Biathlon comes
to the
North Shore

PAGE 69 |

Ih Me saa ean wee ire 2 Tle sy

Program allows children
to give parents a lesson

This is the second in a series on North Shore education.

REVERSING ROLES and helping their parents learn is
commonplace for Sam, Ben and Tom Patchell.

The boys, ages nine, seven and
Six respectively, are enrolled in
West Vancouver French immersion
schools. Their mother Suzanne and
father Ken do not speak French.

“When we watch French TV
together the boys can explain it to
me,”’ said Suzanne.

“We make it a game...try not to
make (their knowing French) a big
deal.’’

Sam is a Grade 4 student at
Pauline Johnson Elementary, Ben
is in Grade 2 and Tom is in Grade
1 at Hollyburn Elementary School.

Patchell said she wanted her
sons to have a better opportunity
to learn a second language than
what she had as a child.

“We're like most French im-
mersion parents. We had taken
French in high school, but that was

News Reporter
it. I felt there had to be a better,
less painful way of learning a lan-
guage,"’ she said.

About 560 students are enrolled
in West Vancouver French immer-
sion, which began nine years ago
with 20 students. Hoilyburn offers
French immersion from
kindergarten to Grade 3, Pauline
Johnson from Grades 4 to 6 and
Sentinel Secondary offers the bi-
lingual program to Grade 12.

Last year West Vancouver
Parents for French, a support and
lobby group with a membership of
about 200 parents, conducted a
mail survey to see if the communi-
ty desired a late French immersion

program, to begin in Grade 7.

As a result of the group's fin-
dings, two classes in late immer-
sion began this September at Sen-
tinel.

In North Vancouver the French
immersion programs. were exam-
ined by a community task force,
which released its report in early
November.

Task force member and coor~
dinator of modern languages for
North Vancouver School District,
Donald Fraser said one of the
main recommendations in the
report is spreading French immer-
sion classes out throughout the city
and district.

He said currently four schools
offer two kindergarten classes each
year, but the task force has
recommended eight schools offer

See Children

NEWS Melt Lucente
SUZANNE PATCHELL and her three children gather for 2 read-along
in the French language. All three boys — (J to r) Thomas, Sam and Ben
— sre enrolled in French immersion classes whiie Suzanne takes conver-
sational French at night.

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