The Burns Lake chapter of Canadian Parents for French is appealing to both School District 91 and local parents for help in boosting enrolment in William Konkin Elementary School’s (WKE) French immersion program.
Kim Fields, chair of the Burns Lake chapter of Canadian Parents for French, said last week that parents interested in learning more about WKE’s French immersion program are encouraged to attend an information meeting slated for tomorrow night (April 10).
“We have teachers, parents, students, and we all go to the class and talk to new parents who come and want to learn a little more about the program,” Fields explained. “It will be held from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at WKE. At the moment, I don’t know what classroom it will be in, but we want to make sure the classroom we use has a French environment.”
William Konkin Elementary’s French immersion program, which offers students a chance to learn in Canada’s second official language from the moment they enter school, has suffered from declining enrolment in recent years.
While French immersion is proving increasingly popular elsewhere – so much so, that parents often have to line up to register their children – only 55 students in grades 1 through 7 are currently enrolled in the program at WKE. This year’s kindergarten French immersion class was cancelled after too few parents registered their children for it.
School District 91 has not indicated the French immersion program is in jeopardy, Fields said local members of Canadian Parents for French want to ensure that children here have an opportunity to attend a kindergarten French immersion class in 2014 and beyond.
“I guess what the concern is, and what we are trying to hope for, is that we will make sure we continue with a kindergarten class next year regardless of what the [enrolment] count is,” she explained.
Fields isn’t sure why interest in French immersion has declined here. She suggests that changing demographics and lax school catchment rules may be partially responsible, but added that parents would also like School District 91 do a bit more to promote the program locally.
“We are a strong group here, and we would like to see it [the French immersion program] going forward,” she explained. “The biggest thing is that we want the school board to really support it… Basically, we just want them to recognize that we have a really good program running here, and it would be really sad to lose it. So we need to just advertise, and I think what we’re finding is that it’s more the parents trying to advertise constantly rather than the school itself.”
Fields said the local Canadian Parents for French group hopes to meet with School District 91 representatives in the next few weeks to discuss how the two organizations can work together to improve and strengthen the program. In the meantime, she and other parents will continue to promote French immersion, which she says offers children more benefits than most parents realize.
Students who participate in French immersion not only learn Canada’s second official language at an early age, she said, but realize other significant cognitive benefits. Research suggests that students who participate in French Second Language programs display heightened mental flexibility and increased cultural sensitivity.
Testing has also shown that while French immersion students aren’t formally taught English until Grade 3 or 4, their English skills aren’t compromised. In many cases, they actually achieve higher results in English reading, writing, and speaking than their non-immersion schoolmates.
Agathe Bernard, another parent with children in French immersion, agrees. For Bernard, the presence of a French immersion program at WKE played a key role in her family’s decision to relocate to Burns Lake.
“I think it opens the mind to cultural diversity and to different ways of thinking,” says Bernard, who is of French Canadian descent. “It teaches the power and rhythm of words… Studies have shown that kids with a French immersion education have greater thinking skills and mental flexibility. It is quite the mental challenge to clearly express thoughts in two different languages. I also think that speaking and understanding both official languages increases opportunities for education, work, and the future.”
Anyone wanting more information on WKE’s French immersion program is encouraged to attend the upcoming information session or contact WKE directly. Additional information is available at the Canadian Parents for French website (www.cpf.ca).