A letter from our new Principal:

A crisp Canadian autumn day is truly a site to behold and it was on such a day in the fall of 1991, in a lecture hall overlooking the beautiful city of Montreal, Canada, where my career in education began. The first words I heard that day have never left me:

“Dear Students,

Welcome to the Faculty of Education at McGill University and congratulations on the first step of a fantastic journey. As a teacher, over the next 30 years, you will meet and call amongst your colleagues some of the finest people in the world.”

Now my journey has indeed taken me across the world and it is my sincere pleasure to introduce myself as the new Principal of the Canberra Montessori School. I look forward to working with the entire CMS community to provide an authentic Montessori education to every child in Canberra.

For anyone interested in the particulars, I was born in Glasgow, Scotland and was brought to Canada at the age of two (the accent never stuck). The only events I remember from the first 18 years of my life involve an endless cycle of ice hockey, baseball, football, golf, tennis, badminton and basketball. I attended the University of Western Ontario and completed a Bachelors degree in Molecular Biology before beginning my teacher training at McGill University. After graduating, I embarked on a teaching career in Math and Science. In addition to teaching over the next 12 years, I continued to learn and grow, completing an Honours Specialist designation in Science Education at the University of Toronto and a Masters of Business Administration at the Schulich School of Business.

In 2003, I left the classroom and became the Principal of the Montessori Country School. For the past 7 years I have immersed myself in Montessori practice. Under my direction the Montessori Country School became an accredited leader in the Canadian Montessori Community. We did so by being true to our Montessori principles and by living up to our values of respect and liberty – values that I see are shared by the Canberra Montessori School.

Along with my wife Shannon and my two children Malcolm and Mackenzie, we have come to Australia to share and to learn. I see a tremendous opportunity for the Canberra Montessori School to build on its foundation and truly advance the cause of Montessori Education. Such an undertaking will take a committed Board, a caring group of families and a talented set of Montessori teachers. I believe this recipe exists at CMS and I am eager to assist the school as it takes on the challenges that lie ahead.

Peace,

Jack Rice

Jack will taking up his appointment as Principal of CMS at the beginning of 2010.