Kindergarten transition underway
TERESA WRIGHT
The GuardianIt’s a major undertaking but the transition of kindergarten into the public school system on P.E.I. is well underway, says Education Minister Doug Currie.
Department staff has been busy over the past several months putting in place a number of key components to make Island classrooms and educators ready for kindergarten beginning in Island schools in September.
Many major tasks have already been completed, including the registration of students and the assignment of space for kindergarten in all schools.
More than 1,200 students have been registered at schools across the province for kindergarten this fall.
“I’m very pleased with the progress of the transition at this point,” Currie said Tuesday.
“I’ve got to be honest, I’m very excited about the work that’s going on. The thing that I’m most excited about is that we’re going to have five-year-olds for the first time in the history of this province who are going to have the same opportunities of every other five-year-old in Canada.”
To accommodate the over 1,200 new students, 50 new school buses have been ordered and bus routes are being developed. It is anticipated there will be an adequate number of child safety seats on school buses for children who weigh less than 40 pounds.
Classrooms are being prepared and formatted for play-based learning. Rather than rows of desks, there will be activity tables, computer centres, learning stations and soft floor space. Kindergarten furniture, equipment and supplies are being ordered now so that classrooms will be equipped by the fall.
Teachers already in the school system are also being prepared for the new, younger students entering their schools.
Sessions on play-based learning and the kindergarten curriculum have been held for over 300 department and board staff, school administrators and Grade 1, resource, music and phys ed teachers.
More sessions will soon be offered for school counsellors, teacher librarians, Grade 2 teachers, specialists and support staff.
But kindergarten instructors are still in limbo. Early childhood educators (ECEs) were given priority for the approximately 110 kindergarten teaching positions that are now available.
The department has interviewed and selected the necessary number of ECEs for the jobs, and they have all applied to UPEI for a special bachelor of education program developed to enable them to obtain their degree over a six-year period.
But school boards can’t offer these ECEs positions until the P.E.I. Teachers’ Federation changes its collective agreement with the province. The federation has a policy not to release details of its contract negotiations.
Teachers’ Federation president Carrie St. Jean would only say they are ongoing.
“We’re still in negotiations with government to get a settlement,” St. Jean told The Guardian Tuesday.
“Until we have an agreement, they can’t do anything. And right now that’s where it stands. We’re
very anxious for that to get settled but it isn’t settled yet.”
Once the federation has an agreement, all teachers in the province must vote on whether to accept it.
Currie said he is confident in the overall progress of the kindergarten transition but said the job is far from over.Initiatives:
Here are some of the kindergarten transition initiatives that will soon be offered to parents and incoming students:
— All children registered for kindergarten this fall will take part in an assessment of their developmental skills. It will indicate how well children are developing in self-awareness, cognitive skills, language and communication, and gross and fine motor development. The half-hour assessment will be adm
CBC News – Prince Edward Island – P.E.I.’s move to school kindergartens ‘on target’: minister
P.E.I.'s Department of Education says it's on track in its plan to move kindergarten-age children from daycare centres into the province's public school system in September.
The provincial kindergarten curriculum is currently taught mainly in private child-care centres.
The space for the new integrated kindergarten classrooms has been allocated to accommodate the more than 1,200 children who have registered for the fall, Education and Early Childhood Development Minister Doug Currie said Tuesday.
"This is the largest educational initiative in the modern history of our province, and I am pleased to advise parents and the public that we are on target," Currie said in a news release.
More than 50 new school buses have been ordered, and the province says they will have enough child safety seats to accommodate children who weigh less than 18 kilograms. Classroom furniture, equipment and teaching supplies have also been ordered.
Stewart Darrach, vice-principal of Westwood Primary School in Cornwall, said 11 new classrooms are under construction at the school.
"Personally, I think this is an excellent move and … opportunity that we're having here with a new addition on to the school and for students coming in."
Currie said the parents and caregivers in the province have many questions about the process of integrating kindergarten into the public school system. In the spring, families will be invited to school information sessions where they will be able to meet kindergarten teachers and tour classrooms.
Uncertainty for teachers
Despite the progress, there are still issues that must be worked out, particularly having to do with the hiring of kindergarten teachers, said Sonya Corrigan, executive director of the Early Childhood Development Association.
"There are still a number of uncertainties around early childhood educators' futures, as far as knowing when they will receive confirmation on employment, where that employment will be and what their educational future looks like, as well," she told CBC News on Tuesday.
The province is hiring more than 100 kindergarten teachers, with many current staff at private daycare centres and preschool programs expected to fill the positions. Certified early childhood educators are being given first consideration for the new kindergarten positions.
Teachers in P.E.I. elementary schools must have a bachelor of education degree, but while the usual prerequisite for such a degree is a bachelor of arts or a bachelor of science degree, that requirement has been waived for child-care workers who want to work in the new integrated kindergartens.
Instead, all new kindergarten teachers hired who do not already have a bachelor of education will be required to complete a modified two-year bachelor of education program at the University of Prince Edward Island by 2016. The Department of Education said interested teachers have already been interviewed by UPEI.
Certified educators who are 50 or older and have a certain number of years of experience teaching kindergarten-age children will be exempt from the university program requirement.
The province is also waiting for a report from Kathleen Flanagan, an early childhood education consultant who is drafting a plan on how to alter the program for the children who will remain in daycares when kindergarten-age children move into the public school system.
via www.cbc.ca
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