As discussed at the School council meeting, the TDSB is considering a proposal to get rid of the Grade 7 entry point for Extended French, leaving Grade 4 as the latest point a student can choose Extended French. Right now, the Hawthorne kids who want to go on in Extended French go to Winona, which is a Grade 7 entry point school. Please consider writing your trustee to object to this change.
There are many reasons to encourage the TDSB not to cut this entry point, and I hope you can find the time to write a short note to your trustee, copying the co-chairs of our school council and also Trustee Josh Matlow, who sits on the FSL committee of the board. The trustee email addresses are in the following format: firstname.lastname@tdsb.on.ca. The trustee for our area is Chris Bolton who support maintaining a Grade 7 entry point. He needs to hear others in his ward also want to continue with a Grade 7 entry point.
There is also a meeting of the FSL committee at the TDSB offices on January 13 to discuss this. If you feel strongly about this issue please consider attending. Another e-mail with more details will be sent at the beginning of January.
Below is a sample letter that you can cut and paste from. It includes a number of reasons for opposing this change. :
josh.matlow@tdsb.on.ca and chris.bolton@tdsb.on.ca
Sample Letter
Dear Mr. Matlow and Mr. Bolton,
As discussed at our School council meeting last month, I am writing to oppose the decision of the TDSB to take away grade 7 as
an entry point for extended French for the following reasons:
1. Students in the regular stream don’t take core French until Grade 4, which means they have no way of knowing if they will enjoy, or have an aptitude for the language until it’s too late to choose an Extended program.
2. The Grade 7 program at Hawthorne will likely depend on the ability to take in a few students new to the Extended program, at least for the first few years. If the program no longer exists, this could jeopardize our ability to attract those students.
3. Although the TDSB says it will still guarantee space at Winona for our students, they have no projections on how the Grade 4 entry point will affect the middle schools. Right now, Hawthorne students don’t usually have to go into a lottery because there are enough spaces for all the feeder schools. However, if the Grade 4 program is expanded, and Winona is obligated to offer space to many more kids, a lottery system is possible even for the feeder schools. Another possibility is that, since Hawthorne is an alternative school and not a neighbourhood school, the TDSB could decide that we no longer feed into Winona but another school. We had specifically asked that Winona be our pathway a few years ago for many reasons, one big one being their focus on the arts which fit into the philosophy of many of our parents.
In general, we want to provide as many possibilities as possible to have students learn and keep learning French.
I hope that the TDSB will reconsider its proposal and keep extended French as an entry point in grade 7.
Sincerely,
Yadda Yadda
Jean Rajotte · 14. December 2008, 12:33 · #
This a riff on the above our family just sent:
Dear Mr. Matlow and Mr. Bolton,
We are writing to oppose the decision of the TDSB to take away grade 7 as an entry point for Extended French for the following reasons:
* It’s generally counter-productive to remove options from students. When it comes to learning languages, we do count on our school system to be as supportive as possible. We already have this infrastructure in place — why subtract?
* In the current curriculum, students don’t get exposed to French until grade 4. Your removing the option forces children to decide which path to take before they’ve even been exposed to French in the schools. You’re putting up road blocks instead of opening doors.
* Our school, Hawthorne II, has an extended French program. We have just been granted the right to offer grades 7 and 8. Our ability to follow through with this strongly depends on being opened to students from other schools, who would need grade 7 to be an entry point to our Extended French program.
We ask you stop the TDSB from removing grade 7 as an Extended French entry point.
Sincerely,
Billie, Kerry, and Jean