Greywolf336
Well-Known Member
School is not day care or baby sitting and shouldn’t be treated like it is. The worst thing the school board in Ontario did was start the before and after school programs in the classroom.
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Mendalla
Happy headbanging ape!!
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How so? It's not run by the school, at least here in London. They just lease space to a childcare provider, who then run the programs and provide the staffing. Parents get the before and after care they need without teachers or other board staff having to do the work. Seemed like an ideal setup to me.
DaisyJane
I probably should be working.
My two typically developing children are October and March birthdays. When our kids were starting school our local school board was quite adamant about kids starting "when they were supposed to". I had a friend who wanted her December baby to wait a year before starting school (so, in effect, holding back a grade). She genuinely believed that her son would do better being one of the older vs. one of the younger kids - particularly given the sentiment that some younger boys require more time to "settle into" school. The school board said no.
If given the choice I might have chosen the option to have my October baby start school a year later. He was definitely a bit of a late bloomer, though things smoothed out when he got older and he has certainly done well academically. For example he was one of the later readers in his class in grade one, but by grade three was in a withdrawal program for gifted kids. The delayed reading was purely developmental and it self-corrected within a year, but I was worried about the message he might hear being placed in the slower reading group in that first year. Sometimes that sense of not being capable sends a powerful message and that concerned me. My March baby was always an old soul and very precocious. If given the option I would have started him in school a year early! He was probably ready for grade one by the age of 3.
That's the problem. The structure of school system often has very little to do with a child's abilities or readiness.
If given the choice I might have chosen the option to have my October baby start school a year later. He was definitely a bit of a late bloomer, though things smoothed out when he got older and he has certainly done well academically. For example he was one of the later readers in his class in grade one, but by grade three was in a withdrawal program for gifted kids. The delayed reading was purely developmental and it self-corrected within a year, but I was worried about the message he might hear being placed in the slower reading group in that first year. Sometimes that sense of not being capable sends a powerful message and that concerned me. My March baby was always an old soul and very precocious. If given the option I would have started him in school a year early! He was probably ready for grade one by the age of 3.
That's the problem. The structure of school system often has very little to do with a child's abilities or readiness.
KayTheCurler
Well-Known Member
This age problem was at least partially solved in the school my sister's kids attended (UK). Every child started school on the Monday following their 5th birthday, and they entered a class called Reception. This meant they all had a chance to be the new kid. It also gave the teacher a great opportunity to get to know the new kid, strengths, weaknesses, levels of knowledge, speed of picking up fresh ideas etc.. Some sped through the reception process and moved onto another teacher in fairly short order. Others stayed while they gathered confidence and competence. The other classes were all of mixed ages - 5 to 8.
KayTheCurler
Well-Known Member
I thought it was a great way to run a school for young kids. There was at least one UK school with classes containing kids from 5 - 11. Of course, I have no idea whether this is still happening or happening more or less than it was.
Greywolf336
Well-Known Member
Sorry for the delay in responding to this. First, I will put my biases right on the table and say that my mom teaches Junior and Senior Kindergarten (JK/SK) so my views on this are mostly based on/through her experience.
The before and after school programs in the Waterloo Region (Ontario) are run by the school board, they are staffed by Early Childhood Educators (ECEs) who are also in the classroom during the day. Ideally, this should provide some form of consistency to those kids who are in both programs and school. However, there is no time worked into the ECEs contract that allow them to actually collaborate with the teacher so they either have to use their personal time or they don't collaborate, not fair to either the teacher or the ECEs who are supposed to be a team.
Allowing the before and after school to be in a classroom means that the youngest people at the school (the JK/SK) are there the longest. I am sure all of us have had the feeling of needing to just "get out" of our work space after a long day which I would guess is an average 7-8hrs, some of these kids can be physically at the school for 11hrs a day.
Also, even if the before and after school program was run by the school board, it is still in a classroom. The teacher who gets stuck with the before and after school class looses out on time in their classroom, there are kids physically in the classroom when they get there and after they leave. Not only that, but the before and after school program runs on days where there is no other schooling such as the last day at the end of the school year and in some cases March break and Christmas holidays.
I also believe that having daycare in the school allows people to ignore/forget the difference between day care and school. Children go to school to learn, to get an education and to understand proper social behaviour. Children go to daycare because it is a safe place with trusted adults to look after them while their parents cannot, two very different purposes in my mind. Unfortunately, it seems that more and more people view JK/SK as the later and not the former.
Mendalla
Happy headbanging ape!!
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Okay, so this has nothing to do with Ontario and everything to do with one school board. Our program wasn't in classrooms. They usually used activity rooms and gyms and, of course, the schoolyard whenever weather permitted. In fact, I don't think they were allowed in classrooms. The ECEs didn't work for the board, they worked for London Children's Connection, a local day care provider so they were only in the school when running the program. Consequently, there was a pretty clear boundary between class and after/before-care. They didn't run on holidays. We had to find other programs for the Christmas holidays and March break if we want them (and we often did for the latter since my wife's break was almost a month earlier so she was normally working that week). So, I can agree with you on Waterloo Region's program but I can also support the program here in London.
Frankly, as a parent in a family where both parents had full-time, demanding jobs, I'm glad we didn't have to juggle Little M between after care and school.
KayTheCurler
Well-Known Member
My grand, who started kindergarten this year will spend his 'no school' time at a daycare. The kids get collected after school and are walked over to the daycare building. There are staff there to supervise them until the parents collect them. Last year was similar - pre K some of the time, daycare the rest.
pommum
Active Member
Two of my grands are involved in a before and after program in Ottawa. The activities are outside in the schoolyard whenever possibe, but they also use the gym and other areas of the school. Healthy snacks are provided before and after school and there are interesting crafts and fun activities to do each day. The children are placed in groups at the beginning of the school year according to which activities interest them. The program only runs on school days, but their parents, who both work full time, are pleased that their children are safe at school when they leave for work and don't leave the school property when the school day has ended. Both of our grands, a boy and a girl, are very happy to be in this program.
We also have four other grands whose parents feel that junior kindergarten is too young to start school. Our son has chosen to work evenings and they have agreed that he will be their caregiver during the day until they are in SK, which they only attend part-time. In Ontario I believe, children must be attending school full time during the year of their sixth birthday or involved in a homeschool program. This was a decision made solely by their parents.
We also have four other grands whose parents feel that junior kindergarten is too young to start school. Our son has chosen to work evenings and they have agreed that he will be their caregiver during the day until they are in SK, which they only attend part-time. In Ontario I believe, children must be attending school full time during the year of their sixth birthday or involved in a homeschool program. This was a decision made solely by their parents.