FRENZ would be thrilled to have help from parents - or others - interested in establishing a French preschool. Expertise and / or enthusiasm are always welcome.

If this is something you can see yourself being involved in, please get in touch with us via our email address noted on the 'Contact us' page of this site.

Since its creation in 1994, FRENZ has been aware of the necessity to create a full immersion French Early Childhood Centre (ECC), but gave priority to the primary bilingual unit catering for 5-10 year olds.

 In 1995, we explored the possibility of opening a few sessions a week in a playcentre, a community house or in particular, an existing creche operated from a church. Although we had high hopes for the last alternative, the creche itself expanded, requiring the hours that we might have used.

 In 1996, the French-English bilingual primary unit opened at Richmond Road School, thereby allowing us to concentrate on an ECC. FRENZ had decided that our best option was to open our own, so in 1998, we approached Richmond Road School. The school already housed three preschools on site, each of these feeding the various bilingual units within the school.

 After years of lobbying, in 2001, a dynamic and dedicated preschool sub-committee, consisting of Dominique McCord, Eve Downs and Véronique McIntosh, presented a sound project to the school’s Board of Trustees. FRENZ proposed to occupy a corner of the grass field at the back of the school. Although the board initially welcomed the project, the negative response from some quarters of the community resulted in the project being refused. There was concern that the French ECC would encroach on the school’s already limited green areas. However, the board was still supportive of the idea and suggested an alternative site: raising the existing Roopu 5 classroom, and constructing underneath, thus resolving the issue of the  grassy  areas.

 In 2002, Isabelle Billon and Valerie Levergne, completed and submitted to the Ministry of Education, a comprehensive application for discreptionary funding, without which we could not proceed. The idea of constructing underneath the existing classroom provided an ideal solution for an inner city school with limited space. Furthermore, with the installation of an outside lift and bridge over to Ropu 4, we aimed to give the school an opportunity to grow at a lesser cost. We thank Mr Ray Buisson, from Buisson and Strez Architects, for his invaluable help and participation to this project.

 FRENZ believed that the process was continuing according to plan, when the principal and the Board of Trustees informed us that our immediate neighbours at the kohanga reo had expressed opposition to the proposal. They felt that the consultation process was inadequate. They also had some concerns regarding the project which they tabled in a letter to the MoE. We were greatly disappointed when our application was unsuccessful. We seemed so close to our objective and there had been considerable investment of time, energy and finance to come this far.

 Earlier this year, FRENZ examined the possibility of using a third site within the school. We hoped to make good use of the available space in front of the school at the corner of Richmond Road and Douglas Street. We thought we could maximize the space in Ropu 3 itself by building an upper floor without altering the roof line. Unfortunately, this informal proposal was not supported by members of the Board. People believed there would be opposition from the community to altering the frontage of this historic building. The preschool would indeed require a deck and wide openings.

 FRENZ believes Richmond Road School is no longer a potential site for our project and feels our energy should focus on areas outside the school and sourcing financial backing.

 FRENZ remains as committed as ever to the development of an ECC. The interest from the community at large for such a project - there were more than 100 pre-enrolments last year - is a great incentive. We are currently developing a new strategic plan to enable us to achieve our goal.