Registration for nature kindergarten and French immersion in the Sooke School District will take place ahead of general kindergarten registration and begins next week.
Due to the high demand for the two kindergarten programs, SD62 implemented a lottery system last year. If a school receives more registrations than the number of available seats, a lottery takes place and follows enrolment priorities for the programs.
For nature kindergarten, the first nine in-catchment girls and nine boys, as well as two Indigenous students, drawn will be placed. Out-of-district requests will be considered only after in-district requests. Nature kindergarten is available at Sangster Elementary and Saseenos Elementary. Parents must attend a nature kindergarten parent information session prior to registration. The sessions take place on Jan. 9 at 6:30 p.m. at Sangster Elementary and on Jan. 11 at 10:30 a.m. at Saseenos Elementary.
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Each French immersion school has 40 available seats. Priority is given to re-enrolling students followed by catchment area children who have a sibling currently attending the school, catchment area children, non-catchment children who have a sibling currently attending the school, non-catchment children, and lastly, non-school district children. The enrolment priorities apply to all new registrations and transfer requests.
Stephanie Sherlock, a spokesperson for SD62, said the lottery system has been successful and has made registration fair for everyone. However, the District decided to make the registration process easier on parents this year by holding the nature kindergarten and French immersion registration one week earlier. This is to avoid parents having to rush to their neighbourhood schools to register at the same time, and then wait longer to see how classes will be configured.
French immersion and nature kindergarten registration starts at 8 a.m. on Jan. 13 and runs until Jan. 17.
General kindergarten registration starts at 8 a.m. on Jan. 27 and runs until Jan. 31.
For more information about registration, visit sd62.bc.ca/schools/kindergarten.
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