French Immersion Crisis

It was no secret that our local French immersion public school was one of the best in the city. Initially, I thought that was a good thing. Then my friends and neighbours told me about their experiences trying to send their children there, and how it took years and years to get a placement, if they did at all.

No problem, I thought, I live in Riverdale. I'm used to waiting lists. Since my daughter was not even 2, I thought I was going to be way ahead of the pack signing her up for JK. Then I found out that we were technically "out of district" for our local French immersion school, and there were only about 10 spots available per year for out of district students. Then I found out that preferences went to siblings and to children whose daycare resided within the district. And lastly, I found out that the remaining out of district spots were given out using a lottery system. That's right, my daughter would only get the education she deserved if her name was pulled out of a hat.

That wasn't going to work for me. I went online looking for other options. To tell you the truth, I went looking for other public schools, but online I only found private schools. Most of these private schools were prohibitively expensive. And they wanted references and transcripts and interviews with my child. Interviews? She's 2!

Then I found The Giles School. After reading about it, I found it hard to convince myself to send my daughter anywhere else. The public system was only half days and didn't start until she was 4 years old, after the brain's propensity to pick up language has peaked (it peaks at 2 years old). The classes were huge, and the school daycare was even harder to get into than the French immersion programme.

On the other hand, The Giles School was first come first served, offered full day, French immersion starting in Pre-K, Mandarin classes everyday starting in Grade 1, and after-school care was included. Sorry, waaaaah?

But it wasn't until we saw the school that we made the final decision. It was down to earth and very mulitcultural, which was important to us. And the teachers were incredibly nice. Later, Mr. Giles told me that the first thing they consider when they are hiring a teacher is whether they love children. It shows.

As for the curriculum, it's just astounding. When my daughter began at The Giles School, she knew her ABC song and could count to 10. By Christmas she was counting to 60 in French, knew all of her letters, and was writing her name. Then she turned 3.

And as my daughter enters JK next year, I realize that JK at The Giles School starts a full year earlier than the public system (her birthday is in January so she wouldn't be able to enter JK until Sept. 2009). That means, when you consider the enriched programme, my daughter will be 3 years ahead of where she would have been if she had "won the lottery".

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