Expert report critical of european school system and secondary curriculum reform proposals

Back in 2013 the Office of the Secretary General launched an initiative to update the secondary school curriculum. Parents and teachers were very concerned about it at the time because the proposed changes were wide ranging, and had not been in any way tested or quality assured with either university admissions offices or indeed any external experts. The proposals have now been fully reviewed by the Institute of Education (IoE), a London based education consultancy. Their extensive report, running to several hundred pages, takes as its starting point the eight key competences for lifelong learning* defined by the EU, and assesses the extent to which the proposed reforms, and indeed the whole system, is geared to deliver these.

The conclusions are stark - in many areas the schools are not delivering on these competences - and neither will the revised curriculum proposals, or the counter proposals from Interparents. Instead, IoE propose their own curriculum, which is organised around a large mandatory core of subjects with a limited set of options within certain specialist areas, such as Languages, Humanities, Sciences, Social studies. But the report goes far beyond just recommending a regrouping of subjects. It also proposes an integrated learning approach based upon themes that cross subject boundaries, rather than dividing study up into separated discrete (traditional) study subjects. IoE also call for a formalised structure linking the required learning objectives with the teaching methodologies, the assessment processes and the educational standards (all pretty intense stuff). Much in the report is good and provocative - such as firm belief that delivering a standardised high quality modern curriculum is not consistent with a teacher community that receives almost no training, has very little management structures to ensure delivery and quality thresholds and is turned over every 9 years - with all the expertise gained 'walking out the door'.

Other key points in the report are:

• A call for standardised external marking, with more emphasis on exams and set course work (which can be assessed more objectively, and elimination of subjective classwork grades - all marked according to strict published criteria).
• Language classes to entail greater cultural content and teaching of key skills such as analysis, discussion, application. Subject classes to incorporate language instruction
• All pupils to take the same maths course, with an additional but separate Bac subject of advanced maths
• Forcing pupils to repeat years is counterproductive and should stop, as pupil outcomes both socially and academically are shown in research to be worse than if the pupil had remained in the original class
• Language teaching integrated in subject teaching

There is much in the report to consider. Interparents, the representative organisation for all the APEEEs is recommending a period of reflection and debate before any change is introduced. They are especially concerned that there be no ‘cherry picking’ of parts that the Board of Governors or Office of Secretary General like, whilst ignoring the areas that are more challenging to the guardians of our system, or have cost implications.

Next steps:

• We have requested clarification from the Secretary General to publish the report and are waiting for his response.
• The Secretary-General also informed APEEE that in the second half of October, there should be more clarity regarding the timing. We will share any additional information with you.

* These key competences are :

1. communication in the mother tongue
2. communication in foreign languages
3. mathematical competence and basic competences in science and technology
4. digital competence ; the confident and critical use of information society technology (IST)
5. learning to learn is related to learning, the ability to pursue and organise one's own learning
6. social and civic competences; behaviour that equip individuals to participate in an effective and constructive way in social and working life. It is linked to personal and social well-being
7. sense of initiative and entrepreneurship
8. cultural awareness and expression

APEEE and School take action to reduce noise in the canteen

Noise in the canteen is one of the most frequent complaints received by the APEEE from parents. The level is around 80 decibels, which is just below the legal maximum limit. The APEEE has investigated various options, including the possibility of lower noise plastic crockery, (cannot be dried quickly enough for the next serving in the kitchen dishwasher - we are testing new samples), low impact tables (installed) and the possibility of ‘white noise’ machines (no solution was discovered). The Primary children themselves volunteered to have silent lunches, on a rotational basis. However, the problem persists.

We decided last year therefore to get expert advice, and contracted an independent audio consultancy to conduct various tests. Their conclusion was that the basic structure of the canteen is responsible for the noise problem; the walls, widows and ceilings all reverberate back the sound generated by the canteen users, which raises the noise level to the extent that pupils cannot hear each other talk so have to shout. They recommended to install sound absorbing panels to reduce this reverberation.

Any changes to the structure of the canteen are the responsibility of the Regie de Batiments - the Belgian civic infrastructure authority. They have been contacted several times over the years to address the noise problem, but without any success. Rather than continue to ‘bang our heads against this wall’ the APEEE decided, together with the school, to implement the recommendations of the audio consultants report ourselves. Over the summer sound absorbing panels were installed throughout the canteen. If you visit the canteen you will see them. They cannot eliminate the excess noise completely because so many of the surfaces are windows, but they significantly reduce the level. This is what we've aimed to achieve. Reports so far indicate that pupils can now hold a conversation without shouting - which is a step forward. We hope this will improve the quality of the lunch time experience for all our children, and result in some pupils no longer needing to use ear protectors.

School cracking down on pupil absences

The school management have decided to crack down on pupil absences, as required by the General School Rules. This is mainly a secondary rather than primary issue. When discussing this with the APEEE, Mr Schmelz, the Secondary Headmaster, pointed to the a high correlation between pupil absences and BAC failure - perhaps not surprisingly. Pupils who start missing lessons in the early years carry on doing so throughout their school career - so it is important to intervene at the start to prevent a habit developing.

The rules are that any absence of more than two days must be accompanied by a medical certificate (special rules apply as of S4 for days when the students write tests), and an absence rate of 10% or more in any subject may lead to a grade not being given and therefore the pupil not being allowed to move up at the end of the year. For years 6 and 7 it may also in extreme cases result in a BAC grade not being awarded (cf. Article 30 of the General School Rules).

Currently there is no automatic system to inform parents when their child is absent from school. The school management will inform parents eventually, but this may not always be timely. You can check yourself on a daily basis by logging into the SMS system, where this information is recorded. The APEEE is requesting the Secretary General to develop a proactive system that will automatically inform parents via email if their child is absent - but change comes slowly!

Parents want action to reduce secondary classes without teachers

Lost lessons in Secondary are a major concern for pupils and parents; for some classes it means weeks without a teacher, which will have a severe impact on learning. For those approaching the BAC, it can be disastrous.

The APEEE has raised the issue with the school on multiple occasions. Mr Schmelz and Mr Sharron have agreed to make it a priority. They are currently working towards reducing the number of classes where there is no replacement teacher. They have also rescheduled school trips to take place during a defined period, so that teacher absences for trips are restricted to this period rather than spread across the year. What they are not willing to do, however, is to share data with the APEEE on the classes and subjects which are being worst effected - so we must hope and trust that they are successful in addressing this persistent problem.

We understand that it will be difficult to fix because it means overturning entrenched practices, but our view remains that the best way of tackling it is through openness and transparency. Parents have a right to know how many classes are not being delivered to their children, and to measure the success or otherwise of school management in fixing the problem - however uncomfortable a picture the data may reveal.

The APEEE wants urgent action on this, and when a teacher is absent, for an appropriately qualified replacement to take his or her place. Classes playing football because there is no one to teach or supervise them can no longer be acceptable.

Absent teachers should provide a lesson/study plan to enable the class to continue to work even when they are not present. We do not believe this is too much to ask and already many teachers do this.

The APEEE recommends that any parent whose child is experiencing a high level of lost lessons write directly to Mr Schmelz, Mr Sharron and copied to Kari Kivinen and the APEEE (secretariat.apeee@woluweparents.org). We are firmly of the view that the problem can be addressed - but success will only come from persistent pressure from parents.

Are you children’s exam marks correct - you can check

Rentree 2015 - an improvement in Secondary on previous years but still some work to be done

The return to school in autumn is always a stressful period. One of the quirks of our school system is that the school authorities do not know until the first week of term how many pupils will be in each class. This is because new pupils can be accepted right up to this point - this is outside the control of the school management. As our school is chronically overcrowded, with a 97% classroom occupation rate in secondary, any additional pupils that cause classes to split can necessitate wholesale replacing of lessons and teachers. It is for this reason that the timetable changes during the first 2 weeks - as the headmaster and his team are forced to re-plan, often several times.

This is something that we have to live with for the time being. On other subjects regarding the rentree, however, things seem to have run much more smoothly. Timetables were already accessible before school started (although still subject to change for some time). Lockers have been allocated quickly (now under APEEE management), assembly areas for pupils on the first day were clear, school rules, agenda and other items had all reached pupils in a timely fashion.

One area that still causes much parental frustration is when course book information is only provided to parents in the first weeks of term, instead of via the book list that is prepared before the summer. Some text books are not easily available at short notice, or have to be ordered from the home country - which takes time and expense. The problem arises in particular because teachers decide on the text books they will use, so if the class teacher is changed in the timetable re-planning - then the pupils course books can also be changed.

The APEEE asks the school authorities to address this by getting teachers to agree standard text books for each subject - so that a teacher change does not mean having to buy a completely new set of books.

Another frustration is that some teachers specify particular folders or paper that must be used from specified companies. Busy parents do not necessarily have time to go to specialist shops to buy the exact brand of stationary each teacher may insist on. Doing so at the beginning of term at short notice is doubly frustrating. The APEEE sees no reason why pupils cannot use standard A4 folders and lined or graphed paper that can be bought in any supermarket - as is common practice in most other schools in Europe.

School introduces wide-ranging changes to Secondary trips

Secondary school trips have been substantially overhauled by Mr Schmelz and Ms Christiansen, after much discussion between the school management and APEEE. Trips will now be scheduled for certain designated time periods to ensure that lost lessons due to teacher absence on trips are kept to a minimum . Trips will also be restricted to a maximum of 2 school days, except for special circumstances. The pedagogical requirement for trips has been raised - to ensure they are primarily educational, and not seen by the pupils as a holiday break (surely not!) . Full school rules will apply on trips, therefore consumption of alcohol will be prohibited. The school is also looking at limiting the number of trips pupils can go on in each year, conscious that the cost can mount up significantly for parents, and peer pressure is such that pupils will want to participate in all the trips their friends go on. However, these rules will also have the effect that certain well-established trips can no longer take place.

The ceiling prices for trips remain as before, €850 for the S6-trips and € 320 for the S2- trips. The school has published more detailed information on its website. As this year is considered a "test year" for the new rules, parents should provide feedback to their APEEE-representatives on the new rules in May, after the trips of this school year have taken place.

Teacher shortages get worse - a new local hire contract is needed yesterday

This is a perennial problem in the system. The UK continues to reduce the number of teachers it sends - until it gets down to the level defined by the Board of Governor’s agreement on its required contribution. For Woluwe this means that there are now 19 anglophone teaching positions vacant, for which local teachers have to be sourced. This can be very challenging for hard-to-find roles such as maths and science. But the UK is just one example of a general trend over the past years of member states to send fewer and fewer teachers, thus forcing the school system to recruit teaching staff directly. This would not necessarily be a problem, but the contracts that the European schools can offer local teachers are restricted to conditions laid down in the school statutes - and these are very unattractive. Contracts can only be for one year, pay scales are low compared to the market rate and no moving expenses are offered. As the teacher may additionally not know their teaching hours in advance, they can find that they are earning less than expected. This is hardly enough to tempt teachers in the UK, France, Germany or elsewhere to leave home and move to Brussels for a one year assignment. It is for this reason that the school has difficulty retaining detached teaching staff at the end of their contract on a local hire contract; they can simply get much better terms at any of the international schools in Brussels.

The Secretary General is seeking to address this problem by introducing a new local hire teaching contract that addresses some of the worst aspects of the current version.; it is to last for several years to provide security of tenure and a guaranteed minimum number of hours. However because the Commission and Secretary General are seeking to impose one standard contract across all EU countries where schools exist, regardless of local regulatory or market conditions, it is currently stuck, with the Belgian state withholding approval. The APEEEs collectively find it incomprehensible that this issue, which is so critical to the pedagogical quality of the schools, has been allowed to remain unresolved for so long, and urge those who are responsible to, in the words of Nike 'Just do it'.

New set-up of parent evenings in Secondary School is welcomed

The parent evenings of the Secondary School took place in a new set-up this year, involving the presence of more teachers than only the class teacher. This allowed parents especially of lower secondary classes to get a first impression of those teaching their children in several core subjects. APEEE appreciates the additional organisational effort on the side of the school and also on the side of the teachers who were present on those evenings. We will collect feedback from the different sections on this first round of evenings organised in the new style and provide it to Mr Schmelz.

School calendar 2016/2017 and beyond

The school calendar for 2016/2017 should be published soon. We expect it to be in line with the EP-planning for that year. Last year's discussions showed that parental preferences are very different, so there will never be a calendar pleasing everybody. So no miracles to be expected, but a much less problematic calendar than the 2015/2016 one.
For future years, the Admin Board of the School supported the APEEE's request to adopt the calendar two years in advance and not only one. This should facilitate planning for all!

Communication by the school

If you have subscribed to the school community's email system, you will have realized that the school is sending out many more messages to parents directly than in previous years. APEEE appreciates this new policy (and encourages the school to also expand it to information on pupils' absences, see above, and teacher's absence).

School runs as usual despite strike day

Many parents followed the directions of the school not to send their kids that day. At the same time, APEEE had informed all parents that the buses and most extra-curricular activities were maintained and that also teachers can use the school buses. Many did and made an effort to come. Fantastic! There were, however, still quite a few students who did not show up. Therefore we would like to give you more encouraging information and attempt to shed some light on the Belgian strike situation.

There have been a number of strikes recently in Belgium targeting the transport infrastructure, through blocking traffic on major roads into Brussels or attempting to limit public transport. We cannot predict the impact with certainty, but the experience to date has been that school buses have been able to run freely and public transport continues to operate, though with some delays. Roads have not been congested, as many people choose to work from home on these days. Typically the strikes do not start until 10:00 and are largely focused on the centre of Brussels. In such cases, the APEEE will aim to operate a full bus service (our bus service is independent from any public transport scheme) and encourage extra-curricular activities to be maintained. Experience shows that also most of the teachers make it to the school. As we saw, the school routine was basically normal that day.

The school is obliged to inform you of a strike. The APEEE will also advise whether we believe we will be able to operate the bus service, so please check our website and any messages we send via SMS for the latest information.