SPOTLIGHT ON IMC SCHOOLS
Garden Oaks Montessori Magnet School HOUSTON, TX Garden Oaks is a public school in a neighborhood of Houston, TX, called the Heights. The school was under-enrolled at 405 students with five Montessori and 19 traditional classrooms, when Dr. Lindsey Pollock arrived in 2008. The district tasked her to convert the entire school to Montessori. Today, under the guidance Lorna McGrath has 40+ years of experience in the field of education, teaching children from 18 months through 6 years old and from 12 through 18 years old in both public schools and independent Montessori schools. She received her M.Ed. with a concentration in Family Counseling from the University of Georgia and her Montessori certification from the American Montessori Society. She also served as Associate Head of NewGate School. Lorna is a Senior Consultant and Director of Family Resources at the Montessori Foundation as well as a Montessori teacher educator, conference presenter, and school consultant. She has used her many years of experience, working with families in the educational setting, to develop programs for parents as well as teachers and children. Most recently, she and Tim Seldin have published a book, Montessori for Every Family - a practical parenting guide for living, loving, and learning.
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and direction of Dr. Pollock and her team, the school has completed construction of a three-story building that houses nine early childhood, eleven upper elementary, and four secondary Montessori classrooms, enrolled close to nine hundred students, and created areas on campus for environmental studies, such as gardens, water collection stations, a meteorology center, and two roosters.
They also have a technology center, a gymnasium, science lab, art room, library, cafeteria,
nurses station, reception areas, and administrative offices. They recently received recognition from Educational Results Partnership (ERP) as a leader in student achievement. Garden Oaks is featured on their website - https://dataportal.edresults.org/Metrics/HonorRoll.
The IMC is proud of the accomplishments of Garden Oaks Montessori Magnet School and
welcomes them as the first public IMC accredited school. Congratulations to Dr. Pollock and the Garden Oaks school community. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Amanda Sebba has been selected as the new principal of Garden Oaks Montessori. She has served as the assistant principal for the past four years at Braeburn Elementary School.
©MONTESSORI LEADERSHIP | WWW.MONTESSORI.ORG/IMC | VOLUME 22 23 ISSUE 4 1 •• 2021 2020
