Parenthése |

La voix des parents de Colombie-Britannique

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New Francophone Preschool for Prince George!

Their faces beam-
rs] ing, the ten new
students of Les
Petits Dragonards _ pre-
school began their first day
of classes on January 12,
2010! The school-based
preschool at Franco-Nord
opened as a result of the
efforts of a small group of
determined parents who
dreamed of a francophone
preschool education for
their children. Their labours
have now been rewarded,
since the youngsters not
only have an opportun-
ity fo attend francophone
preschool and enjoy the
activities and resources in
place, but also to get to
know their future school
gradually.

Parents...
a driving force

The parents are nearly
always at the centre of efforts to open
new preschool centres, such as Les Pet-
its Dragonards preschool or the Tartine
et Chocolat daycare, which opened
recently in Vancouver. With support from
the Federation and CSF (francophone
school authority), local parents associa-
tions achieve miracles when they open a
new daycare or preschool!

Positive Results

Indeed, in the last five years, six
francophone preschool initiatives have
been launched in British Columbia. Each
is located in a CSF school. This means 72
more spaces for our francophone chil-

dren. And that’s wifhout counting the
expansion of existing daycares and pre-
schools like Trottin-Trottinette and V'la
bon vent, for example, that together
added another 42 spaces.

The province's francophone pre-
school and daycare network now has 20
centres, 16 of these in CSF schools. The
network services more than 500 children.
Most of the francophone children later
go on to one of the CSF kindergartens.

Space in schools:
A significant challenge

Although the Fédération des parents
has achieved positive results in terms of

the number of new preschool centres
since 2005, the fact remains that this num-
ber could have been more impressive
if space had been available in the CSF
schools (francophone school authority).
Numerous parent groups have expressed
their desire to launch a centre in their re-
gion, but, due fo a lack of space, their
efforts have been fruitless. The CSF and
FPFCB are working together fo find solu-
tions to this major challenge. We can still
dream of what the francophone com-
munity would look like if each CSF school
would have it’s own preschool!