10 March 2010

French-Australian preschool still in jeopardy

| spice
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The French-Australian Preschool (FAPS) is Canberra’s largest childcare provider, currently situated in a building which forms part of the Red Hill Primary School campus. The ACT Government has granted FAPS land (zoned for community use) in Griffith which will enable the preschool to continue operating after its current lease expires at the end of this year.

While the Government is happy for this land to be developed, it seems the representatives of the Griffith/Narrabundah Community Association are not. Is the view of this group an honest representation of how the rest of the residents in the area are feeling, or is it simply a process the group go through each time they are confronted with ‘change’.

Could somebody also enlighten me as what makes a tree (namely those in Throsby Park) ‘highly significant’?

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logicalchoice12:24 am 20 Jun 10

Red Hill primary really needs the space, and while I understand it’s difficult to find a new site, they need to go so that the school can expand.

Why Telopea won’t take them is unclear but that seems the obvious place. A clear flow from the FAPS to Telopia primary French stream seems logical. The FAPS is co funded by the French and Aus governments as is Telopea.

For the what makes a tree highly significant – have a look here:

http://www.edo.org.au/edoact/fact_sheets/treefactsheet.htm

From as much as I gathered from a quick glance at it, significant trees can be removed, it just requires going through some red tape, or using some silent chainsaws in the middle of the night.

Anna Key – come now…we all hate the French, but let’s face it, they have their redeeming features: you can drink good wine (eg Burgundy!), eat fine cheese (eg pont l’eveque!), and have extramarital affairs with impunity (eg Mitterrand’s mistress standing next to his wife at his funeral!).

More importantly, as spice says, it’s good for kids to have a bilingual or multilingual upbringing…our society would be a lot more open, sophisticated, international and generally un-Westie if more kids had such educational opportunities. Pandy – good point, we SHOULD have other bilingual schools…it’s happening (eg with language classes at some preschools etc) but not fast enough.

By the way, on Pandy’s point, I thought the school was funded by the French government, not ours??

Pandy said :

Why is the Government subsidising only French speakers? What about a Greek or Chinese school?

What the hell are you talking about?

Could you slow down, read the post and engage your brain for once?

Why is the Government subsidising only French speakers? What about a Greek or Chinese school?

spice said :

Anna Key said :

Could someone enlighten me on why a French school is needed? Or won’t our children get a balanced view on nuclear testing, bombing greenpeace, threatening NZ, screwing Australian farmers or capitulating to the Germans?

Research shows that children who are exposed to a bilingual upbringing are more open-minded and can see things in more than one light. I’m not saying the French are perfect

And neither was I. And I have actually lived there for a while as well

spice said :

Furthermore, Telopea is a Government school, the preschool is privately run. There’s no spare land at Telopea and the preschool doesn’t feed to Telopea either.

Strange, Red Hill is a government school, and the site at Griffith is government land. And as for not feeding into Telopea, what’s the point of a bilingual school if the second language stops at the end of preschool?

By the way, I don’t really care one way or the other about where the preschool goes. It just all seems odd to me.

Anna Key said :

Could someone enlighten me on why a French school is needed? Or won’t our children get a balanced view on nuclear testing, bombing greenpeace, threatening NZ, screwing Australian farmers or capitulating to the Germans?

Research shows that children who are exposed to a bilingual upbringing are more open-minded and can see things in more than one light. I’m not saying the French are perfect or that a French school is any better than any other nationality, but hopefully, children who attend the preschool will be a little more open minded than Anna Key, who evidently, has a closed mind, particularly in relation to the French. Maybe you should get out more.

And

housebound said :

Wihtout (sic) comment on the merits of this argument, there’s another series of unanswered questions here. Why couldn’t they stay at Red Hill? Was there suddenly something wrong with the building? Or, why not build at Telopea Park and have the whole campus a french K-10? And anyway, why does this one service get a clear shot at a prime site? Have others been allowed to bid for it?

Red Hill Primary require the extra space, as previously mentioned, the lease is up at the end of the year. Furthermore, Telopea is a Government school, the preschool is privately run. There’s no spare land at Telopea and the preschool doesn’t feed to Telopea either.

As for the land and whether it was open to other bids, I can’t comment, I don’t know.

“Could somebody also enlighten me as what makes a tree (namely those in Throsby Park) ‘highly significant’?”

Could someone enlighten me on why a French school is needed? Or won’t our children get a balanced view on nuclear testing, bombing greenpeace, threatening NZ, screwing Australian farmers or capitulating to the Germans?

neanderthalsis2:01 pm 11 Mar 10

Thoroughly Smashed said :

indigoid said :

FAPS is a spectacularly poor choice of acronym for a preschool in today’s times, though I’m sure it was perfectly innocent in 1969 when the establishment was founded

Reminds me of this similarly poor choice.

Nearly as good as the Clean Up National TV campaign.

Wihtout comment on the merits of this argument, there’s another series of unanswered questions here. Why couldn’t they stay at Red Hill? Was there suddenly something wrong with the building? Or, why not build at Telopea Park and have the whole campus a french K-10? And anyway, why does this one service get a clear shot at a prime site? Have others been allowed to bid for it?

So many quetsions, so few answers. All we have is this argy bargy over a few trees in a park.

Thoroughly Smashed12:03 pm 11 Mar 10

indigoid said :

FAPS is a spectacularly poor choice of acronym for a preschool in today’s times, though I’m sure it was perfectly innocent in 1969 when the establishment was founded

Reminds me of this similarly poor choice.

NIMBYs will whinge about anything, anywhere, anytime.
More reliably than The Goodies.

neanderthalsis10:22 am 11 Mar 10

indigoid said :

FAPS is a spectacularly poor choice of acronym for a preschool in today’s times, though I’m sure it was perfectly innocent in 1969 when the establishment was founded

I was just thinking the same thing. Maybe they have not become aware of it’s common interwebz meaning yet.

ACT Gov legislation ‘protects’ trees if they are a certain height or width at the trunk. A lot of the older trees in the park would meet that criteria. You can’t remove these without permission from the Conservator of Flora and Fauna (often a tough sell).

I would say it is a family group. Not to be confused with the Old Narrubundah Community Council Inc or the Griffith/Narrabundah Community Action Group (Splitters!!)

FAPS is a spectacularly poor choice of acronym for a preschool in today’s times, though I’m sure it was perfectly innocent in 1969 when the establishment was founded

It has leaves, branches etc and people like to complain about anything that comes up as it gives them something to do.

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