A DAY IN AN INTEGRATED EARLY CHILDHOOD PROGRAM

2007

A DAY I N A N

I N T E G R AT E D

E A R LY C H I L D H O O D

P R O G R A M

Bruce/WoodGreen Early Learning Centre

Early learning and care for every child

The Bruce/WoodGreen Early Learning Centre (BWELC) serves a mixed income community with a large new immigrant population in Toronto. The program op-erates from 7:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Monday to Friday, year round. BWELC serves children and families from pre-natal to grade two. The school enrolls children to grade six.

The integrated early childhood program offered at the centre features 5 core elements:

Integrated governance: The partners pool their resources to plan and deliver the program. At BWELC, Bruce School supplies the physical space and staff-ing includstaff-ing the principal, kindergarten teachers, parentstaff-ing workers, teach-ing assistants and administrative staff. WoodGreen Community Services supports the centre manager, ECE staff and resource teacher, in addition to providing administrative assistance, professional development and family support referrals.

Toronto District School Board contributes pro-fessional development and meeting release time for the principal and kindergarten teach-ers and the support of its superintendents and early years’ department. The Foundation for

Stu-dent Success, Toronto Public Health and the Child Development Insti-tute offer nutrition and parenting programs.

Toronto Children’s Services provides quality monitoring and operating and capital funding. Research and development is provided by the Atkinson Cen-tre for Child and Social Development and the Institute for Child Studies, at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Operations and communica-tions are supported by the Atkinson Charitable Foundation.

Staff team: The program is delivered by a teaching team of early childhood educators, kindergarten teachers, parenting workers and assistants using a common curriculum, resources and space. Integrated staffing allows a child/adult (teacher or ECE) ratio approximating the requirements of the

Day Nurseries Act and is well below the 20-children/teacher cap proposed by the province for kindergarten-aged children.

Integrated early learning environment: The school’s classrooms are licensed under the Day Nurseries Act allowing multi-use of space, support for child development and enhanced health and safety standards.

Seamless access: Through a single enrolment process families access the full range of activities the program offers. Participation is flexible – there is no fee if parents attend with their children. Children aged 2½ and older are also eligible for a half day program at no cost. If additional hours are

needed, there is an affordable parent contribution, about one-third the cost of tradition child care. Eligible families may apply for financial assis-tance through the City’ of Toronto’s subsidy program. Emergency care is also available. One-third of the children have a parent at-home – an indica-tion of the wide need for non-parental care including by parents who are not in the workforce.

Parent participation: Parent participation is paramount to children’s success. Parents are welcome to take part in all the activities at the centre, all the time. This includes eating lunch or snacks with their children, joining in their children’s classroom activities and participating in adult-only classes or parent/child activities.

Children arrive at the centre between 7:30 and 9 a.m.

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Teachers, early childhood educators and assistants are available to parents and children in the playground.

Children enter, put away their belongings and sign-in.

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Inside time begins with reading; either alone or with staff, parents or volunteers.

Children meet with staff to share a story, plan their day and discuss current interests.

Children choose from the various learning centres in the classroom. Activities are both adult and child directed.

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Early childhood educators, kindergarten teachers, as-sistants and parenting staff interact to support chil-dren's learning in planned and informal ways. All staff share responsibility for program planning and supporting the children's growth and development.

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The school principal and centre director jointly oversee the program.

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The Centre is always opened to parents, siblings and caregivers.

Community and parent volunteers enrich the program.

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Play-based problem-solving encourages emotional growth, socialization and lays the foundations for skills needed in formal schooling and adult life.

Classroom activities are balanced with outdoor play, rest, hygiene and nutrition.

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Staff supervise nap time for those children who want one.

At 11:30 a.m. children in the morning program have the option of going home or staying on for lunch.

At 1 p.m. children attending the afternoon program join the full day children and staff for stories, music and discussion. Parents and siblings are encouraged to join in.

Children continue their activities from the morning or choose a new learning focus. Snack and outside play are incorporated. Children go home between 3:30 and 6 p.m.

From Toronto First Duty to Toronto’s Best Start

Toronto First Duty (TFD) began in 2000 as a partnership between the City of Toronto and the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), with support from the Atkinson Charitable Foundation and the Canadian Autoworkers Child Care Fund. The partners wanted to test early childhood service integration with the goal of influencing public policy. By bridging the disconnect between child care,

educa-tion and family supports, they hoped to demonstrate the advantages of comprehensive, universal early childhood service provision to policy makers, families and commu-nities.

Five community organizations partnered with neighbour-hood schools to demonstrate the TFD concept and docu-ment its successes and challenges.

The TFD design is now reflected in Ontario government’s Best Start strategy. It’s core elements are incorporated

into the Toronto Vision for Children: Best Start Plan. The

training and assessment tools developed for TFD are now available for Best Start.

The TDSB and the City have been joined by the French and Catholic school boards, community agencies and Public Health to expand early child-hood service integration and change the way pro-grams are delivered. TFD continues to inform the ongoing implementation of Best Start.

The original TFD project sites are now under To-ronto Best Start as models of integration and are

being joined by other sites as integration leaders. The Bruce/WoodGreen Early Learning Centre continues to receive project funding to serve as a laboratory for Toronto’s Best Start. Its mandate is to showcase the ‘year ten’ vision of Best Start; to track community outcomes and to push further towards a fully inte-grated curriculum and program delivery model.

For more information contact:

Pamela Musson, Toronto Children’s Services, pmusson@toronto.ca Jane Bertrand, program development, jbertrand@councilecd.ca Kerry McCuaig, communications, kmccuaig@rogers.com

Jill Worthy, TDSB, Jill.Worthy@tdsb.on.ca

51 Larchmount Avenue Toronto ON

Phone: 416-393-0672 x. 20008 E-mail: penny.morris@tel.tdsb.on.ca