Nautilus is an ecosystem of Montessori schools developed within valuable corporate environments. We aspire to offer children an authentic educational journey in an environment where beauty is accessible, to be experienced while their parents work hard to make their own contributions to the world for a more conscious and sustainable future.
Nautilus’ identity is founded on six principles that define our schools’ educational approach, wherever in the world they are located.
Discover Nautilus and make our Manifesto your own.
The first Nautilus bilingual school (0-6 years old) will open in Bassano del Grappa (Vicenza) in September 2024 for the families of AMF S.p.A. – the company where Nautilus was conceived – as well as for children from the local community.
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Nautilus is an ecosystem of Montessori schools established in valuable corporate environments. We aspire to offer children an authentic educational journey in an environment where beauty is accessible, to be experienced while their parents work hard to make their own contributions to the world for a more mindful and sustainable future. Our schools are also open to children in the local community.
The mascot of our schools is the nautilus shell: thanks to the shape of its home, it has managed to survive from pre-historic times to the present. For each stage of its life, the nautilus inhabits a different room in their house: they leave the previous one when they are ready for the next one, starting with the smallest. In this way, with small and steady steps, their centre of gravity is always balanced. In the same way we, in true Montessori fashion, place the child at the centre of their growth path, ensuring that they have an appropriate environment for each of the stages of their development.
Nautilus’ identity is founded on six principles that define our schools’ educational approach, wherever in the world they are located.
Nautilus is
AUTHENTICALLY MONTESSORI
The Montessori Method emerges from the belief that children are naturally good and curious and that in the context of a supportive environment, they engage spontaneously in the purposeful activities helping them grow. With appropriate freedoms and the right support, children follow their interests to create rich learning experiences, supporting and learning from one another. In our schools we are dedicated to the preparation of environments and ourselves to support the natural development of children.
CLOSE TO WORKING PARENTS
Today’s families require a redefined form of support in managing their children’s education. Our schools, integrated in the corporate environment, lead naturally to an improvement of the work-life balance, allowing families to get back on track faster, without missing out on any milestone in their children’s growth.
NATURALLY BILINGUAL
The perfect moment for children to acquire language is during the sensitive period of language development, from birth until six years old. This is a brief window in which children can learn a second language naturally and easily, without conscious effort. In a Montessori classroom, children acquire English language by relating the words they hear to the work they are doing. Because of the way children absorb language when they are young, full English immersion is the ideal way for them to learn a second language.
A GENERATOR OF WELL-BEING
We believe in taking care of children’s well-being and making school a place where, instead of getting sick, they can get the proper nourishment. Plena is our well-being philosophy, a concept that blends thousands of years of ancient healing wisdom with the latest technology. Guided by the principles of Homeopathy and Naturopathy, our doctor and wellness specialist supports our schools in creating nutritional menus for our Cucina, respiratory remedies such as the Salt Cave, and counselling families for customised wellness needs.
A ‘MADE IN ITALY’ COSMOS
The Montessori method is by its very nature universal and cosmic. But we cannot forget the common origin of both Maria Montessori and the concept for Nautilus schools: Italy. A geographic origin that expresses a cultural heritage, a vision of life and its formation inspired by the beauty of nature and art. The Italian touch of all the Nautilus schools is in the unique design of the furnishings and in the authentic Montessori materials.
In our schools the scent of freshly baked Italian bread wafts every morning from the Cucina and every meal is made in-house with local seasonal ingredients, involving the children in hands-on activities that reinforce their perception of origin and value, such as the care of our Horto and cooking classes in our kitchen in which the Nautilus chef involves the children in the preparation of classic Italian recipes, initiating what will be a foundation of the subsequent development plan (6-12) – the Cosmic Education.
TRULY SUSTAINABLE
As the custodians of the most delicate plane of development (0-6 years), we constantly ask ourselves what we can do to preserve human natural good intention towards our environment for future generations. What is the best way to let children grasp the value of the rich resources of our land? How can they learn to share them with the local communities for mutual prosperity? What kind of journey do we want to embark on with the parents who contribute to our mission? How can we use the hosting company’s supply chain to encourage progressive environmental and social practices? What kind of partnerships can we forge to tackle urgent problems such as plastic pollution and climate change? In this continuous, cyclical questioning, involving and engaging the authentic curiosity of children, lies the very meaning of Cyclus, the Nautilus schools’ sustainability philosophy.
With each of the projects described in our Sustainability Journal, our goal is simple: to make a difference wherever we can, starting (also) with the little things.
The idea for Nautilus was conceived at AMF S.p.A., an Italian company dedicated for more than 30 years to the creation of quality manufactured goods, and committed to building a fair and sustainable world through practical choices and imagination. After all, who is more practical and capable of imagination than a child who observes the world and, learning to care for it, renews it?