ESTEVAN - French Immersion has been offered at Pleasantdale School in Estevan since September. The first local students that had the opportunity to start learning in French within the South East Cornerstone Public School Division (SECPSD) were those in kindergarten to Grade 2.
Principal Michelle Smart said everything has been going well so far.
"It was a big learning curve for us. And still is. We're still figuring some things out. But we have a young teacher, Madame Cooper, and a young EA (educational assistant), Madame Ducharme. And they have been doing a fantastic job of getting the kids settled in and getting relationships ready,” said Smart.
“Every time I'm in there, I always see excited students, and they always seem to be busy and engaged," Smart said. "It required us to work as a team and figure things out, and the school division has been very supportive. So I see nothing but positives moving forward."
Shelley Sargent, superintendent of schools with SECPSD, said that they're "excited to have the opportunity and have the program started at Pleasantdale School that enables (them) to offer French Immersion through (their) school division in the elementary school," which then allows students to keep going with the program once they get to the Estevan Comprehensive School.
The introduction of French Immersion in the school brought in a lot of learning moments. For example, they had to develop slightly different report cards.
"They still cover outcomes, as all students do. But theirs, of course, is based on language and then it's more based on using learning outcomes but learning all the vocabulary and the language that goes along with those outcomes. Their report cards look just a little bit different than everybody else's," Smart explained.
One of the biggest challenges so far was teacher recruitment.
"It's a totally different pool than when we're normally recruiting teachers," Smart said, adding that they were lucky to have Emma Cooper joining them and hope they'll be able to find more French Immersion teachers as they move forward.
Sargent added that they are already looking into recruiting another teacher for the next year, and in general the introduction of the French Immersion program is going smoothly.
"Once the decision was made that it was important to offer this opportunity for our parents and their children, we worked together as a team, as a division team, and once we're able to get a teacher in place and parents interested, that actually came together really well," Sargent said.
Pleasantdale School had 14 students in their French Immersion in September, and Smart said they are hoping that as time goes on, their engagement will grow as current students will move to the next grades and the school will see new ones coming in to keep the program going.
They will have a Welcome to Kindergarten event early in the new year, and if parents of future students have questions or want to be on the school's list for the French Immersion program, they can reach out to the school or school division at any time.
"Right now, we're kindergarten-Grade 2. Next year, we will offer kindergarten-Grade 3, and continue to grow our program by a year at a time," said Sargent.
Smart added that they are always open to new students that can join the educational process at any time. They also try to make it work for their families using the means available.
"I know that most parents that are familiar with school division policies are leery about busing. But one thing when you're enrolled in the French Immersion program, you'll have busing provided for you for sure. So wherever you live in the community, and even from the surrounding communities, if you happen to live out in Bienfait, or Lampman, or Macoun, you will have busing available to you," Smart said.
The split grade classroom "seems to be working okay," Smart said. The school had previous experience with a few split grades, as do other schools across the division. Having a French educational assistant helping in the split grade classroom helps a lot.
"Madame Ducharme comes in to support on K-days, so that gives a little flexibility because our early years program, whether regular or French Immersion, engulfs a lot of play-based learning, and so then that gives an extra body so that they can divide up and support two different groups. And then on the other days, there's a small number, so those students are pretty lucky to have a teacher all for themselves. It's a small number of students so they have a lot of individual teacher time which usually equals a lot of learning," Smart said.
The first few months of the program were a positive experience for the school and the families.
"The parents that I have talked to, and the parents that I have accidentally run into, have been happy. And, of course, it's been a learning curve for parents, too, because it's just a little different than what we have experienced," Smart said. "Our kindergarten parents, they maybe haven't known anything else, but our Grade 1s and 2s, they are happy, and the students seem happy. They all seem to be positive."
Students are picking up French well and seem to enjoy the new educational opportunity.
"They're hearing it, they're seeing it, they're writing it, they're speaking it, and they're just learning it every day. It's just amazing to see it in action,” Smart said. “I've never even been in a French Immersion classroom before, so I found it very interesting and amazing. Every time I walk in, I see happy students, they're busy, they're working in different groups and they seem to be doing well.”
Keeping the school united is also an important goal, and Smart said they've been successful in it as well.
"Right from the beginning, we knew that it was going to be a little bit different, but we wanted to make sure that they felt like they were part of our student body, like we all were one big family here. We wanted them not to feel like they were off on their own, (but to feel) that they were part of our schools. So the teachers, before school started, we thought of some ways that we would incorporate more French language into our routine. When we do an O Canada in the morning, we have a mixed version of O Canada now, and just different little things that we're doing to make them feel like they're part of our school and part of our whole body," Smart said.
"I mean, it's difficult sometimes to feel like we're together in the middle of COVID. But on the other hand, we do our best to involve everyone. And I think we're having success with that."
Smart encouraged parents to reach out to her with any questions they might have.
