Be involved!

There are typically two parent committees in a francophone school: the School council, mandated by Alberta Education and parent committees that organizes school activities. As francophone education is intended for a French-speaking clientele, these meetings are held in French.

However, as a parent with limited French abilities, you can absolutely get involved in your child's school by volunteering to help with school activities or in your child’s classroom. Glen Taylor, author of Fusion : Raising a bilingual child in a two-language household, has this advice to get you started:

"Start by meeting with your child’s teacher and sharing your ideas. In this age of electronic communications, there’s still nothing like a face-to-face meeting to forge personal ties. Find out how comfortable the teacher feels speaking English, and tell her or him how you feel about speaking French, and English, in the school environment. Once you’ve discussed these and other questions, seek the common ground that will let you play a role that’s both helpful to the teacher and fulfilling for you."