Five years into my teaching career, I was coordinating infants in a primary school in Leeds. I had a team I loved, routines that worked and a passion for the early years. Then I got the itch.
I felt a “now or never” moment - if I was to have an adventure, it should be now at the ripe young age of 28. I saw a job as a private tutor for a family in Madrid, and I thought, “Why not?” A year abroad. A break from the classroom. A change of pace.
Within weeks, I was missing it desperately. The buzz. The structure. The classroom. So when The English Montessori School in Madrid advertised a Year 1 position, I applied.
I knew virtually nothing about Montessori. I had the standard assumptions: wooden materials, children doing as they pleased, a methodology only for the early years.
Discovering Montessori
I wasn’t sceptical, though. I was open. I read everything I could find, had training on the job, and I loved what I was learning. What I discovered was nothing like I’d expected.
The first thing that struck me was the pupils’ internal motivation. I watched children line up to come back inside - not for praise or a sticker. They lined up because they were genuinely excited to get back to class.
They wanted to return to their work. I saw Year 1 pupils completing a task and feeling real pride in themselves, not looking around to see who’d done it faster or waiting for me to tell them they’d done well. The satisfaction was internal. Theirs alone. A “personal best” approach.
Teaching individuals, not classes
What followed was a shift in how I understood teaching itself. In a traditional classroom, we deliver a lesson, we assess everybody, we move on.
In Montessori, we teach individuals. Some six-year-olds learn faster than others, and we cannot expect to teach the same thing in the same way to a class of diverse individuals.
Everything is “freedom within limits” - children choose from carefully selected, age-appropriate materials that I’ve planned. The youngest work one-to-one with adults. Older children work in pairs or small groups.
All teaching is tailored to the individual. It sounds like a slow process. It absolutely requires a shift in mindset. But it works.
Environment as a teaching tool
I was also struck by the learning environment itself. Everything in its place. Beautiful, delicate materials begging to be treated with care.
I watched three-year-olds carefully replacing materials on the shelf, walking around one another’s mats so as not to disturb their concentration, sweeping the floor, wiping tables, preparing their own orange juice, chopping fruit for a snack.
There was a gentleness to it. A sense of purpose. An understanding that looking after the environment is everyone’s responsibility.
Of course, children are children all over the world and need firm rules and limits. Behaviour management in a Montessori setting is based on modelling, showing not telling, respectful communication, clear and kind limits and natural and logical consequences.
My journey
After one term, I was promoted to Year 1 coordinator. Then the following May, the headteacher asked me to take on the infant coordinator role.
I was happy. The culture had got under my skin. Spain was becoming home. I started learning Spanish properly. I took to it and I thought I’d stay for a couple more years.
Eighteen years later, I’m still here. Leadership wasn’t something I set out to pursue. I’ve always enjoyed training staff, sharing best practice, helping others to improve. Those remain the aspects of the job I love most.
Through this, promotions came naturally,
Eventually, I became deputy head. Now, this summer, I’m about to step into headship.
Leadership philosophy
Montessori has absolutely shaped the kind of leader I want to be, too. Every single pupil here - we’re approaching a thousand - is unique. They and their families deserve a unique experience.
That’s what child-centred leadership means to me. It also means trusting your team.
Maria Montessori said: “The greatest sign of success for a teacher is to be able to say, ‘The children are now working as if I did not exist.’”
That philosophy extends to leadership. I want to give my staff autonomy - to pitch ideas, to put them into action, to feel their work matters.
A team motivated from within, not managed from above. All of us working together for the same cause: preparing young people for life.
What Montessori really means
Because that’s what is really about. Not wooden materials or children being left to their own devices. It’s about confidence, independence, resilience and internal motivation.
It’s preparation for an uncertain future. It’s about raising people who can work without someone watching, who drive their own learning, who know their own minds.
If you’re a UK teacher hesitant about Montessori, my advice is simple: read up about it. Dispel the myths - there are many. What you’ll find is not a system that lets children run wild, but one that respects them as thinkers and doers from the start.
That’s what kept me here. That’s what I’m about to lead.
Abigail Kay has spent 18 years at The English Montessori School (TEMS) in Madrid, where she is currently deputy headteacher and head of infants. She becomes head of school in September 2026
