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!