A teacher interacts with her students in the classroom at Cambridge Street Public School, one of 22 schools in the area to implement an all-day kindergarten program.
Cambridge Street Public School is one of 22 schools in the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board that will be part of the first phase of an all-day kindergarten program announced by the Ontario government.
Premier Dalton McGuinty unveiled details of the Early Learning program during a press conference Jan. 12.
About 600 schools from across the province were approved to launch the program this fall, and there are plans to have the program running province-wide by 2015-16.
Early learning “will not only enrich the enjoyment of their lives, but it’s good for all of us,” says McGuinty.
The program calls for all-day kindergarten for four-to five-year olds with optional before- and after-school programs, as well as a summer program run at cost to the parents.
Teachers will run classes with an average of 26 students, along with two half-day early childhood educators that split the day from 7:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Charles Pascal, special advisor to McGuinty for the program, says that it will benefit both parents and students.
He says 28 per cent of kids are currently showing up in Grade 1 seriously behind their peers. This program, he says, is a “remarkable investment, that will boost achievement” for students and will give parents more options for care.
Subsidies will be available for families in need, says the Early Learning website.
Phase one of the program is being implemented with consideration to “high-risk, low-income neighbourhoods, with special initiatives to reach out to vulnerable families,” says Pascal’s report. Also included are remote rural areas, support for Aboriginal children, and children with special needs.
Cambridge principal Kim Nelson says a large proportion of her students have the additional challenge using English as a second language.
All day kindergarten, she says, will provide “the continuity and opportunity for [the] children to be exposed to the English language, to be with their peers in a safe environment.”
“It’s going to be a positive developmental advantage to this child. The exposure to language, to routines, to social interactions, [will be] phenomenal,” she adds.
Jennifer Adams, the superintendent of curriculum for the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board says that the administrators are excited about the program.
It can help students by giving more time for teachers and their assistants to help children who require special intervention, she says.
“By providing the right kind of curriculum with the right kind of staffing, this is going to be good for all kids,” says Pascal. “It’s going to be a play-based curriculum where their level of literacy and mathematics and life-long learning will get a better start.”
He added, “this is the most transformational thing in education in a long, long time.”
However, not all parents are sold on the idea.
Heather Barrett is a mother of four children and her youngest, Elija, is in a morning kindergarten program at Hopewell Public School in Old Ottawa South.
She says she wants to be the one nurturing her son for most of the day at his age.
“I appreciate the desire to help families, but my sense is that it is really undermining a really important stage of life [for] a child,” she says.
Barrett acknowledges that she is in a position to choose to stay home with her kids, and acknowledges the need for some families with two working parents, or single-parent households.
“Not everyone has that freedom to choose,” she says.
Adams clarifies that in Ontario, kindergarten is optional for four and five year olds, so parents have the choice to keep their child home for the day.
When asking her son Elija how he would feel about a full day of school, he was less than enthusiastic.
He slides down his chair and moans: “I’d be bored.”