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Area private schools offering French to their students

February 9, 2017   ·   0 Comments

Further to our look at French Language education in the public school system, here is some insight as to how the language is taught in some of the many private learning institutions in Dufferin County.

Hillcrest Private School, located at 7A Little York Street in Orangeville, has existed for 39 years and teaches Junior Kindergarten through Grade 12, with a pre-school operation for even younger children. Their French courses, taught by Christiane Lacroix, begin with the youngest children and progress through all the age groups.

Pre-schoolers are given one half hour of French three times a week and are primarily introduced to the basics of the language, such as colours and names. Beginning in Grades 0ne through four, the regimen expands to a full hour four times a week and all instruction is entirely in French. From there to graduation, the students receive an hour of French instruction every day.

The school follows the recommended Ontario curriculum, but expand upon it at all levels, including teaching things such as the times tables to students at an early stage. The student/teacher ratio at the facility, is about 8:1, which allows each student more one on one time with their teachers and thus a better opportunity to overcome any individual problems they may encounter with learning a new language.

Larry Hooper, the school’s Director, was quick to point out that this approach has led to every one of their graduates completing any post-graduate studies that they have entered into. The personal attention and care for their students well being can even extend to accompanying them on interviews with potential universities, as was the case recently when Principal Gail Hooper went with one of her students to a guidance counselling meeting at the University of Guelph’s Ontario Veterinary College.

Headwater Hills, is a Montessori school, located at 21170 Hurontario Street, just on the outskirts of Orangeville. Here, Principal Nancy Ernst Richards, who also teaches the middle school, presides over a dedicated group of teachers and assistants who form the backbone of the cohesive Montessori learning experience.

At Headwater Hills, French instruction begins with the three-year-olds and continues to the grade eights. Under the careful tutelage of French teacher Dalanda Bah, the youngest children receive 30 minutes of French three days a week, while the grade one through five classes are given a half-hour five days a week. Middle school students receive 45 minutes of French every day.

Ms. Bah designs her own curriculum based upon each child’s abilities. The youngest start with simple songs and rhymes mixed with games and play. The emphasis is on communicating in French and not grammar and writing. Ms. Bah teaches all of her classes entirely in French.

Beginning with the five-year-olds, they begin to read and, in grades one through three, role-playing between classmates is started. This involves the students improve their interactive social skills and conversations. By grade two, they begin to formulate the grammar rules and how to use their French in everyday matters. By grades four and five, the students begin to spend more time reading and preparing small presentations for their classmates.

By the time they are in middle school, grades six to eight, the rules of grammar and conjugation are stressed to prepare the children for secondary school, but also they use plays and a system designated as AIM, to further their conversation and social use of the language. AIM, or Accelerative Integrated Methodology, is an interactive method of learning languages that involves the use of plays, writing and reading, in addition to conversation to facilitate a quicker and more enjoyable learning experience for the student. For Ms. Bah, it has fit in perfectly with her existing methodology and enhanced the learning experience for her pupils.

Another proponent of the AIM method is the Orangeville Christian School, at 553281 County Road 16. According to Principal Martha Muntz, since adopting a gesture-based program recently, the response from the student body has been incredibly positive.

French teacher Gabrielle VanDyke, who teaches all the students from Junior Kindergarten to grade eight, begins the AIM method in Grade one and continues with it from there out. She feels that AIM promotes fluency amongst her students and makes French instruction more enjoyable overall. The approach has been phased in over two years at OCS, beginning with grades three through eight and now encompassing all grades.

Ms. VanDyke uses the suggested Ontario Curriculum Standards, as target goals in the teaching of French and finds that, as such, the pupils regularly surpass them. French at Orangeville Christian School is an active learning experience with some students currently working on a French play. As with the other teachers, Ms. VanDyke conducts her lessons entirely in French.

Students leaving OCS, have gone on to rewarding secondary school experiences at many institutions, including Orangeville District Secondary School, Robert F. Hall, Westside Secondary, Toronto District Christian School and Centre Dufferin District High School.

The Maples Academy began life in a one-oom school house in the hamlet of Maple, but today resides in a state-of-the-art school building on the second line of Amaranth, number 513047. They host students from JK to grade 8 and have day care beginning at age 18 months.

The younger children at Maples all receive an hour of French education every other day, while the main student body is given daily lessons. They are taught, entirely, in French. Some of the eighth grade students are taking the grade nine French courses, thus providing them with a high school credit, before enrolling in a secondary school. The Maples Academy is a recognized International Baccalaureate school and is a part of a larger affiliation of private schools owned by Aaron Sawatsky, which includes St. Jude’s Academy, in Mississauga.

In general, all of the private schools are placing an emphasis on smaller class sizes and individual attention in their French language courses. They also begin the teaching of French at an earlier age than in most public school systems. Like their public counterparts, they cite the difficulty in finding qualified FSL teachers as a problem for them, however they all stated that they have very low staff turnover compared to the public sector schools.

It would appear that despite the generally lower benefits and salaries compared to the public school system, the advantage of being freer to teach and to nurture their students provides a greater incentive for private-sector teachers to remain loyal to their schools, sometimes for their entire careers.

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