Expanding Spanish program set to move to new school

By Lethbridge Herald on January 15, 2025.

Registrations are now open for the Spanish Bilingual Program that will be offered at the West Coulee Station Elementary School. The school is set to open September 2025. Herald photo by Alejandra Pulido-Guzman

Alejandra Pulido-Guzman – LETHBRIDGE HERALD – apulido@lethbridgeherald.com

Registration is now open for the West Coulee Station Elementary School, where children will be learning their curriculum in English and Spanish. 

With the population on the city’s westside continuously increasing, many schools are over capacity, including Coalbanks Elementary School, where the Lethbridge School Division first offered their Spanish Bilingual Program. 

Dean Hawkins, principal of West Coulee Station Elementary School says that in order to relieve some of the student population pressures, the Board of Trustees decided to review the boundaries for the schools in the West side to include their new school. 

At that point they also made the decision to move the Spanish program to the West Coulee Station Elementary School, to allow for growth as Coalbanks Elementary School was at over capacity with families from outside of the boundaries. 

Registration for students in kindergarten to Grade 5 is now open until Jan. 30. This will help get an idea of the staff required to properly run the school based on the student population coming into it.

“Right now, the registration is up to about 140 students, and we are hoping to reach 200 students,” says Hawkins. 

He says the Spanish program that will run in the new school will look a bit different than what it was at Coalbanks Elementary, as the new school has more space and they can be more separated from the English program than in the previous school. 

“Alberta Education has procedures to having a second language at your school, with guidelines that indicate that 50 per cent of it has to be in English and 50 per cent in a language of your choice, and in our case is Spanish,” says Hawkins. 

He explains students attending the new school will be learning in both languages. 

“Those registering right now are doing so to be able to continue with their Spanish program as it has been such a success. So we are hoping to get most of those students and a whole lot of new ones,” says Hawkins. 

He adds that because the school is offering a program of choice, registration is open to anyone in the city, not just within the boundaries of the school on the west side of the city. 

“There will be busing available. So what people need to do is put their address in the registration form and it will be up to Southland to make bus routes available for students to get transported to the school,” says Hawkins. 

For students starting their Spanish journey, they will need to register for either Kindergarten or Grade 1, but any later than that it will be based on a language assessment, if they don’t have any prior Spanish learning. 

“The fundamentals are taught in kindergarten and Grade 1, and so much of that is not able to be taught in Grade 2 or up, so that’s why anyone past Grade 1, if they feel like their student have that fundamental knowledge, they can take the assessment test,” says Hawkins. 

Spanish as a second language is not something that only influences those in the program, families also learn alongside with them as they embark in the journey together. Hawkins says he is also trying to learn Spanish, to make sure he can participate and understand when events take place. 

Autumn Barnes, co-chair of the Spanish Bilingual Education Association, a group of parents that formed to support and grow Spanish Bilingual programs in Lethbridge public schools, says her family loves the program. 

“I have two kids in the Spanish Bilingual program in Grade 2 and Grade 5 and we love the program, the teachers, so we are super excited to move to the new school,” says Barnes. 

She says one of the reasons why she enrolled her children in the program is because Spanish is widely spoken around the world, with 21 countries having Spanish as their first language, so it has become a very useful language internationally. 

“The program has been really good for my children. There is a lot of data about the benefits of bilingualism for children and as you get older and later in life, but this way is something they get to do at school, without having to take extra time,” says Barnes. 

She says being able to become bilingual gives children a huge leg up into their future, as they can travel, they can continue their education in a different country, they can apply for jobs that will benefit from a second language and many other benefits. 

“As a family has been a lot of fun as I have a little bit of Spanish skills from when I was in school, but even my husband who has no Spanish background at all has been playing around with Duolingo and basically the program has sparked our interest into is as a family,” says Barnes. 

She explains that sometimes her children would bring homework that has to be done in Spanish, and she gets to learn alongside with them. 

“They would have math sheets that are in Spanish, so the numbers are the same obviously, but they have to write math facts, sentences or stories in Spanish, so whenever there is something that we as parents don’t understand we ask them to translate it for us,” says Barnes. 

She says they do it beautifully because they have been learning Spanish from native-speakers and the language has been learned in a setting that integrates it with their everyday life and not just in a language structure setting. 

“They are learning Spanish and how to use it in real life, so it’s not just about having all the conjugations perfect, but it’s about being able to use the language in a meaningful and fun way,” says Barnes. 

She says there is an advantage of having a Bilingual program versus an immersion program as they receive their education in both languages, which is beneficial for their everyday life as well, as they navigate the world outside the school.