Pre-primary registration off to flying start
Students must be four years of age by Dec. 31
It didn’t take long for parents to start registering their children for the new pre-primary program starting at 43 schools across the province this September.
“As of Monday, there are 600 students in Nova Scotia registered for the pre-primary program,” confirmed Heather Fairbairn, spokesperson for the Nova Scotia Department of Education and Early Childhood Development.
These applications and others that will be mailed in will be forwarded to the school boards that offer the programs and they will do the vetting to decide if that student is eligible for the program this year.
Fairbairn said that in order to be eligible for the pre-primary program this fall, students must be four years of age by Dec. 31, 2017, and living in the catchment area (boundaries) of the school holding the program.
Students who live outside of the boundaries for a school can still apply to the program through their school board. They will be vetted by officials to see if they are eligible for out-of-catchment enrolment.
There is no cost to parents to enrol their children in the program.
The announcement came Tuesday, July 18, that the program would roll out in various schools by the end of September, as phase one of a four-year implementation plan. By the end of year four, 250 schools across the province will offer the program.
There are three schools in the Cape Breton Regional-Victoria School Board offering the program this fall: Glace Bay Elementary, Glace Bay; Cusack Elementary, Sydney; and Jubilee Elementary, Sydney Mines.
Six schools in the Strait Regional School Board are adding the program: Bayview Educational Centre, Port Hood; Cape Breton Highlands Education Centre/Academy, Margaree; Fanning Education Centre/ Canso Academy, Canso; Felix Marchand Educational Centre, Louisdale; Inverness Education Centre/Academy, Inverness; and St. Mary’s Education Centre/Academy, Sherbrooke.
Anyone wishing to enrol a child in the pre-primary pro gram can do so online or by downloading the application form and sending it by regular mail from the website at https:// www.ednet.ns.ca/pre-primary . For information by phone, call 1-833-424-2084.