While searching to see what a bilingual K-12 indigenous education program may look like I stumbled across this article with video: ‘Saskatoon Bilingual School Welcomes Many New Faces‘ from Global News (Sept 11, 2013).

I found it interesting (and sort of ironic) that this school (Catholic) would have been shut down due to low student enrollment if it had not been for the initiation of this Bilingual Cree Program.  Since its inauguration 7 years ago, the Cree class went from 12 students to now over 250 students; growing/expanding every year from K to 6 level with the goal to reach grade 8 in subsequent years.  They have 10 Cree speaking teachers and support staff, and attribute community outreach to the growth of the program.

Digging deeper, I could not find any information on the curriculum or teaching methods used in this program at St Frances Catholic School. Drawing from Lorna Williams’ interview questions on bilingual aboriginal language programs, I wonder: In which language do they teach in? How much English to Cree do the teachers work on? What methods do they use to support the maintenance of the children’s language?

Lorna also spoke about Cree not being a popular subject and attributed this to the lack of financial support in the development of such programs.  The Cree program at St Frances however, can be used a good example of how integrating aboriginal programs into school curriculum builds community while providing a venue for teaching and preserving aboriginal language and culture. The principal of the school exclaims, “We started to involve the community a lot more and share with our elders and get input from them… the program goes deeper than just academics.” Although there could have been better circumstances as to how this program came into fruition, it’s nice to see schools putting culturally responsive curriculum into practice.