January 11, 2024
Every year, Edmonton Catholic Schools reviews programs to ensure we are offering sustainable and effective programs that best serve our students, families, and the Division. Due to recent enrolment growth, your child’s school is above the optimal levels for utilization. As such, we have had to reassess the feasibility of continuing to offer Kindergarten with Full-Day Programming as it creates space pressures.
There are two factors at play in this difficult decision. Full-day Kindergarten is not a requirement by Alberta Education. While beneficial, this model doubles the space requirement for kindergarten classes. Further, Kindergarten is only funded for half-day programming. Edmonton Catholic Schools uses its Grade 1-12 instructional funding to pay for additional staff to run the full-day program.
2024-2025 School Year
Effective September 2024, the following schools will move to half-day programming as a result of high utilization:
- Annunciation
- Our Lady of the Prairies
- St. Benedict
- St. Brendan
- St. Elizabeth Seton
- St. Vladimir
The half-day kindergarten program will continue to be focused on early literacy, numeracy, and social-emotional learning, creating a strong educational foundation for our youngest learners.
By returning to a half-day program, we are creating more classroom space to help support enrolment growth. We are also minimizing the draw on funding from the Grade 1-12 instructional envelope.
We remain deeply committed to providing an excellent Catholic education for every student in our care. We understand the decision to remove Kindergarten with Full-Day Programming may pose challenges for some families.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact your school principal.
Edmonton Catholic Schools