It really depends on the age of the learner. Research has told us that the age, intensity, and frequency...the earlier on a student can join us....
If the newcomer is in kindergarten or in cycle one, as we refer to grades one and two at the elementary level, as you can understand, flexibility of the brain will allow those students to acquire much more and be able to do what we call le transfert des acquis, to be able to pass that knowledge and competency from one language to the other.
As we only have end-of-cycle examinations, I have to make sure they always look for people who understand. For example, in grade two, grade four, or grade six examinations, we have a much larger scope and we're not looking at giving students a high school diploma by grade four. So we have more time to make sure that the transfer of abilities and competencies gets into place. The support measures are there. Even after the two-year span that I was telling you about, adaptation measures will still be put into place by the school team to ensure that students continue to progress.
However, we'll be honest. If a student arrives from abroad or a family moves into Montreal and they are eligible for English instruction, but they arrive, for example, in grade three, cycle two of secondary, as you will know the time spent to acquire and feel comfortable with the knowledge is lessened because we will finish by secondary five. We'll have a two-year or three-year span where we'll still have support measures and adaptations put into place, but we have those ministry examinations that have to be done. At times we do ask for derogations from our minister, but they're not always granted. It's done on a case-by-case basis and students do need a number of credits in certain subjects, including French, to be able to graduate with a high school leaving diploma.
Many of our international students continue with us and enrol in what we call our CEGEP programs or post-secondary. So we have to ensure that in terms of the measures we put into place, yes, there are financial supports, there are adaptations, and they are continuous and sustained to ensure that our students are successful long after they have completed their high school studies.