Educational Council meeting (OS) 14 october 2008

Secondary School – 14 October 2008
Mario da Torre opened the meting

1. Communication between the school and parents. Trying to use as much as possible their IT system for this but apparently, if they try to send it out to all parents it won’t work so they send it to the class representatives who forward it on.
Try to use the loudspeakers (tanoi) less
Hugh Cooke says this is not necessary and very disturbing.. especially as they often only refer to a few people. It should only be used in emergency.
There is a big screen in the secondary school which should be used. Mario da Torre would like to get another one.
Cindy – how effective are the screens?
Student rep – Class teachers should also pass on the information too. Screens seem to be working.
Mr. da Torre – for on the spot information or during the day, the class teacher isn’t always there, the class isn’t always together.
ITU rep – is the goal to reduce the tanoi system as much as possible.
Website is also an important communication tool.
Ana asked that PA that they think of letting the PA know when they are sending out information as

2. Teachers
2 French maths teachers – Belgium has not filled posts
1 Englsih maths teacher - UK
1 Chemistry teacher – Ireland
English teacher (L2) and German teacher (L2) – charge de cours in crash course.

3 ways to help our pupils (learning support in all the subjects and from year 1 – 6 – limited number of hours) + crash course (cours de r’attrapage) new pupils in school for 2 years only second language either 2 hours extra week in class or 4 hours outside class. Eg. Pointless having a student with no second language in the class. Can be small group….
SEN (for pupils with learning disabilities and medical certificate)

Decision on the board of governors.. on the UK…
British inspector came on 13th – against having non native speakers..
45 teachers seconded teachers.. UK system – next year will be worse..
Swarls –
Only solution is to change the rules.. a Dutch colleague taught English (keep native speaker for languages and philosophy) should

3. a School trips
Last week year 6 school trips. 3 trips – Barcelona, Amalfi and Poland. All the pupils were well behaved. Barcelona trip teacher got flowers and a card..
Poland went very well… pupils were very happy.
Russia trip not approved as it was outside the EU… school exchange not trip..
ITU – how are these trips organised? Is it obligatory?
Two kinds of trips organised in this school – class trips (year 3 – tuscany – all the sections together) - Year 6 – school trip…teachers make sugestions.. .
It is compulsory.. in reality, we sometimes have pupils that don’t take part.
Ana Gorey – said that as we had to approve the trips it would be good to have a report afterwards with some

3b. School rules..
According to the school rules we cannot open the kids bag. Mr. da Torre would like to ask for permission to allow the security guards to be able to check the kids school bags if necessary. If a pupil has a strange bag they should be allowed to look into. Nobody here is a professional but the security guard are.
Two pupils found knuckle dusters. Handed it into the security guard who gave it to the police who came to talk to the pupils concerned.
Hugh Cooke – must have reasonable cause and not arbitrary.
Student rep – go together to the director. It must be seen as a a tool for power or opression.
Blandine – could be someone from the school that is responsible – everyone has no problem opening their bag.
Ana Gorey – cannot believe that we have gone from no security whatsoever to now imagining senarios as tragic as Finland or the USA. Can we have a workshop on security isses so as to deal with the issues in a preventative manner.
Mr. Singer - we live in the safes place part of the world. The discussion is ridiculous. Only the police have the right. These problems cannot be solved by security but by edcuation..
Monique – not a hysterical matter – it is a good idea to have a workshop on security but it should take place soon. We are in the school and we see it daily and now that we have the security system this is a good moment to have a security workshop.
If this happens the incident should be recorded and with someone else from management and it must be a lady that opens a girl’s bag.
Hugh Cooke – could be done in the ethics class.

The security guard must have:
- reasonable clause
- do it in the presence of someone from management
- every incident recorded so that there can be some oversight

Mr. Zaidi - Ttime factor and a problem needs to be solve
On very shaky ground.
Stealing going on at school and we can’t check
Need the admin board agreement to authorise the schoolto open or not kids bags.
We are on German ground and we have pupils who are over 18 years old and the parents authority is not enough.

Parents will see what happens in other schools from Interparents and the Direction will see with management.
No decision

3 – Statistics – will send it electronically…

3 d. Learning support
6 pupils for L1
14 – language 2
29 – language 3
4 – language 4
27 – maths
12 – chemistry
history

103 pupils – with LS
61% got more than 6 grade
39%

success rate
83% in language 1
100% in language 2
52 in language 3
75 – lang 4
41 manths
67%
67%

Mr. Zaidi has been a big help..

Mr. da Torre arrive in 2004 – in Secondary school – slide show
61 PC
145 now..

1 teachers staff room now 2
2 itc rooms now there are 3

internet in all rooms.. Wifi in staff room.. limited only there

franco belgium room… roter platz
Dr. Deamer has an English centre.. 3 floor..
Teacher’s can come up with other ideas

Imporoving our information system.. screen / display.. missing teachers..
Also one in the staff rooms for

Foreseen to also have one in the admin building and 2 in primary.

2009 - need to renew some rooms – tables, chairs and white poards, pin boards…
absence registration system – access to parents.

2010 – 2011
bemer per classroom
smart board

student rep… some teachers

Admin board
- new commission representatives were very impressed by the school.. need to treat the school in a different way..
-

Parents points
Some of the points have already been dealt with..

Security letter
Lego – still looking for houses…

40 families for Eurosport – still need 130 host families..
already booked the youth hostel…
around 400 pupils..

ITU rep - does it have to be parents – or our ITU colleagues might be interested.
Mr. da Torre – usually only people connected with school –
40,000 euros budget.

Security cards
Classes 1-3 only get red car – caged in but in fact their schedules
It is the older classes that do their shopping

Yellow cards only allow to go earlier or later … not allowed to leave during the breaks.
Can system be revised. Yellow card means.

Mr. da Torre - Duty to control these students. Parents will be the first to complain if there is a problem with their child.
ITU – was it different before? Yes, year 1,2,3 used to be able to have yellow cards..
Ana Gorey – is a “derogation” possible for certain families for example when they live close by and they wish to go home for lunch.
Mr. da Torre – said that this is possible but there is no need to change the rule.

Permanance
Absent teachers don’t leave work…
For the regular ones.. is it a quiet room.. ? Mr. Da Torre - Not as quiet as a class room..

Secondary school class teacher / parent
Bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla blab
Special year 5 meeting every year.
The teachers who come around maybe only have a few kids in the class.
Next parents evening.. they are one day after another.. this is
Presentation of the new teachers could be done in centrally
Put some ideas down.. staff are also not satisfied about how things go

Teachers - e-mails

Ideas

- 3 educational councilors…

linked to number of pupils… 200

% pupils that have different needs…