PA JOINT COMMITTEE / CLASS REPS MEETING 25 March 2009

Wednesday, 25 March 2009

Cindy Van Velzen, President, welcomed the Committee members and Class Representatives to their first joint meeting. There had been a parrallel meeting that morning in order to try to accommodate all the Class Reps (some can make the mornings and others the evenings).

Cindy updated every one on the sucess of Eurosport. The Sports Inspector had been present and had left very impressed by the event. Some of the highlights were that the whole school was able to go cheer on Thursday; the ZKM cultural event; Finals Day. Cindy thanked all those who had been involved: sports teachers, City of Karlsruhe and the police escort, Transport, Canteen and Hostfamilies. She said that it had been a steep learning curve and that we had learnt a lot. The PA would be preparing a note so that we could draw some conclusions from the experience.

Ana Gorey gave a quick account of the Committee for Administration and Finance of the Board of Governors which she had attended the previous week as INTERPARENTS and also of the European Parliament Public Hearing on “the European schools: a model for mobility and multilingualism” – Thursday 19 March 2009.

However, the main item for the Joint Meeting was in order to prepare for the Education Councils. There was a continuation of the disucssion on L2 which had already started at the previous meeting 9 March 2009 and where Nicola Thomspen was asked to form a working group on Second Language issues. An interesting discussion followed her brief summary of the problem:

- different language levels in the class ranging from bilingual kids to complete beginners with every variation between those extremes
- secondary school requirements are demanding especially as of year 3
- L2 problems are not the same across the language sections
- parental profile and attitudes vary with some being mother tongue and others with no knowledge at all
- parental expectations differ, often they are not aware of the problems their kids have learning in other languages and sometimes even functioning in another language
- teaching L2 is vey different from L1 teaching
- with different levels of language and ability needs for differentiated teaching

Primary school problems are different from secondary school and by first solving these there might be less problems later but there will always be new students. School management had to accept children with no languages because there are no other alternative in the area. Often they came from all over the world and many different cultures. In an ideal world, immersion might mean they would pick it up. There is language support but is usually not enough. Crash courses can be provided for first two years at he school. Some new students have no problem and adapt.. others have almost a psychological problem because it is totally alien.. some then withdraw.. some kids have to listen for years and then suddenly they start talking other start immediately. Teachers needed training and experience to manage all these complexities. Separation by language level was not likely as is not done in any of the European shools which all have simillar problems. Luxembourg and Karlsruhe (Dutch section phasing out) are the only exceptions.

Other items which Class Reps felt needed to be raised at the Eductional Council were discussed and included those which had already been raised at the morning meeting:

- Elections for Student representative took place in March. This election should have taken place at the beginning of the school year. This election is important as COSUP (student equivalent of INTERPARENTS) is very active. Most of the student body is not prepared for this. They needed help preparing this either directly or as part of an educational programme on democratic participation. Did such a programme exist? What about MEP (only L1 or L2 English students involved). One propsal was that those teaching political science should also add this to their duties. i.e. 6th year political citizenship

- Common room for year 7 got vandalised. There are 80 students in year 7 and they need their space for study and recreation. It seems that everyone know who the culprit is and yet there is a collective punishment. Why is this? If there are school rules, what are the consequences?

- Security – very important but good behaviour in student should come from having respect for their school, teachers, fellow pupils. How about the Harmonic tower in Secondary school?

- Missing teaching hours – A parent had drawn out attention to the fact that there have been over 70 hours since September for year 7. This was deemed unacceptable.

- Italian section year 5 – half the children will have to redo the year and some even for a second time. Were there any structural reasons for this?

- Project days / Open doors day – what had happened to project days in Secondary school?

The PA Committee urged Class Reps to get their parents to give positive as well as negative feedback on the issues they were concerned about and stressed the importance of representing parents views.

The Official opening of the Canteen was planned for Friday 24 March 2009. Still no progress towards having a new canteen company. Desipite numerous requests for information on the functioning and financing of the Canteen Committee, the PA so far had not received anything only stalling, blocking and downright refusal. There was a heated discussion on the lack of transparency and on the need for urgent action. It was inevitable that costs were going to go up using a professional company rather than a non-profit association, however, what the advantages and disadvantages were could only be discussed on the basis of knowing how things are currently run, for how many pupils, and what is need to make the change. Aside the finances, there were also organisational issues which needed to be explored such as two sittings, electronic canteen cards, computerised ordering, less food waste, etc.