Conroe Montessori school emphasizes higher-level thinking alongside hands-on work and time outdoors for Upper Elementary and Junior High students
CONROE, TX, UNITED STATES, September 15, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Upper Elementary and Junior High students at The Grove Community School may spend part of their day analyzing literature, interpreting scientific data or solving complex math problems and another part measuring lumber, repairing a picnic table or working together on a construction project.
The combination is intentional.
The private Montessori school in Conroe has developed its Upper Elementary and Junior High programs around increasingly challenging academics while preserving opportunities for students to work with their hands, spend significant time outdoors and apply what they learn to real problems.
“As children get older, we absolutely expect the academic work to become more challenging,” said Chris Gillaspie, Head of School at The Grove Community School. “But we don’t think becoming a serious student should mean spending your entire childhood sitting at a desk. We want students thinking deeply, analyzing information and tackling challenging academic work, but we also want them outside building something, solving problems and working together.”
High-Level Academics Without a Test-Driven Environment
Academic work in The Grove’s upper grades increasingly emphasizes analysis, synthesis and application. Students conduct research, interpret data, examine historical and scientific questions, construct evidence-based arguments and complete longer-term projects that require them to make connections across disciplines.
The school begins nationally normed standardized testing in fourth grade as one way to monitor student growth and ensure students are meeting or exceeding national benchmarks. Recent results have been strong, including 80% of students scoring in the 75th percentile or higher in math problem solving, while students have also demonstrated strong performance in reading.
“We’re happy when our students perform well on a nationally normed assessment because it gives us an outside measure of how they’re doing,” Gillaspie said. “But we’re not trying to create great test takers. We want students who can analyze information, defend a conclusion, make connections and solve problems they haven’t seen before.”
Building Something That Has to Work
That emphasis on application extends beyond traditional academic work.
Students at The Grove participate in construction and maintenance projects across the school’s nearly five-acre campus. Projects have included building an outdoor stage and developing practical skills through projects such as repairing picnic tables.
The work requires students to measure, plan, use tools appropriately, collaborate and solve problems when things don’t go according to plan.
“When you’re actually building something, you can’t just turn in the assignment and move on,” Gillaspie said. “If your measurement is wrong or something isn’t level, you find out pretty quickly. Then you have to figure out what went wrong, make an adjustment and try again. There’s a tremendous amount of learning in that process.”
The projects are also intended to expose students to practical skills that can be difficult to incorporate into a conventional school day.
“There’s value in a student knowing how to use a drill, repair something that’s broken or build something that other people will actually use,” Gillaspie said. “Those experiences build confidence and problem-solving skills in a completely different way.”
Outdoor Time Doesn’t End as Students Get Older
The Grove also maintains substantial outdoor time as students progress into the upper grades.
Junior High students spend at least 90 minutes outdoors during a typical school day. The school’s nearly five-acre campus includes wooded and open spaces where students have opportunities for recreation, projects and other learning experiences.
The school views that time as complementary to increasingly challenging academic expectations rather than as a tradeoff.
“We don’t think children suddenly stop needing movement and time outside when they turn 11 or 12,” Gillaspie said. “Our expectations for what they’re capable of academically become much higher, but that doesn’t mean their entire school experience needs to move indoors.”
An Upper-Grade Program Growing With Its Students
The Grove Community School was founded in 2019 and has gradually expanded its programs as its students have grown rather than opening every grade level simultaneously.
The school’s Upper Elementary program is nearing capacity for the current school year. The Grove continues to develop its older programs as more students progress through the school.
For Gillaspie, the continued development of the upper grades comes back to a larger question about what students should gain from their years in school.
“What do we actually want a student to be capable of when they leave us?” Gillaspie said. “Of course we want them academically prepared. But we also want them to be able to think independently, communicate an idea, work with other people, use tools, make something useful, solve a problem and take responsibility for themselves.”
For The Grove, those objectives are not competing priorities.
“We want students doing genuinely high-level academic work,” Gillaspie said. “We also want them building things, spending time outside and having experiences that are meaningful to them. We don’t think you have to choose between academic rigor and childhood.”
Christopher Gillaspie
The Grove Community School
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