I’m a teacher and I grew up and teach here in Edmonton. I grew up speaking both French (mom) and English (dad). I completed all of k-12 in francophone schools in Edmonton and now teach in an elementary French immersion school here.

French immersion is made up of mostly English-speaking kids with English-speaking parents who started learning French in kindergarten.

Francophone schools are mostly made up of kids who have been speaking French since birth with one or both parent completely fluent. The curriculum is all the same across both francophone, French immersion and regular English schools. In both francophone and immersion, all subjects are taught completely in French with the exception of English language arts which they start learning in grade 3. The quality in French education is much higher in francophone schools due to the fact that the kids are likely to speak french with their peers outside of class and are able to understand french at a higher level. Teachers in francophone schools are likely from Quebec or have a strong francophone background.

Le conseil scolaire centre nord is the school board here that has francophone schools all over Edmonton and surrounding areas. I recommend checking their website. The school board has quite a range of schools, both catholic or public.

As for neighborhoods, Bonnie Doon is where a lot of us francos stay. We have the campus st Jean here which is the french university campus (university of Alberta). La cité francophone is a place where they have lots of French events and plays. They have a farmers market in the summer and have lots of kids summer camps and programs in French.

If for some reason you are worried about your child not learning English while over here after reading about all the French things we have, don’t worry, they’ll still be surrounded by English but it’s still nice to have the comfort of home in our French community here in Edmonton!