When Kerikeri early childhood teachers Jessica Anderson-Smith and Annie Tikaram discovered they were both Montessori teachers, they knew they wanted to open a centre together.
On Monday they opened Montessori Children's House Kerikeri - the first centre in Kerikeri and the only in Northland which follows the Montessori philosophy - an education method developed in the 1900s by Dr Maria Montessori.
"I just thought that not having Montessori - which is so powerful with the life skills and how we let the children lead their own learning - there was a need for that education system in Kerikeri," Tikaram said.
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Anderson-Smith started teaching in her first Montessori school in 2007, while Tikaram has worked in the ECE profession for 12 years and has trained in the Montessori method.