French Immersion is Being Replaced at St. Marys High School in Woodstock

Thursday, 29 October 2020 11:41

The London District Catholic School Board has voted to remove French Immersion starting next fall and replace it with the less expensive Extended French program.

WOODSTOCK - French Immersion will not look the same at St. Mary's Catholic High School starting next fall.

The London Catholic District School Board voted to axe the French Immersion program and replace it with the less expensive Extended French French program at the secondary level.

Here is the difference between the programs according to the LCDSB web site:

French Immersion consists of 10 credits (4 FSL language courses and 6 other courses in French).
Extended French consists of 7 credits (4 FSL language courses and 3 other courses in French).

The Extended French program does still have the necessary requirements for entrance to French programs at universities. University French Language Programming admission pre-requisites include Senior level Core French, Extended French and French Immersion courses, and in some cases a French language placement test.

Parent, Sandra Carnegie spoke at the meeting, in an effort to convince the board to keep the French Immersion program. She says going from French Immersion to Extended French makes a big difference and it is a lot more than just a couple of credits.

"The Immersion students are expected to acquire higher order thinking skills through the immersion program, so there is a higher sophistication of their thought process when they learn in an immersion program versus an extended french. Literacy skills are high in the immersion program and the immersion become much more proficient french language learners. They have better success rates for those students in the other courses they make take in a french language."

Carnegie says French Immersion students do much better on the Language Proficiency Exam after high school. She says parents were very frustrated with this entire process and the way the School Board came to this decision. She had three students in the LDCSB and all three have transferred now to WCI, to take their french immersion program.