North Shore embraces all-day K: 780 out of 1,060 NV kids in full program
September 12, 2010
North Shore News
By Jane Seyd

…."Sometimes I think the parents are more nervous than the kids," says kindergarten teacher Wendy Zubic….

The number of kids enrolled in full-day kindergarten ranges from about 60 per cent of all kindergarten students in West Vancouver to about 75 per cent in North Vancouver -- well above the goal of 50 per cent set by the Ministry of Education.

Next year, all kindergarten classes will be full-day.

The full-day program has proved popular with many North Shore parents, and both local school districts have been keen to embrace the program.

Full-day kindergarten is based on research showing quality programs for very young children can translate into better results for children later on, both academically and socially.

For school districts fighting to maintain enrolment -- like North Vancouver -- full-day kindergarten has also proved an unexpected boon, swelling the numbers of full-time students and causing some families who may have been tempted by full-day programs at private schools to reconsider.

In the North Vancouver school district, which is offering full-day kindergarten at 24 of its 28 elementary schools this year, kindergarten enrolment has actually increased, from about 1,000 students last year to 1,060 this year. Of those, over 780 students will be attending school for the first time as part of a full-day program. The school district has kicked in about $300,000 over and above funding from the ministry this year to pay for more full-day spaces….

The situation is similar in West Vancouver, where families have been happy to fill the approximately 220 full-day kindergarten spaces funded by the ministry this year….

In fact, both North Shore school districts already have experience with full-day kindergarten programs because both have been offering an optional paid full-day program for much of the past decade….

Geoff Jopson, superintendent of the West Vancouver school district, said the paid full-day program -- spurred in part by the full-day kindergarten programs being offered by nearby private schools -- was already popular with parents and students.

Carolyn Broady, chairwoman of the West Vancouver district parent advisory council, said most of the response she's heard so far from parents about the full-day kindergarten program has been positive -- especially as it relieves many of additional daycare costs….

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education has already mused about expanding early learning further in the future into a publicly funded pre-school program for three- and four-year-olds. So far there have been no announcements and no funding committed, but "we've had some indication the ministry is investigating it," said Robertson….