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Our French Immersion program is designed to provide non-francophone students with a high degree of proficiency in the French language. The goal is to develop the student’s level of proficiency in French, while supporting their continued growth in English. French Immersion provides students with the opportunity to achieve a high level of functional bilingualism, which strengthens their ability to communicate and participate effectively in the workplace and global community.
This program begins in Grade 1 and is available at select elementary schools across our region.
How do I register my child for French Immersion?
The online registration for Grade One French Immersion for the 2019-2020 school year is now closed. If you wish to register for a French Immersion program, please contact your local Catholic school.
French Immersion registration for the 2020-2021 school year will begin in early December 2019.
French Immersion Programming and the Ontario Curriculum
In order to develop the skills necessary to become confident and proficient lifelong language learners, students will be given multiple opportunities to:
- listen and respond to texts and others
- speak and interact with others
- read, view and respond to a variety of texts
- write a variety of texts for many different purposes and audiences.
Ontario Ministry of Education (2013) The Ontario Curriculum for French as a Second Language
In the Durham Catholic District School Board, daily instruction in the French Immersion Program is as follows:
| Grade | Percentage of Day Taught in French | Percentage of Day Taught in English |
| 1 | 90% | 10% |
| 2 | 90% | 10% |
| 3 | 90% | 10% |
Note: In Grades 1-3, Religious Education and Family Life is taught in English.
| Grade | Percentage of Day Taught in French | Percentage of Day Taught in English |
| 4 | 50% | 50% |
| 5 | 50% | 50% |
| 6 | 50% | 50% |
| 7 | 50% | 50% |
| 8 | 50% | 50% |
Note: In Grades 4-8, subjects taught in English include English Language, Mathematics and Religious Education and Family Life.
How can I support my child if I do not speak French?
- Talk regularly to your child. Create opportunities to speak with your child about new experiences, what they are learning and thinking. Help your child to organize thoughts and ideas and to develop a broad vocabulary in your home language.
- Read aloud with your child and have them read aloud to you. Reading in any language with your child is beneficial. Have your child tell you about the characters, events, type of text, words used or the pictures they see. Expose your child to English and French reading materials as often as possible. Use a variety of genres in your daily reading (i.e. newspapers, comic books, fiction and non-fiction).
- Provide time and encouragement. Learning a new language may be frustrating at times. Most often if your child is experiencing difficulty in a particular subject area, the confusion may lie with the concept, not the language. Discuss and explain the concept in your home language. Be sure to speak with your child’s teacher if they continue to experience difficulty.
- Help your child to use French outside of the classroom by watching French programs, borrowing French books from the library and listening to French music. You may also wish to enrol your child in sports and summer camps provided in French through various community partners.
Resources
Resources to support parents can be found here. Below is additional information about our French Immersion program: