RIVER HOUSE - Key Persons
Janet's first meeting with Sarah Greenwood was when her daughter, then aged three, attended the pre school that Sarah was running. Learning of Sarah's wish to found her own school, and having been so impressed with the progress her daughter had made in the short time she had been under Sarah's tuition, Janet was keen to assist and so became a co-founder of River House Montessori in 1994. For a while Janet combined her career in the City with developing River House but, after a few years, moved to full time working at the school. Janet now heads up all administration matters for the school as well as being the Designated Safeguarding Lead. Her original commitment to Montessori education, strong in 1994 has been continually enhanced over the years since then.
Having qualified as a Montessori teacher Sarah spent part of her early career teaching at a Montessori school in America. Having seen there how Montessori education can be so successfully applied, not only in Early Years but throughout the Primary school years, she returned to England with the ambition to create a Montessori primary school here. The first step of achieving this ambition was to found River House Montessori in 1994. One of Sarah's interests outside the school is membership of a drama club and she has used her knowledge and experience to develop children's confidence by guiding all year groups over the years into producing and performing wonderful plays and shows. Sarah has dedicated her working life to the school ever since 1994 and has been a pivotal factor in developing and fostering the caring, child centred approach for which we are known.
Sofi joined River House Montessori in 2005 and her extensive knowledge and experience of additional needs matters quickly became apparent. Sofi had previously studied child development, early years teaching and child psychology while working as a therapist for children with Additional needs. Shortly after joining River House, Sofi obtained her SENCO qualification and then rapidly developed our Additional Needs Department. She is expert in analysing, and identifying possible causes for, behaviour patterns and in developing programmes to successfully support children with behaviour difficulties. At present, in addition to her other responsibilities, Sofi is undertaking training for the Deputy Safeguarding Lead role.