French Immersion Advisory Report

At the Public Board Meeting on April 20, 2010, the Board of Education received the Superintendent’s Report on the Restructuring 2010 Consultation Process.  The Report summarized the key findings of the four Working Groups involved in the Restructuring 2010 process, including the French Immersion Working Group.   Previously established strategies implemented by the School District to strengthen and enhance the French Immersion program were noted in the Superintendent’s Report:

• The establishment of three secondary centres (Handsworth, Argyle and Windsor) to improve geographical access to the secondary program

• The continued support of a ‘critical mass’ (250 to 300 students) within each of the three secondary centres, enhanced by the Early and Late French Immersion programs within each region of the School District

• The on-going promotion of a third Late French Immersion program as a ‘feeder’ to Windsor, in addition to the two district centres at Braemar and Boundary.  

The Superintendent’s Report highlighted the support, particularly expressed by parents during the Restructuring 2010 consultation process, for:

• The continued operation of the dual-track French Immersion school model as a preferred model to a single-track French Immersion option

• Achieving a better balance between the French Immersion and English program populations within each of the dual-track schools

• Expanding the ‘twinning’ recommendation to moderate the intake of French Immersion Kindergarten students across the district

• Identifying an appropriate additional Early French Immersion site in the central area to improve the balance of the French Immersion population across the District and at the three secondary sites.  

The Report concluded with the following recommendation:  

The recommendation of the Superintendent of Schools to the Board of Education is to proceed with the elementary French Immersion program strategies identified within this report as priority considerations for further examination by the French Advisory Planning Committee, and that a report with recommended actions for consideration be provided to the Superintendent of Schools no later than November 1, 2010.  

The Extended French Advisory Committee was convened in May 2010 with representatives from the North Vancouver Parent Advisory Council, Canadian Parents for French (CPF), North Vancouver Teachers' Association, and District administrators.  The Committee met four times between May and October and through in-depth discussions and examination of pertinent data and relevant feedback from stakeholder groups, the committee reorganized the identified strategies into the following three areas:

1. Consideration for the implementation of Full Day Kindergarten in French Immersion beginning in 2011 and the potential need to expand the program to an additional site in the central area

2. Consideration for the need to balance French Immersion enrolment across the district and, of immediate concern, the need to address the current imbalance in enrolment at the three French Immersion secondary sites

3. Consideration for restoring the balance between French Immersion and English program enrolment at elementary dual track schools. 

The Committee’s findings, Extended French Immersion Advisory Committee Report: November 1, 2010, were presented at the Board of Education's public meeting on November 16, 2010.