ESK JOINT EDUCATIONAL COUNCIL 4.06.09

4 June 2009

Present:

Management − Tom Hoyem, Mário da Torre, Dana Pavličíková

Staff representatives – Monique Delveau, Hugh Cooke,

Teachers (upper school): Mrs. Lunkenheimer , Mr. Farret, Mr. Portalupi

Teachers (lower school): Eugene Vooreman, Frau Ravidat, Louis Abson, Frau Gabriel

PAS: Mr. Saidi

ITU: Jacqueline Ribeiro

Parents: Cindy van Velzen, Ana Gorey, Sarah Winthrop

Student: Julius Classen

Mr. Hoyem, Director, welcomed everyone to the meeting which had a rather heavy agenda including several presentations. Guests were welcome and their items would be taken first so as to allow them to leave if they so wished.
1. Adoption of the Agenda

The agenda (Appendix 1) was adopted with a decision to take item 4 and 7 together as well as to take into consideration the timing for the various presentations: conflict prevention, security and canteen.

2. Approval of the minutes of the last Joint Education Council 16 September 2008

The minutes of the Joint Educational Council from September 2008 had not been sent out and therefore could not be approved. Meeting minutes should not just be a formality to be produced before the next meeting but an important working tool throughout the year taking into account and implementing decisions. The Parents Association agreed to take tody’s minutes.
3. Information from the Director

Mr. Hoyem informed the Committee that the new Kita will open October 2010 for 0-3 years old. Another major school project was the planned boarding school facility for 2011. Two letters were distributed - an offer from Reitinstitut Egon von Neindorff- Stiftung for cooperation with ESK and information on the “Internationaler Altionstag am 22 September Mobil aum Ziel – Ohne Auto in die Schule und in den Kindergarten”. (see e-mail attchments)

4. Transport and Timetable + 7. Canteen

Mario da Torre introduced a proposal to extend the school day by 10 minutes i.e. end school at 3:40 not 3:30, in order to alleviate canteen difficulties. The idea to change this situation was to create a second hour for lunch break. Hence, Years 1, 2 and 3 would lunch during 5th period and Years 4, 5, 6 and 7 in 6th period. Dana Pavlicikova explained that the aim was to provide a calm quiet period when kids can eat their lunch

However, this new arrangement would pose a little problem with the transport as the school tram and buses would have to leave 5 minutes later and the students would only have 5 minutes to get there. Lisa Meyer explained the situation from the point of view of the transport committee. Of course, school transport could leave 5 minutes later but even such a short delay would mean that the school tram would leave after Tram 4 and would therefore have to stop behind it at all the stops rather than just stoping the required ones. It would also mean that the buses would have to catch up their timetable but cutting out some of their stops.
Jacqeline Ribeiro, ITU, felt that to take a decision at this point was too late for the new school year especially in view of the changes Mrs. Meyer had said would be necessary regarding bus timetable and stops. As it was, there is not enough time to get the tram as kids needed to leave their books in the locker. Sometimes they even missed their buses.
Mr. Portalupi, representing the teachers, said he could not speak on their behalf as he had not had an opportunity to speak to them. From a didactical point of view it would be better to have all the lessons for 45 minutes as many of the classes, not only the ones during the lunch period, were 35 minutes in reality. However, it was a bit late to organise something for September and also felt that the Upper school pupils were not the main users of the canteen.

Ana Manfrin, explained that as canteen duties are done by teachers the new arrangement would need two sets of supervisors which would probably mean extra people would need to be found. She felt that this issue needed to be discussed among the wider school community.

Cindy van Velzen, President of the Parents Association, speaking personally as so far parents had not been consulted, said that her children take the tram and although it was only a 5 minute delay leaving school in reality it would mean an extra 10/15 minutes by the time they got home and, like many families, they were already rushing to afterschool activities. In addition, it seemed precipitous in view of the organisational changes the new canteen would bring and that it would be better to wait to see what happens. Maybe make the timetable change after Christmas.
Lisa Meyer agreed with Mrs. Ribeiro that 5 minutes to get to the bus was unrealistic and if teachers started to let them out early, they would all be rushing to get the no.4 tram home which would defeat the purpose of having a school tram.

Mario da Torre, said that the change could only occur at the beginning of the school year the time table was a very complex. Mr. Hoyem said that the management would take into consideration what has been said when making their final decision.

5. Vermeidung von Gewalt ( Frau Harsch-Schmutzer, Frau Pap, Frau Weber-Schön)
The first presentation of the meeting was regarding an offer to promote conflict counseling within the school. For the full presentation see Appendix 2.
Sarah Winthrop, Parents Association asked what measures were already in place at school. Mr. Hoyem said that for the moment it is the school that deals with conflicts with parents. Occasionally, these can be quite dramatic, once with two parents fighting in front of the entrance they had to call the police as there was a gun. However, these were rare and the school has to react differently depending on each situation. As for the children in Primary, he reminded everyone about the Harmonic Tower in Primary.. happy hands don’t hurt, walk don’t run.. Where there are special situations (we have professionals come in and discuss things.

Dana Pavlicikova informed everyone of the in-service training for teachers and that they had worked on an anti-bullying policy which will be presented in their pedagogical meeting next week.

Mario da Torre underlined the aspect of pastoral care with class teachers and also special teachers in a listening group. He didn’t think that Secondary school was a paradise but there were not many visible cases of bullying and no bullying problems at the moment. Ana Manfrin didn’t want to minimise the problem and said they tried to deal with things immediately.
Claudia Papp, underlined that their programme is meant to deal with the non-visible violence and that effective help should start before not once bullying has been found out. It was supposed to be preventative. Eugene Voorneman asked if they worked with kids to which she replied that they prefer to work with adults. In practical terms the best would be for it to be done on a pedagogical day if there is sufficient interest.

Mr. Hoyem said that over the last 25 years he had been headmaster in four different countries and has mainly recognised two differences – today, society is changing and people expect more, when the doctor says they are sick, they want a second opinion, same for the lawyers and same if they don’t like the maths teacher or their kid is getting bad grades. Only two differences is that the violence starts earlier.. and the parents are more demanding.
6. Security (Herr Dannenmaier)

Mr. Dannenmaier announced that there would be a new security company for next year which will remain for three years. He welcomed the current company, who gave a brief presentatino on security matters, thanked them for their hard work and regretted that we couldn’t keep them but that is the problem when one has to go to tender.

Town is preparing a plan for all the schools in the Region for when there is an “amok” or school shooting but the school also needs its own plan.
8. Information aus der Oberschule (Herr Da Torre)
Mario da Torre reported on the academic year (see Appendix 3) thanking his team for all their hard work and in particular his new team of Pedagogical Advisors, Pastoral care and psychological service, the EuroSport team led by Matteo Guerra, the Careers Advice programme and a number of International events (MEP, MUN and the Plato Project). Improvements had been made in lower numbesr of missing hours and more replacement teachers as well in the passage from the primary to the secondary.

In addition to all the regular activities of the school year and the school trips foreseen in the regulations there were a number of interesting and very enriching outings closely connected with the syllabus, including a trip to Barcelona and again a week-end skiing and he asked parents to realise that they were not compulsory and depended on the good-will of the teachers.
Huge Cooke reported on the progress of the School Development Group who have been looking ways to improve the school in small areas that improve daily life. This is not to say that there are problems with how we are doing it now but it is always good to have a fresh look at things. The idea is to have an open forum to exchange ideas and come up with small concrete practical ways of implementing improvements. Discussion with an objective. Following the first meeting the Group decided to focus on the transition between lower and upper school and have written a paper with proposals which has been submitted.

The Parents Association welcomed the School Development Group and expressed its appreciation of this initiative. We all have ideas and the question is “where should they be discussed?” There have been many suggestions and requests during meetings like this Education Council.. such as improvements to the permanence room, project days, 6th year trip, missing hours and lost days end of school year, absenteism (student and teachers), learning gateway + ICT, but to name a few..

9. Information vom Kindergarten und der Grundschule (Frau Pavličíková)
Dana Pavličíková looked back at a the number of projects which were undertaken by the primary. One new project was research using fish. Primary had been involved in a number of sports events: marathon, swimming. Athletics. There had been inspections including that of “discovery of the world” whose report was very good and UK Sport inspection. She thanked her colleagues for all their work and effort and announced the teachers for next year. There were no seconded teachers for one kindergarten and Year 4 primary post. German kindergarten class would be split.
Dana Pavličíková thanked the PA for their cooperation and financial support also for EuroJunior and for families in need. She also thanked Etoile Education and looked forward to their sponsored bike ride / Bike Festival at the beginning of next year.

10. Parents Association

Ana Gorey, Vice-president, introduced the ESK parents associations work over the last year and reported on their main objectives for the year: three C’s – Communication, Canteen and Community. She thanked Cindy van Velzen, President, for all her time, energy and hard work in revitalising the parent’s association.

Communication has been our main priority. To better communicate with parents we have produced a regular noticeboard thanks to Sarah Winthrop in particular and all our work has been translated into the three working languages. The noticeboard is only an interim step before the launch of our new website. TACOffice has been chosen and we hope that before the beginning of next year the site will be up and running. One of the main features will be a calendar.

The Canteen had been a challenge and the Parents Association has worked hard alongside the Canteen Committee to bring about change. We are delighted with the choice of Scolarest and next year the challenge will be to ensure that everything runs smoothly and that the children and parents are happy with the new system.

A sense of Community was enhanced by our efforts to reconnect with the parents and in particular the class reps. This we did at the February dinner, through EuroSport and have continued with several meetings and this will continue next year.

Following our first year we have made mistakes, learnt a lot and have a number of ideas for next year which we will present in an open letter to Mr. Hoyem and to the School Development Group.

Canteen Presentation - Scholarest (Mr Ehman)

Scolarest did a presentation of the new canteen system. Parents and teachers had been invited to participate. Mr.Ehman presented his team (including a former pupil from the European school) and what they had to offer food wise and the philosophy behind it. He also presented the organisational aspects including different payment schemes, which gives parents more flexibility as well as allowing anyone who wants canteen for the day. The presentation will be sent out to parents shortly with an explanation..

 

 

19.05.2009/bb

 

Einladung

zur Sitzung des Erziehungsrates für Kindergarten, Grundschule

und Oberschule am Donnerstag, dem 04. Juni 2009, 15.45 Uhr

im Konferenzraum, Verwaltungsgebäude

Tagesordnung

1. Genehmigung der Tagesordnung
2. Genehmigung des Protokolls der Sitzung des Erziehungsrates für Kindergarten, Grundschule und Oberschule vom 16. September 2008

3. Information des Direktors (Herr Høyem)

4. Transport und Stundenplan (Herr Høyem, Herr Da Torre und Frau Meyer)

5. Vermeidung von Gewalt ( Frau Harsch-Schmutzer, Frau Pap, Frau Weber-Schön)
6. Sicherheit (Herr Dannenmaier)
7. Mensa (Eltern, Frau Pavličíková)

8. Information aus der Oberschule (Herr Da Torre)

9. Information vom Kindergarten und der Grundschule (Frau Pavličíková)

Schuljahr 2008/2009 – wichtige Projekte, Events
Schuljahr 2009/2010 – Lehrer, Klassen
Kooperation mit ITU und der Elternvereinigung

10. Punkte der Elternvereinigung

Parents’ Association cooperation with the school
Big party at the beginning of the school year
Communication with parents
Role of class representatives
Information on school issues (SEN, L2, transition to upper school, class issues, bullying, etc.)
Support of teachers’ needs
School and class activities
Promotion of school events – Christmas concert / Sports Day / Open Day / Project Days

11. Verschiedenes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. J. Mário da Torre

Head Secondary School

European School Karlsruhe
Pedagogical Advisors – new team

Excellent integration and adaptation to the new tasks by Mrs Roos De Quit;

Not only due to her capacities but also due to the team work from the other Educational advisors.

Due to the reduction of the number of Pedagogical Advisors

– teachers supervising the permanence and replacement of any advisor missing.

Satisfactory system as a whole. (the permanence)

My appreciation and gratitude to the Pedagogical Advisors team.

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Following our main goal, which is: providing a good quality teaching together with a solid education and personal development, I’m happy to say that also in this school year there were some improvements:

* A lower number of missing periods, with a higher number of replacements

* A new system of supervision in the permanence room

* A better organization of the outings, so as not to disrupt the school day (still far from ideal)

We went on with our internal projects:

Pastoral care and psychological service

Careers advice *

Passage from the primary to the secondary

School trips

Open door day

* A special reference to the Careers Advice programme, to mention the excellent cooperation we had from the local Rotary Club, which provided the school with an extraordinary information evening in which our students had the opportunity of talking to members having a wide range of jobs. These Rotary Club members with various professional activities sacrificed their spare time to come and spend an evening with us. My gratitude also goes to the colleagues who organized not only this evening but the whole programme.

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We took part in several international events:

MEP – Model European Parliament in Brussels

MUN – Model United Nations in Athens and in Munich

The Plato Project involving schools in Germany, Romania and Denmark, with an whole week in our school developing a common project dealing with lego robots.

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Participation of the school in several sports events:

All the competitions and tournaments in which the German schools in Karlsruhe were involved;
Organization of EUROSPORT

– a big success all over – an enormous amount of work and effort, if you think of the size of our school.

Families were extremely cooperative, teachers worked hard, students did their best to succeed – 3rd place for Karlsruhe.

I would like to thank those who contributed to the success of Eurosport, with a special mention to Mr Guerra.

I would like to use this opportunity to thank all the families who cooperated.

We went on trying to educate our students in the principles of solidarity and awareness of what is going on in the world outside, with the BURUNDI project, this time with the visit of the Minister of Education of Burundi, who personally came to visit the school and thank the school for its contribution.
With a similar goal we repeated the Christmas action to help the homeless in Karlsruhe.
Also here I would like to thank all the teachers involved in these projects.

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The passage from the primary to the secondary school was the object of some improvements, but in its essence the programme proved to be effective and the secondary school is already confirming its results.

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Last but not least, and on top of all the regular activities of the school year and the school trips foreseen in the regulations there were a number of interesting and very enriching outings closely connected with the syllabus, including a trip to Barcelona and again a week-end skiing.

I would like the parents to realize that these activities are not compulsory; they depend on the good-will of the teachers.