The Foothills School Division is looking to add a touch of France to its French courses.
The division discussed establishing a partnership with the Nancy-Metz Academy in Nancy, France to enhance French programs in the Foothills public school system last month.
“What we are looking at is an official partnership with the Academy of Nancy-Metz,” said Lesley Lockhart-Doell, the division’s French Immersion instructional coach and facilitator. “The idea is the sharing of expertise, and also collaborative projects that can surround a partnership like that.”
The proposal stems from the 2012 signing of an agreement of intent to pursue further academic cooperation by France and Alberta. It was signed by then former Alberta education minister Jeff Johnson and France’s Canadian ambassador M. Phillipe Zeller, on behalf of the French Minister of National Education, Vincent Peillon.
“It really recognized the importance of global education, international interaction, cross-cultural understanding and plural lingualism,” Lockhart-Doell said.
She talks from experience.
Prior to joining the Foothills division, she worked with an education system in the Grande Prairie area, which had a partnership with Nancy-Metz. It was one of the first partnerships of its kind in Canada.
Lockhart-Doell stressed the proposal with Foothills is just at the preliminary level.
However, delegates from France visited some Okotoks and High River classrooms in December.
If the proposal is approved, it would start with small steps.
“The first proposal would be a virtual partnership where we would match up school and school classrooms so a Foothills school could be connected to a classroom in France,” she said. “That really provides a motivation for the students.”
A Foothills teacher would go to Nancy to observe teaching skills and later, the teacher from France would visit the Foothills. The third possibility would be a student exchange.
Evelyne Beaudeux, of Academe Nancy-Mertz, said a partnership with Foothills would be a good fit.
“We wanted to choose another area than Quebec because Quebec is the partnership of all the educational regions in France,” Beaudeux said in an email interview.
She said all students and teachers in both countries can benefit from the proposed partnership.
“The students can speak about their culture, they can do mutual exchanges during one or two months in a high school and in a family, she said. “For French students, they can practice English but in the same time they find French words in the town, on television... so they are in a world which does not frighten them.”
Further discussions are expected to take place at Foothills board meetings.
