Golden Bear Children’s Centre announced several openings in their “3-5 Group program” this coming September as full-day kindergarten arrives for School District No. 20, including MacLean Elementary in Rossland.
Golden Bear Children’s Centre is a non-profit, registered charity, governed by Rossland Child Care Society and offering child care and education services to Rossland and the surrounding area.
Teresa Berdusco, the principal of MacLean Elementary, said last week that 37 children had already enrolled in full-day kindergarten for the fall.
The reduction of pressure from kindergarten-age students will make available new spaces for three and four year olds “who are waiting for a licensed Early Care and Learning (ECL) opportunity,” said the director of Golden Bear, Rebecca Stirling.
Currently, kindergarten students attend MacLean for 2.5 hours each day, but sometimes spend more than six hours at Golden Bear, Stirling said.
As 14 Golden Bear children now head off to all day school, space opens up for the centre to focus more attention on the younger kids.
“Golden Bear Children’s Centre is a four time award winning ECL that prides itself on implementing the most current and well-researched curriculum approaches,” Stirling said. “This is a child led, play-based, emergent curriculum that respects the child’s desire to learn and allows the child holistic and open-ended creative expression.”
She added that Golden Bear’s approaches are “in accordance with the B.C. government’s Early Learning Framework” to “guide educators in creating programs that reflect the latest knowledge on how best to support young children’s early learning and development.
The amount of time a child spends at Golden Bear is “flexible,” Stirling said, and can be decided with the parents.
The centre offers an Infant and Toddler ECL, a 3-5 Group ECL, and Out of School programming. Interested families may email Stirling at gbcc@telus.net.