When Maria Montessori began teaching badly-needed life skills to a group of disadvantaged children in early 20th Century Rome, she could never have foreseen the remarkable legacy she was creating.

Exactly one century later, hundreds of thousands of youngsters at 22,000 schools across the world are benefiting from the revolutionary teaching method Dr. Montessori developed.

The movement?s followers say its key philosophy ? to encourage children to teach themselves rather than spend hours listening to a teacher ? gives pupils the perfect grounding as they start to make their way in the world.