EEBI Addiction Prevention Policy and Mobile Phone Policy: soliciting parent feedback

• Concept Paper Francis Pirotta Creative Arts Prize
• Agreement

LEGO Mindstorms Robotics Pilot Project

Du ring the upcoming project week, a selection of S3 pupils will work with Lego Mindstorms sets to learn about robotics, coding, and environmental issues and to gain insights into the benefits of working on projects in teams. This project is meant as a pilot to make the robotics and coding possibilities provided by Lego Education available for future teaching and projects at the European School. Furthermore, it is an excellent opportunity to prepare the students for more advanced projects in the FabLab. Lego Mindstorms is an excellent way to spark interest and skills in coding and robotics as it gives students the experience of being able to affect the physical world around them.

At our November meeting, the APEEE Board agreed to provide co-funding for the purchase of 16 Lego Mindstorms EV3 sets. These sets will be used as part of a project week pilot project but should also be used by the school in early secondary ICT courses and in special teaching or extra-curricular modules. It was felt that Mindstorms provided a good early introduction to robotics and coding; sets also come with a rich supply of instructional and educational material that will help guide teachers in their use. The APEEE hopes these sets will spark student interest in computing and electronics during their formative years and will complement the more advanced facilities and equipment offered by the FabLab.

Educational Support/Gifted Students Network

For two years, the APEEE’s Pedagogical Working Group (PedGroup) has included a sub-group on educational support coordinated by Sven Matzke. The subgroup has recently set up two networks of parents dealing with (1) educational support and (2) gifted pupils. The aim of both networks is to provide interested parents with relevant information and to organise dedicated meetings for an exchange of experience.

Parents having an interest in educational support and/or support for gifted pupil can address their questions to Please indicate clearly your name, email address and the network in which you are interested.

1. Mobile Phone Policy: The APEEE considers the school’s current mobile phone policy to be too narrow in scope and out-of-date and wishes to submit a proposal to the school for an update of the policy. A group of parents have drafted the attached background paper and proposal on behalf of the APEEE, and the APEEE CA has asked for the document to be circulated to parents for consultation. In order to evaluate whether a revision to the policy would be supported by parents and to establish a parent position on the best scope and approach, we would like to solicit feedback. We would be grateful if parents could submit their feedback to class representatives, giving particular consideration to:

• the possibility of separate policies for primary and secondary school;
• the possibility of differentiated treatment of the lower years of secondary (S1-S3) and upper secondary (S4-S7);
• times/locations where mobile phone use should/could be permitted/prohibited.

1. Prevention Policy Guidelines: The following policy was drafted by the school over the spring of 2018 and presented at the October best places to live in Tucson for singles secondary CE meeting. The purpose of the policy is to introduce coherent disciplinary measures for students in possession of addictive substances on campus and/or for the consumption of such substances on or before entering the campus. The guidelines also contain information on prevention measures.Ideally, the policy should be a document that teachers, students, the school administration and parents can all agree to, and the whole school community should work together on its enforcement. For this reason, we would be grateful to receive parent feedback, particularly taking into considering the following aspects of the policy: