Leading the way at Roosevelt school

With the provincial government looking to put more emphasis on early childhood learning, an interesting program being run at Roosevelt Park Community School could very well prove to be a vital bit of research.

Roosevelt’s all day kindergarten program, the only one of its kind in School District 52 and one of only a few across the province, is perhaps exactly the kind of testing ground that province is looking for as it seeks out answers to both early education and First Nations educational opportunities.

With a school population that is heavily influenced by First Nations children’s needs and providing for a number of local initiatives within the school to foster learning, the program at Roosevelt could become a template for future educational prospects across the province.

The Roosevelt experiment shows that it takes some creative meaures and the help of the community to tackle the issues that are affecting students these days.

Something which the Fraser Institute might wish to investigate, before they cobble together their next batch of controversial school rankings. Numbers don't always tell the full story as Mark Kelley discovered in his now Rupert famous documentary for the CBC.

The Daily News featured the successful program at Roosevelt as their front page story in Friday’s paper.

ROOSEVELT SUCCESS STORY MAY HOLD LESSONS FOR B. C.
By Kris Schumacher
The Daily News
Friday, February 15, 2008
Pages one and three

Roosevelt school could be blazing an important trail that other elementary schools in B.C. will end up following.

Education Minister Shirley Bond said this week that British Columbians are excited about the government's intention to explore the possibility of all-day kindergarten.

While the concept may be new for many districts, Prince Rupert is ahead of the curve in exploring new and innovative ways of encouraging early learning and development ideas.
Kindergarten teacher Bea Skog's class at Roosevelt Park Community School is already a full-day class, and she says she is in full support of expanding the platform to more schools across the district and the province.

"It's doing absolutely great things, and I really believe in the program," said Skog. "With the all-day K, everything is more focused and structured and you get the kids used to the structure of the day. Other teachers and people who come into the classroom have commented they are a very different students than they have seen before."

As the only full-day Kindergarten class in the district, and perhaps one of only a handful in the province, Skog and Robyn Garon, Success By Six coordinatory, both say it will be interesting to find out whether the program has any measurable differences in comparison to half-day classes.

The Ministry of Education has said few details accompany their plan to explore all-day Kindergarten except to say the government has no model for such a program, so Skog may be in for a surprise if the ministry begins to pay particular attention to her classroom.

"If they did want to come in and see how it worked, I would be more than fine with it because I fully believe in the value of teaching the kids all day," said Skog.

"The program really reflects the culture of Roosevelt school, because the class is basically all First Nations students. But those few who aren't do take a lot of pride in learning something new, whether it's the Sm'algyax language or other First Nations oriented learning."

Prince Rupert will have a better idea of how all young children in the community are developing next week when local results of the Early Child Development Mapping Project are unveiled. A community meeting at Roosevelt Park Community School on Tuesday will discuss the newly compiled information from the Human Early Learning Partnership on school readiness and socio-economic factors for kindergarten students in School District 52.

The data was collected during three years to provide an assessment of the changes in children's development, and Joanne Schroeder from HELP will present an overview of the Early Development Instrument results and discuss their implications in a large group format.

"It's the second round of results from the EDI, and after Joanne gives us the results, there will be time for people to ask questions around 'why' or 'where' and she'll be able to focus on a particular school or neighbourhood level," said Garon.

"Policy-makers and community members can use this information to develop effective policies and programs to help children get the best possible start in life, so it will be very interesting to learn the latest results."

After Schroeder presents the results, there will be an opportunity to examine results for the community in more detail with specific analysis of developmental domains and local populations, with opportunity for open dialogue and questions. Garon says that anyone in the community who is interested in supporting young children is encouraged to attend, including: parents, early childhood educators, school district personnel, community leaders, politicians, social workers, public health nurses, early intervention therapists, community developers, municipal planners, parent educators, and family support workers.

The meeting will be held at Roosevelt school on Tuesday between 3:30 and 5 p.m. in the school library,. Those interested in attending can RSVP by contacting Robyn Garon at 250-624-1469 or by email at robyngaron@gmail.com.