A pilot has expanded to nearly double the number of schools in BC, providing more families with access to affordable early learning and child care, before and after school, conveniently located in the kindergarten classroom.

“Adding more Seamless classrooms means providing continuity for more BC kids and peace of mind to more BC parents,” said Rachna Singh, Minister of Education and Child Care. “To have kindergarteners learning and receiving before- and after-school care all in one place makes days easier for everyone.”

Seamless Day Kindergarten integrates before- and after-school care into the kindergarten classroom, delivered by certified early childhood educators (ECEs) who work alongside the classroom teacher. The program makes the best use of available school space, existing classrooms, outdoors, school gyms and libraries outside of school hours.

“We know many families continue to need child care once their children start school,” said Grace Lore, Minister of State for Child Care. “The Seamless Day Kindergarten classroom offers child care before and after school and will make it easier for busy families to get through their workday knowing their children are learning and well cared for at school.”

The province’s first Seamless Day Kindergarten pilot began at Oliver Elementary in the

Before joining the Lifelong Kindergarten group in the MIT Media Lab, Cecilé Sadler saw computer engineering and community service as separate aspects of her life. Alongside her bachelor’s and master’s work in computer engineering at North Carolina State and Duke University, respectively, Sadler also spent a lot of time working with young people through local Boys and Girls Clubs and public schools. Now, she blends both of her passions as a graduate student in the Program in Media Arts and Sciences.

“The work I do now is that happy medium,” says Sadler, whose thesis grew out of a collaboration with a Cambridge-based grassroots community organization called blackyard, which organizes after-school programming centering Black youth. Sadler brings STEM and coding activities developed by MIT’s Lifelong Kindergarten group to blackyard, while trying to understand what makes a positive learning environment for the students.

“The activities that I’ve been doing with the young people have been centered around this idea of ​​dreaming through code,” says Sadler. “How do you cultivate and support radical imagination and engage in conversations that allow you to describe ideas important to you and your community?”

Sadler wants to have an impact with everything she does, whether it’s generating