Joint Parent Class Representatives and PA Committee meeting 9th/10th March 2010

This report amalgamates the comments and discussions from both meetings.

Cindy van Velzen welcomed everyone and thanked them for attending the meetings. She invited comments and feedback from the class reps.

Forms and documents
It was requested that all forms and documents that are given to pupils to take home are also made available on the school website as a downloadable document, as sometimes the forms are lost or damage and cannot be filled out satisfactorily by the parents.

Summer holidays
The summer holidays are very long. This year the pupils have 9 weeks holiday and for some parents it is difficult to find adequate child cover for such a long period. Although it is not the school’s responsibility to provide child care during this time, it was suggested that some arrangements could be negotiated with the school to allow some child care to be offered for the first 2 or 3 weeks of the holidays. It was reported that ITU have already spoken to Frau Pavlicikova on this topic and this may be a possibility. There are many activity camps available in the Karlsruhe area and parents are advised to look on the internet for details. There are also details of tennis and other activity camps for ESK pupils already on the PA website. The PA reported that a suggestion has already been put to InterSport for providing camps for ESK pupils in the summer. Some Class reps expressed a need to coordinate ideas for camps and holiday child care and it was suggested that a working group be formed so that ideas and proposals could be centralised and distributed to ESK parents.

Any parents who wish to contribute and be part of the holiday activity camps and childcare cover working group, please contact the PA directly for details.

May holiday 2011
Concerns were expressed that the May, half-term holiday next year is only 4 days. This means that the students are required to come into school that week for a half day on Friday. It was questionable if this was practical.

Book lists
Once again class reps reported dissatisfaction with the book lists for each new year. Often the books are difficult to get, but the biggest concern was that many books are purchased and then never used. Although there is a second-hand book sale, not all pupils manage to get their books second-hand and parents are tired of purchasing expensive books which may never be used. It was requested that the school reviews the book list carefully each year to make sure that money is not unnecessarily spent by the parents.

First-Aid course in the Grundschule
Parents are required to pay 4.00€ per child to take part in a first aid course in the Grundschule. The PA will investigate why this is so, and what the money is used for.

Sex education
The school already has a sex education and sexual health programme for pupils in the Grundschule and Oberschule which fulfills the requirements of the European Schools’ syllubus. However, it was reported that this could be extended and a class representative informed everyone that sessions were available from an “Arztliche Gesellschaft” which had a successful and fun programme for 4th class GS. The proposal has already been presented to Frau Pavlicikova who was very positive about it. The Class reps expressed their support that this be investigated further.

Canteen
Parents are concerned about the general behaviour and noise in the canteen at lunch time. It was explained that there are 4 supervisors on duty at lunch to control the queues and to make sure that students behave properly and clear away their plates and trays. Some children need to be told repeatedly that bad behavior is unacceptable. A class rep from the Grundschule was concerned that some younger pupils are choosing to play instead of eating lunch and requested that teachers, as far as possible, check that all children do eat at lunchtime especially as the hot meals have been pre-paid. There is still disappointment that students who bring their own packed lunch are not allowed to sit with their friends in the canteen. It was pointed out that this was a worse problem for Oberschule and the school was requested to try to find a solution. The proposal for a longer school day to alleviate timetabling problems especially around the 6th, 7th and 8th lesson periods and the lunch break has been shelved for the time being and the school is investigating other solutions.

DVD films in school time
It was reported that some parents feel that there has been an increase in the use of non-educational DVD films in the classrooms, especially in the Grundschule. It is requested that this be monitored and activities other than DVD films be planned if necessary.

Lost Hours
Parents continue to be frustrated about the lack of information or warning about absent teachers that may affect their child’s class. Of course if a teacher is suddenly ill then there is little fore-warning, but for all other reasons the lack of information is frustrating. This is of serious concern to many parents, some of whom have started to keep their own records of missing teachers, reasons, and whether there is a teacher substitute or work set. Some parents expressed the opinion that this situation is becoming unacceptable and that they fear that the grades of the students are being adversely affected. The PA reported that they have been repeatedly asking for concrete statistics concerning missing teachers so that the problem can be seen in context and verified against the impressions that parents are getting. They hope that the school will be making this information available soon so that the severity of the problem can be rationally accessed.

The Class Reps were requested again to gather feed back from parents on any issues concerning the whole class. If necessary the class reps can consult with the language section reps in the PA committee. For “whole class” issues, the section rep will inform the PA committee directors and together work with the school to resolve any problems. The PA emphasized that it was important to follow these procedures.

Project Days and Open Day (24th April)
Cindy explained briefly what was planned by the PA for Open Day. There will be 2 coffee corners in Bau A and Bau B serving coffee, tea and water only and the PA International Café in the canteen. Scolarest is going to provide some hot food at midday and the International Café will have coffee and cake available from the PA. It is expected that the AbiBall committee of Class 6 will be providing refreshments in the lobby of the Oberschule building to raise funds for the Summer AbiBall. Cindy asked all class reps to let their parents know that cakes will again be requested for the Café as well as volunteers to help in the canteen.

Details of the Open Day will be available shortly on the PA website, and the contact name for the volunteers’ coordinator will be announced as soon as possible.

Cindy reminded everyone that all the money from the sale of cake and coffee is given back to the teachers to help run worthwhile projects for Project Days. She was very happy to announce that all the money raised from last year’s Open Day International Café as been used for projects this year, and that there are now over 21 projects planned for the Oberschule as well as many projects in the Grundschule.

Book Prizes
The PA was also excited to announce that this year there will be Book Prizes awarded to students in the Oberschule. The Book prizes will be awarded to students who have been picked by their teachers in recognition of hard work and extraordinary achievement. All parents are invited to attend the prize-giving ceremony in the Aula on Open Day. All details concerning the Book Prizes will be on the PA website soon.

EuroBoutique
The PA introduced a preview of some of the new t-shirts, sweat shirts and sport bags that will soon be available from the EuroBoutique. The items have the school logo on them and are in new colours which the PA hope the students will like. It is hoped that a preview of the new collection will be on show on the Open Day, and that a few items will also be available for purchase.

Interparents
Cindy was very pleased to announce that the PA’s vice president , Mrs Ana Gorey had been voted in as President of Interparents (for information about Interparents please go to the PA website). This is a great honour for ESK.

School Advisory Council (SAC)
The SAC has established 3 working groups to address the issues of “school spirit”, “pedagogical topics” and “communication”. The leaders of these 3 working groups are Mr Cooke (cookeh@eskar.org), Mr Sperl (sperlm@eskar.org) and Mr Roosegaarde (roosegaardef@eskar.org) respectively. The SAC is important as it consists of input from teachers and parents and provides the basis of the school development plan. All parents are invited to participate and if parents are interested in any of the working groups they can contact the group leaders directly by e-mail.

The first working group meetings have already taken place and the reports from the meetings are available for all to read. They are currently being translated. The next SAC meeting is planned for the beginning of May and will take place at 15.30. As this time is difficult for some parents with young children, Frau Pavlicikova has been requested to see if MOMI/NAMI can be made available for that afternoon if needed.

Oberschule Educational Council
The next OS educational Council is on the 29th April and the parents will be represented by the PA. The class reps were asked to collect comments and issues that parents may have for the agenda.

Class rep and parents’ evening
It was suggested in the past that there should be a parents’ evening at school when parents have the opportunity to discuss issues with each other and their respective class rep. However, it was felt that this would not be as useful as first thought, as there is only 3 months left of the school year, parents may object to yet another parents’ evening. It was proposed that such a meeting/discussion could be offered after a school parents’ evening in the Aula, so that only one journey has to be made. Grundschule parents and parents of Oberschule classes 1 - 3 are much more active in this respect and such an opportunity may be welcome.

Bullying in school
Some parents feel that the incidents of bullying in school seem to be on the increase. It was reported that 1E OS have been doing a programme in class specifically designed for this topic and the general felling from the parents in this class is that it has been successful. It was requested that the outline and plans for this programme be shared with other classes and the programme becomes a regular feature for all in the Oberschule.

The Grundschule already has the Harmonic Tower to help promote good social behaviour, but some parents do not feel that this is as successful as it should be. It was suggested that the sections should be encouraged to mix more even though it was accepted that this can be complicated to organise. It was pointed out that playground conflicts were not always immediately and satisfactorily resolved by the teacher on duty, and parents request more vigilance to ensure good behaviour between pupils during free play.

School lockers in the Oberschule
Parents have noted that students continue to carry all their books in their bags. When the students are quizzed about this, the usual answer is that the lockers are too far away and they have not time to go to them between lessons. Lockers for each year group are randomly scattered all over the building and students are choosing to stay together rather than go alone to a locker some way off. It was suggested that lockers should be grouped by year so at least students can stay with their friends when going to the lockers. This may alleviate some of the problems.

Italian Courses
The Italian government sponsors Italian courses for students from Kindergarten to class 3 in the Oberschule. These courses (1½ hours per session) are planned to start in September at ESK, and are free apart from the purchasing of books. If your children are interested, please look on the PA website for details or contact Letizia Dalle Donne by email: Letizia@dalledonne.de

May School Dance
To end the month and welcome in May Cindy announced the May School Dance (Tanz in dem Mai) - 30th April from 8 'till late - featuring the teachers’ band and the one-and-only Markus Zilly as DJ. Everyone is welcome and tickets will be available at the PA Stand on Open Day and at the PA office Wednesday mornings.

The PA committee assured everyone present that all the above comments and suggestions will be brought to the school management for their attention at the next available opportunity.

Cindy thanked everyone for their positive contribution in both meetings.

Participants:
PA committee - Cindy van Velzen, Nathalie Beroard-Barth, Christiane Sardain, Anja Bühner, Jacqueline Ribeiro, Barbara Weiner, Michel Messmer, Barbara Bellosa, Hamid Bateni, Letizia Dalle Donne, Ann Sierig, Sarah Winthrop

Class Representatives -Norma Wilcox (4E OS), Natalie Conte (5E GS), Nicole Müller-Goldschmidt (KG), Anne Buchel (3F OS), Beth Schultz (1E OS), Caroline McKoen (5E OS), Anja Strehle (1E GS), Beth Klawun (4E GS), Jutta Schöfer (2E GS), Regina Blumenröhe (2D GS), Lisa Starcevic (3E GS), Wendy Disch (4E OS), Verena Czaja (3D GS), Teresa Klusek (3D GS), Ellen Essen (2D OS), Elisabeth Herault (2F OS + 4F GS), Fotini Morakis (2F OS + 5F GS), Tatjana Griffith (5E GS + 2E OS), Christane Fallah (1F + 5F + 2F OS), Peggy Weir ( 3E OS), COrdula Schneider-Höflich ( 4D GS), Gaëlle Birocheau (3F), Marlene zur Oeveste (1F + KG F), Patricia Veer (2D GS)