For parents sending their child to school for the first time next week, Port Coquitlam kindergarten teacher Sheila Drysdale has these words of advice: Relax and let go.
In her 18 years of teaching elementary kids in School District 43, and before that in Winnipeg, she has seen plenty of tears, long hugs and parental separation anxieties on the first day.
A former colleague used to put out a vase of flowers and a box of tissues by the door for new parents but Drysdale doesn't resort to such soothing aids.
Rather, her biggest challenge is the big bay window in her Confederation Drive classroom. Moms, dads, grandparents and caregivers often peer in from the outside to see what's going on, which distracts the kids inside.
Better, she said, is to say goodbye and to let the child ease into his or her routine quickly.
The start of each school year brings excitement and, like other SD43 kindergarten teachers, Drysdale looks forward to putting the fresh faces to the names she has already memorized.
She has been planning for opening day for a while but the transition comes easy for her now: She has been at Castle Park elementary since it opened 15 years ago. "If you really want things the way you want them when the school opens on the first day, and you want to provide that welcoming environment, you have to be prepared and be disciplined," she said.
This year, she'll lead 11 boys and 10 girls through kindergarten, a change from 2014/’15 when she had a split K/Grade 1 class.
Another 42 kindergarten pupils are in Michelle Watkins and Sandy Sparks' classes, meaning the PoCo school will have three full kindergarten classes, each with half a dozen students for whom English is not their first language.
While the other 300 students enrolled at Castle Park will have their first full day on Wednesday, Sept. 9 after a brief check-in Tuesday, the new kindergarten students will be phased in over a two-week period.
At Castle Park, the kindergarten students will attend for 20 minutes on Tuesday, starting at 9:30 a.m. After roll call, their parents can sign up for a 30-minute conversation later that week. That's the time, Drysdale said, she'll learn about the students' special needs and medical alerts, and hear comments and concerns.
She also snaps a photo of the child to celebrate their first week of school.
The aim of the gradual entry to ease the kids into what will soon become their safe haven, a place where both the new students and parents can feel comfortable.
"If I can make it a happy space for learning and they are excited and are bouncing out of bed to get to school, that's 90% of the battle."
But this new academic year is also exciting on a different front, Drysdale said, as the 31,000 students in SD43 — the third largest school district in B..C. — will be able to start on time. Last year's province-wide job action that dragged on through much of September created significant tensions and disrupted the curriculum and activities throughout the school year.
Charley King, president of the Coquitlam Teachers' Association, also said this year is also more stable as all the teachers who were laid off in June have now been recalled, although some not to their full contract value (in June 2014, SD43 issued an unprecedented 632 layoff notices).
"This is a much better start to the school year," King said, "and we expect the recall to continue into the year."
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