Parenthése

Dossiers

Grade-One Entry Profile

_ The Canadian Teachers’ Federation (CTF) has underta-
ken several research studies in education, particularly
in the area of early childhood development. Based

on this research, the CTF concluded that an important tool was

missing from the resources available to parents, families, tea-
chers and decision-makers: the Grade-one entry profile.

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School entry is an important time in the life of a child. All of the
learning experiences that children acquire from birth influence
their chances of success in a French school. The Grade-one
entry profile incorporates everything that children who have
reached school entry age have already learned and that will
be useful for their integration into the French school setting. The
profile also includes everything that they have not but should
have learned. The CIF has met many children who sponta-
neously agreed to answer questions about their early learning
and about what they think children should know to enter Grade
one. This is the part of the project that Madeleine Champagne,
an educational researcher and trainer with the CTF, enjoyed
the most.

Selection of Resource Materials

The CIF has created a kit of six resources outlining the steps to
follow to help children between the ages of 0 and 6 to be suc-
cessful as Francophone students. These resources, entifled “An
Invitation fo Success in French-language Schools" (the French
version is called Une invitation la réussite a I'école de langue
frangaise), describe experiences focusing on language: and
culture, in a fun and stimulating way. All children would bene-
fit from similar situations if they had the chance to experience
them before embarking on their journey in French-language
schools.

These resource materials were developed to promote a com-
mon vision for how to prepare children for French-language
schooling, and to help children start school ready to achieve
their full potential.

The materials are intended for families, including children, as
well as for early childhood assistance and education services,
school boards, schools, colleges, universities, government de-
partments and ministries, and community and professional or-
ganizations.

Following are some of the subjects that are addressed:

* Role of parents and children

* Planning of services and programs
(preschool and kindergarten programs)

* Framework program for early childhood assistance
and education services

* Detailed description of quality learning experiences
for children between the ages of 0 and 6

* Examples of key experiences that provide good
preparation for Grade 1.

The resource kit also features a full-colour poster, a learning
activity booklet for children and a bilingual information bro-
chure. The documents from the kit can be downloaded from
the Website of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation (CTF) at
www.cttf-fce.ca.

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