There will be a late-French immersion program at Ecole Quarterway Elementary School when the 2014-15 school year commences.
The early immersion program runs from kindergarten to Grade 12 and in April, the school district gauged interest regarding an intensive late-immersion program that would begin in Grade 6. Students would be integrated with their early-immersion counterparts in Grade 8.
Peter Hewitt, district principal in charge of French programs, said seats in the 30-student program are filling up quickly. As of Thursday, only seven spots remained and he said there are enough students to move ahead with staffing.
“We anticipate that, as word continues to spread around the community, that we’ll fill up those 30 spots between now and September and there may be a waitlist,” he said, adding that there are also kindergarten and Grade 1 spots available for early immersion at North Oyster Elementary.
The program affords students who enter the district after Grade 1 the opportunity for French immersion. Late immersion will see no English language arts instruction for the first year and when students enter Grade 7, the curriculum will see about an hour a day of English.
The program was a recommendation of school board-commissioned French Immersion Review in 2011. For more information, please call Hewitt at 250-754-6845.