West-Mont Montessori School has links to the first Montessori school in the Victoria area, The Montessori School, founded by Mrs. Marian Thomas in 1954 on Selwyn Road in Langford. When the building was destroyed in 1958 by fire, the school relocated to Duke Road in Metchosin – just a few minutes away from our current location.  Mrs. Thomas retired in 1979 and the school was closed. Some of the Montessori materials and furnishings from her school found their way back to West-Mont, among them several wooden stools and a smoke damaged library book “The Children’s Hiawatha”.

The Montessori program in the Western Communities had various locations and staff over the years. The Pilgrim United Church on Painter Rd., near Sangster School, and the former Sooke School District’s “Dogwood” School at the top of Jacklin Road housed Montessori students under different school names and administrations.

A number of Mrs. Thomas’ students from the 1950s and 1960s have enrolled their own children and grandchildren in West-Mont, carrying on the family tradition of Montessori education.
West-Mont School is currently operated by the Western Communities Montessori Society which was established in 1984. The WCMS is a registered charity and non-profit society under the Society Act of BC, and is comprised of parents, grandparents and other members of the community who share West-Mont’s vision.

West-Mont relocated from the rented Marwood Avenue property adjacent to the Luxton Fair Grounds in 1998 to the lovely eight acre site on Metchosin Road purchased by the WCMS. It has flourished into a unique and innovative independent school serving students from Early Primary through Grade 8.

In 2008 West-Mont was recognized for “More than 40 years of Outstanding Child Care” by the Ministry of Family and Children.