A group of second graders at the French School, a local language-immersion charter school, recently fought for the right to use school lockers – and won.

Speaking in French, the students presented their arguments to Head of School Conrad Wildsmith.

Leading an issue-oriented campaign was part of their class curriculum, but the second graders took it a step further to fundraise for the cost to pay for new locker keys – an expense that kept the school from allowing students to use the lockers previously, said Rhonda Broussard, president and founder of the St. Louis Language Immersion Schools.

The second graders’ campaign is one example of what sets the immersion schools’ curriculum apart from other schools, she said.

“Students are expected to be actors,” she said. “They are expected to recognize needs and take actions – not wait for someone else to do it for them.”

In December, Broussard learned that its French School and Spanish School have joined the ranks of 1,100 elementary schools worldwide, 400 in the U.S., and only three others in Missouri to offer the International Baccalaureate Organization’s Primary Years Programme (PYP) curriculum.

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