CBC
What if NL schools included young children? An expert says it is a path to success in daycare
Every day of school, streams of children pass through the doors of Se’t A’newey Kina’matino’kuom, just like any other school in Newfoundland and Labrador. But some of the newcomers are still not without diapers. Others are far from mastering the art of tying shoelaces. That’s because Se’t A’newey not only serves Miawpukek First Nation high school students on the south coast of the island, but includes a daycare center within his building for children as young as two years old. “When parents come to school to drop their schoolchildren, they actually drop their kids off at daycare. So the kids at the daycare feel proud that they are really going to big school like their older siblings.” said Jackie John, the coordinator of Four Winds Child Care. It wasn’t always a drop in education. The combined model emerged in 2017, when a new school was built and opened in the community. Before that, Four Winds operated in the basement of a church, and John said the move to a bright new space with outdoor activities, cultural programming and – aside from the restrictions of COVID-19 – integration with some larger school activities and assemblies kept the daycare center occupied by children and define the basis of their formal education. “When you really hear some of the stories, you know, during the collection, you know that these kids are in the right place, with great opportunities to play, socialize and grow up. And very often, you see that they just feel part of the program. They are part of the school environment at a much earlier age, “said John. Se’t A’newey is an isolated case in the province, as, as a First Nation reserve, the Miawpukek school system is outside the Newfoundland and Labrador English School District, giving you more freedom to innovate. There are a few other private daycare centers spread out operating in provincial schools; the Department of Education counts nine of these programs. But an advocate for early childhood education says that if a proposal presented more than 10 years ago to the provincial government had been implemented, combining children of all ages in one building could have been the rule, not the exception, and based on its success. in other parts of Canada, the idea still deserves a second analysis. One idea, rejected David Philpott wore some hats in 2010, including one as head of research at the Jimmy Pratt Foundation, a non-profit group in St. John that lobbies for improvements in the province’s daycare system. He was part of a team that presented an idea, with an offer of distribution of funding, to the Department of Education: two pilot schools in the province to expand its offer and include free daycare within the school system, administered by the school network. was in action in Ontario, and being developed at Maritimes. But Philpott said his group found reluctance, despite the spate of spending from the Danny Williams era, and as negotiations dragged on, the idea ended up being eliminated when progressive conservatives were eliminated in 2015. “The conservative government at the time feared success, “said Philpott, who is also a retired professor of education at Memorial University.” This model was working so well in other regions that the demand for it was growing, and parents and educators were recognizing the importance of using and redirecting the neighborhood school to meet the needs of young families. “> Terra Nova, I think, is now ready for a reconceptualization around what we mean by school and what we mean by the early years. – David Philpott What works so well, said Philpott, is the idea of a school building catering to all ages and, as a result, a larger community. When babies and young children enter the school system, risky behaviors or special needs can be identified earlier and better, he said, and the transition to kindergarten is easier. Parents also take a break from the various dropouts, meet teachers and become more practical, he said. “All of this is done well before kindergarten starts. There is a built in familiarity and an established mutual respect. So it’s a win-win situation for everyone,” said Philpott. What could have been chased Philpott as he saw other provinces move forward in expanding school systems to include increasingly younger children. Toronto led by including children in some of its schools in early 2000, and by 2020, 54 percent of Ontario day care centers were in public schools, according to provincial Department of Education statistics. On the East Coast, Nova Scotia piloted four first-year centers in elementary schools in 2014, which, among other things, offered free programming to children a year before they entered kindergarten. Since then, that plan has expanded and, along with the junior kindergarten, was implemented and expanded to all public schools in Nova Scotia last September. “The trend around the world now is to allow early learning with primary school, so we have a learning continuum. One stop shop for all these families,” said Philpott. Rural revitalization? Philpott made another attempt to influence the provincial government in 2017, when he and other members of an education task force delivered their final report to Dwight The Liberals of Ball with recommendations for the future of NL schools, including the NL kindergarten. first year. The report noted an abundance of space: that year, 62 schools in the province had fewer than 15 children aged four and five. Thirty of these schools had less than five of those kindergarten students. All but a handful of these schools were located outside the provincial population hotspot, the Avalon Peninsula, corresponding to the continuing demographic decline in rural communities. Many of these rural places also lack formal childcare, and in this void, Philpott sees empty classrooms as opportunities. “The number one problem faced by many rural Newfoundland communities is the school’s viability, keeping the school open and having enough children to guarantee the school,” said Philpott. “If we start to reconceptualize what we mean by ‘school’, these buildings and places will become more stable and families will have more options. “While provincial government finances have plummeted dramatically since the Williams era, Philpott echoed what other research illustrated: that investments in early childhood education save money on helping to lift children out of poverty and giving parents better flexibility to work. In Miawpukek, there are no regrets from John for his move to the See ‘t A’newey. “From my perspective, working with employees, parents and children, there are no disadvantages to having a daycare center at school. I think it is only positive,” said John. Kindergarten coming – sometime The 2017 task force report pushed for kindergarten to be implemented across the province, a plan that in November 2019 Education Minister Brian Warr said he was “making progress” . But then COVID-19 came. “He was largely put aside as a result of the pandemic,” said Education Minister Tom Osborne. His department has resumed some kindergarten work – which requires the time-consuming task of changing legislation – but Osborne said while the virus is out there, the province will not try to put it on stage. “It’s certainly not something we were thinking of adding another layer of complexity to this year, but I can say that kindergarten is on the radar and is something the department is still focused on,” said Osborne. Likewise, he said, although he is interested in adding more private crèches to schools, Osborne will not consider this until after the pandemic. Despite the lack of concrete milestones, Philpott is optimistic that this will happen, driven by investments in early childhood, such as the $ 25 a day daycare initiative that became a reality on January 1. “Newfoundland, I think it is now ready for a reconceptualization around what we mean by ‘school’ and what we mean by ‘the early years.’ I think the government is moving in the right direction,” he said. Philpott remembers being scolded from all angles while defending the full-day kindergarten, which came amid controversy in 2016 in Newfoundland and Labrador, the last Atlantic province to implement it. But once it started, the roar of criticism turned to crickets, he said, and since spreading the idea of first-year kindergarten, he has seen an appetite for more early childhood education. “Taking the four-year-old child out of early childhood programming and putting him in schools makes sense. It stabilizes early childhood centers. It stabilizes a good start of school for children, and the results of education are significant,” he said. Read more at CBC Newfoundland and Labrador