This year, École Communautaire La Voie du Nord achieved an important milestone now that their student body has finally jumped into triple digits territory.
While 100 students may seem like a small number compared to other Thompson schools, principal Daniel Couture says it is a big step up from the 30−35 students they started out with almost a decade ago.
Throughout that time, La Voie du Nord has served as Thompson’s only option for families who want to enroll their children in a purely French language curriculum.
After being housed in Burntwood Elementary School for the first six years of its existence, staff and students finally got a space to call their own in January 2016 when La Voie du Nord officially opened its doors as a standalone facility on Weir Road.
Even though their student body has been growing steadily during those intervening years, Couture said the administration is aware that being the only exclusively francophone school in Thompson can be a little isolating for its pupils.
To remedy this problem, the principal says they regularly organize meet-ups and camp getaways with other students from the Division Scolaire Franco-Manitobaine (DSFM).
“We’re 24 schools throughout the province and we try to do a lot of activities with the other small schools, just to give the French-speaking students friends and people that they know that are living the same reality as them,” said Couture.
Moving forward, Couture said this growing student population is giving the school opportunities to expand on things like their sports programs. In fact, this year marks the first time that they’ve had enough athletes to start both a boys’ and girls’ volleyball team.
“We’ve always had to combine [our teams], but now our bigger classes are getting to Grade 6, 7, 8 and now we’ll have a little bit more athleticism in this school,” said Couture.
La Voie du Nord officially began operating in Thompson back in 2009.
