Become a Community Site Partner

Information for Prospective Program Partners

The Get Ready for School™ program is an intervention initiative designed to close the gap in literacy and school readiness skills that are often observed at school entry, especially among children from low to middle income families and those learning English as an additional language.

The curriculum focuses intensively on emergent literacy skills such as letter-sound knowledge and vocabulary development and features highly predictable classroom routines, as well as repetitive activities and games. In addition, parents receive guidance to help them support their children’s learning at home.

The program operates annually from January or February until June, following either a Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule or a Tuesday, Thursday schedule. Children attend two or three classes per week, each lasting two hours, for a total of 44 sessions (88 hours of instruction). Classes are led by trained Instructors, maintaining a minimum adult-to-child ratio of 1 to 5, with class sizes capped at 20 children aged 3 to 4 years. The program continues to expand, reaching more families across Ontario.

Program partners provide space for the class at no cost and make their toys available for the free-play portion. There is also space allocated for storing program materials (eight Rubbermaid bins) throughout the program duration. Partners should be aware that parents are encouraged to stay onsite during the two-hour classes, if space permits, so they can learn about the partner’s events and programming and connect with other families in their community.

Strong Start^® supplies all program materials, trained instructing staff, and recruits volunteers at no cost to program partners. Strong Start also conducts assessments with the children and compiles results into an Executive Summary Report. For details on previous program outcomes, please visit the Program Results page.

If you are interested in offering the Get Ready for School program at your location please contact our Director of Program, for more information and to arrange a site visit. Please see Our People page for individual team member contact information.