The Northwest regional French Immersion Concours competition was held last Saturday at John Field Elementary School and several local students walked away with top three finishes.
Hazelton Secondary school Grade 10 student Louise Wernli not only won her division with her speech on Les hémisphères du cerveau, but she will also be traveling to the provincials in Vancouver as there were no Grade 11 and 12 competitors this year.
Her fellow student Simon Stockner took second with his concours on Le Rockn’ Roll.
HSS teacher Marcel Melanson explained why there was no senior students this year.
“The senior students are on a two year timetable and they have really extremely heavy academic classes this year,” he said. “The Grade 12s also have a big provincial exam in May and it takes a lot of commitment for the kids to get ready so it is hard for them to spend the extra three weeks needed to participate in the concours.”
There was also no students from the Terrace French Immersion program for the second year in a row but Kitimat managed to send some participants that did quite well.
Other top finishes from the Hazeltons included: Grade 5 student Connor Newbery who finished first with his speech on Irvine et Mallory and Elisa Paranich was second talking about Justin Bieber while Jeren Jack took third sharing his thoughts on Les Olympiques de 2010.
Grade 6 students also did well with John Field taking the top three finishes. Robert Charette captured first with his speech on Amelia Earhart, David Charette took second talking about Julie Payette and Paolo Rubinato did his concours on Les dépendances.
Max Beertema captured first in the Grade 7 division talking about Walt Disney and his classmate Spencer Wright finished in second with his speech on Facebook.
The Grade 8 category was won by David Wernli with his concours on La poussière, while Madeline Swift took second talking about La plongée sous-marine.
Ryan Wright was the lone Grade 9 competitor and he also spoke about Facebook.
For John Field Librarian Helene Paranich the day of concours was a great experience she said.
“Watching these kids grow and to see what they are doing now is absolutely amazing,” she shared. “Our kids have come a long way.”