Matter followed by: Nathalie Ribeiro nathalie.ribeiro@condorcet.com.au Tel : +61 2 9344 8692 Sydney, 23/10/2013 Members of the School Committee Reference(s) : PC/NR/2013 S:\Administration\Commun\2.Gouvernance\Instances\Conseil d'établissement\as2013\compte rendus CE\Compte rendu CE (anglais) 2013-06-06.docx Document(s) attached: Were present: THURSDAY 6 JUNE 2013 SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES Administration: Mr Loïc Bernard Principal, Ms Melina Futia Deputy Principal, Ms Sandra Rouvière Administrative and Financial Director, Mr Philippe Platiau Primary Director, Mr Stéphan Krécina Student Welfare Manager Teachers: Ms Sophie Scheurer, Mr Jean Boujonnier, Mr Loïc Kavala, Mr Dominique Lett, Mr Stéphane Vincent. Students: Chloé Mour and Maxine Germes. Parents: Ms Anne-Virginie Pelras-Megaïdes, Mr Pierre Dilda, Mr Jean-Marie Guitera. Representative of French nationals abroad: Ms Marie-Claire Guilbaud. Persons invited with a consultative role: School Board: Ms Béatrice Gallis, Ms Noëllie Garand. School Council: Ms June Andronick, Ms Maria Tinel. The School Committee met based on the following agenda: 1.. Approval of the agenda. 2.. Approval of the last School Committee minutes. 3.. Minutes of the School Council on Monday, 27 May 2013. 4.. 2012-2013 Activity report (Appendix 2) 5.. Working groups report. Parents-teachers relationship Appendix 3)
6.. 2013 2014 budget. (Appendix 4) 7.. Situation of the resident staff. 8.. Various questions. The Principal welcomes all the participants, the quorum is reached and he declares that the School Committee meeting can start. 1. The agenda of the School Committee meeting is approved unanimously. 2. The minutes of the School Committee meeting on the 21 March 2013 are approved unanimously. The minutes of this School Committee meeting are available online. 3. The Primary Director has put together the minutes of the School Council meeting which took place on Monday, 27 May 2013. (The minutes are also available online on the parents page). 4. Activity report: The Principal explains that he wrote his 2012-2013 activity report by relying on the assessment document of the AEFE strategic orientation plan and which prioritises the following focus points: a. To develop a teaching of excellence which responds to the requirements and expectations of the French and foreign students. b. To speed up the network s modernisation in order to better respond to the needs of the families and to serve the objective of cultural influence it was assigned. c. To improve the management of the network to make it more responsive and efficient ; d. To find a balance which ensures functioning and extension of the network. e. Proposals for the POS 2014 2017. Remarks, comments, information requests are detailed below according to the order that the points were discussed: Point 1 did not generate any particular remark. The Primary Director and the Student Welfare Manager mention the pathway personalisation schemes. A. For the first degree, more thorough knowledge of the students and their difficulties, setting up support strategies during individualised support (targeted competencies) or during the students free time using various methods (group of students with the same difficulties, assistance with methodology and individualised support in class, support to peer ). Mr Jean Boujonnier, CE2 teacher, underlines that beyond academic progress, these support mechanisms have enabled the strengthening of the student teacher relationship and to demystify the notion of difficulty for students. Assessments have been promising. For the secondary, the Student Welfare Manager introduces the schemes in place: supervised study in French, mathematics and science, he mentions the issue of the heterogeneity of the groups which will have to be taken into account next year in order for us to be more efficient. Mr Lett, mathematics teacher, mentions that it is indeed difficult to manage a group of students for 55 minutes with different motivations some are really involved and others almost feel compelled. The Principal states that the management team will communicate with the teachers in order to develop the scheme and be more efficient. Regarding the competence assessment project, a teacher, the Student Welfare Manager and the Primary Director all mention that abolishing marks will be difficult to manage as families will have to adapt as well as students. Mr Lett also underlines that it might be confusing or the telescoping the two practices might happen since the students will be assessed based on
competence in class but that marks will be used for the brevet, we will need to accompany them until they understand the balance competence / mark. B. Registering the school with the Australian authorities compels us to being open in terms of minima. Moreover, this registration guarantees grant payments which represents 20% of the school s revenue. One of the characteristics of Australian teaching is empowerment which the Deputy Principal defines as a specific emphasis on social, emotional and creative development of the student whereas the French system puts emphasis on the academic aspect. An important focus point of the school is multilingual teaching and the results can be measured thanks to different certifications: NAPLAN in NSW, the CECRL, the IB diploma which a group of bac students sits. Regarding the NAPLAN exams, the Principal underlines that the position of the school at number 40 in the NSW score out of 607 schools is good, considering the other schools only teach in English. He advises parents to have a look at the website so they can closely check the results but also compare to other schools which have similar characteristics to Lycée Condorcet. In this perspective, he presents a comparison with two Australian schools, International Grammar School and Cranbrook School and provides a graph of detailed performances in page 5 and compares the fees in page 6. Mr Guitera, School Committee parent representative, Ms Béatrice Gallis and Ms Garand both members of the School Board, underline the randomness of the comparison done by the Principal. Ms Gallis thinks that this is problematic to place the school as a school which is not expensive and that the choice of schools should be changed. Mr Guitera underlines the importance of comparing the school with other schools like catholic or selective schools. Ms Rouvière mentions that catholic schools represent another category of schools in the Australian nomenclature and that Lycée Condorcet belongs to a group of independent schools, the comparison is therefore valid. Mr Lett mentions that selective schools as their name indicates, select students which is not the case for lycée Condorcet and that lycée Condorcet is a specific school (so it is difficult to compare to another school) since this is a French school which is registered with the AEFE with classes taught is French, the Naplan results are therefore good. The Principal indicates that this issue will be discussed again during point 4 and that we have to move forward. He underlines the ambitious projects which have been organised around the notion of citizenship. The Primary Director explains that when he arrived at the school two years ago there was a lot of bullying, a phenomenon very widespread in Australia. In order to improve the situation, work was done to comply with Australian norms and policies and those were updated as well as the primary school rules. This issue has now been managed. Education work was also done by the implementation of the conseils des élèves in cycle 2 and cycle 3, the development of the citizen debate and the philosophical debate in all classes. The students are involved in the life at the school and also make suggestions in order to improve the relationships (for example students have suggested games during recess and to buy new equipment in order to develop the new relationships between them or are also considering the incivilities in the bathroom.)
The Student Welfare Manager introduces the enhanced programs which have been put in place in order to strengthen Vie Scolaire. Better information to parents, students general assembly and heure de vie de classe have enabled to develop communication between students according to themes often related to the program and have been enhanced by the implementation of regular conferences for senior secondary students. He underlines the importance of changing the way the hour of vie de classe works in junior secondary by organising it by level and the need to extend and develop the training of the delegates in particular with the view to manage conflicts between two people. Regarding the collaboration between schools in Australia, the Principal underlines that the implementation of new projects such as APP monde 14 18 will enable to build relationships between Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne schools and that the school network will develop with the creation of a school in Perth and Brisbane as well as labelling Australian schools which develop a bilingual teaching policy and are labelled by the French government. Practical exchanges between schools need to be strengthened by the creation of a diffusion structure. The implementation of this network will automatically enable professional cultures to meet and will be a pedagogical improvement for all. This will be strengthened by the creation of new certifications like DELF / DALF, which can be implemented thanks to the conventions signed by the AEFE and some institutions CNED, CIEP Finally, the creation of the Australian OIB (the English, American and Chinese OIB) would be a new platform for the schools and also the recognition of schooling in French schools in Australia. Point 2 did not generate any special remark other than the comparison of the school with other schools of the same type (cf. paragraph 3 page 3). The Principal has also reminded that ongoing training is important as the quality of teachings is every school s first asset. He indicated that we have to go beyond 1% of the payroll assigned to ongoing training. Point 3 extends point 2 in the area of governance of the school. Thanks to the quality of its teachers and its structure, the school has been asked to share its expertise regarding the development of a French school network in Australia. The pedagogical governance of the school is good as underlined by Ms Joëlle Jean, Head of the AEFE pedagogical department. Nonetheless, the Principal underlines that the governance of the secondary needs to be improved and thus by requesting the visit of IA- IPR responsible for inspections in the secondary. The nomination of an EMCP (expatriated chargé de mission responsible for pedagogical councils) has enabled the strengthening of expertise in humanities/french. This concern regarding governance goes with the necessity to implement good governance and the rationalisation of the means. The Principal underlines the absolute necessity to work on the convention which links the school to the AEFE as it has not been the object of any follow-up since 2002. The work on the delegations by the School Board to the Principal and the Finance and Human Resources Director appears fundamental in order to ensure good governance at the school. Point 4 is the occasion for the Principal to remind everyone that quantitative and qualitative surveys were done by the school as most schools of the network are subject to competition from local schools. Considering its deep roots in the Australian society and the makeup of the school population, the school is particularly in competition with private independent schools which explains the comparison done previously. Ms Béatrice Gallis and Mr Guitera come back once again to the choice of comparison done by the Principal asking that this comparison be changed in the Principal s report but for teachers, it seems
really appropriate. Ms Garand mentions the possibility of using other indicators to compare the school regarding the NAPLAN results, she also mentions the issue that having very good results could lead to a decrease in Australian grants. Mr Lett says that this is a sales approach and that the school aims at the success of the students. Mr Guitera suggests that the tests done in the selective schools should be implemented at the school so this would enable to compare them. He is told that each parent can choose to register their child in such tests but it does not seem relevant to organise them at the school. The Principal indicates that the school is a French school, that the language is French and not English and that it is an independent private school. 1. Working groups reports: Canteen commission Ms Gallis is the representative of the School Board at the Canteen Commission. Ms Rouvière presents the Canteen Commission conclusions. Ms Rouvière who really got involved in this matter underlines the noticeable progress done. The commission, whose members are parents elected at the School Committee and the School Council, the Nurse, two members of the School Board, two members of the management team as well as one secondary student, did some work by surveying the canteen users, including one student survey and an assessment of the menus. In parallel, the School Board has worked on the contract, which enabled to include a charter of quality in the contract. People are therefore more satisfied even if a few points still need some work. YMCA work group Ms Andronick, parent representative at the School Council, introduces the progress of the work with YMCA. The objective is to measure the level of satisfaction of the parents towards the provider and to try to guarantee the YMCA service during the holidays in July and August (there needs to be a guaranteed number of students). Parents seem satisfied with the service which is due to the stability of the YMCA staff but they are more negative regarding the administrative follow-up (enrolments, invoicing). A meeting with the head of the company and the regional head of the company has enabled progress, first to identify the minimum number of children required by YMCA so it is not in deficit, then to obtain that the service is provided without compensation in July and August (in return a family survey of the needs will be done), finally to know the detailed program of the activities in July and August. An assessment of how many children use this service will be done in August in order to maybe extend this opening without compensation during the school holidays. Parent Associations Mr Dilda mentions that the association has had a good start with two activities, badminton (enrolment per year) and zumba (paid teacher and therefore there is a minimum number of enrolments required). During part of the year, the numbers were sufficient but there was a decrease afterwards in the number of people for zumba. He indicates that the activity is tiring and that the lack of commitment of the teacher is the reason for this loss of interest. Ms Pelras-Megaïdes states that she has taken part in this activity and that participants are happy with it, the teacher is engaged and offers variations which people appreciate, she hopes that this activity will continue next year.
Parent relations secondary teachers working group Mr Krécina advises that the working group made up of three teachers and three parents got together in order to improve the communication structure between parents and secondary teachers in terms of calendar and communication space. A one on one meeting parent-teacher charter was finalised: it sets the framework of these meetings. A yearly calendar of the secondary parentsteachers meeting has been done and will be sent to parents. Secondary students commission The students representatives state that they have been asked by the canteen commission to give their opinion on the matter and that they have also taken part in the work done by the gala commission which went well. The Graduation ceremony will take place next week. Students also mention the MDL which does not entirely correspond to the objective set. Mr Krécina states that educational work with the students needs to be done regarding how MDL works. Primary extracurricular activities Ms Pelras-Megaïdes says that the number of activities has changed from 21 activities to 14 which has led to a drop in the number of people attending. This is mainly due to the locations which have not enabled the organisation of certain activities. The students and parents are satisfied but she mentions certain difficulties such as the lack of stability of enrolments, some students give up after a few sessions. A new brochure should be done that contains the enrolment and commitment rules as well as the social and behavioural rules. Organising open classes would enable people to get to know the activities offered and also so that it is easier for students to make a decision. Mr Boujonnier asks if it is possible that teachers who organise the extracurricular activities do not pay for their children to take part in extracurricular activities. This enquiry will be communicated to the School Board. 1. 2013 2014 budget Ms Rouvière presents the 2013-2014 budget and in particular the proposals kept by the School Board. Decrease in the number of students, conservative hypothesis of the company rate, weak projected revenue of $150 000 (Ms Rouvière states that the ground work done has enabled to have a real control of the payroll for the last two years whereas it used to increase exponentially, even if several people on maternity leave have lead to an increase of two points), a rise of 1% of other financial expenses and a decrease of 49% of the investments (please note that two projects are being considered and could be added to the investment budget). The comparison of the revenue and expenses, the implementation of the budget compared to the budget estimation for 2012 2013 and 2013 2014 are provided in the appendix document. The Principal states that the budget was voted by the School Board without prior consultation and against the advice provided by the school management who underline the risks in the appendix enclosed:. Mechanical effect of the 6% payroll increase due to the collective convention. (New collective convention in 2014) ;. Uncertainty regarding the company rate, the only solid source of revenue is the family rate.. Cancelling the LAFHA which means less help for the visa holders and therefore the risks that some families may leave.. New calculation of the grants which may lead to assistance requests or departures.
. Gonski review- the consequences of which at the federal level are not known, the NSW government has announced a freeze of the independent schools funding from the 1st July 2013. In response to the Principal, Ms Garand indicates:. that the budget was elaborated irrationally but that it is voluntarily conservative,. that the priority of the School Board is first not to increase the school fees, a decision that most members agree on. Ms Rouvière and Mr Bernard indicate that the estimated budget is as its name indicates a framework which cannot be done sympathetically, they regret again that this framework endangers the school and that the advice from management was not taken into account. Mr Guitera says that this is not the issue and that he shares the conservative approach of the School Board. 2. Situation of the resident staff Mr Lett mentions the financial situation of the resident staff.. The difference of status and salary between the resident staff and staff on local contract, staff on local contracts are better paid than their colleagues on resident contracts. Residents benefit from the French salary and the payment of the ISVL (local life allowance) which varies according to ranking but also depending on the country where one is located (less than 1000 per month for a teacher in group 5, ranking 9th on the table that goes down to 11), some colleagues who are not in this group earn less than 3000 Euros per month.. the solution is therefore to request a real increase of the ISVL which seems difficult as it is a closed envelope (controlled by the Finance Ministry) and that the distribution is global, increasing it in one country involves decreasing it in another country.. The previous School Board had decided to financially help 17 resident staff with an accommodation allowance. This envelope represents $200 000 which has not been subject to tax until this year.. The current School Board has decided that as part of the 2013 2014 budget estimation, there would be a cut of $50 000, without warning to the resident staff or the Principal (the Principal indicates that an email was sent to him from all the School Board members stating that this allowance would not be touched and that he found out about it just before the April holidays). Mr Lett states that this late information has not enabled teachers to consider the possibilities of going back to their academy in France or applying for a job at another school.. The residents have taken action by contacting the COCAC, French Senators overseas, l AEFE, and School Board and this has enabled to re-establish the totality of this allowance which is now subject to tax, but this will lead to a considerable decreases in the sum paid to each staff. The only viable solution is therefore to revaluate the ISVL in order to enable the resident staff to live reasonably in particular primary teachers who cannot do overtime unlike their colleagues in secondary. Ms Marie-Claire Guilbaud, Representative of French nationals overseas, intervenes to mention that indeed the situation of resident staff is painful and that mail was sent to Senators, to Mr Dominique Depriester Counsellor with the Deputy Minister responsible for French nationals abroad and that she is also going to meet the Director l AEFE. Mr Lett says that despite this difficult situation, teachers have remained really professional by concentrating on their pedagogical work and by not disrupting life at the school, only the organisation of volunteer activities. Mr Dilda mentions that he disagrees with teachers who have cancelled volunteer activities, criticizing their action. Finally, Mr Lett says that this situation can have an impact on the recruitment of staff because there could be a loss of interest for resident positions, as the payment of this allowance is not guaranteed in the future.
Ms Garand explains that no decision has been taken for the future, however the School Board does not plan its automatic renewal, the School Board considers it the black hole and the School Board is wondering about the legality of this payment (2002 decree) which was only validated orally by the AEFE (the COCAC has also indicated that the AEFE would not confirm this in writing). The School Board would also like a solution to be found by putting pressure on the agency so that the situation can move forward. Going back to the allowance, Ms Garand indicates that this is only a communication problem and that direct communication with the teachers was needed, the School Board by communicating directly with the teachers has improved the situation by reinstating the allowance. Ms Garand announces that a 1st degree and 2 nd degree teacher will be present from now on at the School Board, as it is planned in the new constitution adopted on the 28 February 2013. 3. Various questions Speech Therapist: Her action fits into the budget but it is impossible to exceed it. The Principal mentions that next year, the budget should enable the school to function over the year as the next person will not be trained by the current person as this was the case this year. Questions from the students:. Work placement for 3 ème students, if it is possible to do the work placement in seconde.. Sport during recess, difficult to put in place considering the space is being used by primary school as part of the curriculum.. Junior secondary lockers should be closer to junior secondary classes.. Repairing the heaters and fans. This has been done, if there are still issues please communicate the information.. Issue with the curtains in the classrooms next to the meeting room. They have been ordered and will be installed in the next few days.. An Apple computer available in the library. The Principal indicates that it is preferable to install software that students need in order to open certain documents. The agenda is exhausted, the Principal ends the session at 8.15pm. The meeting Secretary Philippe Platiau The Principal Philippe Courjault