By Walter Byj
March 9, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
The Halton District School Board voted to expand the Core French program in September. The expansion was to be for not less than twelve additional schools but not more than fifteen.
Tecumseh is one of five Burlington Public Schools to get Core French in September
The Board announced that the following Burlington schools will have the Core French program in September.
King’s Road Public School
Paul A. Fisher Public School
Ryerson Public School
Tecumseh Public School
Alexander Public School
This will create a total of 39 elementary schools that will now carry this program as of September 2015. This represents slightly more than half of all elementary schools in Halton. The remaining schools should have the program, pending its success, within the next two years.
Ryerson will have Core French for grade 1 students in September.
These students will receive 40 minutes a week of Core French instruction starting in Grade 1 with instruction expanding to 200 minutes in grades 6-7-8.
The program will continue to be monitored and an interim report will be brought to the trustees in November 2015.
If this program continues to grow and is deemed to be successful, what pressure will it bring to the current French Immersion program and how will it affect schools that are both single and dual track French Immersion schools? Time will tell.
The expansion has five schools in the western part of the Region; five 5 in the east and five in the north providing core French in grade one.
