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.

Don't miss the Registration Deadline!

We can hardly believe that it is only 3 days before the deadline on Friday January 29th to register for Spanish Bilingual at Earl Grey School.  Many of you are on our database, but you must go down and register in person at the school in order to secure your spot. Call the school at (204) 474-1441 if you are unable to make it down during regular school hours and they will be accommodating. 

The division needs a deadline of the end of January in order to have time to approve a budget for the new program. Will they need to have two classes or just one? Do they have to hire one teacher or two? They also need time to renovate the new kindergarten classroom. The school division and the school is eagerly awaiting your registration to make plans!

Maybe you still have questions about transportation and bussing, or wondering if your child is ready for a bilingual program or questions about daycare etc. However we nor the division cannot answer your questions unless you register! Go and hold your spot before it's too late!

1. Bussing routes are figured out in the spring based on those who are already registered.

2. Earl Grey Children's Centre, Dante Day Nursery, and ABC Montessori can only bump families up on their list if they are already registered at EG.

3. Your child's nursery teacher can offer advice on kindergarten placement starting in April.

We have an opportunity to be part of the first Spanish Bilingual Program in all of Manitoba! Earl Grey School is a fabulous N-8 school in a beautiful River Heights neighbourhood, with not only room for your kindergarten children, but your older children who can register for the English program in anticipation for the late entry Spanish in grade 7. It's a win-win situation for your family.

We urge you to go and register your child(ren) before you miss out. Being bilingual has amazing advantages and we have the chance to give that to our children, our community, our city, and our province. 

Registration Now Open!!

Registration is open at Earl Grey School for kindergarten for the Spanish Bilingual Program! The school is located at 340 Cockburn St N and the phone number is (204) 474-1441.

In order to register your child, you will need to go in person to the school today or starting on January 4th. Documentation that you will need to bring to register:

1. Manitoba Medical Card listing the child and parent(s) name

2. To prove residency - Property Tax Bill of primary residence OR Rental/Lease Agreement OR Accepted "Offer to Purchase" with possession date included

4. Birth Certificate OR passport OR Treaty Card

If you are not a citizen then you will need to provide a landed immigrant document OR work visa OR study visa OR refugee status

There will be three forms for WSD families and four forms for families outside of the division. 

The principal and the secretaries at the front office are ready to accept applications from all families. All of the registrations will be date stamped and those out of catchment will most likely be put on a wait list.

We need to have a minimum of 20 children from WSD catchment by January 29. 

We plan to have an open house mid-January to update you on the current program at EG, as well as plans for other division presentations and late entry (grade 7) proposal. 

Official Statement by the School Division

We are pleased to announce that the Spanish Bilingual Program will be started at Earl Grey School and will begin in September with kindergarten and/or grade 1. We are most pleased with the decision! Official registration will begin in January and more details will follow.


See news on the Winnipeg School Division website HERE

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.

Update

Our presentation to the Board on June 8 was well received. We reiterated our commitment to bringing a Spanish Bilingual program to reality by continuing our work with the Winnipeg School Division.

The goal is to see the program start in 2016, so please continue encourage your contacts to send us their information to include in future presentations to the WSD Board of Trustees and other school divisions as well. We have set up meetings throughout the year with the WSD and are encouraged by the increase in communication in developing a timeline of goals. 

In the near future, WSD will be making an announcement to the community of their decision and plans for next steps. Stay tuned......

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.

Update on Programming

We have had several meetings and conversations with various school divisions the Winnipeg School Division has expressed the most desire and continues to be very interested in partnering with us on making this bilingual program a reality for this coming school year (2014/2015). This is great news.

Though they are still unable to pinpoint an exact school location, they have indicated that if the program were to start this coming school year (2014/2015) that it would definitely NOT be in an inner city school.  This is more great news as many of you know, that having the program in an inner city school was the demise of the efforts a few years back.

However this is a prediction that is only viable if the program were to start in this upcoming coming school year. 

The target age group is to start with a Kindergarten program this coming year with children born in 2009 residing within WSD catchment. However the WSD is open to also accepting children from outside of WSD catchment, if space is available. We currently are needing to continue seeking those children that may be interested in being a part of this brand new Spanish bilingual program, we especially need families with children born in 2009 and residing within the Winnipeg School Division catchment area but also welcome those not in that school year and not within WSD catchment. 

This is an interest list and by no means is it a fixed or non-retractable commitment. We are just wanting to show that the interest, need and demand for a Spanish bilingual program in the City of Winnipeg is definitely there. 

Please spread the word, share this post and/or continue to send us your information to add to our database. To be added to our database or for more information please email at winnipegspanishimmersion@gmail.com, phone at 204-887-4572, or via our Facebook page Winnipeg Spanish Immersion.  

Thank you for your interest and support thus far. 
-Eugenia Lehmann & Kathy Heppner

Deadline for Submission

We have until the 25th of February to present the names of interested families to the school division. If you have already submitted your information, thank you! but you also have to consent to us passing on the information to the school division.

Just drop us an email at winnipegspanishimmersion@gmail.com stating, "Yes, I give consent". That's it.

You have until the 25th to make this a reality. Please show your support!

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.

 

 

Update

We have more time than we originally thought. A few months ago, we were under the impression that we had to make our proposal at the beginning of September, or the latest by the beginning of October. After a few phone calls to a few divisions, we were informed that the earliest we would be making a proposal is at the end of November and still be considered for the 2014 school year. Some divisions say we can even present early in the year.

Whew!

That means we have more time to collect names, so please let all your contacts know about the proposal. People in the community without school aged children can still sign up as supporters. People who have children already in school can add their name to the list of interested families. People who have tiny little babies can sign up as well.

So continue to help us promote the proposal. Leave us a comment if you'd like us to send you additional information.

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.

School Division Meeting #1

Our first meeting back in January was with the Winnipeg School Division.  It was very informative because the assistant superintendent went over the Heritage Language Act with us as well as answered some of our questions.  We also went over the last proposal that was presented a number of years ago by a different group of people.  Unfortunately, it did not go through so we are attempting again.

What we were told is that we need 23 children in a particular year to start the program.  Most language programs start in kindergarten or grade 1, but we also talked about the possibility of having a program start in grade 7.  Many of the children signed up are already enrolled in school and so this shows community support for a later bilingual program start.

We asked about where the school that would have the language program be located.  That is dependent on which school has space.  It makes sense that a crowded school will not be built on to accommodate a new program.  So we have been doing a little research in the last few months as to which schools are not at capacity.  Though we have no say as we make the proposal, maybe a gentle suggestion could go a long way.  Also we could also encourage the division to look at where the majority of the families reside in making their decision.

A proposal would need to be made in the early fall of 2013 to this division.  The board would deliberate, go over their budget for the coming year and make a decision.  If the proposal is accepted, the program would begin in 2014.  The school would be responsible for choosing the location of the school, hiring the teachers, and gathering curriculum and materials.  They would also advertise the program and ask for committed families to sign up.

We left the meeting feeling positive but also aware there was much work to be done.