Parent Class Representatives and PA committee meeting 10th and 11th November 2011

This report amalgamates the comments and discussions from both meetings.

The Committee of the Parents’ Association meets once a month in the evenings to discuss issues that have been presented by parents, decide on organisation of events, to approve proposals, and to have consensus on points that are brought to the attention of School management.

The Parent Class Reps and PA committee meet twice a school year for exchange of views and information, discussions on school issues and to offer an opportunity to meet each other. Extra meetings can be requested by anyone at any time if it is agreed to be necessary.

Reports and/or minutes are written after each meeting so that all parents can read what were the topics discussed and any decisions that were made. These reports should be available in all three vehicular languages (English, French and German), but often it is difficult to find volunteer translators, so the PA are grateful to parents for their understanding if reports are published late.

Parents are reminded that all members of the PA committee and class reps work and participate on a voluntary basis and get no renumeration for their time.

The School Administration Board committee
The PA committee have 2 seats on the School Administration Board which meets twice a year. This is an important meeting for the school, and the Secretary General and a representative from the European Commission also attend as well as representatives for management, teachers, pupils, ITU, Karlsruhe City, PAS and Etoile Education. Decisions are made on topics such as the budget, administration and pedagogical aspects. At the latest Administration Board meeting Herr Høyem and the management team reported on current events, the current situation about new seconded teachers and chargé de cours (locally recruited teachers) as next year there will be a large number of new teachers; the whole school inspection and the need for better harmonisation of lessons and marking; the various steps in the general refurbishment of the school; the future possibility of boarding facilities for ESK students.
The main points raised by the PA representative were
class sizes - often too big and the PA requested that when necessary classes should be split
subject options in Oberschule - limited options for some classes and the PA requested that all options be offered so that pupils are not discriminated against with reduced choices.
The Secretary General rejected all arguments and said that the restrictions are due to the current need to save money and to meet the budget cuts imposed by the European Commission.  Full report of the Administration Board meeting will be available soon on the PA website.

The role of the PA
As well as representing and supporting all parents and organising activities to enhance the educational environment for the pupils of ESK, the PA pointed out that the PA Committee has two main roles in school:
first role is to help find pragmatic solutions for issues facing families and pupils today.
second role is to lobby the School and in the European school system (through Interparents) to influence future decisions.

It is important that parents are engaged in the education of their children in school so that full advantage can be taken of the unique position of the PA in the European School Karlsruhe and the European School system.

The PA take every comment and request from class representatives very seriously and speak about parents’ concerns regularly with school management. Reports of the PA meetings are available on the PA website and all parents are invited to refer to them.

Interparents
The PA send two representatives to Interparents meetings. These meeting take place four times a year and the PA reps from all 14 European schools have the opportunity to compare and contrast situations in their respective schools. These are very useful and interesting meetings as often there are common issues which can be tackled at Brussels level. Currently Mrs Ana Gorey is President of Interparents and Mrs Sarah Winthrop is the second Interparents representative for ESK.

Herr Høyem’s 70th birthday present
Parents have very generously donated between €400-500 towards the garden bench that will be installed next Spring. Class reps requested that the reasons for the decision to give a bench be better explained to parents. The PA committee debated what would be the most appropriate gift, and it was decided that as there is currently insufficient seating outside for pupils, a bench marking the anniversary of Herr Høyem’s birthday would be a good gift. It is long lasting (technological items become out-of-date) and every pupil and other members of the school community will have access to it. It was acknowledged that Kindergarten and primary school pupils would unlikely use it because it is positioned closer to the Secondary school building, but it was hoped that, as these children moved into the secondary school, they also would be able to use it and appreciate the tree circle.
Parents can still contribute towards the purchase of the gift if they wish, either by bank transfer or by cash given in to the PA office on Wednesday mornings.

ESK 50th anniversary celebrations
There is a 2012 Working Group - headed by Mrs Dana Pavlicikova - for the organisation of the celebration activities for the 50th anniversary beginning in September 2012. Anyone may join the working group. Please contact the PA or Mrs Pavlicikova directly if any parent wishes to take part. The first meeting of the Working Group will be in January 2012.

Christmas concerts
The primary school will be holding Christmas concerts on the 7th and 8th of December. It is customary for the PA to serve Glühwein and cake at the events. Anyone who would like to help out is very welcome.

PA committee and Class Reps new year party.
Once again the PA will be hosting a party in the new year for class reps, teachers and all administration staff to offer an informal occasion for everyone to meet and to enjoy an evening getting to know each other. Also it is an opportunity for the PA to thank the class reps for their time and commitment to school matters.

Annual General Meeting (AGM) - 17th November 2011
This is the most important PA meeting of the year. All PA members have the opportunity to discuss topics together as well as approve important proposals made by the committee. This year the topics on the agenda include:
electing new candidates for the committee, for posts as representatives for the English, French and German sections, and for other positions that will be free next year. New elected members of the committee can work in “parallel” for a year so that they can familiarise themselves with the activities of the PA. For full details, please refer to the documents on the PA website.
approval of the proposal that the membership fee should be increased.
approval of the revised PA statutes.
approval of the PA finances.
review of the year.

Parents will be encouraged to set up a “Dauerauftrag” (standing order) to pay the annual membership fee in future, but in special cases cash can give in at the PA office on any Wednesday morning.

All parents are welcome to attend the PA AGM but they are reminded that they must be fully paid-up members of the Parents’ Association to be able to vote.

If anyone is not yet a member or has not yet paid their membership fee, this can be done on the evening of the AGM shortly before the start of the meeting.

French Section
There are serious issues with the number of students in the French section and the consequences of small classes being cancelled. This has a direct effect on subject choices which are especially critical for those students who wish to study further in France. It was felt that this is a “whole school” problem, and the school should be concentrating on keeping classes open so that french families feel confident about the schooling for their children.
Parents wish to be told immediately about any future changes in courses offered by the school, and are frustrated by the lack of communication from the management about the current status. The PA agree that this matter needs to be brought to the attention of the school directors again, with the request that information is disseminated in good time to parents. The french class reps would like to know if the french teachers leaving at the end of this school year will be replaced. This question will be taken to the next management meeting for clarification.

Further points from the Class reps:

The Primary class reps have been asked to forward their list of parents email addresses to Frau Marmillot. The Committee did not see any reason why this should not be done, but it was recommended that the reps make sure that parents are happy for their email addresses to be forwarded to the school. The PA will check with management about the position of passing on such data within school.

It was requested that Herr Pialoglou ensures that he is present on parents’ evenings as parents may wish to see him. It was also felt that the deputy director should be more visible especially at important meetings such as the BAC meeting for class 7.

Some class reps report that they do not always get any response to their emails or letters to class teachers or the directors. The PA has agreed that this will be discussed at the next management meeting as this is fundamental to improving communication within the school.

It was requested that the situation where primary classes have to walk between Bau A and Bau B during the day for lessons be re-examined as parents have noticed that as much as 15 minutes of teaching time is lost from the lesson on each occasion. This will be brought to the attention of school management at the next meeting.

It was requested that the document referring to the “role of the class representative” as found on the PA website, be sent to all class reps shortly after their election at the first parents’ evening in the school year.  This was agreed and it will be included in the email from the Parents’ Association in September.

The class reps were thanked for their attendance and the evening meeting finished at 21.00 and the morning meeting finished at 11.00

Sarah Winthrop
PA, 13.11.11