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French Immersion a popular choice in North and West Vancouver schools

15 % of students enrolled in program
French Immersion Pauline Johnson
French Immersion students Owen Conbere and Sylvie Gour hit the books at Ecole Pauline Johnson elementary school in West Vancouver. Photo Lisa King, North Shore News

For West Vancouver parent Chelsea Duhs, having her daughters go to school in French Immersion is a way of opening up their view of the world – and future opportunities.

When Duhs was growing up in Australia, “You didn’t start learning a language until Grade 7,” she said.

“The opportunities for kids these days are much more diverse.”

Opportunities to travel and work in other parts of the world are much broader and more realistic with a second language, she said.

Duhs said she also liked the idea that learning another language stretches the brain in new ways.

“We thought what a brilliant opportunity for your kids,” she said.

Duhs’ daughters, now in grades 3 and 5, both attend French Immersion at West Vancouver’s Ecole Pauline Johnson.

They are among a steadily increasing group of students in both West Vancouver and North Vancouver who are choosing that option.

About 15 per cent of students in both school districts are enrolled in French Immersion, about five per cent higher than the provincial average.

Numbers in West Vancouver are again up over 1,000 students this year, said Sean Nosek, associate superintendent of West Vancouver schools.

The fact that both Pauline Johnson and Ecole Cedardale are run as single-track French Immersion schools – meaning there isn’t a regular English-language school program also running at the schools – is unusual, but popular among the families choosing immersion, for the sense of community it creates, said Nosek.

In more recent years, immersion schools have been an increasingly popular choice among a broader group of students as well – including English Language Learners and students with learning challenges, said Nosek.

“The diversity of our school community is very representative of the diversity in the North Shore community,” said Duhs, who is also co-chair of the Parent Advisory Council at Pauline Johnson.

About 34 per cent of the students at the school are English Language Learners, she said. “For a lot of these kids, this is their third or fourth language that they’re learning.”

Typically, enrolment in French Immersion has tended to drop off in high school grades. Reasons for that vary – from wanting to concentrate on academic subjects in English, wanting to take part in other specialty academies and wanting to be with peers, according to a North Vancouver school district committee that reviewed the issue two years ago.

In response to those concerns, the high school French Immersion program in North Vancouver was revamped to include more flexibility, more spoken language emphasis and courses that incorporate elements of other programs like an outdoor-education-focused PE class.

Nosek noted that despite a perception French Immersion puts high school kids at an academic disadvantage, “our immersion students tend to outperform our English students in terms of the provincial exams.”

Duhs said French Immersion has had an added benefit for her family – when her youngest child started kindergarten, she decided to take adult French lessons as well.

“I wanted to be able to help my kids if they needed it at home,” she said.

Also, “There was a bit of a motivation there not to be a terrible traveller. And just expect that (other people) would speak English to me.”