Request Clear Transition Plan for an Academy School at Culham

We as parents hereby express our grave concerns regarding the planned transformation of the Type I European School Culham into an Academy and a Type II European School from September 2011.

1. To this date, information meetings with involved parties in the phasing-out and transformation processes have focused mainly on general intentions and plans and the general urgent need to acquire funding and approval for the planned academy.

2. Nothing specific has been presented regarding budgetary or financial matters that can ensure that an academy will be viable from the planned start date.

3. Nothing specific has been presented as to how any EU funding provided for the remaining Type II European school and/or the Academy will be guaranteed to safeguard the educational requirements of existing European School pupils during the phasing-out period until 2017, culminating in the European Baccalaureate.

4. At the most recent meetings during November 2010, too many questions from parents to the panel remained unanswered.

5. The future positions of staff members, particularly seconded staff, remain unresolved. There is a critical lack of process clarification from all the update meetings attended by pupils and parents, this has led to grave concerns about the quality of the transfer process. Parents and pupils were promised a seamless transition.