st.
They have a blog at www.haymontessori.wordpress.com with lots of information about the sort of education that can be expected from a Montessori school.