French Immersion
Flin Flon School Division has offered the French Immersion Program since 1984 for students from Flin Flon, Creighton, Denare Beach and the surrounding area. The program operates out of two schools in the division and encompasses approximately 120 students.
École McIsaac School delivers Kindergarten to Grade 8 programming that involves up to 95 students per year. These students meet or exceed the 50 percent programming guideline necessary for Bilingual Certificate status. Hapnot Collegiate offers French Immersion programming for grades 9-12 to an average of 25 students each year. Hapnot offers 15 in-person French Immersion courses which is enough to meet Provincial Bilingual Diploma requirements. Hapnot also participates in Collabonord video conferencing network which allows students access to a further 8-10 course options in French. This allows students more options and opportunity to exceed the minimum required for a provincial bilingual diploma. Students may also choose to take less than 15 credits and receive a CPF (Canadian Parents for French) certificate for completion of 8-14 French credits over their years in high school.
French Immersion is a program that is designed for families that do not speak French and is based on a universal immersion model. Qualified instructors deliver the program curriculum in an activity based, language oriented environment. Kindergarten students receive all regular classroom instruction in French. Beginning in Grade 1, students receive 1 to 1 ½ hours per day of English Language Arts instruction. Physical Education and Music are also taught in French. All other subjects are taught in French following the Manitoba curriculum so that students cover the same material whether learning in English or French.
The Division is also able to provide a French Language Support Monitor every second year through a grant arrangement with Patrimoine Canada and the Manitoba Government. Outside groups such as the Bureau de l’éducation française and French language theatre groups are involved regularly to help support and supplement the local program.
Immersion students also have the opportunity to strengthen their French language skills through activities such as the Festival du Voyageur trip to St. Boniface for Grades 7 and 8, the history based Batoche trip for Grades 5 and 6. Examples of other activities that increase French language skills include Le Party de Noël, the annual Sliding/Skiing Day, Freeze Frame workshops, the Boreal Film Festival, and La Course Stupéfiante! (the Amazing Race).
Hapnot also runs a program called Cafe Francais, supported by Hapnot teaching staff and students the program allows families from K-12 French Immersion as well as community members to practice or learn French through activity nights such as sports evenings, cooking, crafts, holiday parties and more!
The French Immersion Program has strong community support through the Flin Flon Chapter of Canadian Parents for French (CPF). For more information on the mandate of this group please refer to their website at http://www.cpf.ca/ Facebook page "CPF Flin Flon" , call 204-687-7578 or email cpf.flinflon@gmail.com to receive information regarding the local Chapter. The CPF - Flin Flon Chapter meets the once a month at École McIsaac School at 7:00 pm. Please refer to the CPF Facebook page for the meeting dates.