All except one of our teaching vacancies have been filled by excellent candidates and we expect to appoint to the last remaining post shortly after the half-term holidays. Timetables and secondary options are advanced. The vast majority of secondary pupils have obtained their option requests. Both Ms Boyle and Mr Hackmann are processing new pupil enrolments, while pupil departures are in line with previous years.
We are pleased that we have managed to minimise the effects of the expected 10% reduction in the Commission’s contribution to our 2012 budget on the curriculum offered to pupils in 2011/12. We will be able to offer the full mandatory European Schools curriculum as before, maintaining the same excellent teacher/pupil ratios of previous years.
The primary school has only very minor changes. In P5 Religion/Moral Education classes may have to be combined (Catholic and Protestant) and/or may be delivered bilingually in L1 and L2. Because of phasing out the hours for Learning Support will also need to be reduced. Of course, this will be the last year for the three nursery classes.
In secondary we have had to discontinue the 20 weekly periods of non-obligatory complementary activities in S2 and S3 which currently take place on Tuesday afternoons. From September there will be normal lessons on Tuesday afternoons for all pupils but the free Friday afternoon will be extended to S2 and S3 except for a very small minority of pupils whose mandatory curriculum cannot fit into the other days. Except for Learning Support, Wednesday afternoons will continue to be free for years S1-S5. The good news is that on Friday afternoons ECA will be aiming to set up a variety of courses to interest pupils who have no lessons at that time.
Our success in safeguarding our curriculum has been achieved by our preference to reduce overheads and non-essential expenditure. However, the latter rules out future indirect subsidies towards school trips and this is likely to cause a small increase in what parents have to pay for trips.
A positive development is that the Board of Governors of the European Schools has decreed at its April 2011 meeting that all our Category 3 Danish, Dutch and Italian pupils throughout the whole school currently enjoying tuition in their respective L1, will be able to continue with this provision until the end of their schooling at ES Culham. This is a considerable gain.
The emergence of a new parent/teacher trust to advance the prospects of a new school to grow beneath ES Culham as it phases out is an incredibly heartening development. It aims to offer European style multilingual education starting in September 2012 for younger children who no longer have access to ES Culham. The application for the Free School ‘Europa School UK” will be submitted by 1st June 2011 to the DfE and a decision is expected in September 2011. The vision is to accredit the new school to the European Schools movement so that our current primary pupils will have the option of joining the Europa School UK on 1st September 2017 in order to complete their European Baccalaureate. I am sure all parents will rally behind this initiative and inform themselves of the opportunities it presents.
Our school remains vibrant from top to bottom, from S7 to Nursery. As well as the highest quality of education and care, our pupils have enjoyed this year a breath-taking programme of cultural and extra-curricular activities. In what has been, by any account, a challenging year for all staff at the school, both teaching and admin, this continued tempo and commitment are a tribute to their dedication.
|