Qu'est-ce qu'une école catholique?

Selon les lois de la province de l'Alberta (School Act), un enfant a le droit d'une éducation catholique. Les écoles catholiques en Alberta sont publiques et reçoivent leurs fonds comme toutes les écoles publiques de la province. Elles ne sont pas privées. Les élèves ne sont pas obligés d'être catholique pour fréquentés une école catholique. Par contre, nous devons suivre la politique de Edmonton Catholic Schools en ce qui concerne l'admissibilité selon l'adresse du domicile, la place dans l'école, etc. Ceci est expliqué dans Policies and Regulations.

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Que doit faire un élève dans une école catholique?

En plus de faire de son mieux dans tous les domaines d'école, l'élève est aussi responsable de participer et de suivre les exigeances demandées dans un milieu catholique. Exemples: participer dans les célébrations liturgiques, suivre des cours de religion, etc.

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Pourquoi une éducation catholique?

Catholic education provides students with the opportunity to develop all their talents within the context of a belief in the Lord Jesus Christ. It brings together people who seek to express Christian values in their lives. Recognizing that Christian faith is born and nurtured inside a community, Catholic education is in fact an expression of the broader faith community. All its activities seek to ensure that our faith in Jesus Christ is known, lived, and celebrated.

Catholic education has Jesus Christ as its centre and as its role model. Catholic teachers can ask very important questions of themselves and of their students, such as: What did Jesus teach about this? What would Jesus have us do in this situation? Catholic schools teach students not simply how to make a living, but how to live their lives. We teach students not only about life after they have completed their schooling, but "life after life" as well.

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Why is Grandin called a Language Centre?

Since the start of the 2002-2003 school year, École/Escuela Grandin School is recognized as a Language Centre given that it now offers both a French Immersion and Spanish Bilingual program to its students. It is the only school of its kind in Canada!

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Why learn French?

• French is one of Canada's two official languages.

• It is the second most taught language in the world.

• French is an official working language of many world organizations.

• French and English are the only languages taught on all 5 continents.

• Official language in 29 countries and commonly spoken in another 12.

• There are approximately 113 million Francophones who speak French fluently and another 61 million occasional speakers.

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Why learn Spanish?

• Edmonton Catholic Schools wants to serve its Spanish Catholic students in order to give them a Catholic education. Although many of Edmonton's Spanish-speaking population is growing, the number of non-speaking individuals who want to learn Spanish is also increasing. Statistics Canada tells us that there is a significant number of Spanish & French speaking families.
   

• Currently, according to Alberta Learning, English and Spanish are tied for being the second most spoken languages in the world at approximately 332 million speakers each (total population of 664 million). That number will be growing!
   

• Combined with the approximately 107 million people who speak French around the world, our students will leave École/Escuela Grandin School able to communicate with upwards of 800 million people!
   

• In total, there are 54 countries that speak French, 21 countries where Spanish is the official language and 30 countries where English is the dominant language for a total of 105 countries!
   

• Trade and the global economy is increasing at an alarming rate with our Spanish-speaking neighbours. We therefore want to prepare our students in order to be better prepared and qualified for our changing world. The Government of Alberta has stated that students will need to graduate with an education in a second language! In fact, by September 2006, all grade four students must be enrolled in a second language program in Alberta!

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How are we different from other French Immersion and Spanish Bilingual programs?

Firstly, we are a Catholic school providing our students with a quality, Catholic education. Secondly, our program is unique in that we are offering Canada's first and only French Immersion and Spanish Bilingual education in one elementary school! Moreover, in addition to both groups learning English, they are also participating in the other's chosen program. For example, our French Immersion students are not only learning French and English but are also getting approximately 30 minutes of Spanish every week as well! For our Spanish Bilingual program, the students are learning Spanish and English as well as receiving 30 minutes of French instruction every week. As a result, our students are learning 3 languages which definitely merits the title of Language Centre!

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What is the difference between a French Immersion and a Spanish Bilingual program?

Students in a French Immersion setting are offered all of their courses in French. Although religious education is done in English throughout the students' academic career, English Language Arts only begins in grade two. All of their subjects are taught in French.

In a Spanish Bilingual setting, students receive approximately 50% of their schooling in Spanish and the other 50% in English. Subjects such as Spanish Language Arts, mathematics, physical education and fine arts are taught in Spanish while social studies, science and English Language Arts are taught in English.

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Who is eligible to attend?

Students need not know French nor Spanish to attend École/Escuela Grandin School! Both programs are meant for non-French / non-Spanish speakers. For kindergarten, if your child will be 5 years old before March 1, 2007, he/she is able to attend Grandin for the 2005-2006 academic year. We accept new students in our programs both at the kindergarten and grade one levels only. Unfortunately, unless the child has had experience in either French or Spanish, we cannot accept them in grade two as the learning is much too in-depth for ease of integration.

In order to enrol, we simply ask that all parents come to the school to meet with the administration in order to discuss the program.

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L'école va-t-elle avoir un programme espagnol jusqu'à la 6e année?

Oui! Nous allons ajouter un niveau chaque année jusqu'à l'année 2007 où la 6e année sera en place. L'année prochaine, nous allons offrir un programme de la maternelle à la 4e année.

De plus, Edmonton Catholic Schools discute les options possibles pour une école secondaire (7 à 9) pour l'année 2008, l'année suivante de nos premiers élèves qui quitteront Grandin.

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What else does Grandin offer?

Strings Orchestra
Students from grades 4-6 learn how to play a string instrument! All students learn one of the following: violin, cello, viola or bass. The new program is taught in Grandin's new professional music room! Starting this year, our grade 3 students will also be learning to play the recorder.

Reading Recovery^®
We have a qualified trilingual teacher who is currently becoming a trained Reading Recovery specialist. Reading Recovery targets grade one students who need extra one-on-one assistance in learning the basics of reading.

Special Needs/Learning Team Coordinator
Grandin is fortunate in having a special needs teacher able to assist students, teachers and parents regarding all aspects of their education.

Enrichment/Gifted Education
We offer an enrichment program for those students needing an extra challenge in their studies. Sr./M.Haro is currently building robots using Lego.

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