Back to School by North Shore News Features

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 16, 2017

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TRATION IS G E R L L & FA

Four-year-old Simon Prest and his six-year-old brother Luc are ready to head back to school in September. Both fluent in French, Luc attends École Andre Piolat, a francophone school in North Vancouver, and his younger sibling will join him when he reaches kindergarten. PHOTO CINDY GOODMAN

Family finds French connection in North Van ROSALIND DUANE rduane@nsnews.com

Luc Prest’s first words were “En Bas.”

The French phrase translates to “down” in English, but when he was learning to speak as a toddler Luc used it for both “up” and “down.” When Luc’s mom Joanne first heard him say these words she thought excitedly, it’s working! Her plan to teach her son a second language had been in motion since he was born and she was finally seeing the results. The North Vancouver mom speaks French fluently

NTS

and wanted her kids to as well. She reasoned the best way to ensure that was to speak to them in French, only French, even though English is her first language. She would also only read and sing to them in French. Growing up in southern Alberta, Joanne was part of the first French immersion class in her school, and she took to the language easily. She was fluent by upper elementary and credits great teachers, many of whom were native French speakers from Quebec, for her early success in becoming bilingual. But she also admits she always felt like a francophone in an anglophone body.

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“I just always really liked it and felt like it was a part of me,” she says of the language. When she visited Quebec in Grade 9 as part of a class trip she had no trouble communicating, and the tour also strengthened her love of the culture. “I love the music and all the festivals, even the dances,” she says, and notes she has tried to pass on that love of culture to her kids as well. It seems to have worked. Now six years old, Luc is also fluent in French, as is his four-year-old brother Simon, and Joanne continues to only talk to them in French. If the boys speak to her in English she

politely asks, “Excusez-moi?” and they repeat in French. What’s interesting is they know their mom only speaks to them in French even though their dad, (North Shore News sports editor) Andy Prest, speaks to them in English. He admits he can understand his six-year-old’s French, but that’s about it for now. “He’s learning,” notes Joanne of her husband. The boys have only noted a couple of times the fact that their parents speak to them in different languages. To them, a bilingual household is normal.

See Francophone page 24

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BACK to SCHOOL

High school 101: Tips for teens

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You’ll meet new friends and teachers, classes will be more challenging, and you’ll have more extracurricular activities to choose from. KidsHelpPhone offers the folowing tips for students starting high school this September. Other students Try to relax and keep an open mind when the school year begins. Remember, everyone in your class is going through the same thing.

This is a good chance to get to know new people. You can make new friends and still stay close to your old friends. It may seem like everyone else knows what to do and where to go, but remember that all the kids in your grade are also getting to know the school. New teachers Resolving conflicts at school can be difficult but it is possible. Keep your cool. Try to avoid immediate emotional responses. Ask your teacher for time to calm down before talking. Try to define the reasons for the conflict as

clearly as possible. Make sure both you and your teacher get a chance to talk and listen. Try to find a win-win solution. Making compromises can help uncover a solution that satisfies you both. If you and the teacher can’t reach a resolution, ask someone else, like your principal, guidance counsellor or parent, to mediate. Study habits Help yourself succeed by developing good studying skills early on. Organize your time with a day planner or calendar app; spread your study sessions over a few weeks instead of cramming;

try to do homework the same day it’s assigned; start big projects well before deadlines; start a study group with other students to share notes and discuss schoolwork. Finding balance In high school, you’ll have a lot of exciting options for how to spend your free time. It’s important to manage it well. Think about how school, family relationships, friendships and other activities (like eating or sleeping) can all fit together. Talking to a friend or safe adult can help you identify priorities. kidshelpphone.ca

Francophone school community appreciated From page 23

Luc and Simon used both French and English at almost the same time when they were first speaking, although Luc’s second word was also French: dehors. Not surprisingly for a North Shore kid, the word means: outside. When it came to choosing a school for the kids, Joanne wanted to continue the family’s French connection so she enrolled the boys at École Andre-Piolat in North Vancouver. Although it’s a public school, not private, it does not fall under the North Vancouver School District but the Conseil Scolaire Francophone de la Colombie-Britannique.

“It places more value on it for them to have friends who speak French and it seems less random,” says Joanne of why it was important for her kids to attend a francophone school instead of just speaking the language at home. The difference between French immersion school programs and a francophone school is that there is a certain expectation of language understanding for students attending a francophone school, she explains. Those who don’t speak the language when they start receive assistance similar to a student in the English system for whom English is not their first language. It’s rare for students at the school to

not have at least one French speaker at home, usually a parent or a grandparent, notes Joanne. All instruction for all classes, as well as all activities and even parent meetings, are entirely in French. At École Andre-Piolat, students get their first taste of academic English in Grade 4 Language Arts. Joanne says the more French became important in her life, the more she wanted to connect to the local francophone community, especially for her kids. “I really wanted to pass that on to them, not only the language but also the parts of the culture that I really identify with and love,” she says.

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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 16, 2017

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BACK to SCHOOL

After-school program aims to improve alley-oops

MARIA SPITALE-LEISK mspitale-leisk@nsnews.com

Two North Shore youth basketball coaches argue that airballs and alleyoops should be part of a kids physical vocabulary starting at five years old.

Mark Curtin says he grew up with the sport and it taught him discipline, teamwork, and other “good life lessons on and off the court.” Curtin, a Saint Thomas Aquinas alumus, went on to play basketball for Langara and Capilano colleges, saying those experiences provided more positive rewards. He travelled around North America with his teammates and made some solid friendships. But as Curtin attests, he wouldn’t have gotten that far without mentors along the way and from an early age. He cites two specific basketball coaches from STA who influenced him: Malcolm Reid and Rob Ros. “They just taught me a lot about life on and off the court,” recalls Curtin. When it came time for Curtin’s own kids to pick up the sport five years ago, they found themselves on the sidelines. Curtin noted there were no community programs that offered agespecific, after-school basketball programs. With the ball now in his court, Curtin decided to take a shot. In 2013, he started 3PointBasketball, an after-school skills program for kindergarten to Grade 3 students at Cove Cliff Elementary in Deep Cove. There were 86 Cove Cliff families registered in two days. “It was overwhelming,” says Curtin, who quickly realized and responded to demand for a primary school basketball program, which has since expanded to 10 North Shore schools

and close to 400 participants. It’s a win-win, as Curtin points out: parents get after-school care and at the same time their kids are learning a sport. The kids take to the court an hour a week for 10 weeks in the spring, under the instruction of basketball coaches in the community who have excelled at the sport. Kindergarten and Grade 1 students are grouped together for one session, while students in grades 2 and 3 are taught on another day. The budding basketball players learn basic elements and concepts of the game such as dribbling, passing, shooting, and the triple threat, explains Ransford Brempong, director of operation for the program. “From the younger ages we are just trying to teach as much as we can about physical literacy. Letting them understand what it takes to be an athlete. How do you run? How do you jump?” says Brempong, who played professional basketball at the NCAA level and for the Canadian national team. The lessons evolve each week until all the basketball basics are incorporated and the kids are ready to put it into practice for some threeon-three scrimmage. With the younger players the coaches might play Simon Says or Tic Tac Toe Basketball, to just get their hands on the ball. “With these young kids, we want them just to love the game,” says Brempong, adding the emphasis is on fun. Sustained by a circle of mentorship, 3PointBasketball sees Curtin and Brempong guiding upcoming coaches – either in their senior year of high school or in university – who in turn act as mentors for the primary school players.

Ransford Brempong, with five-year-old son Quentin, and Mark Curtin, with seven-yearold daughter Kailey, are ready to play some ball. PHOTO CINDY GOODMAN One of those coaches is Sage Stobbart, who helped the Seycove Seyhawks senior girls team soar to its first B.C. title in team history this spring. Stobbart, who was named tournament MVP and top defensive player, has trained with the national junior program and is committed to play for NCAA Div. 1 school UC Davis next year. The student coaches are also eligible for 3PointBasketball’s scholarship program, which awards three coaches $500 per year. For the 2018 season, 3PointBasketball is linking up with Jumpstart, which will make the

basketball program accessible to youth from different socioeconomic backgrounds. New for September is a fall team program at the North Shore Winter Club for kids in grades 2 to 7, with a focus on skill development and three-on-three sessions. Registration started this week and is done through the club ahead of the Sept. 19 start date. At its core, Curtin and Brempong’s game plan is simple. “To have kids fall in the love with the game as we did,” says Curtin. More information is available at 3pointbasketball.com.

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