Dear parents,

I hope that you have all found the opportunity to take a few days off this summer and that you and your relatives are doing well. With this letter, I would like to give you some initial information about the start of the new school year at the European School Karlsruhe.

Organisation of the new school year

In a context that is still influenced by the circulation of the Covid-19 virus in many countries and regions of the world, health and safety issues remain more than ever at the heart of our preparations for the new school year. As you know, for pupils, the start of the new school year is set for Wednesday 2 September (Thursday 3 September for P1 pupils and new pupils in nursery classes).

For the organisation of this new school year, we have updated our hygiene and prevention plan which will apply to our school, based on the recommendations made by the Ministry of Education of the State of Baden-Württemberg to all schools in the State. According to these new guidelines, all pupils may return at the start of the new school year. Mr BEAUPOIL, the new director of the nursery and primary cycle, and Mrs SANTOS, director of the secondary cycle, will send you a letter before the end of this week to inform you in concrete terms about the start of the new school year and the main hygiene and prevention measures which will apply within the school.

For your information, an extraordinary meeting of the Board of Governors of the European Schools will be held on 31 August and I will keep you informed of any decisions that may be taken there.

A strengthened management team

The start of the 2020 school year is also marked by the strengthening of the management teams in our schools. In each of them a post of Assistant Deputy Director is created for the nursery and primary cycle as well as for the secondary cycle. In these new functions, I am pleased to welcome Mrs Amanda WILSON (nursery and primary cycle) and Mr Fabrice BRECOURT (secondary cycle). I wish them every success in their new functions.

A school that is modernising

You will also notice that the school you will find in September 2020 is still being renovated. Thanks to the support of the City of Karlsruhe, the energetic renovation and retrofitting work, which started in the spring, is still on-going in all the school buildings. The execution of the various phases of this complex project will enable us to further increase the quality of accommodation and the quality of life that we can offer to the students on our campus. Of course, during this period, these major works will also produce some inconveniences and the need to find temporary solutions for the spaces and classrooms concerned. This explains, in particular, the appearance of containers on our green area and the unavailability of our aula for the entire coming school year. As soon as the parent class representatives are elected, I will invite them to a meeting to allow them to discuss with the architect and those in charge of the renovations for a better understanding of how the building site will be conducted over the coming months.

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From a more general point of view, I would like to express my gratitude to the teachers and all the staff members who work to welcome your children in the best possible conditions and who do their utmost to provide an education of the highest quality.

Finally, I thank you for the confidence you have shown in our school. I wish you a very good start to the new school year and look forward to meeting you again and greeting you very soon.

Daniel Gassner
Director