Western School Division (WSD) has been utilizing a French Revitalization Grant to help bolster its French programming.

This year WSD received $34,000 from the grant. Assistant Superintendent Cindy Kutzner says it'll increase their resources, allow teachers time to work on professional development, conduct cultural activities or bring in cultural speakers from the region and our province, and help pay for more field trips.

Kutzner says the division has been doing these grants for approximately 15 years.

"Every single year it allows our students to see what kind of French culture there is in Manitoba," Kutzner says.

By seeing the amount of French-speaking people throughout the province, she says students take more risks and are speaking the language.

In addition to providing the students with more resources and opportunities to learn French, $20,000 of the grant is used to help offset the cost of a French Language Coordinator.

"That French Language Coordinator works with all of our French language teachers in terms of their development and the building of their capacity," says Kutzner.

According to Kutzner having this position is great because the coordinator pushes them to be better teachers and finds the resources they need.