Montessori that doesn’t stop at five
Almost every Montessori school within reach of South San Francisco ends at kindergarten. Mills goes through fifth grade — so a child who spent four years learning to direct their own work is not handed a worksheet at six and told to sit down.
What is different about this room
- Continuity is the whole argumentThe elementary child has already been taught how to choose work, plan a morning and finish what they start. Elementary Montessori is built on those habits. A traditional first grade has to start by replacing them.
- The work gets genuinely hardElementary is not preschool with more reading. Children take on long research projects, write at length, work through mathematics with concrete materials into abstraction, and present what they have found to the class.
- Big questions, deliberatelyMontessori elementary opens with the largest possible frame — how the universe, the earth and human beings came to be — and lets the specifics of history, geography, biology and mathematics hang off it. Children at this age want the whole story, not the chapter.
- Collaboration is the defaultSix- to eleven-year-olds are intensely social. Elementary Montessori uses that rather than fighting it: work is often done in pairs and small groups, negotiated, argued over and presented.
- One school, one commute, one communityFamilies with a toddler and a fourth-grader do a single drop-off. The eleven-year-old is still in the building the two-year-old is starting in.
Every elementary year, in detail
Montessori classrooms are mixed-age, so a “grade” is a translation rather than a room. These pages explain what each year actually looks like inside that structure — and they exist partly because several school directories still list Mills as ending at second grade. It does not.
- First grade — ages 6–7.
- Second grade — ages 7–8.
- Third grade — ages 8–9.
- Fourth grade — ages 9–10.
- Fifth grade — ages 10–11.
What this program costs
Published openly, because you should not have to fill in a form to find out whether a school is affordable.
Elementary · through 5th grade
| Schedule | Morning 9:00–12:00 | Full day 8:45–2:30 | Extended full day 7:30–6:00 |
|---|---|---|---|
| All schedules | Not offered | $1,400 | $1,750 |
Monthly amounts, based on a 180-day school year. Pay in full for a 5% discount or in ten installments. A $200 enrollment fee applies to new students. See every fee →
A graduating class, with their certificates
Directory listings inherited a stale state record and still show this school ending at second grade. It does not. Children finish here at the end of fifth grade and go on to public and private middle schools.
If the grade span matters to your decision, and it should, ask us directly on a tour and see the elementary classroom working.
What parents ask about elementary
- Will my child be able to transfer to a traditional middle school?Yes — children leave Mills at the end of fifth grade and continue into public and private middle schools. The habits elementary Montessori builds — managing your own time, working without being chased, presenting your work — are exactly the ones middle school assumes and rarely teaches.
- How is elementary different from the preschool classroom?The materials go further, the projects run for weeks rather than a morning, and children work together far more. The structure that stays the same is the long uninterrupted work period and the child’s responsibility for their own plan.
- Are there tests and grades?Children are assessed continuously by teachers who watch them work every day, and families receive detailed reporting. The annual materials and testing fee for kindergarten and elementary is $450.
- Can a child join elementary without a Montessori background?Yes, and children do. It takes a settling-in period — a child used to being told what to do next often finds the freedom harder than the work. We would want to talk through your child specifically before a mid-cycle start.
- What does elementary cost?Full day is $1,400 a month and extended full day $1,750, plus the $450 annual materials and testing fee. Elementary runs as a full day or an extended full day — there is no morning-only elementary place on the published schedule. All rates are on the tuition page.
Come and watch a morning
A Montessori room at 10 am tells you more in twenty minutes than any website can. Tours run during the school day, year-round.
Call or request a tour
Call the school office at 650-616-9000, or request a time online and we will find a morning that suits you.
Apply when you are ready
Complete the enrollment application with the $200 new-student fee. Enrollment is open year-round, subject to availability.
Agree a start date
We settle on a schedule that fits your week and your child begins the settling-in the classroom is designed for.
Come see a morning at Mills
Tours run during the school day, year-round, by appointment.