Kinder garten interviews Aim to identify Challenges
Preschoolers expecting to start kindergarten next year are being interviewed and flagged for potential challenges at some public schools in an effort to better support students and their families.
Parents who have registered kindergarten students to start this fall at New Brighton Elementary School are being asked to come into the school this spring with their child to talk to the principal, or other teaching staff who are available.
Principal Jeff Hutton, who’s been at the school for two years, said he’s been involved in kindergarten interviews for many years during his career, saying they act as valuable information sessions giving support to parents, comfort to students and possible ways to prepare for staff.
“Transition planning is important for any student, going from one grade to another in any year,” Hutton said. “And we are seeing increasing diversity and complexities in students, coming from different circumstances, different places in the world.
“We hope that parents have important things to share with us.”
Interviews typically involve asking parents about the student’s background, offering them an opportunity to converse, draw or write their name if they choose to.
CBE spokeswoman Melissa Malcolm said not all schools are doing kindergarten interviews, with principals having the option to welcome students and families in a variety of ways.
“Many schools host parent information sessions and provide parents with information on how they can prepare their child for kindergarten,” she said.
“Some schools may also host parent and student open houses or tours to help students familiarize themselves with their new school and meet their teacher. Other schools, like New Brighton, invite students and parents to have a conversation prior to starting kindergarten.”
Hutton stressed the New Brighton meetings are not mandatory, and students are not being coded, assessed or expected to have any specific skill levels yet, since students develop differently at such young ages.
“It’s more to give parents a chance to share anything they want with us. And to let the student start to feel comfortable with the school and the staff,” Hutton said, adding that New Brighton is expecting up to 130 kindergarten students this fall in the K-4 school of about 600.
“But if, for instance, you are completely new to the country, it may be important for the teacher to know that student may not understand what they’re saying as well as other students, or there may be specific reasons as to why they are not speaking as much.”
Calgary’s public schools continue to welcome a large influx of immigrant students, in addition to the more than 500 Syrian refugees they admitted in 2016 at the peak of the Syrian refugee crisis, which led to increased federal funding supports and a wave of new Canadians.
But Greg Jeffery, president of the Alberta Teachers Association, said classrooms are seeing an increasing number of complexities in addition to English-language learners, including students with learning disabilities, mental health struggles and poverty.
“Even at the preschool level, we are identifying a number of challenges from language skills to dyslexia, and we are seeing many new Canadians, mostly in the metro areas,” Jeffery said.
“Students with complex needs require support in the classrooms, in the form of aids or other resources.
“But teachers are not getting the help they need. Principals only have a finite budget and often they have to rob Peter to pay Paul.”
With 15,000 new students expected to enrol in Alberta’s K-12 school system in the next year, the NDP government’s education budget this past spring included the hiring of 663 new teachers and another 366 support staff.
But the Alberta Teachers Association said the budget doesn’t do nearly enough to address growing concerns about class size, undersupported special needs and rising costs. “Base grants have only received one small increase in seven years, and school boards are struggling to keep up with inflationary pressure.”