International school detail of VI Montessori School & International Academy
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VI Montessori School & International Academy
Address : 6936 Vessup Lane St. Thomas, VI 00802
Website : Click to see the website
School description
Virgin Islands Montessori School and International Academy offers a unique environment and learning experience to over 200 students from two years of age through High School.
In 1963, the concept of a Montessori school in the Virgin Islands captured the imagination and support of a group of St Thomas parents. A one-room building emerged in January 1964 with a preschool class of 12 students. Over the ensuing decades years, our school has grown steadily to meet the needs of our St. Thomas/St. John community. Today, our beautiful 7.0 acre campus offers instruction for Toddlers through High School.
VIMSIA's first Primary Class was located on half an acre of land, generously donated by Bill and Jim Evans (both of whom had children in that class). Our early growth focused on additional preschool classes.
Lower and Elementary Classes were added in the early ‘70’s, moving our program upwards through the sixth grade.
Responding to the needs of our parents and students, we added our Toddler Program for two-year-olds in 1994. This program is called LA Casa “Learning Activity House”. We also initiated an afternoon enrichment center in our LA Casa location that same year. This center is designed to be a “home away from home” by offering quality, loving and friendly care with fun activities for students until 5:30 p.m. each school day.
The long-awaited addition of our Middle School became a reality in 1997. With a 7th grade class introduced that September, the eighth grade was added the following year. Our Middle School combined the Montessori approach with traditional methods to ensure a smooth transition to Upper School and beyond.
Our Upper School began in Sept. 2004 with the addition of the 9th grade. Beginning with the 2006-2007 school year, we introduced the International Baccalaureate Organization’s (IBO) secondary school pedagogy for grades 7 and up. During the 2007-2008 school year, we made the great leap and actually changed our school name, to include the strong focus that we now have on our secondary school program. Virgin Islands Montessori School has become VI Montessori School and International Academy.
The International Academy includes our 7th through 12th grades and utilizes the IBO approach to learning, while The Montessori School continues to offer excellence in Montessori education for our toddler through 6th grade students. All levels of the school are accredited by Middle States. In addition, our Montessori levels are accredited by Association Montessori Internationale and we are in the midst of the accreditation process to become an International Baccalaureate World School.