SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Parents with children who are about to start kindergarten in the fall may be getting a break this summer. The Yellowknife Education District No. 1 school board is planning to offer free pre-kindergarten summer school in June, July and August.

Board chairman Duff Spence hopes the program will give four and five-year-olds a head start on the adjustment that comes with starting kindergarten.

"We have students coming into the system that may require a bit of a boost," said Spence. "Potentially they don't know their colours, their letters. They've never been in an environment where they have to sit for a length of time.

"It'll really give them a foundation to success once they get into kindergarten."

Across the district, he said, teachers have noticed an increase in the number of first-time students struggling to adapt to kindergarten. Spence said the board is spending $150,000 of their surplus to launch a pilot program. If it goes well, it might continue, he said.

"We have parents who are single mums, single dads, who economically can't provide that service for their kids," he said. "This is a great opportunity to provide that boost for their child."

Preschool in Yellowknife typically costs between $130 and $350 per month, depending how many days a week a child is enrolled.

The board distributed a survey to parents asking if they would be interested in enrolling their five-year-old children in preschool. Initial response was positive. The board will be making a decision on the initiative in the coming weeks. Spence said J.H. Sissons will offer a French-language program and potentially three English-language programs - at Range Lake, Mildred Hall or N.J. MacPherson.

Registration will be first-come first-serve, said Spence, but students don't have to be registered at Yk1 in order to participate.

"I'm not going to force parents to keep them (their kids) in the system," said Spence.

The proposed curriculum will include lots of field trips with plenty of discussion, said Mel Pardy, assistant superintendent with Yk1. The board hasn't decided if the program can be full or half-time, but Pardy said people with a background in early childhood or education will be teaching.

"They're getting a taste of school in a structured play program over the summer," the assistant superintendent said. "It's a fun program but it's focused on literacy and numeracy that'll transition right into kindergarten in the fall."

Yellowknife Catholic Schools is not offering a summer pre-school program, but it is offering a spring program for 18 kids who will be starting kindergarten in the fall. Formally known as Playing in French, "It's to help parents who are trying to decide if they want to put their child in French immersion," said superintendent Claudia Parker.

The program runs from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. daily, and is already booked. Parker said the board doesn't intend to offer the program again next year.

"For us it was a way of getting some families into the school and getting them exposed to French," she said.

Spence hope his board's pilot project could be an initiative the Department of Education, Culture, and Employment could build on for future programs.