For the Surrey School District, learning can, and should, happen outside of a traditional classroom.
Since January, the district’s Community Schools Partnership department has been running its Early Learning for Families program for preschool-age children.
School district assistant superintendent Pat Horstead said each year the school district has as many as 5,000 children registering for kindergarten but only about 10 per cent of them have attended StrongStart BC, the mainstream provincial preschool program.
“I knew there was a segment of the population we weren’t reaching,” she said. “StrongStart is great but my concern was for those children who were not being reached.”
The program is drop-in and focuses on parent engagement, literacy, community connections, educational resources and having fun. Sessions are held in an open area located by the elevator outside of the store Winners on the first and third Wednesday of the month between 10 a.m. and noon.
“For the ages zero to five, language development is key to kids’ literacy development,” said Horstead.
The district delivers the program through a partnership with Simon Fraser University Surrey - TD Community Engagement Centre, Central City managers and Blackwood Partners Central City.