New French school adopts Finnish system
By Molly Pendergast
Students at Ottawa’s new French Catholic school, Nouvelle école élémentaire catholique au cœur d’Ottawa, don’t have strict seating arrangements in their classrooms. They have regular breaks for physical activity throughout the day, and each class has a little greenhouse where flowers, herbs and vegetables are grown by students.
All of these nontraditional aspects of learning are part of the new school’s unusual curriculum, which incorporates elements from the Finnish education system. The system is known around the globe for its strong focus on life-long learning, health and wellness, and little-to-no homework.
The new school, which serves families from the Glebe, Centretown, Old Ottawa South and Old Ottawa East neighbourhoods, offers kindergarten to Grade 6 and has a current enrollment of almost 100 students.
Temporarily located at 88 Main Street in Old Ottawa East, the French Catholic school board hopes to see the school in a new, larger location at 330 Gilmour Street in Centretown by September 2018.
Ashcroft Homes owns the Centretown building and plans to renovate and lease it to the board, said Don Schultz, senior urban planner with the company. “We are currently building a relationship with the French Catholic school board,” Schultz said. “It’s a great organization to work with and they’re very innovative and progressive.”
The building, which dates from the early 1920s, holds a heritage designation from the City of Ottawa and previously housed the Ottawa Board of Education offices. The current zoning in the area doesn’t allow for a public school on the site, but Ashcroft said it has begun discussions with the City of Ottawa and will be submitting a rezoning application.
Since opening day on Aug. 29, Danielle Chatelain, superintendent of education with the French Catholic school board, said that feedback from parents and students has really validated the concept that the board is exploring through the new school.
On the first day, parents were invited to spend time with their children. A parent-teacher evening was hosted shortly afterward to help parents understand the logistics of the classrooms.
“At the end of the parent-teacher evening one of the parents came up to me and said, ‘You know, it’s great. My boy loves getting up in the morning to go to school. He tells me he loves school,’” said Chatelain.
The school board approached the Embassy of Finland last winter, looking at ways to incorporate aspects of the Finnish education system within Canada’s curriculum, explained Tuulikki Olander, the embassy’s coordinator for public diplomacy and communications.
Olander, 28, was enrolled in Finland’s system from kindergarten to university. She credits the “Finnish model” with a positive educational experience. “I felt that the system was based on mutual trust between students and teachers. I felt that the teachers trusted me, but I also had responsibilities — it kind of went hand in hand,” she said.
Other French Catholic schools in Ottawa could adopt a similar curriculum in the future, Chatelain said. But the school board believes the urban location of the new school and lifestyles of the families in the area is important.
“I don’t think we can necessarily duplicate this in a place where the lifestyle doesn’t connect,” explained Chatelain. “We want to make sure that all our schools are relevant to the culture and the community where they’re established.”