PA bureau and ESK management team report 4 June 2009

Thursday, 4 June 2009, 9-10:30am

Present:
Mr. Hoyem, Mr. da Torre, Mrs. Pavličíková, Brigitte Braunschweig.
Cindy van Velzen, Ana Gorey

On Thursday 4 June, Cindy van Velzen, President of the Parents Association and Ana Gorey, Vice-President met with the Management Team, Director Mr. Hoyem, and his Deputy Directors, Mr. da Torre, Mrs. Pavlicikova, for an overview of the year and in preparation for the Joint Education Council later that day.

The Parents Association said that they were happy with the results of what had been a challenging year. We had managed to go a far way towards accomplishing our main objectives: Communication, Canteen and Community. TACOffice had been chosen to set up the new Parents Association website, which would be our major tool for communication replacing the interim “noticeboard”. A central part of the website would be the school calendar and all useful dates should be communicated as early as possible, not just the vacations days, so as to facilitate planning. Scholarest had been chosen as the new canteen caterers, which was a major step towards fresh food, more flexibility and clearer administrative and financial procedures.

The other issue – Community – establishing relations with management, teachers, class representatives and parents started this year with the PA dinner in February, EuroSport, our work with Class Reps and meetings like these. Time had gone by very quickly and we had hopefully laid the basis for a good start to the next year. We looked forward to continuing this next year with a big welcome back to school party, a PA General Assembly and a meeting in October with Class Reps and parents. Cindy van Velzen asked that the school be part of the “Rentree” event which would also include the Etoile Education Bike Ride and Bike Festival. Dana Pavličíková felt that this was a good idea as it was important to bring everyone together at the beginning of the year. As for the October Parents evening, the school would need to know when this would occur so as to make the necessary arrangements.

What was important was to establish a proper working framework (e.g. role of class reps, PA representatives on the Canteen Committee, general policies) to better understand and tackle the main issues. One of the issues which parents were concerned about, and which had emerged this year, was L2 and the PA, following discussion with management, had introduced a new multilingual after-school activity on a trial basis. Mario da Torre felt that the PA ought to have also spoken to the teachers to explain their intentions as it seems that this initiative had upset some of the teachers who had not appreciated the phrasing of the information sent to parents or understood the PA’s intentions.

Regarding this question of information flow, Brigitte Braunschweig asked about the “noticeboard” and other PA information that she received and asked to pass on. Cindy van Velzen explained that teachers had asked to also receive our information and we had thought it more appropriate go through management rather than sending it directly to them. Next year, with our new website this should no longer be a problem.

Mr. Hoyem said that there were a few items on the Joint Educational Council to discuss and asked Mario da Torre to introduce his proposal for a timetable change starting September 2009. Mario da Torre explained that in order to facilitate the timetable and to alleviate the canteen problems it was advisable to add an additional 10 minutes to the school day. Dana Pavlicikova said that the Canteen Committee had discussed this and it would ensure a calmer atmosphere for the children to eat their lunch. Cindy van Velzen pointed out that it might be better to wait and see how the new canteen caterers organised the canteen before making such a major change and disrupting the school transport system. She felt it was already going to be hard enough to introduce the new canteen company (and prices) to parents without adding this to it. Mr. Hoyem said that they would take an executive decision on what was best.

Ana Gorey asked when the reforms recently adopted by the Board of Governors such as the School Advisory Council (SAC) would be implemented in the school? Mr. Hoyem said that all the schools’ Directors would be discussing the reforms at their next meeting on the 22 June 2009. Ana Gorey said she was also going to be in Brussels shortly and had a meeting with the new Slovenian chairman prior to attending the CAF meeting mid June on behalf of Interparents.

Mr. Hoyem looked forward to the last major school event – the Summer Fete – and announced the date of the next Administration Board, 14 October 2009.