After my request from more than a year ago and my complain to the Nation Commission for Data Protection Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg since school didn’t react, I finaly received data protection regulation for our school – European school Luxembourg 2.
Regretfuly this document it is not possible to get online although GDPR cleary states that all important Privacy information should be quickly and publicly available.
On Monday, 04.06.2018, at 11:23 parents received the following communication from the school:
Dear parents,
To inform you, there has been an incident in our swimming pool concerning a group of Primary pupils.
You will later receive more information concerning the actual incident, but right now I just want to inform all of the following:
Per FRITHIOFSON, Director
Following messages confirmed that there was a leakage of chlorine gas in the swimming pool because of bad maintenance of the whole sports hall building.
Luckily all children were released from hospital the next day and hopeful won’t have long lasting consequences because of such negligence.
Reply from worried parent to deputy director Leene Soekov
Dear Ms Soekov,
Your answer is not only very worrying but it also shows the lack of awareness about SWALS in general. Their history, language competences, many injustices they go trough in European School in particularly in secondary cycle. It is very difficult to expect humanity and fairness from the teachers if the only time you remember SWALS is when you segregate and never when you should include them in activities (like for instance L1 trips).
After 10 years in this school trying to educate about this very unfortunate status, the pluses and many minuses I am almost certain you don’t really know what I am taking about. Because if you did, I am convinced, you would not let this kind of things happen, seeing them simply as inhuman and unnecessary. (I was hoping your past experience would make my job as a SWALS representative easier and not so stressful as in the past.) I fear you and some of your teachers have very little idea about the SWALS abilities, their needs and also very little interest about their constant struggle to prove themselves worthy and equal to their peers. This kind of treatment leaves emotional scars and parents are the ones who have to deal with it…
You do know SWALS follow maths in L1 and not in L2, right? In fact all the subjects are followed in L1 of the section (with the exception of human science from S3 onwards).
I again urge you to rectify this mistake and include SWALS pupils as equally competent in this study. There are many non native speakers in the classes who are not SWALS but in your argument more capable, which simply doesn’t make sense. The fact that this is a Luxembourgish study where there are many nationalities speaking FR, DE or EN is actually an argument to include the SWALS and not the other way around.
Thank you in advance for reading my message and for considering a change in your perception of our children.
Kind regards
It is unbelievable how new Mamer school management doesn’t have a clue about situation of minorities in the school.
New secondary Deputy Director Mrs Leene Soekov was asked to clarify why SWALS students are not allowed to take ICILS 2018 tests.
Thank you for your email regarding the ICILS 2018.
Please be informed that it is the first time the study is conducted and it is meant for Luxembourgish school system. As we are piloting the test outside the national system we have included only the mother tongue speakers of DE, FR and EN and we have not included any of the students of our school whose second language is DE, EN or FR because of the complexity of the questions set up. The results will not be divided by L1 and L2 categories and we do not want to have the L2 speakers be in an unfair position compared to the mother tongue speakers.
Kind regards,
Leene Soekov
That is why I sent this email to the school director.
Dear Mr Frithiofson,
As my wife informed you, there has been another example of discrimination of SWALS students. Your coordinator Mr Gerhard Pelikan told us that there would be ICILS test for S3 pupils, but only for a native speaker. I thought it was a typo and all the children in the classes will be invited for testing since they are all studying math in L1 and (most of them) are in these sections from Maternelle. It looks like SWALS students have good knowledge of the language to follow math classes and for the marks in the school but not good enough to take the test. Also, pupils who were accepted by your school as good enough to have 6 hours of maths next year can’t take the test since Mr Pelikan thinks they will not be able to understand test questions (?!).
There are constant problems with Mr Pelikan’s understanding of SWALS status (rights and (if any) privileges). Three years ago he was involved in a scandal with his racist behaviour and mismanagement of SWALS students in S1 at the beginning of the school year. You can read about more about catastrophic timetable management.
I would appreciate your quick reaction to include all S3 students for testing. It is the general behaviour of this school to wait till the event is over and then reply to parents that unfortunately it is to late to do anything. If you are not sure if their language skills are good enough for testing, you can consult their math teachers.
As you can see from the reply from the deputy director, she also doesn’t understand the situation of SWALS students. They have mathematics at the same level as all the other students.
Thank you and kind regards.
The European Schools provide teaching in the official languages of the European Union. However, not all of the schools are able to provide the full study cycle in all of these languages.
SWALS are those categories I and II pupils whose mother tongue/dominant language is an official language of an EU Member State (with the exception of Irish and Maltese) but for whom no language section in their mother tongue/dominant language (L1) exists in their school. Ore information can be found here.
Pupils enrolled in a European School which does not have a language section corresponding to their mother tongue are enrolled in one of the existing language sections of the school in question. However, they may take advantage of educational support in the language of the section in which they enroll.
School just updated this simple, positive rules specific to the daily life of the Primary school. If you have the opportunity, do not hesitate to talk about it with your child.
Learn: Be ready and prepared to do your best in all lessons
Show care: Take care of personal or school property and the environment
Be safe: Be in the right place at the right time
Respect: Be polite, helpful and cooperative with all members of the school community
Any other unacceptable behavior will be discussed with the class teacher, parents and the Director of our school.
