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MONTREAL • The playgrounds, hallways and cafeterias of Quebec’s largest school board will soon be French-only zones as authorities move to silence other languages, even during recess.

In a bid to ensure its 110,000 students master French, the Commission scolaire de Montréal has announced a new code of conduct declaring French de rigueur at all times during the school day.

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Diane De Courcy, the board’s chairwoman, said the approach will be persuasive not punitive.

“There will be no language police,” she said. Instead, monitors who overhear children using their mother tongue during recess will simply remind them of the rules.

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“If they are automatically switching to another language, [the monitor] will gently tap them on the shoulder — not on the head — to tell them, ‘Remember, we speak French. It’s good for you.’

“It will be enough to deliver a clear message that French must be spoken, and when we speak it often, we become very good at it.”