Holistic approach to Franco-Ontario culture
The conseil scolaire de district catholique Centre-Sud (CSDCCS), the second largest French language school board in Ontario, is experiencing a period of growth — to which its director of education credits the board’s holistic approach to education.
“We have 57 schools and will be growing to 59 when we open schools in Caledon and Collingwood for the 2016-17 school year,” says André Blais of the French Catholic School Board for the south-central region of the province. “It’s very exciting for those communities. When I meet with my colleagues in eastern and northern Ontario, their enrollment is decreasing and they are talking about consolidation and closing, and we are still building.”
CSDCCS offers a 100 per cent francophone environment. That means, says Blais, CSDCCS students are exposed to French from morning prayer to classroom learning and extracurricular activities while also studying an increasingly diversified francophone culture as well as spirituality.
“We used to speak about Franco-Ontario culture, which is the traditions and cultures of those who had settled in Ontario, but with more immigrants arriving, we are being exposed to francophones from all over the world. It is very vibrant as a culture,” he says.
With CSDCCS graduate rates sitting at 91 per cent, compared to the 78 per cent provincial average among all school boards, Blais says it is a misconception that children who learn in a fully francophone environment are at a disadvantage.
“It certainly helps kids to achieve a high level of bilingualism as they learn in French throughout the day to perfect the language and while they are in the community, they communicate in English,” he says. “They also begin taking English classes in Grade 4.”
CSDCCS, which serves 16,000 students, runs early-year programs, and elementary and high schools. It recently implemented a junior kindergarten to Grade 12 model in Stouffville, which it is replicating in Peterborough.
“The Ministry of Education, for a few years now, has talked about the advantages of full-time junior and senior kindergarten,” says Blais. “Our board, for more than 15 years, has looked at full-time pre-school and junior kindergarten, not as an expense but an investment.”