We have connected with other parents and tax payers in Ontario and around the country who are concerned with how the optional program of FI is negatively affecting those who do not choose it. The ramifications of uncontrolled FI is felt in families, neighbourhoods and communities all over. We have also resonated with many educators who see and feel the downsides to the streaming caused by FI but feel muzzled to speak out. HFFINS believes we need to preserve our neighbourhood schools for ALL children and that optional programs need to coexist alongside the core mandated one.
1. Physical and mental health of all kids
School boards must make decisions that promote the health and welfare of children. Childhood obesity is becoming a global epidemic so walking can help fight that and provides children with a necessary relief and distraction from the stresses and strains of childhood. Other benefits of active transportation are improved mental health, social connectedness and improved air quality. Dual track schools are neighbourhood schools and that means most kids can use active transportation. #HealthOverProgram
- Halton's Medical Officer of Health recognizes there is an issue and that more children need to walk and cycle to school for physical health:
Dr. Hamidah Meghani, Halton’s Medical Officer of Health (MOH), said staff are promoting and implementing the Active and Safe Routes to School program, which encourages children to walk or bike to school so they can participate in physical activity — an important component of battling childhood obesity.
The MOH said a report due in late 2016/early 2017 will detail how the Region is encouraging more walking and cycling to school. It will include the Region's role in Metrolinx's Active and Sustainable School Travel Hub, which focuses on parents view of walking or using other active transportation to get to school.
"Of course we're in constant communication with our school boards, ...
“This is about adult behaviour and how we’ve dealt with kids.”
Even something as children no long walking to school can have an impact.
“About 2,000 steps a day gone,” he said, adding over the course of a year those steps could represent, on average, 100 calories a day for the 200 school days in a year. Adding up to an extra 4-5 lbs. per child.
http://www.countyweeklynews.ca/2016/03/11/physical-inactivity-plagues-children
- Mental Health benefits of walking
What are the mental health benefits of walking to school?
Children who walk to school have been found to have higher academic performance in terms of attention/alertness, verbal, numeric, and reasoning abilities; higher degree of pleasantness and lower levels of stress during the school day; and higher levels of happiness, excitement and relaxation on the journey to school. Walking to school can further foster personal growth by developing a sense of independent decision making, emotional bonds with peers and the natural environment, and road and traffic safety skills.
"...as little as 20 minutes a day can help stave off depression..."
https://www.utoronto.ca/news/why-walking-school-better-driving-your-kids
Use of active transportation has the potential to have an important positive impact on the health of Halton residents. The Health Department continues to work together with various stakeholders including, Regional Public Works, local municipalities, schools, and community partners by translating knowledge and supporting community action. These efforts contribute to the Health Department mission of working together with the Halton community to achieve the best possible health for all.
Schools where most kids walk to school are safer according to York University researchers. Experts say encouraging more kids to walk to school reduces the number of cars and congestion.
Schools that are pedestrian-centred destinations rather than glorified parking lots enhance the neighbourhoods they’re meant to serve. And neighbourhoods with lots of pedestrians are vibrant and safe communities in ways that places with barren sidewalks are not.
FDK would be available in all schools that offer primary. Currently, Halton's single track French Immersion schools in Halton (5 in Oakville, 1 in Burlington) do not offer FDK because FI starts in grade one. Disruption to a child's education through changing schools should be minimized.
The Halton District School Board is shutting down the kindergarten as Pineland transitions to a French immersion-only school by 2020-2021. It means some families will face the difficult prospect of sending their young children to a different school, in the fall.
Ontario’s Education Act requires full-day kindergarten in every elementary school, with just a couple of exceptions, one of them being for French immersion schools. Though Pineland won’t completely make that jump for five years, the kindergarten will be gone this autumn.
Burlington, Milton, Halton Hills and Oakville are all working towards these goals so option #3 allows our school board to be part of that vision. It is achievable when active transportation is encouraged and supported.
We know that school bus transportation is cheaper, better for the environment, and often better for kids, than being driven in private automobiles.
And we know that walking and bicycling, when feasible and safe, is cheaper, healthier, and generally better for most kids than either of the other options.
Enrolment growth is occurring right now mostly in kindergarten and grades 1-3, and as a result HDSB has had to hire more Educational Assistants because learning styles/challenges present themselves during these years. A grade 4 entry would allow students to be a part of the decision, instead of being thrown into Early French Immersion (EFI) which fulfills the wishes of parents, with IEPs established should the need arise. Halton children will have received core French from grades 1-3 before being part of the decision to enter French Immersion in grade 4.
kids who join at this point often play an active role in the decision, and tend to be very motivated. They will typically be plunged into near-total immersion right away.
We are not the third at Ecole Forest Trail that a) feels entitled to take over an English Track School and kick out neighbourhood children so that our children can go there, and b) can ignore the negative impact that French Immersion programs are having on our neighbourhoods, our neighbours, our friends and other children.
http://www.insidehalton.com/opinion-story/2939927-l-ecole-forest-trail-s-silent-third-speaks-up/
"French Immersion students and parents have historically been strong supporters of education. If you're studying in French as well as English, you have to be fairly disciplined. This is obviously reflected in results of provincial testing. There are probably fewer children with learning disabilities in French Immersion because of the demands."
- Barry Finlay, HDSB superintendent of programs, 2002
Dual track schools increase diversity enriching the experience for all students.
Dual track schools avoid segregation by ability or program. Given that the vast majority of students with IEPs are in the core program the shift to a single track school coupled with bussing of core students out of their neighbourhood results in a disproportionate displacement of students with special needs away from their community school. This is a violation of the principle of equal access in a public school system. Expansion of the dual track model which offers French Immersion within a community school setting does not create discrimination based on ability and allows all students to attend the same school as their siblings, friends and neighbours.
FI programs create gender disparity in the classroom whether at a single track school or dual track schools. At dual track schools the effects of a gender imbalance can be reduced through blended programming in the English portion of the day
http://yourschools.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Stratford-ARC-Recommendations-January-27-2012-Final.pdf
“Grade 4 is the ideal starting point. At that age, students are eager to learn and more apt to take risks.”
Despite its popularity, the French Immersion model has achieved functional levels of bilingualism for less than 5 percent of graduating students.
http://www.cea-ace.ca/education-canada/article/multiple-pathways-second-language-competence?utm_content=buffer5af26&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
The most fundamental choice of parents in a public school system is the right to enroll their children in a school where they can learn with their peers. School choice is not a right when it has a negative effect on the educational provision of other children, especially those who are most vulnerable.
http://bc-yk.cpf.ca/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/The-Case-for-Universal-French-Instruction.pdf