The Wilton Montessori Education Trust (the ‘Trust’) is a registered charitable trust. The Trust enables and supports Montessori education at Ōtari School. It also informally coordinates Montessori families’ involvement and Montessori strand events.
The Trust’s essential role is to finance any Montessori-specific expense that a state school cannot fund. This includes:
• Teaching assistants, teacher-aides, additional teachers;
• Montessori equipment and "prepared environment”;
• Montessori teacher training;
• Ongoing Montessori professional development, such as workshops and conferences;
• Montessori Association of New Zealand (MANZ) memberships;
• Montessori speakers or consultants, as needed;
• Any other Montessori-related expenses.
The Trust relies exclusively on voluntary donations from Montessori strand families. Currently (2023), the Montessori Trust asks for donations as follows:
• A one-off new entrants donation of $600 when a child first enters the Montessori strand ($300 for subsequent children), which goes towards Montessori equipment and the "prepared environment” in both classes;
• A term donation of $220.00 (1st child); $200.00 (2nd child) and $190.00 (3rd child), which goes towards all other Montessori-related expenses, as listed above. These donations are tax-deductible. They are separate from the yearly donation that the school requests from every family in the school.
If you prefer to pay in weekly or monthly instalments you can do this by setting up an automatic payment into our Trust bank account number (03 1540 0016470 00). Please clearly state your child's name in the reference section.
Our thanks go to all contributing families, past, present and future. Without your continued financial support, Ōtari School would not be able to offer the same level of Montessori education to your children.
In addition, the Trust also helps organise and run various social and educational events throughout the year, such as: Montessori information evenings, student performances, open days, working bees, strand picnic, as well as school-wide events. We are very appreciative of the help and support of many other families for these events and are glad that many are able to participate in the life of our community.
The Montessori Trust meets at regular intervals throughout the year and all families and staff of the Montessori strand are welcome to attend. Montessori Trust meetings are announced in the school newsletter.
The Trust does not have a governance role nor are they involved in the day to day running of the class. The school Principal manages the school and appoints staff. The Montessori strand leader develops and implements the Montessori day to day programme and curriculum development and facilitates parent education. The school is governed by the Board of Trustees.