In Bonne Bay, full-day kindergarten is no novelty at all

In early September, the youngest students in Newfoundland and Labrador will be packing their lunches and getting ready to be the first class to enrol in full-day kindergarten.

Everywhere, that is, except in Woody Point.

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For seven years now, all-day kindergarten has been part of teacher Denise Payne's K-3 multi-grade classroom at Bonne Bay Academy.

The change was made as student numbers declined and the school wanted to approach a different type of curriculum without any additional funding.

"Obviously if they are here for the extra two hours they are getting more instructional time, so of course they are more prepared for Grade 1," said Payne, who currently has four students in kindergarten.

There is a little ache in your heart after four years because they have to move on.- Denise Payne

According to Payne, the five-year-olds do not get tired during the two extra hours of class time, and their reading and writing abilities are very advanced.

Payne, who has 11 students in her two-room classroom, said the kindergarten students' math and language skills develop faster.

She moves from table to table correcting worksheets and attending to each child, while also making time for group reading.

"With a K-3 classroom you have to do as much as you can as a whole group, then you basically take the child from where they are and help them meet their outcomes," said Payne.

Unique, but it works

This is obviously a unique set up for this small school in the heart of Gros Morne National Park.

Principal Stephen Buffett said the young students don't get sleepy and they are not too young to be in school all day.

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"Only having them in half a day didn't really seem long enough to cover off every subject and then having to re-do the subjects with [Greades] 1, 2, 3 in the afternoon," said Buffett.

"It made more sense to keep them in full day and spend more time on the curriculum with them."

The kindergarten class curriculum hasn't changed because of the longer hours. Now, the students just have more time to do it.

Newfoundland and Labrador is implementing all-day kindergarten in September by renovating 100 classrooms and adding 140 teachers. The switch will cost $30 million.

Buffett realizes his school's situation is unique, but he doesn't know if all-day kindergarten will work across the province.

"We were in a unique position because of our small numbers. We had probably half a dozen coming in, not 60 or 100," he said.

"So in regards with the rest of the schools, I wouldn't know. I know with our [kindergarteners] with the way our situation worked, it made a lot more sense to keep them in all day."

'A fantastic relationship'

It takes a lot of planning for Ms. Payne to run a classroom with four different curriculums. She taught kindergarten and Grade 1 before taking on this multi-grade class almost a decade ago.

She said her younger students are very independent.

"You develop a fantastic relationship. Actually, there is a little ache in your heart after four years because they have to move on," she said.

"You got them where you want them and you have to send them on."