Minister announces program to get students ready for school

Education Minister Judy Foote announced today a program to help pre-Kindergarten students get ready for their first year of school. KinderStart is another initiative of Stepping into the Future, the provincial government�s Early Childhood Development Initiative.

"This is a new and very exciting program," said Minister Foote. "We know the first years of learning are critical for future success. Through this program, we want to ensure that our children and their parents or caregivers have a positive experience when entering the school system."

KinderStart will see pre-Kindergartens and their parents or caregivers attend eight one-hour orientation sessions throughout this school year. These sessions will help the children adjust to the school environment and will provide their parents and caregivers with information on how to prepare their child for school.

"Families play an important role in the development of children and it is important that we involve the parents and caregivers in this orientation program," said Minister Foote. "This will be the first step in building a positive family-school relationship which certainly will benefit the children."

The KinderStart transition to school program was developed by the Early Childhood Development-Kindergarten Working Group. The working group consisted of representatives from the Department of Education, school districts, kindergarten teachers, College of the North Atlantic and Memorial University. A program guide has been sent to schools throughout the province along with activity resources for kindergarten teachers. The guide is available at /edu/literacy/kinderstart/main.htm. At the first KinderStart session, students and their parents or caregivers will get an activity resource bag and suggestions for home activities. The sessions will begin once schools have completed their kindergarten registration for the 2003-2004 school year.

The KinderStart Program is funded under the five-year $36.6 million Early Childhood Development Initiative announced in 2001 and jointly funded by the federal and provincial governments. The total cost of delivering the program is approximately $900,000 over the five years.

"This government has a long-term commitment to literacy and to enhancing early childhood development," said Minister Foote. "This program will help us achieve our goals to increase literacy levels in the province, a priority identified in our Strategic Literacy Plan."

Media contact: Carmel Turpin, Communications (709) 729-0048.

2002 10 17                                        4:25 p.m.