Excerpts from the document:
The final edition of this document, to be released in 2011, will replace The Kindergarten Program, 2006 (Revised) when the Full-Day Early Learning - Kindergarten program is fully implemented across the province. Beginning in September 2010, all new Full-Day Early Learning - Kindergarten programs will be based on the expectations outlined in this draft edition of the document.
The Full-Day Early Learning - Kindergarten program is a child-centred, developmentally appropriate, integrated, extended-day program of learning for four- and five-year-old children. The purpose of the program is to establish a strong foundation for learning in the early years, and to do so in a safe and caring play-based environment that promotes the physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development of all children.
The goals of the Full-Day Early Learning - Kindergarten program are as follows:
- to establish a strong foundation for the early years by providing young children with an integrated day of learning
- to provide a play-based learning environment
- to help children make a smoother transition to Grade 1
- to improve children's prospects for success in school and in their lives beyond school
The Full-Day Early Learning - Kindergarten program is based on the understanding that children develop within a complex set of interrelated systems that includes the family, the school, the broader community, and the world. Although early learning programs have traditionally acknowledged the importance of these systems, they have tended to address each one separately, in terms of its individual impact on the child. By contrast, the Full-Day Early Learning - Kindergarten program recognizes the importance for the child's development of the interrelationships between and among these systems, and builds on those interrelationships. Holding this interconnectedness at the centre of its vision, the program sets children on a more positive trajectory for learning.