A year ago we had to make a big decision with Caile regarding which direction her last 3 years of High School would take. When Caile was 4, I contacted both of the High Schools in my area that offered French Immersion. After chatting with some teachers it was a no brainer for me… Horton High School had the best French Immersion program. If our end goal was for Caile to be at Horton, the other added bonus for me, was that the feeder school was a middle school, EMS. I loved the idea of keeping the Grade 6-8’s separate from the older kids. This decision meant that we would never be on a bus route, but I have also not regretted our choices.
10 years ago Horton’s French Immersion program was thriving, but since Horton is now host to the Pre-IB program it has a lot of teens switching from French Immersion to this program or back to English. It is a tough decision and one that should not be made lightly.
We started with thinking about our end goal, why did we put the kids in French Immersion to begin with? For me that one is simple. We wanted the kids to be challenged, learn another language that is very common in Canada and at the end of their Education have a potential advantage with future employment and other opportunities from being Bilingual.
Looking at the end goal, we then had to think… will Caile 100% go to University? Does she need these Pre-IB / IB courses to get there and will they give her any advantages over the other Academic courses?
Sandy and I both went to University. I went right out of High School, in my opinion not thinking hard enough about what I wanted to do with my life. I have not used any of the Education I paid for for many years to come. Sandy waited until his mid 20’s knowing for certain what he wanted to do and being very successful with his degree.
We will be encouraging our kids to take the time they need after High School and try to find the best path for them. With this in mind, how do they want to spend their High School years?
I was an Honors student in High School, spending a lot of time on school work and studying. Caile is an Honors student as well and dedicates a lot of her time to her school work. How much more time did we all want her to spend on school work? This was part of our decision as well. We wanted her to enjoy taking a mix of classes such as her Academic Maths & Sciences, Languages as well as Drama, Technology classes, etc. This mix is not possible with the IB Program. The program is very defined and because of this, Caile’s decision was made easier.
If Caile decides to go to University, will she have challenges because she did not take the IB Program? … definitely not! Caile is still taking the Academic level Maths, Sciences and Language credits that she needs to be accepted into any program she chooses. Her marks are always above 90% and she is able to divide her home time between homework, dance, family & friend time. All of which we feel are an important balance to a happy teenager!
Caile’s end goal for herself was to be able to take the DELF and be fully certified as being Bilingual. We have had feedback from a few students who left French Immersion to take Pre-IB / IB and tried to write the DELF. They struggled since they had not used their French skills during these years. Caile also feels that spending her school life in French is almost waisted not being able to come out with that piece of paper that defines her ability to speak French. We fully support this idea as well which is why moving to the English program was never an option.
Caile overall misses her group of French Immersion friends that she was in the same class with since Grade Primary, but she is still part of a smaller group of them. She has not regretted her decision and has felt great about her year so far. If she would have moved to Pre-IB and then decided to leave the program as many have done as well, she would have not been able to return to the French Immersion Program. Her classes are smaller which has many advantages. Caile’s favorite class last term was Drama, she learned skills that will help her throughout her life and we are thankful that she was able to take this class.
In a year from now, Ella will be faced with this same choice and I suspect she will also stay in the French Immersion program and I could not be happier. 🙂
I Dream of Summer 
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