French Immersion at Perth Ave P.S.

French immersion schools with approx 1.6km walking distanceFrench immersion schools with approx 1.6km walking distance

Thank you for your interest in French Language Instruction at Perth Ave Public School.

A community information meeting will be held concerning a local French immersion program for students in and around the Junction Triangle area.

DATE: Tuesday April 23, 2013
TIME: 6:30 PM
LOCATION: PERTH AVE P.S. SCHOOL GYMNASIUM
Trustee Maria Rodrigues and others involved in the French language programming decisions will attend.
Agenda:

  1. Welcome & Introductions
  2. Overview of situation
    • local FI history
    • recent events
    • a proposal
  3. Community needs
    • What do YOU want for our community?
  4. Q&A with board Reps:
    • Maria Rodrigues - Ward 9 Trustee
    • John Tancredi - Central Coordinating Principal
    • French as a Second Language Advisory Committee (FSLAC) Rep
  5. Next steps
  6. Adjournment

If you have ANY interest (for, against, just curious) in a LOCAL French Immersion program, you NEED to attend this meeting and have your voice heard. If you want to receive updates over e-mail or can’t attend but are still interested, please contact:

Matt Forrest matt.forrest@gmail.com 647-479-3511

This effort builds on and would not be possible without the previous work on Mid Immersion led by Jennifer Niece and Terri Irwin. (Info is archived here)


The current situation:
This year there are 17 families that have been 'redirected' to Rawlinson from the TDSB's designated French Immersion pathway due to insufficient room at Regal Road. There are additional families at Perth who are still going to Regal Road as they already have older siblings there.

Rawlinson is a good school and has a great FI program, but it's 50minutes away by bus!. Rawlinson is not part of our LOCAL community. Demand for French Immersion is only growing in the TDSB. This is echoed in our own community with the past efforts for Mid Immersion and 17+ families wanting FI this year. With all the development in our area, demand is only going to continue to grow.

It is time for the TDSB to start a LOCAL French Immersion program in our community.

Please read here for a proposal that was sent to our Trustee Maria Rodrigues and several people within the TDSB.

Our community is underserved by FI programs. All of the nearby schools are bursting at the seams and have no room to grow.

  • Runymede recently shrank it's FI catchment and those who don't win the lottery are re-directed elsewhere. They haven't started Full Day Kindergarten yet.
  • Howard, Fern and Regal Road are crowded now and still haven't started Full Day Kindergarten.
  • Rawlinson and Parkdale are the furthest schools from our community, but have started Full Day Kindergarten.