More families are seeing the benefits of bilingualism with French immersion enrolment across the southeast Kootenay reaching a record high.
According to the Canadian Parents for French BC and Yukon, 548 students in school district 5 (SD5) – nearly 10 per cent of the entire student body – studied French during the 2017/18 school year, compared to 328 students, or 5.8 per cent, in 2007/08.
Interest in the language is strong across the province, with 53,487 students (9.5 per cent) enrolled in French immersion in B.C. last year.
“French immersion is a well established and highly regarded program,” said Diane Tijman, president of Canadian Parents for French BC and Yukon.
“Designed to help students become functionally bilingual by the time they graduate, the program’s effects are very real, empowering young people and opening doors in so many different ways.”
In Fernie, both francophone and schools offering French immersion are proving popular among families.
French immersion starts in Grade 4 at École Isabella Dicken Elementary School.
Principal Nicole Neufeld said the program had always been close to full, but this year it reached maximum capacity.
“We have four classrooms for French immersion and they maxed out this year, so in total we have 112 French immersion students in grades 4, 5 and 6,” she said.
“I think it’s just the opportunity have a second language, parents see that as an asset.”
Francophone school École Sophie-Morigeau’s student population has more than tripled in five years, with 38 students enrolled from kindergarten to Grade 6 this school year.
Director Josée Renaud attributed the increase to growing awareness of the school and more francophone families moving to Fernie.
She explained the difference between francophone and French immersion.
“The mission of the francophone school board is to provide a place for francophones to send their children to school in French in B.C., whereas French immersion, as I understand it, the main goal is to learn french,” she said.
“Whereas our students, maybe they’re not speaking it yet but they have a parent who speaks French at home, so it’s not necessarily so much to learn the language, it’s to provide them a place to go to school in French.”
For parent association president and mom, Heather Kerr, there was no question whether she would send her daughter Clara Michal to a francophone school.
“I went to francophone school myself in northeastern Ontario and so it’s kind of what I know, and I gained so much from belonging to a language community in a sort of minority environment,” she said.
“I wanted to be able to transmit that part of my culture to my daughter and early language and cultural reinforcement is a great way to be able to transmit that, so it was a really easy decision for me to go with a Francophone school.”
On Friday, École Sophie-Morigeau hosted a barbecue to thank parents of returning students and welcome parents of new students.
This year, students will benefit from a new classroom with a reading tipi and gerbils, as well as a cooking class for Grades 4-6.
They also helped to compose a new code of conduct.
“We asked them what their dream school would be and what kind of school would you feel really comfortable and really happy and want to come to school every day and have fun learning, so they came up with all kinds of stuff and we crunched that all together,” said Renaud.
