Extra hour of school for K to Grade 2 students starting this fall

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Starting this fall, all New Brunswick kindergarten to Grade 2 students will attend school for an hour longer every day in line with several other provinces.

The New Brunswick government made more instructional time its “No. 1 ask” during contract talks with educators, according to the teachers’ union, but the timetable change didn’t become public knowledge until recently.

In a March 20 memo obtained by Brunswick News, Deputy Education Minister Ryan Donaghy announced the extra hour to parents and families in the anglophone school system.

“Adding an extra hour of learning time for this age group will allow greater flexibility to meet students’ needs and interests,” he states in the letter. “This extra time is beneficial for the students, as there is more time to deepen and consolidate their learning.

“In addition, teachers will have more time to offer interventions and personalized learning opportunities.”

A similar memo was sent home to the families of francophone students by Deputy Education Minister Julie Mason, who is responsible for the francophone sector, the Department of Education confirmed.

Exact dismissal times vary across school districts and individual schools, but traditionally kindergarten to Grade 2 students are dismissed around 2 p.m. with older students done an hour later.

Seventeen schools – 10 anglophone and seven francophone – have already been offering more instructional time for their younger students as part of a research project.

That project involved the research centres at Université de Moncton and the University of New Brunswick, according to education department spokesperson Charles Renshaw.

“Although research was halted after two years because of the pandemic, initial results show that adding the extra hour of instruction is beneficial for student learning and well-being,” he said in an email.

More resources provided to teachers

Woodstock educator Crista Sprague has seen the benefits firsthand. She’s been the principal of Woodstock’s Meduxnekeag Consolidated School since 2017.

It’s one of three Anglophone West schools who has been participating in the pilot project.

Her school’s youngest learners are spending their extra hour on play-based learning, while some receive one-on-one instruction to support their academic goals.

Teachers also have a chance to get the prep time promised in their collective agreements thanks to additional educators provided through the research project.

“With our school, it was almost four full-time teachers added to K-to-5, so that allowed all of our K-to-5 teachers to get the prep time they were promised under their collective agreement,” Sprague said.

The most recent contract inked between the government and the province’s teachers now provides 35 consecutive minutes daily for prep time, according to Peter Lagacy, co-president of the New Brunswick Teachers’ Federation.

“(Expanding instruction time) was certainly the No. 1 ask from government this round of negotiations,” Lagacy said. “They brought it to the table – not us – but we were able to secure some minimal consecutive preparation time for teachers.”

In addition to more teacher resources and student learning opportunities, Sprague said the new timetable also creates less “disruption” through one dismissal time.

All Meduxnekeag students are now dismissed at 2:55 p.m. rather than younger students first being dismissed at 1:55 p.m. followed by older kids an hour later under the old schedule.

“There would be a percentage of parents come and pick up (the younger students), but we didn’t have additional administrative staff in our office manning the door and helping with dismissal, so the last hour of the day was disrupted overall for the operation of the school because a portion of the building wasn’t in instructional time,” Sprague said.

“I don’t think people realize how much disruption it actually causes to have a staggered exit of the day.”

She was pleased to hear the extended learning program will be rolled out across the province this fall.

“I’m a huge supporter of the extended day,” she said. “I think it’s in everyone’s best interest to be on the same timetable.”