School District 43 will be seeking interest from parents about a new program of choice based on the Reggio Emilia approach to education.
On its last board meeting of the year, the board of education unanimously approved the idea of implementing a pilot program for an elementary school in the fall of 2012.
Assistant superintendent Maureen Dockendorf said the district is looking at a program for 60 children from kindergarten to Grade 3 and said it would cost about $25,000 in new materials.
The money would come from the district's resource budget for new kindergartens, she said.
Programs of choice are not new to the district, which has established special programs for gifted students at Gleneagle, a hockey academy at Centennial and Riverside and Mandarin classrooms at Walton elementary. Montessori classrooms are also established in the district.
But if this program goes ahead, it would be the first Reggio Emilia program in the B.C. public school system, Dockendorf said. However, the district does have kindergarten classrooms that use some of the principles, such as low lighting, a home-like atmosphere, project-based learning, and integration of art, music and the environment.
Some special teacher-training would be required, Dockendorf said, but the district wouldn't look at intensive training until enough interest was generated to warrant a classroom.
Anmore principal Andrea Rowland, who was on hand to talk about the initiative, said the program incorporates many of the district's ideas about personalized learning. "It has a more open approach to the classroom environment," Rowland said.
The next step will be to advertise the program to see if parents are interested.
dstrandberg@tricitynews.com
