PA Report of the 28th January Admin Board meeting

Frau Christmann opened the meeting and welcomed everyone to ESK.

Herr Hoyem announced that this year Karlsruhe was the UNICEF city for Germany and it was the city’s goal to collect 300,000Euros for various UNICEF charities. As parents are already aware ESK has a partner school in Burundi where 7 teachers are sponsored by ESK. 38,000Euros have already been donated to this cause. Herr Hoyem was happy to see how socially aware the students of ESK were and fully supported the latest fund raising events for the Haiti appeal. Herr Hoyem introduced a thesis written by an Oxford university MPhil student which suggests that many more children of the European School system regard themselves as Europeans than children from national schools. This was to be welcomed as this was one of the goals of the ES when they were founded in the 1950s. Herr Hoyem also welcomed the continuing support from ITU, EIFER and others, and was happy to announce that the building of the new KITA (nursery) was underway and due to open in the Autumn 2010. This project was being financed by the City of Karlsruhe and Herr Hoyem was very pleased to be working closely together with them in this project, and he hoped that the children who are enrolled in the KITA continue their school at ESK in the future. Herr Hoyem reminded everyone of the support from the City of Karlsruhe and how lucky the school is to have this for the benefit of all the pupils attending ESK.

Secondary School
Herr Da Torre reported that Baccalaureat exams were underway at the moment. There was concern about the lack of seconded teachers from Italy for next year, but a solution has been found to prepare the Italian students in their Bac. year. Herr DaTorre also mentioned projects that students were involved in that increased their social awareness, namely the successful collection of money shortly before Christmas for the homeless.

Primary School
Frau Pavlicikova reported that there have been some good pedagogical projects done in the Grundschule, including the choir, dance and other stage productions. She pointed out that there are now 10 European mother-tongue languages being taught in the Grundschule, and all of the pupils involve need intensive support, especially in the initial stages. 2 posts for seconded teachers from Britain have not been sent, and this is currently being covered by locally recruited teachers, but of course this is a great drain on the budget.

Administration
Herr Dannenmaier reported that the security personnel have had special training to deal with fire or violent intruders. It is expected that the Canteen Committee with the new members, will have its first meeting in February.

Board of Governors
Frau Christmann reported that this is a transitionary year for the newly introduced School Advisory Council (SAC). Tools are being developed to help the schools in the Reform process, especially in achieving autonomy and establishing a school development plan. These tools will allow effective evaluation and on opportunity to compare school to help identify problems in the European School system. The opening up of the European School system very important and there are already 5 - 6 type III schools planned, the first being situated near Frankfurt. The opening up of the European School system gives the opportunity for an european education for all. However it was noted that with the enlargement of the EU, the number of students without a language section (SWALS) has also increased and consideration has to be given to mother-tongue teaching.
Frau Christmann also congratulated Mr Da Torre on his promotion to Director of Varese.

Student representative
Frederic Freitag reported that the students were happy with the canteen, but requested that sandwiches and other snacks be provided for those who do not have time to go to the canteen. He regretted that the ICT rooms seemed to be be shut so often as there was no alternative for those who need to use the computers for work. He also said that students wished that there were more opportunities for social events at the school.

Teacher representative
Frau Stricker reported that the teachers had no comments, other than to request that smokers remained outside the school grounds in the designated smoking area.

Parent Association
Mrs van Velzen reported that the feeling of community in the school was improving and this was partially due to the work the PA has done over the past year. Events such as the Summer fest, welcome-back party and Etoile Education bike-ride, the successful EuroSport, inter-school competition, have helped build up the community spirit and she hoped this would continue. She was pleased to announce that due to the generosity of parents’ cake donations at last year’s Open Day, the PA has €2000 to give to the school in the form of funding support for this year’s project days. Teachers were invited to apply for funds using the application form which can be down-loaded from the PA website. The PA committee is also planning a special parents’ evening for class reps and parents, to discuss school issues and to get feed-back that will be useful for meetings such as the SAC meetings as well as a New Year’s party for parent class reps, teachers and staff.
Mrs van Velzen also voiced concern about school policies on repeating years, difficulties that SWALS coordinators are experiencing due to insufficient time, and Category II fees and contracts. She is aware that these issues are also being discussed at Interparents as they impact all 14 European schools.

Mr Hoyem said that the question of repeating years was difficult as there were strong cultural differences on this matter. However he is sure that in today’s tough economic climate, the cost of repeating is very expensive and alternatives such as learning support are being examined as a cheaper, effective solution. Ms. Bjerregaard pointed out that repeating a year often resulted in lack of motivation and reduced self-confidence for the student concerned. Mrs Christmann said there was no general philosophy about the benefits of repeating a year, but hoped that the new working group that has been set up specifically to look into this issue, will come up with recommendations.

ITU
Mrs Ribeiro said there was good communication with the school, and the recent visit for secondary teachers was very successful. More visits are planned. The school is very important to ITU because of recruitment mobility and new employees have younger children requiring places in the kindergarten and new nursery. Mrs Ribeiro also expressed ITU’s concerns about the French section and Mr Hoyem reassured everyone that the French section was a core part of the school and the management’s focus is to increase the numbers of pupils and strengthen the section over the coming years.

Etoile Education
Ms. Bjerregaard, Vice-President of Etoile Education reported that Etoile Education was arranging a meeting for category II families within the framework of the SAC for feed-back and comments about contracts and fees. They too had some concerns about the French section as they don't wish to find at ESK the same pedagogical attitudes they left the French educational system for. It should not be forgotten that families from Strasbourg have taken on a big commitment because of the amount of travelling involved. Herr Hoyem pointed out that there are many students that come to Karlsruhe from as far away as Heidelberg and Stuttgart as well as Strasbourg. He also emphasised the fact that ESK was unique amongst the 14 ES as it has almost 30% category II pupils and this has consequences for the school. Etoile Education remarked that with the school in Strasbourg, there was more awareness about European Schools. Also, as the Strasbourg school cannot currently provide mother tongue and SEN programmes, many families would continue to opt for Karlsruhe. Mrs Christmann re-iterated that although mother-tongue teaching was very expensive, it remains the core philosophy of the European schools.

The budget for the next school year was discussed and it was clear that the school will have to make some priorities in order to stay within the budgetary framework as set by Brussels. The Administrative Board agreed to support the request for an extra administrative post as from January 2011.

Mrs Christmann thanked everyone for their reports and comments, and brought the end to the open part of the Administration Board meeting.

Participants of the meeting:

(Members)
Mrs Renée CHRISTMANN, Secretary General of the European Schools and Chairman of the
Administration Board of the European School Karlsruhe
Mr Etienne PAQUAY, Representative of the European Commission
Mr Tom HØYEM, Director of the European School Karlsruhe
Mrs Doris STRICKER, Deputy CdP representative for the Secondary at ESK
Mrs Ghislaine SPENLE, CdP representative for Kindergarten and Primary at ESK
Mrs Cindy VAN VELZEN, President of the Parents’ Association
Mrs Sarah WINTHROP, Member of the Parents’ Association
Mr Ahmed SAÏDI, PAS Representative at ESK

Further Participants (in alphabetical order):

Dr Frédéric BARON, Representative of EIfER
Mrs Merete BJERREGAARD, Representative of Etoile Education
Mrs Chantal BRÄUNSDORF, Representative for the CdC
Mrs Brigitte BRAUNSCHWEIG, Secretary of the meeting
Mr Michael DANNENMAIER, Bursar at ESK
Mr Mario DA TORRE, Deputy Head of the Secondary at ESK
Mr Joachim FRISCH, Deputy Director of the Department for Schools and Sports of the    city of Karlsruhe
Mr Frédéric FREITAG, Pupil Representative
Mr Torsten GÖHLER, Auswärtiges Amt, Berlin
Mrs Ana GOREY, Representative of Etoile Education
Mr Albert KUHN, Chief Assistant to the Secretary General of the European Schools
Mrs Dana PAVLIČÍKOVÁ, Director for Kindergarten and Primary
Dr Jacqueline RIBEIRO, Representative of ITU, Research Centre of the European
Commission
Mrs Nadine VERHOEVEN, Representative of the European Commission