Barbara Langford and Jessica Langford
Barbara and Jessica Langford are a mother and daughter team who are founders and co-owners of Echoes Montessori, the early childhood element of the intergenerational village shared by the residents of Encore Apartments for independent retirement living. Barbara is the CEO of SA Montessori, a group of seven early learning environments, and she has been part of the Montessori movement since establishing her first centre back in 1989. Jessica is the Managing Director of SA Montessori, and prides herself on not only supporting the learning of children but also the well-being of families and educators through her work with Positive Psychology.
28 October, Saturday
2:00pm – 3:00pm
concurrent workshops - select one
Echoes Montessori is embedded into the grounds of an independent retirement living complex, creating an intergenerational village in which children and their elders share their land and share their lives. Barbara and Jessica will take the audience through an overview of the Echoes journey, from its starting point as a vision of children and their elders contributing to each other’s lives, to the realisation of that dream as our intergenerational village flourishes and thrives each day. They will highlight the benefits of intergenerational interaction for children, elders, educators, families and society, with the hopes of inspiring others to embrace this approach. The session will identify some of the key considerations for developing a prepared environment for intergenerational engagement. It will also introduce the Echoes Montessori principles of meaningful, sustainable and ethical intergenerational practice, and outline the importance of diversity and inclusion in the structure of an intergenerational program.