School Age Before & After School Programs

View all Programs

School Age Before & After School Programs

SCHOOL AGE

The School Age Before and After School Programs are for children six to twelve years old and are conveniently located in elementary schools in both Greater Essex County District School Board and the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board.

Our programs offer a child-focused curriculum where our experienced Registered Early Childhood Educators and the children work together to expand and develop a wide range of skills and competence based on the emergent curriculum philosophy. An emergent curriculum is one that builds upon the interests of the children. It is often spontaneous and responsive to their current interests; topics are driven by ideas and questions from the children themselves.

The School Age Before and After School Programs offer hands-on experiences and choice for children in a school based environment where they are familiar. Children are offered a variety of opportunities for building skills and confidence, self- awareness, decision making and working towards increased independence, responsibility and self- care.

Program activities include indoor and outdoor play, creative arts, challenging board games, puzzles, construction toys and equipment and opportunities for children to have fun, and make friends in a safe, relaxing and nurturing environment.

Before and/or After School program hours vary from centre to centre and is dependent on the school hours. Children can register to attend before school, after school or before and after school. Schedules are based on a minimum of 2 days per week.

YOUTH DEVELOPMENT

Meeting the needs of school age children can be challenging and that is why Sundowners commissioned a Youth Development Research Project currently being conducted. We are currently overhauling programming for the 8 to 12 year olds we serve at Sundowners. The goal is to provide opportunities for this group in order for them to: feel safe, improve social, emotional, and physical well-being, improve school and community connectedness, support academic development and learning, and to reduce the potential for negative risk-taking behaviours.

In order to further inform the development of “renewed” programming for children 8 to 12 years of age, a survey was conducted with parents/caregivers currently accessing the programs at Sundowners. Details collated from the information gathered from the responses are being used to provide commentary regarding potential actions for Sundowners and to develop more enhanced programming that mixes fun and fundamentals in a way that will inspire and enlighten youth in our community.

We are very excited to be able to work with our parents/caregivers and to have received such valuable feedback from the surveys. Please stay tuned for details on program development and implementation ideas coming soon. READ what parents are saying: