APEEE Survey on New School Trip Policy
A new school trip policy in 2015
In 2015, the school adopted a modified policy for school trips for the school year 2015/2016 to be tested for one year and then to be evaluated. The APEEE had encouraged the review of some aspects of the policy, notably as regards the cost accountancy and the cost cap for S6 trips. The final form of the policy was decided by the school.
In a nutshell, the new policy consists of linking school trips to the syllabus and to concentrate them as a rule around three weeks (in October, March and May). Some trips, like those for S7, can only take place in October. Trips for S2 and S6 remain mandatory.
An important change is that trips can include a maximum of two school days (except for the mandatory school trips in S2 and S6). And for the multiple-day excursions in S3, S5 and S7, there is a maximum total cost of 100 Euro/day (all included).
The new policy has also been evaluated based on responses from teachers (organised by the school) in April 2016.
The APEEE survey
APEEE conducted an own survey to gather the experiences of parents (and students). The survey was published on May 2 and was open 20 days, during which 123 parents filled it in from S1 to S7. Most of the parents responded very quickly within the first two days - Thank you!
The answers were spread among all sections, but the Finnish and Portuguese sections were particularly well represented. As regards the grades (of the students represented), S4 and S5 gathered most responses (approx. 50%), as was to be expected, given their stake in the matter.
Some criticism was raised concerning the survey. In particular it was mentioned that the provision of a list of the actual school trips organized this school year would have been helpful.
Overall, however, the responses seem to support the current policy in the areas queried. In particular, parents repeatedly and almost uniformly stressed the importance of the trips curriculum to be inspired by and related to the syllabus .
However, there were few areas where parents quite consistently expressed a wish for change. Parents wished to allow for a substantially higher cost cap and duration for well-motivated trips directed abroad (outside Belgium). In short, 63% of parents accepted, or did not consider it relevant, to cap costs at 120 euros per day (or more). In contrast, for local trips the cost cap was proposed to be 50-80 euros per day. Likewise parents would allow for duration of 5 school days for the above mentioned trips (61,8%). Nearly all parents (87,6%) would allow trips to be extended to the weekends. The parents clearly recognized in their comments the cost of lost lessons at school.
The full results of the survey can be seen under the following link:
Follow-up and actions
The APEEE has presented a summary of the findings at the CEES meeting with the school management on 3 May 2016 and the detailed results will be sent to the school.
Secondly, following the discussion initiated by this survey, APEEE proposes to follow the content of each school trip in a more uniform manner by a standard survey after each trip (with the results to be published for parents and students alike) and will submit this idea to the school management.
Thirdly, APEEE has asked the school to publish at the beginning of the school year 2016/2017 a list of all trips decided on or planned for the school year.
Charity run planned for 2017
The Parents association will organise a charity run next year, together and under the patronage of Save the Children, the world’s leading independent child rights organisation.
Our Director, Mr Sharron, expressed his preliminary agreement for us to hold the event, subject to security conditions that may occur in a given period.
Should there be no obstacles, we will welcome our participants on one of the Sunday mornings in April or May 2017 to run our three different charity runs: a kids run for children under 12, a 5km run for adults and children between 12 and 16 years old, and a 10km run for adults and children 16 years and older.
More details will be published in due time.
Should you be interested in giving us a helping hand, please contact Ms Katarzyna Horemans by mail on kat.horemans@gmail.com, by putting Run for Life in the subject of your mail.
We welcome everybody who wishes to spend a bit of his time, energy and passion for charity action to make our run an amazing and unforgettable event!
Wish Week becomes Wish Days
By Carlos Trejo, Canteen Group Coordinator
The decision to change the Wish Week for the new concept of Wish Day was actually proposed by parents, teachers and school staff that use the canteen regularly. After hearing some complaints about it, the Canteen group decided to use different opportunities to actually ask all the parties involved and also hear their suggestions on how we could make the transition, aiming at better end results. Parents, teachers and school staff were not happy with the different recurring issues during the Wish Week. The menu was not as healthy as many people expected it to be. Many students from the Primary section were having significant behavioural changes due to too much pizzas, burgers and hotdogs served during the wish week. Food consumption during this time was practically unlimited in terms of the portions students were able to have - if they wanted more helpings , they could.
The Canteen group collected all the necessary information from all parties involved and presented them to the APEEE Board for further consideration. During this time, we also presented the proposed options suggested by the stakeholders involved and then, after exhaustive discussions, we voted and decided to change the Wish Week for Wish Day. Every 3 weeks on a Thursday there will now be a Wish Day, as Thursday is the day when the canteen has the most customers using our services. So nobody will miss out on Wish Day!
We are hoping that this change will allow students to continue enjoying the healthy meals that our Canteen team serves, on a daily basis, to all our children, teachers and school’s staff.
"A week for revision before the BAC written exams" - feedback from parents
By Francesca Tudini, APEEE Board President
The APEEE would like to thank all those parents who have replied to the survey launched in April on the question "Would it be beneficial for S7 students if school calendars are adopted allowing for a break of a week between the end of the school classes and the beginning of the BAC exams?"
We received 70 replies, some from individual parents, some from classes. When classes have indicated exactly the number of parents voting, the votes are calculated in the category "parents".
A. Quantitative analysis
1. Votes by Parents
- In favour: 187 parents
- Against: 34 parents
- Abstentions/expressions of concern (mainly for need of more information): 11
- It was suggested that S7 students should be interviewed as well.
2. Votes by classes
16 classes voted in favour (1 Mat, 6 Primary, 9 Secondary), and 3 against. The Swedish section expressed high concern due to the deadline for enrolments in Swedish universities.
B. Qualitative analysis
The majority of the votes were in favour of the idea. There was also very high support for the idea of keeping S1 to S6 at school longer (provided they study or do worthwhile activities).
Some negative replies were based on the assumption that the proposed new system would automatically lead to a postponement of the BAC of one week. In other words, if this were not the case, some parents said they would favour the idea.
Main points against the idea: "it is better to stay at school where you have access to teachers; the last week is already dedicated to revision; a break will increase stress; those who have not studied during the year would not be able to fill the gaps anyway; workload is not enough to justify the need for an additional week of revision; if BAC is postponed the costs of travelling will be higher; there is no real need for it because the May term break can be used for this, only this year there was no week-long holiday in May"
It is important to note that quite a high number of positive replies did contain a number of caveats mainly:
- respect of 180 days of classes
- exams schedule should not be too tight
- the week between written and oral must be kept (it appears important to keep the week of break between the written and the oral exams. On the one hand, it is necessary for the teachers to correct the written exams, on the other hand, parents consider it important that there is enough time to prepare the oral exams. Some parents highlighted that it "makes no sense" to have such a discrepancy: one week before the orals, but nothing before the written ones).
- BAC ceremony should not be postponed (the actual date depends on the school calendar decided by the Brussels European Schools. It is important to underline that APEEE does not support any change that could result in a postponement of the BAC. Some parents see no problem in this but are of the opinion that it would be impossible to keep teachers one week more at school in July).
Additional comments were made on the number of days lost to "social events", and some suggestions were made
- The BAC Ball could be postponed after the BAC ceremony – also for pedagogical reasons
- For the last week of May, students could be given a choice: to work in a calm environment at school or to stay at home; they could be asked to only attend classes relevant to the subjects of the exams.
Very high concern was expressed with reference to the last weeks at school for S1 to S6. A big majority of parents replied that that students from S1 to S6 should have classes and stay at school longer and be engaged in interesting, worthwhile activities (no games, videos etc.).
Follow up
The APEEE will assess carefully the ideas proposed by parents.
While neither postponing the BAC ceremony late in July nor risking to miss university enrolment deadlines will be considered as an option, the APEEE considers it important to raise awareness of the school management to the fact that the vast majority of parents supported the idea that more time should be given to students to prepare the BAC written exams.
Therefore we would like to discuss with the school management about possible scenarios to make the best possible use of the last weeks of May so that students can focus on the preparation of the BAC exams.
As an example, the school management could be asked to commit to approve school calendars only if a long holiday in May is planned (which was not the case in 2015/2016 calendar).
At the same time, we would like to discuss with the school management how to decrease the impact of the BAC exams on the S1 to S6 classes and ensure that these students can benefit from a 180-day school calendar and from effective teaching classes/alternative options during the entire month of June.