School Eductional Council meeting (OS and GS) report 16 September 2008

School Education Council
16 September 2008

Present: 32 people
Administration: Mario da Torre, Dana Pavlicikova + Mme. Hermann
Staff: Hugh Cooke, Mr. Solle,
Educational advisors: Anna Manfrin. Monique Delveau
Parents: Markus Gammelin, Cindy van Velzen, Blandine Aslanides and Ana Gorey
Pupils: Stephanie and Cinzia
Invited guest: Mr. Kasting

Introduction
Mr. Hoyem opened the meeting and welcomed everyone. There was a tour de table…

1. Adoption of the agenda.
Mr. Hoyem asked if anyone had any items to add to the agenda.

2. The minutes of the last meeting
Mr. Hoyem asked if anyone had any comments on the minutes of the last meeting. After a few changes.

3. Information from the Directors of the Secondary school

Canteen – New canteen is blue and yellow colour (ikea).
If he was us, he would be asking about how we could improve the food. Asks the parents association to make this a priority. He said that there are several parents interested in working on this. Markus says that it isn’t the PA, that the person in charge has to be someone from ITU. Ana Gorey

Security
5 meetings to discuss the problem of security and the main problem was to find the money. ESK is probably the last to have a security card system in place. It is the same company
Necessary to know who is in the building and when, unknown people should not be running around the school. Protect our
1st October should be when all the photographs are done.
Contole house.. so that part of the gate can be left open.
Rumours that it is due to a terrorist threat or a specific danger. It should be seen as a service to the parents, students and teachers not a threat.
Ana Gorey thanked them for the work done in the 5 meetings but that they needed to better communicate results in writing to parents.

KITA – 0-3 years old big issue in German
ESK is owned by City of Karlsruhe and they had the money but not the place. So it is an excellent cooperation.
Mr. Hoyem and 4 other members of the Admin will give up their space and a few more will be created as obviously, parents with small children need to be able to park close to the Kindergarten and need more time.

Verwalter
Bursur will be seconded by German. Michael he has logts of contacts in the city and around, such as members of parliament. After my studies I started working for the city so it is very useful for me 20 years as bursar of a youth committee of a city.. roughly the same size staff and same type of needs (cleaning, re-structuring, youth centre,
I hope to do a good job here. It is important fo me to make the point that we are here to do a good job and also be here to help. Good image of the school

Jugendedoemtage – 170 young people from all over Baden Wuttenburg for three days – they will be reporting on the school…

Mario da Torre thanked the teachers, the counsellors, the parents association, he pupils etc bla bla bla./.. for the good working relations last year.
Smooth start to the year, solutions found..
Belgium did not send two teachers (local staff)
Ireland – chemistry teacher (no one applied for the job) (2 local teachers)
UK – Maths teacher – Robert-shaw
Italy – two italien posts

Absences system will continue – by October / November passwords will be given to all parents and pupils so that parents can see immediately where their children are. We are the pilot project for this project and other schools want to implement it too.
Also looking into contacting parents by e-mail. At next ESK parents meeting a form will be given everyone to sign and he hopes that this will solve communication problems within the school.

EuroSport - competitions - 19-21 March 2009
Mateo Guerra coordinator. spoke to the Parents association about this..
Mario da torre handed around a draft letter which will be sent around to parents with a formular.. an the letter to pupils informing them about Eurosport and what are the needs.
Cindy asked if there would be somekind of working groups.. Mario da Torre, has people already in charge of different aspects of the EuroSport.

Security – photo cards done.. three colours (red, yellow and green).
Students asked why there was a change for year five. They think that there must be a possiblity as before to be able to give a green card if their parents are in agreement. We would like 5 years to have the possibliy. The main point being that 5 years have the partiel, and so they don’t start first thing in the morning, its important to go out and have a have a coffee.
Mario da Torre, explained that they wanted to give automatically a red card to year 1-5. of course, by written request by parents for a yellow card. We are responsible for the pupils and parents have the opportunity to get a yellow card. We have to controle our pupils..
Red card all day at school
Yellow card can leave before if you have early or late classes.
Green card when you are free.

I card for the first 3 years.. and then another card for the year 4,5 6…
Ana Gorey felt that a blanket ban on any student in Year 5 having a green card was a bit draconian especially in view of the fact that we were going from no security at all to practically a lock down. Such a measure might give a bad connocation to the secuirity card system which we wanted to avoid. Also, it seemed a bit hard to punish all the year 5 for a few bad apples stealing. She went on to stress that it was important for the school to start giving such responsiblities to young people but also that it was important to hold them to high standards. She trusted the Direction to be able to decide who should, or should not, be allowed the privilledge of a green card.

Ana Gorey suggested if, in a spirit of compromise, Mr. da Torre could consider giving Year 5 the possiblity of a green card on the basis of a parental request and the school’s agreement, which of course would be withdrawn if there was any misbehaviour by the student and only under those conditions. She asked Mr. da Torre to let us know how this worked out and report back to the Council.
Security card is also for canteen and library.
Over 16 years they can go home and eat.
Smoking still happens…
Students made the point that often they didn’t have classes for a large bit of the day and then a lesson at the end.. others had been looking forward
The Educational Council

International pedagogical project (all in German)

Dana Pavlickicova – welcomed in the new bursar and said how she understood what it was like to be new in a post as she only arrived last year.
80 pupils in the nursury, so it is full.
In primary school, the dutch and italian classes still exist but Mr. Vooreman does a fantastic job..
New furniture in the schoo. Momi is also very successful. Working with the movement room (old canteen?).
New and old pedagogical activites going on. Harmonic tower ongoing, film possiblities..
Why is the nurse so happy.. we have 100 students is the is marathon..
Parents evenings.. today and the rest of the week.. security.
Ana Gorey hoped that the Educational Council was the place to raise the question of SEN (Special Educational Needs) and LS (learning support) as she wanted to say how much she appreciated all the efforts being made to put this in place for the children who needed it. Because she is in the English section, she knows how well it is working there but she would like to stress was being done to which she said was a very important part of the childs education and

Discussion on the school calandar year 2009/2010 - final decision will be taken by the Admin Board.
Nurse, it are no problems with the school that haven’t been solved with good working relations with the class teachers.

Parents Association…
1 – communication with parents.. could we have the e-mail addresses. Ana Gorey asked that a box be put on the form which parents could indcate if they wished their address to be given to the parents association.
2 Major events.. PA asked that we be informed as soon as possible so as to be able to plan things around them…

3. ordering school books..
4. Mr. da Torre said that they would ask teachers to use a form when requesting money for books. Hugh Cooke said that this was also for the teachers protection ..

5. An information evening has been planned every year so of course, there will be one this year and the date is the 3 February 2009.

6.– Dana said that she was looking into the possibility of the children being supervised in the mornings in old canteen area.
School Nurse - At what age can a child go home on your own.. is it 16 or 18 – if a child was sick.. she was not allowed to send him home unless he was accompanied or had parental permission.

Mr. Hoyem thanks everyone for coming. He reminded everyone that we are here as representatives and that it was our duty to communicate this informaiton.