École Arthur Meighen focusing on strong French culture this year

The big 2024 focus for École Arthur Meighen is the creation of a French culture within the school for. Principal Tracy Vanstone says this means they're kicking off a strong push on oral communication in the next week or so.  

"We're really going to be looking at recognizing kids that go the extra mile and really encouraging that," notes Vanstone. "We've discussed recognizing students in a formal way. So, perhaps there'll be rewards or a formal presentation of their work. We know that kids are speaking more and more. We hear from parents and we hear it in the hallway, so that's fantastic. But that's our big big push."

A French residency is being held this week for their teachers to assist them with gaining skills and tools to help embed those practices in their classrooms.  She outlines another highlight taking place next month.

"Our Festival du Voyageur Week. We have some plans underway with a performer coming in. Embedding that culture, we know song is also a big role," continues Vanstone. "In the month of December, we did a lot of singing and some carolling all in French, and we just want to keep that tradition alive."

Vanstone shares Concours d'art Oratoire is also coming up quite soon.

"It's is a French oral speaking competition where we are now going to see students as young as Grade 3 competing in provincial speaking competitions," adds Vanstone. "We have teachers on board through Grade 3 all the way through 8, and students will be writing speeches and practicing and performing. Some will go on to compete provincially and many of our students have performed very well there. It's just a wonderful skill and confidence to go in front of a crowd."

She adds students used to enter this competition at Grade 5 in the school. Each school was different in that respect, with Crescentview was K-4, however, last year they started in Grade 5. 

"I was really happy to see that our teachers really were game to start in Grade 3 and Grade 4, and see the value in it," says Vanstone. "There's such value in practicing writing and practicing speaking, and getting in front of a large group and performing."