Dear parents,
On behalf of the Parents’ Association Committee, please allow me to welcome you to the 2020/21 school year! We hope that the summer break provided you with an opportunity to change the domestic routine in at least some small ways, and that your family’s feelings about the return to school were positive. We’re sorry that we were rather quiet of late but, now that we are all back, here is our first update of the school year:
- As you may have read in last week’s Message from the Director, for at least the first term of this school year the Parents’ Association Committee will not be organising any Extra Curricular Activities. On the Parents’ Association website we have developed a list of local clubs and childcare providers that may be able to support your wrap-around needs. We will review the lack of Extra Curricular Activities on a term-by-term basis and let you know how things progress.
- This year the school won’t participate in the EU School Fruit Programme. The Parents’ Association Committee would like to thank all of last year’s volunteers for their tremendous support: thank you all
- The Parents’ Association’s Annual General Meeting has been postponed while we continue to explore the least risky but most accessible ways to hold it. We will let you know the plan once it’s been decided upon.
- Over the summer, representatives of the Parent’s Association Committee continued to attend online several InterParents meetings and workgroups. (InterParents: Parents Associations of the European Schools)
- We have collaborated on the latest distance learning guidelines that will be presented at the Board of Governors meeting in October, which cover both full distance learning and also a hybrid approach (partly at home, partly at school), should it again be deemed necessary by the Dutch authorities.
- We have worked on several of the suggestions presented by InterParents at the extraordinary Board of Governors meeting that took place in August.
- It may come as no surprise for you to learn that this Spring’s quarantine period did little to expedite the discussions about the potential future location and design of our school. Whilst the process is continuing to move ahead, there is still an incredible amount to be done before the propositions of Alkmaar, Castricum and Zaandam are finalised and presented to the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.
- If you have to drive to school, please park in a space which is definitely available for public use. Although the De Beeck car park is currently hosting work traffic for the pool’s reconstruction, we still have a lot of spaces immediately around the school as well as along the whole length of Churchilllaan.
- Despite the lack of Parent’s Welcome evenings this year, we hope that by now you may have a class representative in place. If you do not know if there is a class rep in your child’s class, please contact the class teacher – or us. Class reps are there to represent the parents of the class and to help you with your queries,but if you should have personal issues, please discuss them with a teacher and not in a parent WhatsApp group.
- Last, but definitely not least, the Parents’ Association Committee is in need of new members! Normally we would ply you with hot drinks, biscuits and smooth talking at our Welcome Coffee Morning but, unfortunately, we don’t have anywhere that we can safely hold that at the moment. Instead we will work on a computer-friendly version of our presentation, along with a breakdown of the roles that we share between us so you can give them careful consideration. Everything is potentially up for grabs so please don’t be shy!, if you want to learn more about possibly joining us, please do get in touch: ESBPApresident@gmail.com.
Thanks for taking the time to read this. We will try to keep our updates as frequent, concise and positive as possible but do please forgive us if we get a little caught up in the matters at hand – we will continue to do our best to be there for you, to represent you and to keep you in the loop.
Yours faithfully,
Ian Shaw, Vice President
If you have any questions that you would like for PA to communicate on your behalf, please send them to us.
