April 18, 2024

13 Stars Newspaper

Student-run independent newspaper of the 13 European Schools. A CoSup project.

End of Year Report by the CdE to the Students 2021-2022

Witold J.029 mins

The EEB1 CdE (Comité des Élèves) is an independent student organization, that is entrusted with defending students’ right to representation at EEB1. It is run by elected students from the Secondary cycle, who work in the interests of our student body by raising concerns about issues within our school, developing projects for students, and hosting events for our community.

The 2021-2022 CdE term was marked by our emergence from the COVID-19 pandemic. In the midst of lockdowns, absences, and a digital transition, the CdE strived to represent the students, while pushing for reforms within our school, as our community re-adjusted to normalcy.

Under the Presidency of Inés Bonhomme Vázquez and Sofia Santamato, the objectives of the CdE centered around CdE transparency, educational support, sustainability and access to opportunities on campus.

This report provides a brief overview of the 2021-2022 CdE’s achieved goals and projects. For more information on the work of the CdE, you can follow us on social media at: https://www.instagram.com/cdeofficial/,

read our statute (not yet updated) at
https://13stars.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/2020-1-06-STATUTE-Statute-of-the-Pupils-Committee-of-the-European-School-of-Brussels-I.pdf,

check our transparency drive of the documents and finances of the CdE at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xkZYXyfQQUIM4E_E7PhjKFsfhyeVyZoi,

or come by the CdE office, which is located at the bottom of the steps outside of the Villa.
The CdE’s work is divided into several Working Groups (often abbreviated to WG), the summaries of which you can read below:

IT Working Group:

In the 2021-2022 school year, the IT Working Group updated and published the MyEEB1 app with great success, allowing students to access daily absence lists and links to useful pages within the European School system. A map, glossary, canteen menu and other features are also available through this app. A “MyEEB1 manager” has also been appointed for continuity, to ensure the smooth running of this application.

Another episode of the “radio project” was recorded, edited and published, and additional soundbites were recorded for future episodes. The EEB1 documentary requested by CoSup was also filmed, and is currently being edited.

A groupchat IT Working Groups across different European Schools was created, and collaboration was also set up with CoSup, to assist in the creation of a CoSup IT branch. Via these collaborations, several common objectives have been identified, including IT competitions between schools, engagement of more pupils in IT, and more interconnectivity between the schools, such as BAC revision teams for S7 students.

“FabLabTalks”, (small tutorials of projects in the FabLab) has been filmed and is currently being edited. This project, once it is published on the CdE YouTube, aims to bring awareness to opportunities in the FabLab, as well as in the sciences.

The IT WG furthermore worked in collaboration with other stakeholders, such as the 13 Stars Newspaper, hoodie webshop, Hygiene WG and Events WG to provide IT assistance for various projects.

In the new term, the IT WG hopes to improve existing features within the MyEEB1 app, such as the “CdE News” tab, in collaboration with the PR WG. Other goals include linking students’ schedules directly to the app, and potentially creating different language versions, to suit the needs of non-English-speaking students. Additionally, the WG would like to realize “Eurohub”, a website where all European School students can access (and submit) learning materials that match the European School curriculum. The backend and wordpress for this has already been installed, and this project will be an objective in the 2022-2023 school year.

Public Relations Working Group:

During the 2021-2022 school year the Public Relations (PR) Working Group under the heading of Thomas Mulier and Nicoló Terruso has worked on two long term-projects: the CdE Instagram account (https://www.instagram.com/cdeofficial/) and a draft of a possible CdE Wikipedia page. Additionally, the PR WG has displayed posters around the school and on the school’s screens to promote events and projects of the CdE.

This school year, the Instagram account has been more active than ever before, as seen by the numbers below:

  • 32 posts in the 2021-2022 school year.
  • Posts averaging around 120 likes, 3 saved and 0 comment per post
  • 750 monthly profile visits
  • 25 monthly website visits
  • Monthly reach of 1300 accounts and 25 000 impressions.

The account also grew from 1250 followers to 1485 followers. Through collaboration with the IT WG, the PR WG has also developed a homemade linktree, in order to have a single platform linking various resources of the CdE. We expect that once further developed, this will be a key asset for the transparency drive, as well as other transparency measures of the CdE. With the planned finalization of the CdE Wikipedia page next school year, the CdE Instagram is also on track to eventually becoming verified.

Hygiene and Maintenance Working Group:

This year, the Hygiene and Maintenance Working Group has held eight meetings. The WG’s main achievement of the school year, is the creation of a tab in the MyEEB1 app which will allow students to report areas in school that need further maintenance. This tab should be up and running soon after the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year, as it only needs the approval of the administration for its official email address in order for the tab to be operational. 

Secondly, to ensure better working conditions within the CdE, the Hygiene and Maintenance WG has created an excel sign-up sheet, available to all CdE members, that allows efficient, bi-monthly cleanings of the CdE room. This system was admittedly set up late during the school year but will be kept running throughout the next school year. 

Finally, we have been in contact with the Gender and Sexuality Resource Group in order to make the gender-neutral bathrooms more noticeable. We have settled on putting up better signs to indicate them and we expect that they will be put up during the upcoming school year. This will be done in collaboration with the Arts and Posters WG.

Green (Sustainability) Working Group:

In the school year of 2021-2022, the Green Working Group started out with a ” posters’ project”, during which students were asked to design environmentally conscious posters that we displayed on the school’s screens.

Thereafter, the WG collaborated with the canteen staff to understand the main sources of food waste within our school community; the results of which indicated that a large portion of waste could be attributed to primary classes. This spurred a campaign against food waste, during which the Green WG made PowerPoint presentations on food waste (its causes, consequences and ways to avoid it) for primary students, tailored to the linguistic sections of the Uccle campus. The Green WG is in communication with the EEB1 Primary Director on this project, and presentations will be carried out in the 2022-2023 school year.

The EEB1 Green Group also participated in meetings of Green representatives from different European Schools, and began drafting a proposal to join the inter-school “Writings on the Wall” project, which calls attention to the need for governments to cut national emissions in accordance with the Paris Agreement, for the safety of our planet and future generations.

The Green WG furthermore collaborated with the Events WG to host a plant-based bake-sale, which aimed to create awareness for plant-based diet options and recipes. (See Events).

A proposal was furthermore created to expand the Climate Academy (founded in EEB2) to EEB1. (read proposal https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NjgScRu6bECvrR88CyVKpBj4GfRGBJpB/edit)

Finally, the Green WG worked with Ms. Pearson (Geography teacher), to create a teacher-student sustainability liaison within the school.

Events Working Group:

The 2021-2022 Events Working Group worked to revitalize a sense of community at EEB1, in the aftermath of several lockdowns. Although challenged by COVID regulations, the Events WG succeeded in hosting more than ten different projects during this term.

The WG organized two Secondary-wide dress-up days with social media coverage: one for Halloween, and one that encouraged students to come to school dressed in pajamas.

The Events WG also hosted four bake-sales, the overview of which can be seen below:

  • Charity for Arc-en-ciel, an association that hosts activities for children
  • Charity for Ukrainian refugees
  • Charity for Le Coeur de BXL, an association that cooks meals for homeless people and refugees in Brussels
  • Plant-based bake-sale raising awareness of plant-based recipes

The WG also participated in two multi-stakeholder charity drives: the school-wide Ukraine collection, for which CdE members sorted boxes of donations, and the paper-bag collection, for which the CdE hosted a drop-off location in the CdE room. The CdE also collaborated with the Red Cross to collect breakfast goods for families in need.

For Valentines, the Events WG sold surprise Valentines’ giftbags (90 sold total), which were delivered to their proper recipients by members of the WG. This was done in coordination with the Valentines’ Day sales of the Zambia project.

In March, the CdE organized the Spring ball along with the three other Brussels schools; a party for 16+ students held at an off-campus venue. The CdE documented the organization (successes and challenges) of this event, and created a comprehensive guide for its safety and planning, which are currently being uploaded to the public CdE transparency drive. The money raised by this event was distributed to the CdE’s, and a portion was allocated for EEB1’s BAC Day.

For S1-3 students, the Events’ WG hosted a neon disco in May, with between 350-400 participants. This was reported to be a huge success by students, parents and administrators alike. A template was created for the event, which will be used by future CdEs to replicate this success.

Arts and Posters Working Group:

In the scholastic year of 2021-2022, the CdE Arts and Posters’ Working Group has been employed for several projects in the school community. Among initiatives, the WG has designed a number of posters and Instagram stories in collaboration with the PR WG, including posters about mask-regulations, awareness for the school-wide Ukraine collection, the Humanities’ Festival, Cake sales, the Science Festival and ecological infographics in coordination with the Green Working Group.

In addition, the Arts and Posters’ WG hosted, and received submissions for, the 2021-2022 CdE hoodie design contest, the winner of which can be seen below:

The Arts and Posters’ WG furthermore worked with the S4-7 library, to create posters, signs, and other indicators for exhibitions of books (temporary collections focusing on certain topics).

Most significantly, the WG designed and completed “the wall project”, a mural on the wall flanking the Michelangelo building, as seen below:

The design was partially inspired the Berkendael sites’ “Citizens of the Ocean world” project, and aims to raise awareness for the harming effects of climate change on marine life. The artists also hope the design will contribute to a vibrant and welcoming environment on the Uccle campus of EEB1. You can read the original proposal for the mural here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1trZrOzWlKZMV9-r3NAILC-VNPcKzsHKa/edit

The CdE Administration

The CdE administration (President, Vice President, Treasurer and Secretary) has worked alongside the Working Groups to provide assistance, resources and advocacy for various initiatives. In addition to this, the CdE administration has finalised several other initiatives, including:

  • Ensuring the provision of free menstrual products in the Infirmary (negotiations concerning free period-product dispensers in the bathrooms are currently taking place for the 2022-2023 school year).
  • Amending and (by vote) adopting the CdE Statute to comply with the newly adopted “Election Procedures of the Pupils’ Representatives within the European School System – 2019-01-D-55-en-5” from the Office of the Secretary General of the European Schools.
  • Establishing a network of stakeholders supporting the creation of basketball courts on campus (project envisioned to finish at the end of the 2022-2023 school year).
  • Expanding Green Exit cards by one period, making them effective from P3 instead of P4 (negotiations to expand them to include the full school day currently taking place).
  • Receiving authorization to promote clubs on campus via the EEB1 website, and support to release an “application form” to create a club at EEB1. This will not only provide a published overview of student-life, but facilitate students founding their own clubs.
  • Creating a comprehensive resource-guide for future Presidential candidates, to strengthen the continuity of the CdE.
  • Creating a short resource-guide and manual for CE Representatives, to strengthen the continuity of student representation.
  • Organizing student involvement in the Ukraine collection.
  • Working with the APEEE on our joint hoodie-sales. Admittedly, several obstacles contributed to an inconveniently late sale, which ultimately resulted in several helpdesk-problems, and issues with delivery. The CdE will continue deliveries in the 2022-2023 school year.
  • Aiding in the transportation logistics of students for EuroNight.
  • Writing and uploading the minutes from CdE meetings, CE meeting, Administrative Board meetings and other notes to increase transparency.
  • Creating a proposal for a CoSup loan for the EEB1 basketball courts.
  • Creating (comprehensive) pamphlet-guides about EEB1 for new students, which will be published and distributed by the CdE in September of 2022.
  • Setting bi-weekly meetings with the EEB1 Administration.
  • Organizing and Chairing 6 CdE meetings.
  • Running polls among Class Representatives on the state of online learning.
  • Running Approval Rating surveys of the CdE both internally, and among Class Representatives.

In addition, the CdE Presidency (President and Vice President) advocated for the following policy initiatives: (Read the all the official interventions and proposals here https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1VYeRzk6ONvw7rgxYYZVYt5zhChDHGuqE).

  • Adoption of the “Preparation of the 2021-2022 school year” guidelines (co-written by the CdE Vice President) which emphasizes that special attention should be paid to vulnerable members of the community, including younger pupils (S1 and S2), newly arriving pupils and teachers, pupils entering S7 and pupils with special educational needs. It was agreed that measures such as better orientation for new teachers following the pandemic, discussions of post-pandemic expectations within younger classrooms, communication on expectations for A-grades within classrooms, discussions between subject coordinators on prevailing gaps in knowledge following lockdown, and pastoral care time by class teachers in the beginning of the year, would be implemented.
  • “GeoGebra for exams” to be postponed until a time when students feel comfortable with the software, and several risk-factors are dealt with, including: bugs in the software’s exam-mode, lack of compatibility with several devices, lack of reserve-devices for exams etc. This point being especially important, as it was foreseen that GeoGebra would be piloted during an S6 exam, which could bear severe consequences for many students. It was ultimately decided by the Central Office (after additional pressure from other schools and the IT PEDA working group, which is attended by the CdE Vice President, to postpone the implementation of GeoGebra).
  • The creation of more open-spaces and space optimization in response to the severe overcrowding on the Uccle campus, which is also detrimental to the mental wellbeing of students. Several projects of the administration are currently in progress to optimize social space on campus.
  • The prioritization of native English-speaking teachers for protected functions, and amelioration of contracts for locally recruited teachers in order to ensure the quality of English within English-speaking classrooms, retain quality teachers (especially in important year-cycles), and increase the attractiveness of the European Schools for locally recruited staff . (Read a digestible overview at https://www.instagram.com/p/CbkWS-DIJpN/?hl=en)
  • Calling attention to the discriminatory grade conversion tables of Denmark and Germany (Irish conversion tables excluding Trinity were recently amended as well), which disadvantage European Baccalaureate-holders applying for higher education. Not only is this discrimination non-compliant with the Convention defining the Statute of the European Schools, but they lessen the attractiveness of a European Baccalaureate for students of the Danish and German sections.
  • Supporting measures to expand mental wellbeing staff, including more psychologists and more substance abuse and addiction awareness seminars for students. We have made it a priority to push for system-wide proposals locally, including the Child Protection Policy’s clause for a better student-psychologist ratio.

Conclusion:

Although this year has been marked by hard work, there are still several challenges that lay ahead. It is vital for the CdE to increase its transparency and awareness amongst the student population, and to ameliorate internal communication. Miscommunication has resulted in weak opposition to policies such as the mobile phone policy, which is currently being heavily contested by the CdE. It is also crucial for the CdE to expand its work with other stakeholders, including the conseillers, teachers and other stakeholders within the administration. We must also continually strive to involve all CdE members in the work of the CdE, and better manage the resources of the CdE in the pursuit of our work.

Nonetheless, this report is a testament to the ability of the CdE to mobilize students and make itself heard within our community. The 2021-2022 CdE has actively strived to represent pupils across sections, years and interests, with the ultimate goal of bettering EEB1 for all students.

On behalf of the 2021-2022 Presidency, we are proud to have served the EEB1 community, and we thank you for your confidence in us.

Sofia Santamato, Vice President of the CdE

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