Sections | Mera Montessori — Mera template

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A note from our founder

We don’t hurry children. We prepare the room, and let them surprise us.

Namaste, and welcome. Choosing a first school is one of the biggest small decisions a family makes — you are trusting us with the years in which your child learns the most, and the fastest.

At Mera, teachers watch before they teach. We show a child a material once, clearly, then step back — so they pour, sort, count and read because they want to, not because a bell told them to.

They leave us confident, kind and ready for big school. The best way to see how is on a school morning — my door, and every classroom door, is open.

Programmes — cards

A class for every stage, from first steps to first letters

Four classes from 18 months to 6 years, and day care until five for working parents. Hours, ratios and fees are published — you should not have to ask.

Compare programmes and fees

18 months – 2½ years

Playgroup

A gentle first step away from home. Short mornings of songs, water pouring, stacking and garden play, with a teacher who knows every child’s routine — naps, nappies and all.

Hours: 9:15 AM – 12:30 PM
Days: Sunday – Friday
Ratio: 1 : 5
Fee: Rs. 9,500 / month

Short, gentle mornings
Toilet-training support
Settling in with a parent

Hours and fees

2½ – 3½ years

Nursery

The first full Montessori classroom: pouring, spooning and buttoning, the first sensorial materials, a rest after lunch, and songs and stories in English and Nepali.

Hours: 9:15 AM – 3:00 PM
Days: Sunday – Friday
Ratio: 1 : 6
Fee: Rs. 11,000 / month

Practical life and sensorial work
Rest time after lunch
Songs and stories in two languages

Hours and fees

3½ – 4½ years

LKG

Sandpaper letters, first sounds and the golden beads. Children choose their own work from the shelves and stay with it as long as it holds them.

Hours: 9:15 AM – 3:00 PM
Days: Sunday – Friday
Ratio: 1 : 8
Fee: Rs. 12,000 / month

Phonics with sandpaper letters
Counting to 100 on the bead chains
Nepali letters — अ for अनार

Hours and fees

4½ – 6 years

UKG

The oldest in the room, and proud of it: reading, writing, early addition and subtraction, and helping the younger ones. By the end of UKG they are ready for Grade 1 anywhere.

Hours: 9:15 AM – 3:00 PM
Days: Sunday – Friday
Ratio: 1 : 10
Fee: Rs. 12,000 / month

Reading and writing in English and Nepali
Place value with the golden beads
A Grade 1 readiness report

Hours and fees

Children playing in the garden after class

18 months – 6 years

Day care

For working parents: after class, children stay with our own teachers for a rest, a snack, stories and garden play until pick-up at five.

Hours: 8:30 AM drop-off · until 5:00 PM
Days: Sunday – Friday
Ratio: 1 : 6
Fee: Rs. 3,000 / month

Afternoon snack included
Early drop-off from 8:30 AM
Our own teachers, not a sitter

Hours and fees

Programmes — comparison table

A class for every stage, from first steps to first letters

Four classes from 18 months to 6 years, and day care until five for working parents. Hours, ratios and fees are published — you should not have to ask.

Compare programmes and fees

	Playgroup	Nursery	LKG	UKG	Day care
Ages	18 months – 2½ years	2½ – 3½ years	3½ – 4½ years	4½ – 6 years	18 months – 6 years
Hours	9:15 AM – 12:30 PM	9:15 AM – 3:00 PM	9:15 AM – 3:00 PM	9:15 AM – 3:00 PM	8:30 AM drop-off · until 5:00 PM
Days	Sunday – Friday	Sunday – Friday	Sunday – Friday	Sunday – Friday	Sunday – Friday
Ratio	1 : 5	1 : 6	1 : 8	1 : 10	1 : 6
Fee	Rs. 9,500 / month	Rs. 11,000 / month	Rs. 12,000 / month	Rs. 12,000 / month	Rs. 3,000 / month

Our philosophy

Help me to do it myself

Dr Maria Montessori opened her first Casa dei Bambini in Rome in 1907. More than a century on, the idea holds: children learn best by doing, in a room made for them, at their own pace.

How we teach

A child concentrating on a hands-on activity

Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed.

Dr Maria Montessori

Follow the child

We watch what each child is drawn to and prepare the next step before they reach for it. No two children in the room are doing the same thing at once — and that is the point.

Learning through the hands

Pouring, buttoning, tracing sandpaper letters. Every material is real, child-sized and made to be handled, because young children think with their hands.

A prepared environment

Low shelves, real glass and a place for everything. The room does half the teaching: children always know where the work is, and where it goes back.

Freedom within limits

Children choose their work and how long to stay with it, inside a few clear rules — we walk, we use quiet voices, we put things back. Independence and kindness grow together.

Learning areas — colour tiles

Five areas, one prepared room

Every Montessori classroom is arranged in the same five areas, so a child always knows where to find the next thing to master.

See how we teach

Practical life

Pouring water, sweeping, buttoning, folding a napkin, watering the tulsi. Everyday tasks that build concentration, a steady hand and the pride of “I did it myself.”

Pouring and spooning
Buttoning frames
Polishing brass
Flower arranging
Slicing a banana

Sensorial

The Pink Tower, the Brown Stair, colour tablets and sound cylinders sharpen each sense — and give children words for what they notice: bigger, rougher, louder, the same.

Pink Tower
Brown Stair
Knobbed cylinders
Colour tablets
Sound cylinders

Language

Children trace sandpaper letters with two fingers while saying the sound, then build words with the moveable alphabet — often before they can hold a pencil. In Nepali too: अ for अनार, क for कमल.

Sandpaper letters
Moveable alphabet
Metal insets
Object boxes
वर्णमाला cards

Mathematics

Quantity first, symbol second. A child holds “ten” as a bar of ten beads before writing it, and carries a thousand-cube across the room before meeting the word.

Number rods
Spindle boxes
Golden beads
Teen and ten boards
Hundred chain

Culture and nature

The world, starting from Nepal: puzzle maps, the seasons and our festivals, seeds in the garden and the life cycle of a butterfly. Art and music live here too.

Puzzle maps
Land and water forms
Seed planting
Madal and songs
Festival crafts

Activities

Music, mud and a trip to the fire station

Woven into the week for every child — no extra classes to sign up for.

Music and rhymes
Nepali and English songs, the madal, and melodicas round the keyboard.
Every dayAll classes
Art and clay
Painting, clay and leaf prints at easels the children set out and clean up themselves.
Sunday and WednesdayNursery – UKG
Dance and movement
Action songs, a little yoga and Nepali folk dance — good for balance, and for the wriggles.
Monday and ThursdayAll classes
Gardening
Sowing, watering and picking in our vegetable beds — and Ropain at a real paddy every Asar.
Every TuesdayLKG and UKG
Stories and puppets
Picture books, a puppet show, and a Nepali story to take home every Friday.
Every FridayAll classes
Field trips
The fire station, the post office, a farm — the town is a classroom too.
Once a termLKG and UKG

A day at school

A day at Mera

A calm day with a rhythm children can feel. Younger and older children follow different days, so pick a tab.

9:15
Hello at the door
Shoes off, bag on the hook, a hug goodbye. Your child lets go of your hand when they are ready — we never rush it.
9:30
Morning circle
A song, a greeting in English and Nepali, and who is here today.
9:45
Work time
Pouring, stacking, threading and puzzles, with a teacher sitting close by.
11:00
Fruit and garden play
Seasonal fruit, then sand, water and the slide in our garden.
12:00
Lunch together
A hot, home-cooked meal at small tables. Playgroup goes home at 12:30.
1:00
Rest, stories and songs
Nursery children nap or rest, then stories and music until home time at 3:00.

Times are a guide, not a bell. Early drop-off from 8:30 AM; day care until 5:00 PM.

Key numbers

The numbers parents ask about first

Published, because a preschool asking for your child should be willing to be measured.

2071

Opened in Suryabinayak

Twelve years of first days

1 : 6

Teacher-to-child ratio for under-threes

Never above 1 : 10

100%

Lead teachers Montessori-trained

NMTC certified

18

Children in a class, at most

With two adults in every room

Facilities

A school built for small people

Everything at a child’s height — shelves, sinks, coat hooks — so children can do things for themselves, safely.

Five sunny classrooms
Low open shelves, child-sized tables and big windows, with every material within a small child’s reach.
A garden and sand pit
Fenced on every side, with a sand pit and vegetable beds the children water themselves.
Slides and a climbing frame
A soft-floored play area for climbing, sliding and taking turns.
Our own kitchen
Lunch and snacks cooked fresh every morning, and eaten together at low tables.
A reading and activity room
Picture books on open shelves and round tables for puzzles, painting and quiet work.
School van
Door to door within 4 km, with a didi on board every trip.

A quiet rest room
Cots, clean sheets and low light for Playgroup and day-care naps.
Filtered drinking water
Boiled and filtered, from a tap low enough to refill their own bottles.
An earthquake-safe building
Built to code after 2072, with a drill every term.

Classroom tour

Step inside a classroom

Tap a number to see what happens in each corner. Better still, come and see it on a school morning.

Care and safety

Safe, clean, and known by name

What every parent asks first, answered before you have to ask.

CCTV in every room

Cameras in every classroom and the garden, recorded for thirty days. Ask at the office and we will show you your child’s room live.

Safe pick-up

Children go home only with the adults on their pick-up card. Someone new collecting? Call us first, and they bring ID.

First aid and a sick bay

Teachers trained in paediatric first aid, a quiet sick bay, and a call to you within minutes if your child is unwell.

Clean, every day

Toilets cleaned after every break, toys washed weekly, and hands washed before every meal — at sinks low enough to do it themselves.

One gate, always staffed

Visitors signed in, the gate staffed from 8:30 to 5:00, and the garden fenced on every side.

Gentle personal care

Toileting help and nappy changes by our didis — women caregivers trained for the youngest children — always with the door ajar.

Our team

The teachers your child will know by name

Every lead teacher is Montessori-trained, and every room has a second adult.

Anita Duwal
Lead teacher, Playgroup · NMTC trained
Srijana Basnet
Lead teacher, Nursery · NMTC trained
Pooja Kayastha
Lead teacher, LKG · NMTC trained
Menuka Thapa
Lead teacher, UKG · B.Ed., NMTC trained

What people say

What families tell us

In their own words, shared with their permission.

Our daughter cried for three mornings. On the fourth she let go of my hand at the gate and went to water the plants. Now she corrects how I fold the towels at home.

SDSunita DuwalMother of Aarya, Nursery

I work in Kathmandu and get home late. Day care until five, a proper hot lunch, and a photo of his work on the app every afternoon — I stopped worrying in the first week.

BSBikash SuwalFather of Arnav, LKG and day care

He came home and counted the stairs, in English and then in Nepali. Nobody drilled him — he had just been carrying bead bars around all morning.

PSPramila ShresthaMother of Reyansh, UKG

The teacher noticed he was struggling with a crayon before we did, and gave him tongs-and-tweezers work for a month. His hand is steady now. That is the attention we were looking for.

RKRajendra and Nisha KarmacharyaParents of Yuvan, LKG

A year at school

A year of firsts

Nepal’s festivals give our year its shape, and give every child a reason to celebrate with their family at school.

Upcoming events

Baisakh
A new session
Marigold garlands, a tika from the teachers and a gentle first week, with parents welcome to stay for the first mornings.
Bhadra
Teej and Children’s Day
Mothers in red dancing in the courtyard for Teej — and on Bhadra 29, a Children’s Day party planned entirely around the children.
Ashwin · Kartik
Dashain and Tihar
Jamara the children sow themselves, paper kites and tika before the holidays — then rangoli at the gate and a gentle round of deusi-bhailo.
Mangsir
Sports Day
Frog jumps, sack races and an egg-and-spoon final, with a medal for every child and the parents’ tug-of-war to finish.
Magh
Saraswati Puja
Yellow clothes, a small puja, and the youngest children writing their first अ in a tray of rice.
Chaitra
Graduation and Parents’ Day
UKG in caps and gowns, a song from every class, and a warm farewell for the children moving on to Grade 1.

Festivals, workshops and little triumphs

What the children have been up to, and what is coming next.

All news and events

Early registration open for Session 2084

Campus

12 Baishakh 2083

Early registration open for Session 2084

Places in Playgroup, Nursery, LKG and UKG for the new session. Book a school visit and see a classroom at work before you decide.

Mothers in red: Teej comes to the courtyard

Mothers and grandmothers danced, the children sang, and UKG served the fruit they had washed and cut themselves.

Parent workshop: toilet training, without the tears

Forty parents and one honest conversation: what works, what does not, and why the same words at home and at school matter most.

Questions parents ask us

Ask us something else

From 18 months to 6 years: Playgroup (18 months – 2½), Nursery (2½ – 3½), LKG (3½ – 4½) and UKG (4½ – 6). Day care is open to every age until 5:00 PM.

Call to action

Come and see a Mera morning

Visits Sunday to Friday, 10:00 – 11:30 AM. Bring your child — most children do not want to leave.

Book a school visit Call the school

Prefer to write first? +977 1 661 2071 · [email protected]

About with a photo

It began with one classroom and eleven children

Rachana Prajapati opened Mera in Baisakh 2071, in a rented house in Suryabinayak, after years of teaching in the valley and a Montessori course that changed how she saw children.

She wanted a first school that felt like the best kind of home: calm, warm and full of real things to do — where a two-year-old could pour her own water and a five-year-old could read to the little ones.

Twelve years on, the rented house is a purpose-built school with a garden, a kitchen and five classrooms — and many of our families are now sending their second child.

Montessori methodHands-on learning, at each child’s own pace.
Two languagesEnglish in the classroom, Nepali every day.
Ready for Grade 1Reading, writing, numbers and independence.

Since 2071

In Suryabinayak, Bhaktapur

Dates in order

Twelve years in Suryabinayak

2071
Eleven children, one classroom
A rented house, two teachers and a shelf of materials, many of them made by hand.
2073
Our own building
Three classrooms, a kitchen and a garden, built to earthquake-safe standards after 2072.
2076
Day care opens
Until 5:00 PM, for the working parents who had been asking since the first year.
2077
Learning at home
Through the lockdowns: practical-life kits delivered door to door, and a story on video every morning.
2083
Twelve years on
Five classrooms, every lead teacher Montessori-trained, and families now sending their second child.

Programmes — wide rows

Find the class that fits your child

Four classes from 18 months to 6 years, and day care until five for working parents. Hours, ratios and fees are published — you should not have to ask.

18 months – 2½ years