Knoxdale is a French immersion centre and that means by choosing Knoxdale, you are choosing French Immersion. All children who finish Kindergarten at Knoxdale move into Early French Immersion in grade one. All kindergarten classes in the OCDSB are bilingual. By choosing Knoxdale, you are either choosing Early French Immersion (EFI) for grade one after Kindergarten, or you may wish to transfer to a school with an English program after Kindergarten. There are other schools in the neighbourhood that offer both French immersion and an English program. Please note that in EFI, the children have a one hour math class each day in English in grade one, and they have two hours of English instruction (math and language) from grades two to six.
Children often make quick progress in bathroom skills when they know they are coming to school. Over the summer, we ask that you continue working diligently with your child to help them to come to school feeling confident and capable of using our classroom bathrooms. We fully understand that children do have accidents from time-to-time. We have them keep an extra full set of clothes at school so that they can change themselves if an accident happens. It helps if your child wears elastic waist pants so that it is easy for them to pull them up and down by themselves.
Yes! Depending on your child's personality, they might initially take a little longer to adjust to being away from home, but once they get to know the other children and see how much fun Kindergarten is, usually things are just fine. Our program is very open-ended to meet the children where they are at in terms of skill development.
Signs will be posted throughout the Kindergarten yard with a list of children belonging to that class. Teachers and ECE’s will be standing with the sign for their class. Children arrive in the kindergarten yard and are brought to their class. When it is time to go in, the children line up with their backpacks on and we all go in together. At the end of the day, we will follow the dismissal you have specified for your child.
No, we are a “nut-sensitive” school. No peanut or tree nut products are allowed at school. We also have a no sharing policy at school. Children are not allowed to share food with peers. Sometimes a student in the class may have other life-threatening allergies. If this is the case, the teachers will inform you of other items that are not allowed to come to school.
Please contact the main office and they will be able to provide you specific forms to fill out to help us understand your child's medical needs (allergies, medical conditions, etc.). Once you find out who your child's teaching team will be, it's also very helpful if you let the whole team know all your child's important medical information.
Due to allergies and food sensitivities, we ask that you do not send treats to school on your child’s birthday (or any other occasions). We promise that we will make your child feel special on their birthday!
We understand that children have special toys that they like to keep with them. Our classrooms are very busy and sometimes things will get lost or broken. Therefore, it’s best if those toys are kept at home. If your child is having a difficult day and would like to keep a little stuffy in their backpack, that is just fine.
All of the kindergarten children sit at the front of the school bus. There is a teacher who meets the bus as it arrives at the school. The kindergarten children are the first to get off of the bus. A staff member stands at the door of the bus to greet the kindergarteners and assist them in getting off of the bus. They are then guided into the kindergarten yard. The yard is fully fenced and is only for our Kindergarten students for arrival time. Kindergarten staff members are on duty in the yard. Once the bell rings to go inside, your child will be shown where to line up with their class and will proceed to the classroom with their teaching team.
We are not taking requests at this time. Children love to make new friends when they start school. Teachers also keep a close eye on things, and will help guide your child socially so that those friendships form.
You will be contacted by the office and made aware of the situation. We do ask that if your child is not feeling well when they wake up in the morning, that you keep them at home to rest, rather than sending them to school to “wait and see”. Please follow Ottawa Public Health guidelines when it comes to illnesses.
Yes! There will be opportunities for you to participate in your child’s learning. You may be invited into the classroom to read, run literacy activities with a group of students, partake in field trips, assist with special activity days, or to send in home-made play dough (to name a few).
There’s also an opportunity for you to be a part of our “Knoxdale Community School Council”—which is a collaborative team of parents, teachers and administrators working together to fundraise, organize, support and enrich the educational experience of the students at Knoxdale.
We can appreciate from time-to-time things may happen that cause you to be late to school or need to pick up your child early. However, consistency and routines are very important in Kindergarten. Coming to school late means that your child is missing out on important learning. It also disrupts what is happening in the room for the other children. Each day we do a morning circle and introduce the centres to the children. If your child is late, they will not be a part of this. The same applies at the end of the day. If you do have an appointment for your child we ask that you email us ahead of time so we can get your child ready. When you arrive at school, please report to the office where they will call the classroom and your child will be brought down.
Yes. If someone other than you is picking up your child, we would ask that you send us a note or email in advance to let us know. We will ask the person picking up your child to show us identification, so please ask them to bring that along.
Yes, EDP currently operates on most PD Days, some days during Winter Break, and March Break. There is currently no care offered during the summer. There is an additional fee for full-day care (7am-6pm) on these days. Registration for these optional days are done separately online and are only available to children currently enrolled in the Extended Day Program.
Please note that during Winter Break and March Break the program may not run out of your child’s home school.
The Extended Day Programs run by the OCDSB Early Learning Department are part of the Canada Wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) and have reduced child care rates.
Fees for the 2024–2025 school year will be $12.00 per day for both before and after school care. Click Here for a breakdown of the 2024/2025 school year fees and more information.
If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact our main office by calling 613-828-0010 or by email knoxdaleps@ocdsb.ca.