PA report of Interparents Meeting 4/5.10.10 Brussels

Ana Gorey chaired the meeting. Ana said she was of the opinion that the Board of Governors and the Commission were determined to recuperate money and to impose cuts on the European schools at all costs. It was pointed out that some directors were pre-empting the cuts and had already started the process in their schools. The 2011 budget is still in its first reading in the European parliament and therefore has not yet been finalized. Interparents feel that smaller schools are under threat from possible future aggressive budgetary measures. Interparents regret that the department responsible for European Schools is Administrative-based and suggests that a pedagogical element in budgetary decisions is missing.

New marking scheme proposal
Mr Thorsen (Danish maths teacher) gave a presentation on the European Credits Transfer System (ECTS) and proposed that it should be adopted as it would make possible for the ES Baccalaureat marks to be converted to a mark that was a more accurate reflection of the Bac standards for the various European universities. This would be fairer for students applying to Higher education institutions throughout Europe. ECTS has already been successfully used by some member states for four years. However, in Mr Thorsen’s opinion, changes to the ES syllabi are needed and there will also have to be a revision of the BAC questions and marking schemes to allow assessment of objectives and competencies. Interparents felt, on the whole, unsure of the actual benefits of adopting such a scheme.

SEN
The SEN inspectors have produced a multi-annual plan which provides clear, transparent policy for parents and SEN coordinators. There will be common forms and harmonization of documentation. Any cuts in the SEN budget are totally opposed by Interparents. One proposal is that parents pay for therapists sessions which will take place out of school. However, Interparents are against this because there will be costs associated with independent therapists attending school coordination meetings, and team-work between teachers, parents and therapists will be reduced. A point of principle is that every SEN pupil is entitled to support, independent whether parents can afford to pay or not. Interparents are concerned that other solutions are not being explored. This is a topic that could be discussed at SAC meetings as there are budgetary implications.

2010 BAC report
Interparents found this a very useful document for highlighting weaknesses in pedagogical matters. Interparents suggested that the document was key in effective self-evaluation of schools. It was suggested that PAs should request that this document be available for analysis of the BAC results to all teachers in every school. This can also be a topic in the SAC as priorities for the Annual Development Plan can be set (eg up-date/up-grade science labs to ensure better marks in science subjects).

Inspectors
The role of inspectors is being examined as it is necessary to reduce costs in this area. Already it has been noted that the inspectors are travelling less. Interparents are concerned about this as currently, this is the only way of monitoring the school. It was also noted that inspectors were moving from individual to group activities.

Repeating classes
It was noted by Interparents in the Working Group that many inspectors were not interested in discussing anything other than repeat classes for class 4 and 5 OS. Interparents are unhappy with this approach as this topic is critical in all years from GS to OS. Interparents suggest that one solution is to properly institutionalise and harmonise Learning Support (LS) especially in the sciences. Interparents point out that (a) repeating a year is very expensive compared to appropriate LS (up to 20,000 euros per child to repeat) and (b) deprives another child a place in the class. There were also concerns about the procedures for making a pupil repeat as it was noted that:

• Nowhere are the pupils asked about the situation
• Nowhere is the competence of the teacher(s) questioned
• Nowhere is absent teachers taken into account
• Sometime the LS is given by the teacher who is responsible for failing the pupil when it could be that the teacher’s teaching methods are the problem.
• There may have been a lack of proper inspector involvement highlighting the quality of teaching
• Parents (or guardian or pupil representative) are not present in the class conference as this would be the legal case for any other situation concerning the future of the pupil.
• The threat of possible repeating is acknowledged far too late for effective LS to be given in some cases.
• Parents are often informed far too late about the situation.

Overview Report
There is an overview from the Board of Governors of the current situation of the ES available on the Interparents website.

180 Days rule
The 180 school days must be respected by the ES for all pupils. Just re-writing the rules so that schools can shorten the school year is not acceptable to Interparents. Interparents are prepared to go to court to demand that this principle be respected.

Tribunal case concerning voting rights for Interparents.
Interparents won their case in court claiming that their 2 votes on the Board cannot be reduced to one. This is a historic ruling as it upholds the principle of stakeholders’ rights. Legally speaking, this is the first time that Interparents is universally acknowledged as the PAs’ representative. This tribunal case also recognizes the role of the Complaints Board and proves the competence of the Complaints Board to deal with cases that may or may not be listed in the general rules and therefore having the necessary authority. The PAs agreed to give 150 euros each towards a “good will” payment for the lawyer who presented the case for Interparents free of costs.

Careers Guidance
Interparents are aware that some teachers are unhappy about the amount of time they are giving to provide students in Class 7 with career guidance, and who wish extra time (discharge) to be given for this. It was especially acknowledged that students who apply for UK and French universities require a lot of support and this causes a very heavy work load for teachers involved. UK and French universities are popular choices for ES class 7 students. Interparents felt that ES should respect the concerns of the teachers and insist that ES should absorb the cost of career guidance for the following reasons:

• Nationals get this service free in their home countries (UK and France) or at a very low cost to parents
• Universities (especially UK and France) ask for complex application procedures
• The European Baccalaureat still needs a lot of explanation to outside institutions and this should be of concern for the ES system.

Interparents Finances
PAs were requested that all expense claims be submitted well before the end of December so that the accounts can be closed. The treasurer reminded everyone that some annual dues were still outstanding and these should be paid immediately.

Future dates
The next Interparents meeting in November 29th and 30th in Karlsruhe.
The Annual General Meeting is on 8th and 9th February in Brussels III.

Sarah Winthrop
ESK PA 8.10.10