Sir Samuel Steele PS Celebrates Franco-Ontarian Day

Posted On Tuesday October 08, 2019
Franco-ONday-1sm
L-R: Sir Samuel Steele PS students Lani and Emma, Sir Samuel Steele PS French Teacher Dawn Forsyth, DDSB Superintendent of Education and French Curriculum Margaret Lazarus, DDSB Facilitator for FSL and Modern Languages Sarah Mitchell, DDSB FSL Coach Shannon Wood, and DDSB Trustee for the Town of Whitby Christine Thatcher at the Franco-Ontarian flag raising ceremony on September 25th.

Staff and students pay tribute to Franco-Ontarian heritage with a bilingual presentation and flag raising ceremony

Since 2010, the French-speaking community in Ontario has been celebrating Franco-Ontarian Day – a day which honours and celebrates a rich history that dates back more than 400 years.

On September 25th, staff and students at Sir Samuel Steele Public School in Whitby joined in the celebration.

Dawn Forsyth, Michael Craigen, and Kathleen Kelly are the three core French teachers at Sir Samuel Steele PS. With the help of their students in Grades 4 to 8, they organized a bilingual presentation and flag raising ceremony for their entire school.

“It’s so important for our students living in Ontario to be educated about the Franco-Ontarian history and culture,” Forsyth emphasizes. She adds, “The Durham District School Board (DDSB) takes so much pride in diversity and inclusivity, so this is a wonderful way to express and embrace that.”

The presentation included the school choir singing O Canada and Mon Beau Drapeau (My Beautiful Flag), an engaging and educational slideshow, and an explanation of the Franco-Ontarian flag.

The Franco-Ontarian flag is split into two vertical bands. One side is green with a white fleur-de-lis. The fleur-de-lis represents the French-speaking community, and the green represents summer in Ontario. The other side is white, with a green trillium. The trillium represents Ontario, and the white represents winter in Ontario. 

Notable attendees included DDSB Trustee for the Town of Whitby Christine Thatcher, Superintendent of Education and French Curriculum Margaret Lazarus, DDSB French as a Second Language (FSL) Coach Shannon Wood, DDSB Facilitator for FSL and Modern Languages Sarah Mitchell.

Afterwards, everyone gathered outside the front of the school and surrounded the flagpole. The crowd cheered as two students, Emma and Lani, helped raise the Franco-Ontarian flag. The flag flew with the Canadian flag, representing the unity of cultures.

Forsyth concludes, “Learning French really opens doors for students to think about why we learn it in school. It’s not an outdated language that they’ll never use. It’s something that can come up at any time, and now they’re gaining the skills to be able to communicate with people who use it as a first language.”