More four-year-olds can expect to spend added time in the classroom starting this fall.
On Wednesday the province announced its latest round of schools that will offer full-day kindergarten. Two local schools, Ogden Community Public School and St. Elizabeth Catholic Elementary School, will add the program next fall. Seven others will join the fray in 2012-13, two years ahead of all schools being provincially mandated to offer it.
Agnew H. Johnston, Hyde Park and Woodcrest public schools are the Lakehead Public Schools chosen, pushing their total to nine of 25 schools offering full-day kindergarten. St. Margaret, St. Pius X, Holy Family and St. Francis Catholic elementary schools will join from the Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board side, pushing their total to seven of 15 schools.
Reaction has been mostly positive, said Sherri-Lynn Pharand, LPS’s superintendent of education, whose board has offered full-time kindergarten at several schools since 2002. And though the benefits have yet to be fully realized at the other end of the education scale, preliminary results seem to suggest they will be good.
"I think because the philosophy is learning through play, kids get to be inquisitive about their environment and what’s around them," Pharand said. "And like anything, the more time we spend doing something, the better we are at it."
Pharand added her board did a research study a few years ago which showed children who participate in full-day kindergarten are better prepared for Grade 1.
"They have the foundational skills that are necessary in all language development to become good readers, good writers and good at mathematics," she said.
Tom Mustapic, the associate director of education at the Catholic board, said the feedback they’ve received has been excellent, despite only having 120 students taking part to date.
"It’s a little early for us to know if there are any significant educational benefits, but the feedback from parents is fantastic. They like the full day part of it and it stands to reason that if kids are spending twice the amount of time in school, they’re going to do better in terms of performance," Mustapic said.
Both boards have added staff because of full-day kindergarten, and will continue to do so as the program expands, he added.
"For next year It’s going to be another position and then in 2012-13 it’s going to be four more positions," Mustapic said.
Both boards also received significant cash injections from the province to pay for the program. Mustapic said the Catholic board is getting $500,000 for 2010-11 for operating costs, plus $400,000 in capital costs to make classroom improvements.
"For the upcoming year we’re looking at about another $150,000 and we’re expecting upward of a million dollars in extra funding incremental in 2012-13. That will make about $1.6 million in additional operating funding. On top of that we’re looking at getting about $1.5 capital funding by the end of (2012-13)," he said.
Province-wide about 900 additional schools are being added to the program, representing about 120,000 students.
