Montessori Scotland

Bursaries for Refugee Families:

Creating Belonging, Inspiring Futures

At Edinburgh Montessori Arts School, we believe that every child deserves a safe and inspiring place to grow, no matter where their story begins.

As an international school, our community is shaped by diverse identities, cultures, and journeys. Many of us know what it feels like to be from somewhere else—to be different, to seek belonging, to long for understanding. That’s why we are committed to extending our arms wider, through bursaries that support refugee and displaced families.

These bursaries do more than fund a place in a classroom—they offer healing. They provide children who have faced unimaginable disruption and trauma with the space to reconnect with joy, creativity, and possibility. Through Montessori education—rooted in respect, curiosity, and the freedom to think like artists, problem-solvers, and innovators—we help these young people begin to rebuild their sense of safety, dignity, and agency.

Our Montessori Micro-Farm School further supports this process by offering meaningful connection to land, nature, and community. In this place, the wounds of displacement begin to mend—not just for one child, but across generations.

With your support, we can open more doors to families seeking refuge, and offer not only education, but hope. A future built not on fear or survival, but on collaboration, creativity, and peace.

Support the Montessori Scotland Foundation. Help us turn healing into hope—and difference into strength.

 

Montessori Scotland (SC053293) exists to forge new pathways in educational inclusion. Acknowledging the varied implementations of the Montessori method across communities throughout Scotland we seek to support efficacy through diversity, training and therapeutic partnerships.

"With the support of Montessori Scotland we at EMAS can do so much more to meet the needs of all our students. To see our children accepted for who they are and flourishing on the respect they are afforded makes this an incredibly worthwhile job. All children should have these opportunities."

Louise Leamy, Support Coordinator, EMAS

"The Principal immediately relieved our concerns for our daughter's schooling. For Emma, our daughter's deafness was not a problem but an opportunity for the whole school to widen their communication skills. We were delighted that the whole staff embraced the opportunity. Our daughter is exceptionally happy at this school."

Donald Morrison, Parent

"EMAS is a place where children can be the best version of themselves. No one is defined by their disability, ethnicity or wealth status. 'Education for Peace' is practiced through actions; a deeply embedded culture of respect for difference underpins everything the staff do."

Eleni Papavasilieou, Early Years Coordinator

Your gift keeps on giving:

"What EMAS gives our children will one day ripple across the world, when these young people grow into adults who are resilient to the challenges of this world, diverse in their thought processes, self-aware and curious. These kids won’t just bring their own chair to the table. They will design the table, build the table, and grow the flowers that sit in the middle of it. They will bring chairs not just for themselves but for every other person that needs a seat at that table making sure every person has their voice heard."

Emily Bradbury - Parent

Current Inclusion Projects:

🌱 Nurture in Nature – Farming with Young People

Restoring adolescent wellbeing through meaningful work on the land

Mental health struggles among adolescents are rising at a staggering rate. In the face of anxiety, disconnection, and social pressure, many young people are losing their sense of purpose.

Nurture in Nature is our response.

This transformative programme, led by the Montessori Scotland Foundation, connects young people with the therapeutic rhythms of the land. Working on our Montessori Micro-Farm, they grow food, tend soil, care for animals—and, in doing so, begin to restore themselves.

As Sue Stuart-Smith writes in The Well Gardened Mind, tending the land helps us tend the mind. Nature offers calm, grounding, and perspective—especially for teens who feel overwhelmed or adrift. But this is more than therapy. It’s agency. It’s contribution. It’s the chance to do real, valuable work that matters.

Our students are not problems to fix—they are contributors, makers, and changemakers. Through this programme, they discover what Maria Montessori called their “noble work”—a sense of direction, dignity, and hope.

💛 Your support makes it possible.

Every donation helps us provide:

  • Outdoor infrastructure like polytunnels, raised beds, and tool sheds

  • Mentorship, guides, and support from experienced educators

  • Subsidised access for vulnerable and refugee teens through bursaries

  • Tools, gloves, and boots for safe and empowered participation

  • Seeds, compost, and growing supplies for regenerative farming

  • Animal feed and shelter for ducks, chickens, and other animals in our care

By supporting Nurture in Nature, you’re helping us give young people space to reconnect—with themselves, with the Earth, and with a future they feel empowered to shape.

👉 Donate now to invest in adolescent mental health, regenerative education, and a more hopeful future for all of us.