Principal adds her voice to Oxford session

By RAMON GONZALEZ
WCR Staff Writer
Sherwood Park

Vaillancourt, principal of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic French Immersion School in Sherwood Park, was recently appointed to attend the seventh annual Oxford Round Table on education to be held this summer at St. Anthony's College in the University of Oxford in London, England.

She is the first Canadian principal to attend this prestigious event designed to discuss futuristic thoughts on public education. Vaillancourt was nominated to the round table by a previous attendant, a process which is kept secret to avoid the politicization of the event. The July 27-Aug. 1 gathering is restricted to 45 representatives from around the world to assure open discussion and reflective interchange of ideas.

"There are many feelings that come with the nomination, one of them being a feeling of excitement and really wanting to represent my school district and Catholic education well," Vaillancourt said Feb. 25.

"I'm hoping to get a worldwide view on language learning." - Rolande Vaillancourt

"I want to be able to bring many ideas with me to the round table (including) my passion for language learning and at the same time my view that there is an important place in this world to talk to God and to be able to pray together."

This year's round table, whose theme is Designing Leadership and Practices for the Future of Public Education, will deal with the current competitive quest for delivering education to the children of the world.

More specifically, issues such as global accountability, new leadership designs and new delivery systems will be discussed.

Selected delegates organize the round table around the presentation of significant ideas. Rumours are Vaillancourt will be asked to address the forum, which she will know for sure in about a month. She is developing two themes just in case: Spirituality in the Workplace and Are Canadians Ready for the Global Community (as far as language learning is concerned)?

"I'm hoping to get a worldwide view on language learning (at the round table)," she said.

"In North America, it doesn't come second nature to us to think about language learning. We seem to think unilingual and think that it's going to be difficult for children to learn a second language whereas elsewhere in the world it is considered something very normal and very natural."

Presentations and responses at the Oxford forum are published and distributed worldwide.

Vaillancourt plans to share the discussions with her colleagues at the Elk Island Catholic School Division.

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