CBE Explores Expansion of South Mandarin Bilingual Program

Feb. 02, 2017


​The Calgary Board of Education (CBE) is exploring an expansion of the Chinese (Mandarin) Bilingual Program for Grades 5-7 for students living in all of CBE Administrative Area V and students in Area IV who live south of 17 Avenue S.W. This is the same boundary as the Mandarin Bilingual Program K-6 located at Midnapore School. See the Mandarin Bilingual Program attendance area map.

The Chinese (Mandarin) Bilingual Program is designed for students who have limited or no previous knowledge of the Mandarin language and culture. The entry points into bilingual programs are kindergarten and Grade 1. The Mandarin program emphasizes speaking, reading and writing and is designed to offer integrated and content-based instruction. An integral part of this language learning opportunity is the development of cultural understanding.

Students wishing to enter the program at other grade levels (i.e. Grade 5, 6 or 7), may be enrolled if they meet the appropriate grade level learning outcomes established through proficiency assessments in Mandarin and English reading, writing and speaking.

To set up a proficiency assessment for your children, please contact the Area V office at 403-777-8780 or areav@cbe.ab.ca by Feb. 24, 2017.

The Calgary Board of Education requires a minimum of 40 students per grade in Grade 5 and 6 and 20 students in Grade 7 registered before March 31, 2017. If the required numbers of confirmed registrations are received, the program would begin in September 2017. If we do not receive enough registrants we will notify families in April 2017, so they have time to register their children in another one of our schools.

Opportunities to get involved

Information session

An information session was held Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2017.

Online Survey

Complete an online survey. Survey closes Feb. 24, 2017.

More information