The Committees

Members of the CESPA Committee act on behalf of parents on a number of internal and external committees. With the hybrid nature of the European School at Culham, these committees are involved with meetings with the Culham School Management, the UK Department for Education and Skills (DfES), the Board of Governors of the European Schools in Brussels, UK Members of Parliament, Members of the European Parliament and local industry. A sampling of these Committees is given below. Working groups also exist and look at brainstorming specific topics such as Publications, Second Language and Transport.

Primary / Secondary and Joint Teaching Committees (Conseil d’Education)

The relevant head/s of the School as well as representatives of teachers, parents and pupils discuss pastoral and pedagogical care of the pupils as well as outside school activities such as school trips.

Premises Committee

School management, Teaching and Administrative Staff representatives meet together with parents in a consultative group to discuss relevant issues concerning the maintenance, planned building works and a "Wish List". This meeting acts as part of the preparation for discussions on premises related issues between the School management and the UK Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and their agents. The UK Government owns, and the DfES is responsible for, the Culham European School accommodation."

Administrative Board Meeting

Chaired by the Representative of the Board of Governors, this committee deals with matters concerning the management and administration of the Schools, draws up budgets, overlooks the spending allocations and pays attention to all aspects of day-to-day school life. Meetings normally take place three times each year at Culham.

Interparents

This is the central organisation of the Parents’ Associations at the twelve European Schools which meets in Brussels about 5 times each year. Culham normally sends one committee member to Interparents meetings. The Chairperson usually attends the meeting just before the Board of Governors meeting at the beginning of each calendar year.

Board of Governors (BoG)

This body is composed of Delegations represented by civil servants from the various Education and Foreign Affairs Offices of each member of the European Union (EU) countries, together with the EU Commission and representation from the European Patent Office. School Management, Teachers’ and Parents’ representatives are present at all BoG meetings and have the right to air their concerns.