Full-day Kindergarten coming to Limestone Schools

Jeff Green | Jan 14, 2010

Prince Charles Public School in Verona, North Addington Education Centre in Cloyne, and Sharbot Lake Public School, are three of 600 schools from across Ontario that will be offering full-day learning, five days a week, for four and five-year-olds starting in September.

According to a government media release, the program, which was launched on Tuesday, January 12, will have both teachers and early childhood educators working “together to help four and five-year-olds learn during the regular school day. Schools will also offer extended day programs, before and after regular school hours, which will be led by registered early childhood educators. There will be a reasonable fee for these programs, and subsidies will be available for some families, based on financial need. Fees will be determined locally by boards.”

All told, there will be eight schools in the Limestone Board that will start up the program next fall, including Centreville School in Stone Mills Township and Perth Road School in South Frontenac as well as three urban Kingston schools.

Maple Grove School in Lanark Village (in the Upper Canada District School Board) will also offer full-day learning for Kindergarten students.

According to a Limestone School Board media release that came out shortly after the announcement, certain criteria were used to determine which schools would be chosen. These include: “availability of space; community need; existing child-care programs –availability of reasonably priced child care and before and after school care programming; student achievement.”