CFIS is an attractive place to work. In light of this, we will continue to recruit and retain the best staff possible. For the primary and elementary levels, we strive to staff the school with caring pedagogues who understand child development. For the secondary levels, we recruit and retain bilingual (French and English) teachers that are true experts in their respective disciplines.

Aligned with Alberta Learning. Increasing globalization drove the Government of Alberta to review Alberta’s international competitiveness and to develop a strategy for success in this rapidly changing environment. As part of this review, Alberta Learning developed “Alberta’s International Education Strategy”, in which an increased focus has been placed on language education as a means to allow Albertans to successfully compete in important sectors of the economy.

SuperNet. The government also set a goal of establishing broad-band infrastructure, called the SuperNet, linking schools and other institutions in over 400 communities in the province. This initiative has created an opportunity for collaborative projects across disparate regions of the province. Already connected to the SuperNet, CFIS is now one of a small handful of schools in North America that is able to work effectively with schools throughout the province to create learning opportunities for both students and teachers.

Investing in Research. We have sponsored research with a Linguistics PHd student to determine best practices in language learning, delivery mechanisms and market research. The CFIS former LEAD Program partnered with the University of Calgary Language Research Centre (LRC) for a research project investigating the pronunciation of students at the School. Studies have shown that accurate pronunciation is more important than grammatical accuracy when native speakers judge native-likeness, and yet we know that most students come out of immersion programs without native-like pronunciation.