Use the Guide
If you know how to use The CPF Guide, begin your search.
Non-members: consider joining CPF for only $25, so you too can access The CPF Guide and enjoy other member benefits. If you prefer, you may simply order the CPF Guide for $25 through our Resource Order Form. School and School Board mailing labels are also available for one time use at a cost of $75 to members and $100 for non-members.
Download the Resource Order Form
What is the Guide?
CPF is pleased to provide you and thousands of other families, educators, administrators, and researchers with the country’s only comprehensive listing of immersion and extended core French programs at the elementary and secondary levels. Private schools are not included in The Guide.
In the CPF Guide you will find contact information and program details for those school boards and schools across Canada that offer either immersion or extended core French programs (see definitions below).
Contact information includes addresses, phone, fax, and electronic contacts, websites, and the titles of those responsible for FSL programs at the board and school levels.
Program details include the type of program (early, middle, late, or continuing immersion, or extended core French in all its variety), whether transportation and certification are offered, and whatever details about course selection that these institutions chose to provide.
What’s it for?
The CPF Guide is designed first and foremost to answer a parent’s questions:
- What immersion programs are available in my community?
- Where can my child enroll in extended core French?
- When I move, will my children be able to join a suitable FSL program?
The CPF Guide will also let those interested in education — including teachers, principals, administrators, and producers of FSL products and services — learn in detail about Canada’s FSL programs.
Using the Guide on the Web
Enter the database, and you will find a search page that resembles many electronic catalogues. It can be searched by province, by city, by school board, and by school. You can also choose to search by type of French second language programs.
Select your search terms; some have drop-down lists and others are check boxes. When your search is ready, click on “Search”.
When you have completed one search make sure to click on “New Search” before starting another.
If you cannot find a town or village, do try searching the guide by the names of neighboring towns or the nearest city. Provincial and territorial CPF offices will be pleased to assist you to identify the nearest program.
Visit “CPF Across Canada” to open our interactive map.
Abbreviations & Program Descriptions
These are abbreviations used in The CPF Guide. You will find that some schools have chosen to combine abbreviations to provide more detailed information. Please contact the school directly if clarification is necessary.
- FI: French immersion – an FSL program in which French is the language of instruction for a more than half of the school day.
- E: early immersion – an elementary level program beginning in kindergarten or grade 1.
- M: middle immersion – a program beginning after grade 1 but before grade 6, in which French is initially the language of instruction at least 50% of the time.
- L: late immersion -a program beginning in grade 6 or later, in which French is initially the language of instruction at least 50% of the school day.
- C: continuing immersion – the continuation at the secondary level of any of the above programs; usually, at least two or three subjects are taught in French each year.
- P: partial immersion – a program with less than 80% but at least 50% of its instruction in French.
- T: Total Immersion – a program with initially 80 to 100% of its instruction in French.
- DT: dual track – a school offering both immersion and the regular English program.
- IC: immersion centre – a school in which only immersion is offered.
- EXT: extended core French – a program in which one or two subjects are taught in French, in addition to French Language Arts itself; less than half the day is spent in French.
- FSL: French-second-language – all programs designed to teach French to non-Francophone students.
- K: Kindergarten – the first year of school; in some provinces Kindergarten is called Primary, or Early Childhood Services. In Ontario there may be two separate years, called Junior and Senior Kindergarten (JK and SK here).
- ELEM: elementary – school programs range from Kindergarten to grade 8, plus or minus some grades in some regions.
- SEC: secondary – school programs may range from grades 7 to 13, depending on the area.
- SD: school district
- SB: school board
- DSB: district school board – the three final terms are all terms used to refer to the organizing bodies that govern a region’s schools.
Acknowledgments
We acknowledge with gratitude the cooperation of countless administrators and educators in the provincial departments of education, school boards, and schools across the country.
Thanks are also extended to dedicated CPF members who have contributed their volunteer efforts, and who have expressed their appreciation for the existence of a publication like this one.
The Handbook (Ki-Es-Ki) of the Canadian Education Association has been an invaluable source of information.
Please note
This publication is a guide to immersion and extended core French programs for the years 2000 and 2001. Because programs change frequently, we advise that you make direct contact with boards, schools, or CPF representatives to confirm the current opportunities in the community in which you are interested in.
We make every effort to ensure accuracy, and to provide data which is as complete as possible. If you are aware of new information, we would appreciate hearing from you. Please contact us at the address below.
Joan Hawkins
Manager, Research and Development
CPF National Office
176 Gloucester St., Suite 310
Ottawa, ON, K2P 0A6
Tel: (613) 235-1481
Fax: (613) 230-5940
E-mail: jhawkins@cpf.ca
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