A Brief History of Our French-Australian School in Melbourne - 50 Years Since it all began!

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Corentin Trétout founded la Petite École de Melbourne in 1968.  As a French native father of a school-age girl, and working in Melbourne, he initiated the project along with other French parents.  Jacqueline Weiss was appointed as the first French teacher, she initially taught from a room in her own home. The primary school French program counted eight or nine children in its first year. Shortly after, the Petite École de Melbourne moved into two rooms at Lauriston in Malvern, but was operating independently.

 

After a series of relocations between 1972 and 1974, the school found a new home at Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School in East Prahran.  In 1973, 20 students were enrolled in the program.  Mr Trétout eventually moved back to France and was replaced by Alain Roger as President of the Parent Association.

 

A bad turn of events lead to the immediate eviction of the school in 1975.  It then relocated to Richmond Primary School, where it remained until 1985, to subsequently move to Auburn South Primary School.  Guided with various degrees of success by a series of Parent Association Presidents, the school had to eventually reach out to the French Ministry of National Education for assistance.

 

In 1987, La Petite École was taken on by AEFE (Agence pour l’Enseignement Français à l’Étranger).  Between 1988 and 1992, Michel Trinson, then Director, attempted to gain accreditation as a French-Australian school, but the negotiations were inconclusive.  With 30 primary school students in 1989-90, the school moved to Camberwell Primary.

 

The lack of numbers forced AEFE to close the school at the end of 1997.

 

L’École Française de Melbourne opened its doors the following year, in 1998 using rooms within Caulfield Junior College under the initiative of Catherine Lahaye, and a comity of parents and teachers. Originally established and driven by a passionate group of parents seeking to provide their children with an education that was both Australian and French, The first French Elective class consisted of a mere 15 students.  It proved to be an immense success, and ongoing demand for the program along with a desire to consolidate its future at the school led to the full integration of the FE into CJC in 2016. Never had such a large privately run bilingual program been integrated into a government school setting - a true testimony to the work, innovation and dedication of the many people who contributed to the success of a program that now boasts over 350 students.

 

Since January 2017, the French Binational Program has been governed by the leadership team at CJC on behalf of the Department of Education of Victoria.