OLDS — Members of the Olds Chapter of Canadian Parents for French (CPF) have organized a couple of events to spur enrolment in French Immersion locally out of fear it might be dropped or lose funds, because they've heard that numbers have declined provincewide.
But Chinook’s Edge School Division (CESD) has no plans to drop the program, CESD superintendent Kurt Sacher says. In fact, French Immersion enrolment in Olds is “solid,” he said during an interview with the Albertan.
Holy Trinity Catholic School, the only Catholic school in Olds, does not offer a French Immersion program, principal Valerie Norman-Organ says.
During an interview, CPF-Olds social media coordinator Amanda Vanderlee said her organization has seen numbers that indicate enrolment in French Immersion across Alberta fell by 1,925 students over the 2020-21 school year.
However, that could not be confirmed by press time.
Vanderlee noted the pandemic restrictions were in effect at that time so that may have been a factor in enrolment numbers.
She fears that due to the pandemic, parents enrolling their children in pre-school or kindergarten may not have been aware of the French Immersion program in the community.
She also believes two other problems are that many people don’t know the program exists and that “in Alberta, we don’t have a huge francophone population to begin with.”
Vanderlee said concern was so high that a couple of weeks ago the crowd attending a meeting about the matter at the Olds Municipal Library attracted an overflow crowd.
“We had to sit outside the door, there were so many of us there,” she said.
Vanderlee and other CPF Olds members want to keep the program going because they say it provides great job and cultural opportunities for their kids, such as good employment opportunities in the federal public service or overseas, as well as cultural exchanges in other countries.
Vanderlee said they’re not so concerned about their own children who are enrolled in the program. It’s their understanding that they’re “grandfathered” into it, but they worry it may not be available for future students.
“We’re concerned that if enrolment doesn’t see an increase, the program could lose funding,” Vanderlee said.
“We’re not there yet, but if things don’t trend upwards very quickly, it’s a concern, right?”
She stressed that parents don’t have to be able to speak French in order for their kids to be enrolled in the program.
She herself does not speak French, although she plans to take lessons so she can converse with her kids in the language.
However, Sacher said the program in Olds is in good shape.
“We’ve got enough students in the different grade levels to run a solid program,” he said.
He said 143 students are enrolled in French Immersion in Olds schools from kindergarten through Grade 12.
"We offer a full immersion program for grades 1 through 8 and then for grades 9 to 11. Similar to many communities in Alberta that still want to offer a continuation, we have more programming,” Sacher said.
"It would be French language arts and sciences delivered in French at the Grade 9 level and at the Grade 10-12 level. There’s French language arts 10, 20 and 30 as well as French vernacular that’s available to the high school students.”
He said the school division is also “quite excited” about the fact that French Immersion students at the Grade 4, 8, 10 and 12 level can take tests that, if they pass, provide them with internationally-recognized certificates in French proficiency.
“It is not even on our radar at all for consideration for reductions or different grade levels being adjusted or anything like that,” Sacher said.
“It’s been solid and stable for the 12 years that I’ve been here as superintendent and I don’t anticipate it – a change in French Immersion programming in Olds.
“From a viability standpoint, we’ve not raised any concerns about Olds French Immersion programming viability to the board, which we would be required to do if we had concerns, and we don’t.”
To raise the profile of the French Immersion program in the community, CPF-Olds has organized a couple of open houses, and hope to stage more in the future.
The first one is Bonsoir Lune (Goodnight Moon) scheduled to occur on Jan. 31 from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Olds Municipal Library.
Kids are encouraged to show up in their pyjamas, listen to or read stories in French with their peers and get some treats.
The second is a night of traditional French culture – a sugar shack (cabane à sucre in French) planned for March 3 at the Evergreen Centre from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m.
Vanderlee said a francophone couple will play French jigs and teach parents and kids traditional French dancing.
Other activities include making music with spoons, jambette (leg wrestling) and making taffy by rolling syrup in snow.
Both events are open to parents and their kids, whether they speak French or not, in order to learn more about the program in Olds. And they’re both free for anyone to attend.
CPF-Olds president Nicole Witcher said the group hopes to hold other special events to promote the program in the months and years to come, perhaps on a monthly basis.
“We’ve got a lady who can help us do baking in French. So she’ll lead the kids through a baking activity, spoken in French,” she said.
“We would like to do an art night with painting, something like that. But we just need to find someone who can teach art in French,” Witcher said.
“There’s lots of French-speaking people, but not everybody wants to teach art,” she added with a short laugh.
Another idea floated is to organize some kind of event where sports would be taught or coached in French.
Witcher said CPF-Olds also plans to participate in the community information night again this fall. She said due to organizational issues, they weren’t able to do so last fall.
Witcher stressed that CPF-Olds is not affiliated in any way with CESD. It’s purely a volunteer parent-run advocacy group.
“We want to promote it and keep it going in Alberta, across the province and throughout the country,” she said.
“The more we can promote it in Olds, the more that it will be promoted in Alberta, the more it can continue its momentum that way.”
Sacher applauds CPF-Olds' initiative to promote French Immersion in Olds.
“There’s definitely room for more parents to participate in the program; we do have room in the program,” he said.
