The South East Cornerstone School Division opened up French Immersion programs a couple of years ago and in the southeast Pleasantdale School has seen a thriving program start up.

Their French Immersion program, which began in September of 2021, initially covered some students in kindergarten to grade 2.

Now, in the 2022-23 school year, that's expanded to grade 3, with plans to expand a year upwards each new school year until the full kindergarten to grade 6 range is covered.

Michelle Smart, the Principal of Pleasantdale School, says that their success comes from their teachers and the community.

"It's going very well. We've had a pretty huge learning curve but we have two awesome teachers in place now and we have some families that are super supportive and excited to be helping us develop our new program and it's just coming along really nicely."

The parents were recently able to chat with the school and Smart says she came away from the meetings feeling positive.

"We were able to answer a few questions, and just get some suggestions. Of course," said Smart, "We're always looking for new enrollments and so the best way to find those sometimes is through the families that are already involved. It just seemed like everybody was super happy."

Those parents will also be able to see some of the class through an event they're holding next week, which will be open for parents for the first time.

"We're planning our second annual Festival Du Voyageur," said Smart, "We've been working hard to build up our french culture in our building and so that's one of the things that we did last year and that this year we're able to involve our families in that and invite our families to join us for the day."

Smart just hopes the weather doesn't get too warm and they still have some snow for the festival.