Maharishi School

Maharishi School is a secular Prep - Year 6 Primary School and member of the Independent School sector in Victoria since 1997. We are a culturally-diverse school with our students representing more than 12 cultural origins from around the world.

The school offers the AusVELS /Victorian Curriculum, enhanced with an approach to learning that integrates the principles of Consciousness-Based Education and Transcendental Meditation.

Maharishi School takes pride in its ability to provide an environment for its students that values the benefits that come with nurturing young people’s individuality and personal traits rather than “moulding” or making them conform to someone they’re not.

Our school community understands and appreciates the benefits that come with having children attend a small and nurturing school. Our class sizes are in the 15-20 range, reflecting the importance we place on knowing each other well, in a way that enables us to respect and appreciate the individuality of each other. Multi-aged learning groups transcend the rigid social and educational separation of students into single ages and year levels. Our learning environment fosters a warm and supportive relationship between students and their teachers which continues throughout their primary school years.

Maharishi School’s small size and integrated structure enables it to function as a community in which teachers, students and parents understand and care about each other. A supportive community is acknowledged as the best environment for educational success and social development.

Our school values the creativity, inquiry and excitement that young children bring with them to school. We nurture this, ensuring individuality is valued and embraced within a learning environment that optimises each child’s personal growth and development. Consciousness-Based programs provide practical means to fulfil these values, so that students experience and develop the full range of their own creativity and intelligence. The whole human being is educated in a balanced and integrated way: intellectually, creatively, socially, emotionally and ethically. This is a school where your child will never be just another face in the crowd.

The establishment of Maharishi School, Melbourne, was inspired by knowledge of student success and the high quality of life at Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment in Iowa, USA. In January 1997, Maharishi School, Melbourne, opened with twenty-two students occupying two classrooms in what was the Maharishi Vedic College building, Bundoora. Early in 1997 Maharishi School gained official registration with the Registered Schools Board to operate as a primary school and became a member of Independent Schools Victoria.

Before opening, Maharishi School was accredited through the International Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and provided with Maharishi’s Ideal Teaching Principles, Consciousness-Based curriculum materials and guidelines for the Science of Creative Intelligence and the Maharishi Vedic Approach to Health, and with a Staff Development program.

Maharishi School provides a school culture and curriculum created to unfold the full potential of our students, allowing each child to blossom in their unique expression of creativity and intelligence. From our 20 years in primary school education, we know that these qualities are already present in abundance in every child. Our experienced teachers encourage the full outer expression of the children’s inherent inner creativity and intelligence.

It is vital that classrooms are places of intellectual stimulation where the learning process values the development of individuals who can think, plan, create, question and engage independently as learners. Here at Maharishi School we create an ideal learning environment along with a strengths-based approach to education that supports individual growth on the basis of enjoyment and delight in the learning process. This is the true foundation for the growth of self-confidence, which in turn leads to increasing success and fulfilment in the daily lives of our students.

At Maharishi School lessons always commence with culturing receptivity; a process which includes finding out what the students already know and believe so the teacher can keep them enthusiastically engaged while guiding them toward new ideas and encouraging them to probe more deeply into the topic being explored. The inspiration of the teacher enlivens the interest of the students.

Teachers observe each student’s ability to grasp new ideas and explore new concepts using an active and practical approach. It is through the alternation of understanding and direct experience that the students gain complete appreciation of the topic of study.

An essential step in the learning process is expression. Learning is more complete when students can express what they have learned by saying it, telling it, writing it, and teaching it. In developing receptivity, an important approach taken by Maharishi School is to focus on the student’s strengths and good qualities. The basis for our approach is that what we put our attention on grows stronger, so that appreciating the good qualities and abilities of the student improves his or her self-esteem and builds the confidence to take the next step of learning.

Our school currently provides a comprehensive curriculum based on AusVELS and in 2017 we will be making the transition to the newly-introduced Foundation (Prep) – Year 10 Victorian Curriculum. Complementing the core learning areas, we also provide specialised instruction in Science, Music, Art, Physical Education and Auslan. Our school-based curriculum is integrated with the internationally-accredited Consciousness-Based Education, incorporating Transcendental Meditation. In addition, the Science of Creative Intelligence (SCI) Principles that are incorporated into our teaching and learning programs contribute to a greater depth of understanding for our students and foster a love of learning that values the development of skills and knowledge with an inquiry-based approach.