A vision rooted in language, confidence and connection.
Bonjour! Je m’appelle Aline.
I am an Oakville mom, a native French speaker, and the founder of La Ronde Oakville. My two daughters have attended local French-language schools for more than 10 years, so French education has been part of our family’s everyday life for a long time.
From late 2020 to early 2023, while working in a professional role that offered flexibility in how I structured my day, I regularly volunteered at my children’s school during lunch and recess. Over those years, I had the opportunity to observe how children used French in a much more informal setting than the classroom.
Something stood out to me...
Children attending school entirely in French often switched to English the moment they were free to choose. At recess, French could quickly disappear. Some children who understood French very well were reluctant to answer in French and needed repeated encouragement to speak it. Some even told me they did not feel comfortable enough to fully express themselves in French. Given the choice, they would shorten what they wanted to say, switch to English, or avoid the conversation altogether.
It made me realize that learning in French and feeling comfortable speaking French are not necessarily the same thing.
Children already spend many hours in school.
I did not believe that simply adding more formal tutoring was the answer either.
That distinction stayed with me. As I continued volunteering in different children’s activities, I kept noticing the same pattern: when children in our French-speaking community were having fun, socializing and free to choose, English was often the language they naturally turned to.
I began thinking about children in French Immersion programs, where exposure to French may be less, as well as children in English-language schools whose families want them to learn French but have few natural opportunities to use it. I also thought about families who may not speak French themselves but would love for their children to become fluent, comfortable and confident in French.
The solution, had to be different:
change the environment, to be able to change the way children experience the language.
I wanted to create the kind of environment I felt was missing: a social, welcoming space where speaking French has a purpose. A place where children associate French with friends, games, stories, music, conversation and fun, and where confidence can grow naturally through repeated positive experiences.
I wanted children to have opportunities to speak French organically, build a personal connection with the language, and gradually feel that French can be a language they choose on their own to express themselves in.
The experience I bring to La Ronde Oakville
I bring together several perspectives that have shaped both the vision and the way I run the program. I am a native French speaker and fully bilingual in French and English. I lived in France and studied Finance at university in Paris. I have also spent more than a decade navigating French-language education locally as a parent, from daycare and kindergarten through secondary school, while also volunteering in schools and supporting other local youth organizations over the years.
My connection to language learning is personal, too. Growing up, I learned English at school but was reluctant to use it outside the classroom. However, as an adult, I had to immerse myself in an English-speaking environment to truly make the language my own. As challenging as that experience was, it gave me a personal understanding of something I would later observe in children: knowing a language and feeling confident enough to use it are two very different things.
La Ronde Oakville brings these experiences together with a purpose that is very close to my heart:
helping children build the confidence to not only learn French, but to choose to speak it and feel proud to be bilingual.
My professional career outside education has also shaped the way I approach La Ronde Oakville: thoughtfully, responsibly and with a strong focus on preparation, structure and quality. I bring more than 17 years of professional experience in the banking industry and hold the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Professional Risk Manager (PRM) designations.
My hope is that La Ronde Oakville becomes a trusted part of our community and your family, giving more children the positive experiences, practice and confidence they need to carry French with them well beyond the classroom and into adulthood, while embracing the richness of growing up bilingual in Canada.