French immersion (FI) classes in School District #27 continue to be popular for local enrollment, beginning in Kindergarten and following through until Grade 12.
According to CPF B.C.-Yukon president Diane Tijman, demand for French immersion in British Columbia overall has been increasing for 17 consecutive years, with 52,545 students enrolled in FI as of the 2015-2016 school year, or 9.5 per cent of the entire student body.
School District #27 acting superintendent Mark Wintjes says this year, like the previous school year, it has helped to organize enrollment by the early application forms, rather than a first-come, first serve basis.
He notes SD27 also doesn't currently put a cap on FI enrollment either, so parents aren't scrambling to get their child enrolled, and it wants to attract as many children into the district as possible.
"This year, as well as last year, we just took the registrations as they came in, and it relieved a lot of stress on the parents.
"We are looking to increase French immersion as much as we can."
FI classes are offered for Grades K-7 at 100 Mile House Elementary School and 8-12 at Peter Skene Ogden Secondary School, and although there has "always been a shortage" of French immersion teachers in SD27, it doesn't create problems, he explains.
"Just bring the registrations in, and we will do our best to configure classes."
He says it is generally based on the class sizes, so if a school normally has a 30-child FI Kindergarten and then more children enroll than that, the school will merge typically them into the next grade to create a Grade K-1 FI class, short of any unexpected mass enrollment.
While he doesn't expect it will happen, if more children were enrolled for FI than a school could handle, then other schools might be brought into the picture, he explains.
"Even if a kid comes in from another district, we do our best to slide them into our French immersion, provided they have that [FI] from the other district."
According to the SD27 website at www.sd27.bc.ca, the British Columbia curriculum is instructed to FI students almost entirely in French from Kindergarten to the end of Grade 3. Then from Grades 4-7, 50-80 per cent is taught in French, Grades 8-10 is 50 per cent, dropping in Grade 11 to 25 per cent, and by Grade 12 the B.C. curriculum is still taught at least 12.5 per cent in French.
Christine Jordaan is the local Canadian Parents for French (CPF) BC-Yukon representative in SD27, and she says if the District is struggling for FI teachers, she hasn't seen it.
That's likely because the student enrollment appears consistent in SD27, without creating the challenge of recruiting new teachers to fill new FI classrooms, she explains.
"Last year, when one of our elementary FI teachers needed to take a year off to attend to family matters, we were really fortunate to have a new FI teacher cover for her for the entire year."
This teacher, Cassie Campbell, was a graduate of SD27's own French immersion program at PSO, she explains.
"We were really lucky that Mlle. Campbell was available, having recently completed her teaching degree and also having carried out her student practical in our school.
"Now that our regular FI teacher has resumed her position, I believe that Mlle. Campbell is teaching French immersion up at Williams Lake, which is great for our District as a whole."