Downtown Toronto · Since 1995
A Montessori school small enough to know your child
Discovering Minds is a family-run, CCMA-accredited Montessori school in downtown Toronto, teaching children from 28 months through Grade 4 in English, French and Spanish.
- CCMA accredited
- Licensed child care
- Ministry-registered private school
“The child is not an empty being who owes whatever he knows to us who have filled him up with it. No, the child is the builder of man.” Dr. Maria Montessori
Why families choose us
The numbers tell the story.
Family-run since
The same family has run this school for three decades. You will meet the director on your tour, and again at the door most mornings.
Languages, daily
English, French and Spanish are part of the ordinary school day — taught by teachers who speak them, not piped in from a screen.
Through to Grade 4
One school, one community, from a toddler’s first day to the end of Grade 4. Most Casa schools hand your child on at six.
Montessori-trained teachers
Every teacher in every classroom holds a Montessori diploma. In a sector where the name is unprotected, that is worth checking.
Programmes
From a first day at age 2 to the last day of Grade 4
Children move up through both three-year cycles without ever starting over somewhere new.
Casa Preschool
The first year in a Montessori classroom. Children learn to move carefully, concentrate deeply, and take part in a community larger than their family.
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Junior & Senior Kindergarten
The years the earlier work pays off. Children move from sounding out words to reading fluently, and from counting to four-digit arithmetic.
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Lower Elementary
The reasoning years. Children stop asking what something is and start asking why, and the curriculum is built to meet exactly that.
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Summer Program
We do not close in July and August. The classroom stays open, the pace slackens, and a great deal more of the day happens outdoors.
Read moreWhat makes us different
The things that are hard to find elsewhere downtown
A school small enough to know every child
One small building, not a campus. Teachers know the names of children who are not in their class, and so do the older students. A quiet child does not disappear here.
Downtown, and out in the neighbourhood
We are staying downtown, within walking distance of the parks, libraries, galleries and markets our classes already use. The city is part of the curriculum, reached on foot or by TTC.
Open all summer, 7:30 to 5:00
Most Toronto Montessori schools close for July and August and finish the day at 3:30. We do neither. If both parents work downtown, that difference is the whole ballgame.
What families say
We would rather you took their word than ours
Teachers who go further
More than the curriculum or the learning materials, parents consistently praise the staff. During the pandemic, their commitment went beyond the classroom, delivering learning materials directly to children at home.
Confidence and independence
Families repeatedly describe children becoming more capable and more self-assured, and doing things for themselves that surprised them.
A small community, not an institution
Parents value the personal relationships they build with staff, describing a setting where their child is known, understood, and treated as a unique individual — not just another face in the classroom.
Aggregated from third-party review sites and correct at the time of writing. We have no control over those listings, which is rather the point — go and read them yourself .
The method
Children here choose their own work. That is the whole point.
A Montessori classroom runs on a three-hour uninterrupted work period. Nobody rings a bell every forty minutes. Children select a task, carry it to a mat or a table, complete it, and put it back — and in doing so learn to concentrate, which is the skill everything else rests on.
Registration is open year round
There is no single September deadline. Children join us in every month of the year, and places are offered as they come free.
How to applyCare from 7:30 am to 5:00 pm
Extended hours are included, not billed as an extra. The office is open 8:30 am – 4:00 pm, monday to friday.
A day hereTuition, plainly stated
Full-year or ten monthly payments, one registration fee, and an annual tax receipt. No surprises partway through the year.
See feesWe are moving
One new downtown home for 2026-27 school year
We have left both of our old buildings and are bringing the whole school — preschool through Grade 4 — together under one roof. Still downtown, still walkable, still the same family and the same teachers.
Be first through the door
We are moving to one new downtown location for the 2026-27 school year. Call us or send a note now and you will be among the first families offered a tour when the doors open.