A new secondary school campus has been announced by the Conseil des école publiques de l’Est de l’Ontario (CEPEO) in Alexandria. This will be the first secondary school campus for the CEPEO in the region. Secondary school students are currently having to travel by bus to the Cornwall l’Heritage Campus or to École Le Sommet in Hawkesbury if they want to pursue French-language public secondary education.
But CEPEO superintendent of education Christian-Charle Bouchard says that the board has lost secondary school students because of the lengthy transportation times. This move should ensure some continuity for students graduating from Terre des Jeunes, which currently offers Grade 7 and 8 classes.
Beginning in September 2019, Terre des Jeunes will offer classes for children in Maternelle to Grade 6 and the Campus l’Héritage will offer classes for Grades 7 through Grade 12, but Bouchard says the campus growth may be gradual at first. But Grades 7, 8 and 9 classes will definitely be offered at the new “Campus l’Héritage” campus, to be located in the existing Terre des Jeunes public French elementary school.
The campus will have its own dedicated space and its own entrance at Terre des Jeunes, Bouchard said, adding that there were science and tech study spaces in place already. The new campus administration will be in place by August of this year and he explained that the Grade 7 and 8 teachers will be transferred to the new campus classrooms, but that enough teachers will be in place to handle the demand. Bouchard says the board is hoping to create at least one class per level (from Grades 7 through 12).
Those looking to register students for the new French-public secondary school campus can contact the Terre des Jeunes director, Daniel Lalonde, or can visit the CEPEO website for information.
The new campus will offer the “SporTech” program and the International Baccalauréat (IB) program. SporTech is a program which encourages students’ involvement in technology, its social aspects as well as being physically active.
Bouchard ended by saying this move is really in reaction to comments from parents who were sending their children to the Cornwall campus.
“They said, why can’t we bring l’Heritage to the students instead of sending the students to l’Heritage (in Cornwall)?” And so that is what we have done, said Bouchard, who added that virtual teaching offers many opportunities for sharing between schools and that the CEPEO plans to explore new possibilities along the way.
