Wow, I have just come across this group by way of the Pineland school website. I think it is sad that so many of you feel there is some sort of conspiracy at work to turn every Halton Public elementary school into a single-track FI school. I am quite sure that is not the plan. In the case of Pineland, the push to become a single-track school is quite simply because that seems to be the direction the school is going in. When each year only a handful (last year it was 3!) SK students elect to be in English only, I think the message is pretty clear that maintaining English only classes at that school is not a viable option. The result is having to stack classes and even consider triple stacks-- grades 3/4/5 in the same class. I think the majority of you need to educate yourselves about the benefits of learning a 2nd language. Perhaps one that will surprise you is that people who speak two or more languages actually improve their native language skills (in our case English) because they have to make new connections with their native language. You can read the following article for more information on that. I sympathize that you feel like you are losing something when a school becomes single-track but perhaps you should look at what your children would be gaining instead. Put your own prejudice aside (I think a lot of you are just putting your own negative experiences ahead of your children's best interests) and allow yourselves to consider the possibilities
Thank you for your comments. Clearly you have not read enough about what our stance is because had you read further you would have seen that we are FOR learning Canada's other official language, not against. However, we come at it from a place of inclusion, not exclusion. We think ALL children should have access to learning French so we seek to improve core French and have advocated for HDSB to start core French in grade one - which they are piloting this September. We are also pushing to have the BEST program out there for learning French - AIM (accelerated Integrated Method).
Perhaps if you understood the history of Pineland and how it came to be that each year saw 'dwindling' numbers of English enrollment, you would grasp the bigger picture. Whilst we do not believe, as you suggest, that HDSB is out to turn EVERY school into a single track FI school, we are aware that five (5) single track FI schools exist in Oakville. Four out of these five schools were dual track - so we know it's possible.
We have fought for our schools through countless boundary/accommodation reviews, written letters, delegated, started community groups, written petitions, over the last 10 years so we can assure you -- we are educated on what is going on. We value walk-to neighbourhood schools, inclusion, quality education and transparency.
We provided the following link for her to reference: http://hffins.weebly.com/blog/category/pineland-public-school