by Sanjee Goonetilake, Observer in Interparents team of BRU2
Interparents is an umbrella organisation of the parents associations of all 13 European Schools. Interparents meetings are held in different European schools during the year and each school takes turns in hosting.
Each school can have two full members of the Interparents and 2 observers who can attend all meetings but have no voting rights.
In 2025 Board I was an observer in the Interparents team of BRU2 as we are called. BRU2 Interparents team is formed by Johanna, Janis, Carin and myself.
The February and October Pre JTC meetings are held in Brussels. JTC stands for Joint Teaching Committee.
In February 2025, the pre JTC meeting was held at BRU1, in October 2025, the pre JTC meeting was held at BRU3 and in December 2025, the pre BoG meeting was held in Karlsruhe ES.
The meetings are held during 2 full days where Interparents Representatives discuss in-depth documents to be analysed and policy are made regarding various pedagogical topics on the agenda of the BoG or JTC. The host school invites the representatives for lunch in the school Canteen and the director of the school gives a guided tour of the school after lunch. This gives an idea of different European schools to the Interparents Representatives.
BRU1 – UCCLE
At BRU1 in February 2025, (http://www.uccleparents.org/?lang=en) we had the honour of meeting the Director of EEB1
David Tran who is from France. Mr Tran gave a presentation on the BAC results in Math analysing the results over the years. He is a Math teacher from his background and he compared statistics for L1 and Math 3 for EEB1 students per section and per year. He also spoke of academic stress and wellbeing. He mentioned that he also has meetings for EEB1 alumni to meet secondary students.
We were given a guided tour of the school during the lunch break and I was particularly touched by a reading room that has been named after a teacher who used to read to the children and who has passed away in the pandemic. It was called Rachel’s reading room.
EEB1 is a KiVa school. KiVa is a program developed in Finland designed to combat bullying and to promote its prevention in the school environment. KiVa provides activities to be carried out by the students in the classroom, activities to learn what bullying means and how to fight against.
BRU3- Ixelles
At BRU3 in October 2025,
(https://www.eeb3.eu/en/frequently-asked-questions/) we were shown a special sensory room they have recently created for educational support students by the director Mrs Micheline Schiberras who is from Malta.
Mrs Schiberras has a background in educational support coordination, and she explained that they converted the former IT room into this space.
BRU3 is also a KiVa school which is a Finnish anti bullying method. EEB3 has been made into a KiVa school while BRU2 director Ms Kamila Malik was the primary director there.
KiVa schools have KiVa play equipment. We noted that in the school grounds there were corners to find drawing paper and colour pens to do activities for children.
Karlsruhe- Germany
In December 2025 Interparents representatives met in Karlsruhe Germany. (https://www.es-karlsruhe.eu/)
The newly arrived director László Munkácsy from Hungary was formerly the head of pedagogical unit of the office of the secretary general. We were welcomed by the school’s philharmonic orchestra playing for us which is the pride of the school. After lunch at the school canteen, we were shown the school by the director and the parent association reps. Karlsruhe only has 3 sections ( English German and French). Karlsruhe reps also showed us their Bio Top, an openair area to learn handy work like wood craft, technical skills with axes and knives, a pond where there are tadpoles, a shed with bicycles to ride and organic farming techniques. The pre-primary of Karlsruhe has an aquarium and it’s a popular spot where children come to watch the fishes and to relax.
During each visit to another European school, we learn best practices from other European schools. Looking forward to bringing some of the best practices we see in other schools to BRU2 and sharing our best practices such as on Wellbeing to the other schools.
