Meeting this Monday with Spanish Embassy!

Families,

We have this amazing opportunity to hear from the Spanish Embassy Representative from Ottawa, Maria de los Santos Espejo Quijada!

When: Monday June 20th at 6:30 p.m.

Where: Earl Grey School, 340 Cockburn Street N.

Maria will be speaking to families on how to support their child in a bilingual program, for those that don't speak Spanish at home. She will also be addressing Spanish speaking families on the importance of a bilingual program to retain not only oral Spanish, but written as well.

This is open for anyone, regardless of catchment or age of child! Please let your contacts know, especially those who aren't sure about Spanish Bilingual and need to know more.

Important Updates

1. They have hired the Spanish teacher for September who will be the kindergarten teacher and the Spanish resource teacher

2. Earl Grey will be getting a new principal as the current one is retiring. They will have someone hired by June 21st

3. Registration is still open for kindergarten and there are two child care centres in and beside the school, Dante Day Nursery and Earl Grey Children's Centre. If daycare is an issue for registration, register your child at EG and then call the two centres informing them you have registered your child and they will make you a priority. EGCC only has children from EG school, so you can't get a spot until you register at the school.

4. OUT OF CATCHMENT 

Because this concerns a number of families who have already registered, Celia informed us it is very difficult for the division to know how serious families are and therefore it is difficult to promise a spot in the program. She suggested that if out of catchment families are committed to having their child in this program, not just for kindergarten but through the next 6-12 years, they need to communicate that. 

To state your commitment, call the District Superintendent and the principal at Earl Grey School. Reiterate that there is no Spanish program in your division, and so you won't go anywhere. If the child you have registered is your oldest, point out that there is little chance of moving them and a 100% chance their younger siblings will be coming to EG. Add anything else that you think may be relevant. 

5. The division found a local Winnipeg author that writes Spanish children's books and they are working to provide additional resources for the kindergarten class.

6. The Rep. from the Spanish Embassy in Ottawa, Maria de los Santos Espejo Quijada will be coming June 20/21 and may have time in her schedule to have a parent meeting. This would be open to anyone, but especially geared towards Spanish speaking families who would benefit from hearing why enrollment in this program will help retain their language, both written and spoken for their children.

Upcoming Open Houses

There are two Open Houses coming up.

1. Wednesday January 20 at 6:00 pm. Earl Grey School, 340 Cockburn St N. Specific to those who are or interested in registering their child for kindergarten. Hosted by Earl Grey and WSD.

2. Sunday January 24 at 2:00 pm. Glenwood Community Centre, 27 Overton St. For those interested in knowing more about expanding Spanish Bilingual to include more grades (for example late entry), other schools and divisions across Winnipeg. Registration forms will be available for Earl Grey. Hosted by Kathy Heppner and Eugenia Lehmann.

Fall Update

Last week we had another meeting with Celia Caetano-Gomes, the District Superintendent of Winnipeg School Division. She has been a fabulous support to us, even coming to one of our summer presentations at the Spanish Club. 

A few updates:

Three school communities will be surveyed by the WSD, Isaac Brock, Earl Grey, and Luxton this month. If you belong to one of these school communities, watch for a newsletter or communication from the division. They are assessing interest for new programming at these schools, one of them being Spanish, and the other two are yet to be determined. We do know that French programming will not be started at these schools as William Osler (offering French) was just opened up this year. To clarify, the programming that may be added to these schools will be in addition to programming already offered. The division is not looking to remove programs from these schools.

Celia has encouraged us to communicate to the families the following timeline:

September 2015 - the Board of Trustees will confirm the survey for the three school communities listed above

October 2015 - the WSD will determine the final location for the Spanish Bilingual programming

November 2015 - we need to have final numbers for children within the WSD born in 2010 and 2011 to present to the Board of Trustees.

       We have 20 children in WSD born in 2010 to start grade 1 in September 2016. We need 3 more children for 2010!

       We have 14 children in WSD born in 2011 to start kindergarten. We need 9 more children for 2011!

November 2015 - the WSD will appoint a person to contact the families on our list to confirm they want to register.

January 2016 - the board will prepare their budget and then approve Spanish Bilingual programming will be part of the 2016/17 budget

We will keep you posted as we meet again in 2 weeks with Celia.

Information Meeting - August

When: Wednesday August 12, 2015
Time: 7:00 - 8:00

Meeting at St. Boniface UTC - 05 Room #0617 in the new building. 

In recent months, a group of parents presented to The Winnipeg School Division’s Board of Trustees, a proposal requesting the establishment of a Spanish Bilingual Program. This proposal was very well received and has been accepted for further consideration. In order for the Board of Trustees to approve and initiate the program, there are certain criteria that have yet to be met. 

1. The parent group is to present a minimum of 23 children (per grade level) prepared to register and enter into the program. 

2. The school division has yet to determine the program location in a school with adequate space. At this time the division has identified potential schools being considered. A Heritage Language survey, of these select school communities will soon be administered. This survey will assist in determining which school the division will select to host the Spanish Bilingual program.

Please join us at this event if you …
- Are a resident of Winnipeg
- Are interested in having your child attend a Spanish Bilingual Program
- Wish to be on our database (receiving updates and more information)
- Or if you have any questions about the program

You may also contact us at:
Eugenia Lehmann 204-887-4572 genilehmann@gmail.com
or
Kathy Heppner winnipegspanishimmersion@gmail.com

You can also find us on Facebook:
Winnipeg Spanish Immersion


Hace unos meses, un grupo de padres presentó a la División Escolar de Winnipeg, una propuesta solicitando el establecimiento del Programa Bilingüe Español en las escuelas públicas. La misma ha sido muy bien recibida y aceptada para mayor consideración. A fin de que la Junta Directiva apruebe e inicie este programa, hay ciertos criterios que todavia deben cumplirse.

1. Este grupo de padres debe presentar un mínimo de 23 niños (por grado) preparado para registrarse y entrar en el programa.

2. La Division Escolar tiene que determinar la ubicación del programa en una escuela con un espacio adecuado. En este momento, la división ha identificado y está considerando potenciales escuelas. Se llevará a cabo una encuesta de “Patrimonio de Lengua” que ayudará a determinar qué escuela será seleccionada para comenzar con el Programa Bilingüe en Español

Favor de asistir en el evento si usted es:
1. Residente de Winnipeg
2. Estás interesado en que tu hijo/a asista en el Programa Bilingüe Español
3. Deseas ser parte de nuestra base de datos (para recibir actualizaciones y más información)
4. O si tienes más preguntas

Por favor contáctanos lo antes posible a:
Eugenia Lehmann at 204-887-4572 genilehmann@gmail.com
o
Kathy Heppner winnipegspanishimmersion@gmail.com
También puedes encontrarnos en Facebook -
Winnipeg Spanish Immersion

Possible Multi-Age Classrooms

This week we met and made another presentation to the WSD. We asked them to not only consider having a kindergarten class start, but with our numbers, start a grade 1/2/3 classroom as well as a 4/5/6 class.

Many of the trustees were new from last year, so we forwarded them our proposal from last year. They seemed to wonder if there would be enough room at Luxton, so we of course encouraged them to consider a second location. We shall see what happens in the next few weeks!

Open House

We are pleased to inform you that the Open House will happen on Thursday December 4 at 7:00. It will take place in the library at Luxton School, 111 Polson Ave. Representatives from Winnipeg School Division will join us to answer any questions that parents may have.

We are thrilled that the location has been named and with sufficient enrolment, the Spanish Bilingual program will start in Fall of 2015.

Proposal Dates

The time has come after months of hard work where we have dates to make our presentations to the school boards. Based on our numbers from the community and the receptivity of the school divisions, we have managed to book three presentations. 

Thursday, November 14th with Pembina Trails School Division

Tuesday, November 19th with River East School Division

Monday, November, 25th with Winnipeg School Division

Eugenia and I will be doing the 10 minute presentation/question and answer and we invite any community members of the particular divisions to come and be a presence at the meeting. It would communicate to the board that there is community support for a Spanish Bilingual program in the public schools.

We are not sure when we will find out the results of the meeting and the boards' decision on whether they will implement the proposal. We believe that we have a strong chance, but we have to leave it up to the school board to decide. Some school divisions may be weeks to decide, others months.We will communicate with you as soon as we know.

Once the proposal is adopted, the school division would then start promoting the program with location and start date and grades. From there each of you would then need to contact the division and register your child. It is important for us to realize that if registered children do not meet the numbers requirement, the division will not implement the program, even if they approved the proposal.

 

Thank you for showing your interest and remember that when the time comes to register for the Spanish Bilingual programming in the school division, please consider doing so if it is in the best interest of your family to make this proposal a reality.

 

 

Information Meeting - A Success

The information meeting that we held this weekend went very well. In attendance were many families that have just recently found out about the proposal and wanted more information. A representative from Alberta Education who oversees all the Bilingual programming in North America as well as a representative from the Spanish Embassy were in attendance. They had led a one-day seminar for Spanish teachers the day before which went very well.

Also, a professor from the University of Manitoba's linguistics department shared her results of her study on why parents chose Spanish Bilingual for their children. Very interesting. She gave us a list of resources that we are planning to share here for you all. Below is a video that describes the bilingual program in Edmonton. Stay tuned for more information, especially regarding our proposals to the divisions.

Parents Workshop

We just wanted to communicate to you that we are planning to have a workshop on Spanish Bilingual Programming by Melissa Valdés from the Department of Education in Alberta. She is the Spanish Language Advisor and is resourcing the Spanish Bilingual Program in Alberta. We are flying her in to give a workshop about what is happening in Alberta and how they resource the program, and we can have a Bilingual program here in Manitoba. She is also doing a full day workshop for Spanish teachers the day before.

The parents workshop will be held at the University of St. Boniface, 200 Avenue de la Cathedrale in Winnipeg on Saturday October 19. The time will be 10:00 a.m.  Rm 1214.

Please feel free to pass this on to any families that are still wondering about the program, how it works and are needing a place for their answers to be addressed.

Meeting with Minister of Education's Office

Before the start of summer holidays, Eugenia and I had the opportunity to meet with the Minister of Education's office.  The meeting was a positive meeting and our ideas about the proposal were well received. They didn't answer our transportation or catchment questions. We were reminded once again that though people think this is a great idea and want to support us, many of those same people have little to do with the actual decision of implementing a Spanish bilingual program.

The decision comes down to the approval of the school board.  We know there are school board chairpersons that are aware of our proposal and think that this could be a positive program for our city, but arranging a meeting with them during the summer holidays is almost impossible.....

Anyways, the meeting went well and we were able to let a few more people know about the proposal.  Hopefully this networking and spreading the word will help move this along to a reality.

Steering Committee

We had our first parents steering committee meeting last week.  It was great that many families are supporting this proposal.  We brainstormed ways to continue to spread the word throughout our city.  We all committed to talking to city and provincial officials, putting up posters, creating ads etc.

One of the contributing factors that led to the downfall of the previous proposal a number of years ago was that parents were not involved.  It wasn't owned by the community as so the the commitment level was low.  Our goal is to make sure families and parents take ownership of this project.  Because a dream can come from one or two people, but it takes an entire community to make it a reality.

Do you want to be part of making the Spanish Language Program a reality here in Winnipeg?

Forum Night

The meeting went quite well yesterday.  Thank you to all that turned out.  We want to continue to build support and have people spread the word about this proposal.  Here are some ways you can get involved to make this possible.  Because if the community wants a Spanish Immersion Bilingual program in the schools for their children, people can't just sit on the side lines.  Wondering what you can do to make this a reality?

1.          Sign your child(ren) up on our database. 

Email winnipegspanishimmersion@gmail.com

2.          Spread the word and let people know of the proposal

3.          Put up posters and information throughout the community

4.          Volunteer to tend booth promotions at various city festivals.  

5.          Provide services/product as “in-kind” support (photocopies, promotions, paper) 

6.          Become part of the steering committee. Get involved in the organizing, planning, networking and creation of the proposal. 

Reminder

Don't forget that tomorrow is our information and forum night at the University of Winnipeg.  It's at 7 p.m. in the Centennial Hall. We plan to have supporters out from the Dept. of Education, language consultants, representatives from latin american associations as well as the Spanish Teacher's Associations.

Plan to come and invite your friends and family.  Children are welcome to come.

Forum and Information Night

We are hosting an information night for all that may be interested in a Spanish language program here in our city.

When:  Tuesday, June 25th at 7:00 p.m.
Where:  University of Winnipeg, Centennial Hall 3rd floor, Rm 3C01
Click here for a map of U of W if you are unfamiliar with the campus

Please help spread the word!

Meeting

We had made contact with the Spanish language consultant in Alberta in March.  She also works for the Spanish Embassy and is responsible for resourcing the many Spanish Bilingual programs in Calgary and Edmonton.  We thought making contacts with them would be very helpful as we prepare to make our proposal.

We were able to speak on the phone and a few weeks later meet in person at the Language Teacher's Convention here in Winnipeg.  It was here we made contact with the MB Dept. of Education' language consultant.  It was a very good meeting because we learned more about what they are doing in Alberta as well as the strong interest by the Spanish Embassy in starting a similar program here in Winnipeg.  All that is needed is families to express to the divisions that there is a strong support for a Spanish language program here.  That is where Eugenia and I come in.  That is what we hope to accomplish with the help of all of you.