Expanding Horizons with Japan's First Montessori High School

MST will be taking meaningful steps toward establishing Japan's first Montessori program that will serve children all the way through to 18 years of age. This expansion will allow the option of attending MST through Grade 12 for all students enrolled at MST in the 2025-26 academic year, with the Grade 10-12 program envisioned to take shape over the subsequent three years. 

The Timeline of Expansion

As part of this phased approach, Grade 10 will be added to the existing adolescent program in August 2026, operating within our existing campus. In August 2027, the school plans to add Grade 11 and transition the entire adolescent community (12-15 and 15-18 year groups) to a new, dedicated facility. This move will support the continued development of the high school program, allow for expanded Middle School capacity, and create additional space for the growth of Upper Elementary on the existing Grove campus. From August 2028, Grade 12 would be added. 

To support this expansion, MST will be immediately engaging in a recruitment process to ensure adequate pedagogical leadership and operational support in place to focus on curriculum development, accreditation pathways, and the planning of our future adolescent campus.

What’s the Difference Between a Montessori Middle School and High School?

Middle School lead teacher Emily Dowell explains that for adolescents from 12 to 15 years old, the “work impacts the immediate community of peers.” And for the 15- to 18-year-olds, adolescents are “focused on the wider community, and concerned with global impact.” Their interests center on problem-based work and what role they can be experts in to make change. For example, in Emily’s former school in the US, students created projects addressing such issues as gun violence and the energy management of fracking, a major local industry.

Eucalyptus guide Chris Marks also observes that middle schoolers experience a “burst of growth that includes chaos and tumult as they strengthen their executive functions.” As they develop into high schoolers, they “settle into their brains and bodies and shift towards more intellectual pursuits and big ideas.”

What Could a Montessori High School Look Like?

All four of our Middle School guides have come from Montessori schools with a high school program. The programs balanced preparing for college with a Montessori adolescent curriculum. While continuing the Montessori method of mixed-age project-based learning, a Montessori high school incorporates various accreditations recognized by universities. 

Kartika Harsono’s last school in Jakarta, Indonesia integrated the International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum. “The IB project-style curriculum fits well with the Montessori method, focusing on critical thinking with a variety of subjects.” Chris' former school in Ontario, Canada was accredited by the provincial government. A middle school graduate now attends Emily’s former school which meets the Ohio state education board accreditation. And Xavier Maréchal's last school was accredited by the French government. Thus, in addition to forming a balanced whole person, one of the goals of a Montessori high school is no different than most high schools, that of preparing for university or other vocational pathways. 

Ginkgo teacher Taylor Young attended a Montessori high school in California. Her school included “mini-courses like Arabic and Chivalry, where we learned about medieval knighthood experientially, being squires and knights and making ‘swords’. There was another course called Pirates, where we had ship crews and flags. And we also literally joined the circus in another course.” Like the MST Middle School program, students at her school applied for managerial positions; she was the Lunch Crew Manager.

Taylor’s school also supplemented the Montessori pedagogy with Advanced Placement courses, standardized tests and a mentorship program to help plan for a post-high school future.

Whatever the shape that MST’s adolescent program grows into, it will be steered by a community of guides, adolescents and parents with a Montessorian’s trailblazing spirit.

–Wind Edward Kim