GUELPH – Officials at the Upper Grand District School Board (UGDSB) are set to hire an outside organization to review the board’s French immersion program.
The review will cover the kindergarten through Grade 12 program and provide options and staff recommendations for trustees to consider for the future of the program.
The French immersion program is designed to provide opportunities for students to become highly proficient in French while also developing English language skills.
Instruction is entirely in French from junior Kindergarten through to Grade 2, with English instruction beginning in Grade 3 and continuing along with French instruction through to high school graduation.
Graduates receive a French immersion studies certificate.
According to an executive report from director Peter Sovran presented to the board’s policies and priorities committee on Jan. 7, the review will be conducted during the current school year and could continue into the 2025-26 school year.
The report provided information and recommendations regarding transportation, retention rate strategies, financial implications, equity of access and program location, staff recruitment and entry point.
Junior kindergarten is the only entry point into the UGDSB’s French immersion program, and there is a cap on the number of students that can enroll each year.
For the 2024-25 school year, the cap for new enrollment was 644 students, with space for between 26 and 58 junior kindergarten students at 16 different elementary schools.
In Wellington County, schools offering French immersion are Palmerston Public School, Harris Mills Public School in Rockwood, James McQueen Public School in Fergus and Brisbane Public School in Erin.
The review is taking place due to recommendations from the board’s audit committee in June 2024 and recommendations from trustees in 2018 that individual secondary programs be reviewed every five years.
“To date, program reviews have included continuing education, alternative education and English as a second language programming for multi-lingual language learners, the international baccalaureate program and alternative education programs,” the executive report states.
