Celebrating Our Staff | AMI Montessori Adolescent Diploma (ages 12–18)

Congratulations to Ben Cornfoot on completing your AMI Montessori Adolescent Diploma (ages 12–18). Thank you for generously sharing your learning journey and reflections with us… over to you.

I’ve recently completed my AMI Montessori Adolescent Diploma (ages 12–18), which I began in August 2024.

The program was part-time and partly online, but included two immersive 3 - 4 week residencies (January 2024 and 2025) at the beautiful Winbourne Retreat Centre just outside Sydney. During these residencies, we - students and advisors - lived together as a learning community, sharing cooking and cleaning duties, studying, writing assignments, attending lectures, and occasionally doing farm work.

This residential experience is a distinctive part of third-plane AMI training, reflecting Montessori’s vision of the ideal adolescent environment: living and learning together on a farm where the essentials of human society can be experienced firsthand. Most of my cohort were already Montessori guides or teachers, coming from countries including China, the Philippines, Australia, Japan, and the USA.

Over the past year, I also completed observation placements, spending a week each at Rockingham Montessori in Perth and Montessori International College on the Sunshine Coast.

Overall, this training has been an incredible experience. The residencies, in particular, helped me move beyond intellectual understanding to truly lived experience.

I feel I’ve grown not only professionally, but personally, gaining a deeper understanding of Montessori education and the adolescent journey.

Ben Cornfoot | Secondary School Class Director