Splatsin Tsm7aksaltn Society

 

It has always been our mandate to make sure the “Children Come First In All We Do”.

 

The Splatsin Tsm7aksaltn (Splatsin Teaching Centre) Society has been offering affordable, quality enhanced early childhood education to children of Splatsin and Enderby since 1990. All of our programs are infused with the Splatsin language and culture. We were one of the first programs to integrate a ‘nesting program’ where our elders teach the Splatsin language and culture directly to our children. We are also developing on-line Splatsin language programs to enhance knowledge within our community. We were formerly known as the Splatsin Child Care Society. Our Kikia7a (kee-kee-yah-ah) wanted us to change our name. They said that we do teaching for the whole community not just the children. They wanted us to be called the learning centre but there is no equivalent in our Splatsin language so they settled on the name "The Splatsin Tsm7aksaltn (Splatsin Teaching Centre) Society. We have had the name change in place since June 2009. We have been involved in language revitalization projects since the early 1970's and have experienced many different methods for teaching. Every Monday since 1998, we have met once a week to speak our language, document and teach. Our method is simple as told by our elder Marie David "wrap the language around the babies".

More About Us

We operate our centre with the support and on behalf of the Splatsin First Nation. We are the only licensed group child care centre in Enderby. We are governed by a volunteer Board of Directors who meet once a month to oversee operations and finances. Our Annual General Meeting is every June where Directors are nominated and elected. Our rates are the same as government subsidy and includes and food, field trips, activities and Splatsin language and culture for all children enrolled at our center. We are provincially licensed to care for 64 children aged 0 to 12 years old. We have a chartered general accountant who takes care of our finances and a year-end financial statement by KPMG. We were incorporated as a Society in 1992 and have been in Good Standing with the Registrar of Companies since incorporation. From 1998 to 2016 – we have had over 650 children from the Splatsin First Nation and Enderby area come through our doors. Since 1998, we have provided a much needed service for our communities.

 

Programs offered

  • Fawn Infant Program for 15 babies aged 0 to 18 months
  • Bear Cub Toddler Program for 15 toddlers aged 19 to 36 months
  • Salmon Program for 25 children aged 3 to 5 years old
  • Eagle Out of School Care Program for 15 children aged 6 to 12 years old
  • Aboriginal Infant Development Program
  • Aboriginal Supported Child Development Program
  • Splatsin Language and Culture Program: Grandmothers attend Mon, Tue, Wed to document and teach Splatsin Language.
  • Annie’s Total Physical Response teaching with children in each program once a week
  • Splatsin media program where we video and audio record elders speaking or teaching the language for uploading to our online word archives