PA COMMITTEE MEETING REPORT 4 March 2009

Wednesday, 4 March 2009

Prior to the ESK PA Committee meeting, the ESK Parents’’ Association held its first meeting with Class Reps. Cindy Van Velzen, President, thanked many of them for having attended PA Committee dinner that the PA hosted on Friday 13 February 2009 which had been aimed at presenting the new PA team to class reps, teachers and staff and providing an informal opportunity for everyone to get to know each other. The evening had been very successful with dancing continuing past midnight! However, the real work started now. The meeting with Class Reps mainly outlined how the European Schools system (www.eursc.eu) and Interparents (www.interparents.eu) work. There was a brief discussion on the Reform of the European schools system, the challenges of a multilingual curriculum and particularly Second Language teaching, and an ESK PA working group was set up. Cindy Van Velzen, thanked everyone for coming, she was sorry they didn’t have more time to discuss all the issues but the idea was that that these meetings would be regularly held prior to the PA Committee meetings or sometimes even in conjunction with the Committee meetings. A joint meeting of the PA/Class Reps was foreseen for the 25 March at 6pm Admin Building to prepare for the Educational Council.

Cindy Van Velzen, updated the PA Committee on preparations for EuroSport 2009. We had reached our target for host families, our major challenge, and continued to work on the preparations for the ZKM event and EuroSport Finals Day. This sounded easier than it was as there was no overall coordination or leadership. The PA continued its efforts to make this an inclusive event by encouraging the whole school to come and support the Karlsruhe Team, final day starting at 11am and ending around 5:30pm with the Prize giving Ceremony and Host Family Tombola. Having families around for the finals day was an good opportunity for Class Reps to raise money for their class or section fund by providing food, etc. So far, the French Section planned a wine and cheese stand and the Student Social Committee, drinks.

Cindy Van Velzen informed the Committee of the excellent working relations with TACoffice marketing company and our satisfaction with their work, printed material and EuroSport website which was our main communication tool for this event. Also, the Student Reporters were doing a great job providing material for the website and for the ZKM video clip and we would have to think about how to reward their efforts.

Until such a time as the PA website was up and running, Sarah Winthrop had started the PA notice board in order to keep Class Reps and parents informed. It was felt that this probably also ought to be sent to teachers as well as management.

Finally, the PA Committee board again requested that the Canteen Committee send in writing the report on financial and operational functioning on several occasions by the Parents Association as well as the latest developments regarding the change in canteen provider. The PA made clear that it could no longer accept to work without information in writing.

Next meeting – Wednesday 25 March 2009 starting at 6:30pm.