Frenz’s mission is to establish a bilingual French-English education in Auckland. When FRENZ was first established in 1994, the objective for creating a French immersion early childhood center was mooted and passed.

 In 2001, we surveyed the Auckland community to establish the demand for a French immersion preschool. Notices and leaflets were distributed around Auckland, and information was included with newsletters published by French businesses. Advertisements seeking registrations of interest were placed in the New Zealand Herald, the City Harbour News and the Central Leader. A web-site was also established to inform the public about the project and to enable them to pre-enrol their children online.

 The response received so far has been overwhelmingly positive. 145 families have contacted us to request more information and 100 children were pre-enrolled! 60% of the 100 are from English-speaking families, 40% from French-speaking families. The high level of interest and support revealed by this relatively short term survey is indicative of substantial demand for such a centre in Auckland.

 In addition, the committee thinks that the ECC project is a very important step towards the growth and stability of the French bi-lingual primary unit.

 FRENZ identified several advantages to a french language education available to children aged 3 – 10 years:

-         Linguistic specialists advise that a certain level of oral expression and comprehension of the minority language should be attained before entering a full immersion primary school.

-         The level of French spoken by children entering the primary school unit would be more predictable and consistent. This would improve the homogeniety of the class.

-         We would have a more predictable yearly enrolment in the primary school unit, reducing ongoing problems of teacher/children ratios.