The first French Immersion class will be graduating from École Deer Meadow School in June 2013.
It's a milestone for the Olds chapter of Canadian Parents for French (CPF), which was founded seven years ago by the parents of kindergarten and Grade 1 French Immersion students.
“Because it's the lead group, they basically break the ground for everybody behind them. We worked together with the board of education and the Chinook's Edge School Division,” said Shannon Powell, CPF Olds member.
“We talked about what, as parents and as Canadian Parents for French, we would like to see happen.”
Olds High School is already preparing to receive the first French Immersion cohort in 2013-2014.
“The high school administration has been with us right from the get-go. They have been at our meetings,” said Powell.
“We actually are very fortunate because we have very strong second-language teachers at Olds High School now.”
CPF Olds encourages all interested parents to go to the École Olds Elementary School open house this Friday and Monday.
“If you are interested and your kids are going into Grade 1 or even kindergarten, and you are wondering about it, they have an open house format where you would go and register at the office,” said Powell.
“They will send you into a classroom and you can actually observe the environment that the kids are learning in.”
CPF was founded more than 30 years ago by parents that wanted their children to have the opportunity to become bilingual in the school system.
“The more synapses firing when kids are younger, the easier it is for them to pick up a multitude of languages,” said Powell.
“As the years go on, they have the comfort level. They have been exposed. It just becomes easier for them.”
The organization is now present in every province and territory. Its members volunteer to help support their local school division's French program.
Powell encourages parents and community members to join CPF Olds, especially those with a French background.
“If we have French culture in our community, we would love for community members to step out and tell us about themselves, so that we can embrace them too and maybe have them do something with the schools,” she said.
The Olds chapter is presently working to send Grade 7 and 8 students on a SEVEC exchange to Québec in the coming years.
