Zion Christian School has been working on improving and updating our Early Childhood Programs and Kindergarten Program. We want to inform the Zion Community about these upcoming changes that will go into effect for the 2024-2025 school year.
Pre-Kindergarten Update:
To provide age-appropriate education that maximizes student learning and development in preparation for Kindergarten, we were constantly fighting with the lack of time there is with a 2-day program to learn core skills. After much consideration and deliberation, Zion has decided to update the program. With a new name of Junior Kindergarten, the students will continue with a 2-day program for the first semester, which will meet on Mondays and Wednesdays. For the second semester, there will be a transition to a 3-day program, which will be on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. With an extra day in Junior Kindergarten, students will have more time to master core skills that are needed for the transition to Kindergarten, which will offer a better educational experience.
Kindergarten Update:
Our goal at Zion is to provide age-appropriate education that maximizes student learning and development. In previous years, our Kindergarten students tended to score lower on standardized tests, so Zion is updating our Kindergarten program from a 3-day week program to a 4-day week program. Starting next year, Kindergarten will meet Tuesday through Friday year-round to provide the students with the extra time needed to master their curriculum. From an education standpoint, students will benefit and thrive from a consistent routine and more time diving into the curriculum. In addition, it gives more time to work individually with struggling students and will offset disruptions to schedules, as we have seen in our most recent round of snow days. Adding this one extra day adds over a month of additional instruction time for our students. Ultimately, we believe that this adjustment will better prepare our students for 1st grade and beyond!
Considering both the benefits and costs, we do feel this option is in the best interests of our students. To reach our goal of maximizing student learning and development, the extra time spent in the classroom will lead to improvement in mastering skills appropriate to their age group.
