Dear FLT Members,

The next Conseil d’Ecole (Primary School Council) and Conseil d’Etablissement (School Council) will take place on May 21st and 24th.

Primary School Council (Ce):

The Primary School Council prepares recommendations for the LFIT School Council with regards to educational matters and school life at the Primary School.

School Council (CE):

This body oversees the Primary and Secondary School. It reviews the topics discussed during the Primary School and Junior/Senior High School Councils. It can make decisions regarding educational and organizational matters within the framework defined by AEFE. It cannot replace AEFE or the Board Meeting for their specific scopes of decision. 

Should you have any topic you would like to raise during these councils, please fill the Primary School and School Council form by May 8th for Ce and May 20th for CE.

Sincerely yours,

FLT-Fapée Team

Link to the full report in French: 

https://www.lfitokyo.org/images/2020-2021/Trimestre-2/CR/CR-CE-2021-02-02-prov-v2.pdf

Summary

Adjustments to the health protocol of January 12, 2021 were validated and renewed.

The process for developing the “Projet d’établissement” has been updated: the main points will be validated at the end of May, but its finalization will continue next year. Workshops based in particular on the answers to the December questionnaires are planned for staff, parents, and students.

The 2021/2022 calendar has been discussed and still needs to be validated by the embassy and the national education system before it can be circulated.

The pedagogical structures 2021-2022 were unanimously adopted:

• the structure of the primary school will be unchanged, 34 classes (9 in kindergarten, 25 in elementary) ; 
• opening of one class in 6th grade and one in 3rd grade, i.e. 26 classes in secondary school (17 in middle school, 9 in high school).

Answers to main questions:

What follow-up was given to the thefts committed during the previous period?  Interviews had taken place with the police. There were no new reports. The theme of security has been integrated into the student questionnaire and initiatives have been formulated by the CVLC. The project of ‘forget boxes’ during P.E.S. classes, locked by the teachers, has not yet been implemented.  

As for access to the technical and professional streams, it is possible to carry out discovery internships during the year by adapting the student’s timetable. In case of return to France, a reorientation towards a technological or professional field can be proposed.

The possibility of changing during the year from one English language group to another is no longer allowed because it had become too difficult to manage and created a lot of dissatisfaction. Nevertheless, students who have reached a sufficient level of English at the end of the school year will be offered the opportunity to join one of the English Literature groups the following school year.  

Due to a lack of sufficient numbers, the Oriental section, an alternative to the Japanese OIB (or SIJ), is not offered at the high school to date. The management does not wish to dry up the already low numbers of students in the SIJ. A consultation was held last year with the Japanese team to clarify the model of Japanese in the secondary school. The upcoming creation of an SIJ at the primary level (planned for September 2022) will make it possible to feed a pool of students at the secondary level in the future.  Your representatives insist on the need for a richer offer at the high school level, making it possible to escape the alternative between a very heavy Japanese OIB curriculum that can only concern a few students and the teaching of Japanese as a mother tongue restricted to only 3 hours/week.

Concerning the harmonization of Baccalaureate grades, following the cancellation of the common exams in November, a consultation with the teachers took place to guarantee a harmonization of practices.  A pedagogical council will be organized during the next period.  At the level of the Asian zone, a harmonization and equalization of marks should probably be carried out as was the case last year.

Link to the full report in French: https://www.lfitokyo.org/images/2020-2021/Trimestre-2/CR/CR-Cecole-2021-01-28-prov.pdf

Summary of the Primary School Council :

• 883 students are enrolled in primary school this year. This is a 2% decrease compared to June 2020, leading to a comfortable 24.5 average number of pupils per class. A 5th CM2 class, that was already budgeted, has been opened despite the lower numbers. 
• The Olympic and Paralympic week will take place between Feb 1st and 5th, keeping in mind the current sanitary situation and restrictions.
• The health protocol has been reviewed. A summary was sent to the families.
• In the 2021/2022 school year, the present plan is to maintain the same number of classes per level that is 9 classes in kindergarten and 25 in elementary.
• The teachers’ council brought up the suggestion of changing from one Bilingual CP to 2 Pre-SIA (International American Section) classes next school year from September 2021.

Main answers to various questions:

• The EcoTeam’s question related to the integration of the sustainable development theme into the school program was answered in details
• Library (BCD) access: all the access slots are fully booked. However, there is no restriction in place with regards to borrowing books in a language other than French. Pupils are welcome to the BCD from 8 am before the start of class.
• A new trilingual information pamphlet has been published on the LFI Tokyo’s website for all new students who do not speak French in classes CP to CM2.
• Children representatives/ Eco-representatives: Representatives must be elected from the 6eme on but this is not a request in primary school. Some teachers decided not to Implement this system this year and to explain representativity to the children in different ways instead. 
• Reading: as requested by some parents, here are lists of reference books to read by section: French, English, and Japanese.
• Finally, should it become necessary, the LFI Tokyo is ready to switch to remote learning: Teachers have been working on an emergency remote learning kit, allowing pupils to work autonomously for a couple of days while they continue to adapt their lectures for the remaining of that time. Should this situation arise, the timetable would be adjusted to prevent the overlap of video conferences among siblings.

Dear families,

Our school will participate for the third consecutive year in the Olympic and Paralympic Week (SOP in French) from February 1st to 5th.

The program initially planned has been modified to take into account the current health constraints but the spirit of this week dedicated to the values of sport and Olympism in its different forms will indeed be preserved for the greatest pleasure of the children!

This year, the steering committee of the SOP which brings together students, parents, and teachers has planned to involve the entire educational community.

Therefore, it is proposed to all of you to become Olympic torchbearers for LFI Tokyo or to bring back points to your child’s class through a challenge for primary school parents!

You will find attached to this message an Olympic flame to print.

It’s up to you to stage it and send a photo of your family torchbearer to sop@lfitokyo.org today (for the LFI Tokyo’ SNS)!

As many squats and squats as possible to do as a family and to report in order to increase the score of your children’s class here: https://bit.ly/2MGFOp3

Scores can be followed here: https://bit.ly/3j1snvX.

Pictures showing your performances can also be sent to sop@lfitokyo.org (for the LFI Tokyo’ SNS)!

As Pierre de Coubertin said, “the important thing is to participate”, so it’s up to you!

See here for the full report in French.

English Summary of the School Council :

43 new students have joined since September, and 30 will arrive in the next few weeks. The enrollment level will thus be comparable to last year. 

The various committees reporting to the School Council have been set up. The FLT Association represents parents in the following committees: Junior and Senior High School Council (CSD), Junior-Hi and High School Quality of Life Representative Council (CVLC), Disciplinary Council, Health and Civic Duty Committee (CESC), Solidarity Fund Committee, Real Estate Committee.

The primary school classes to be moved to the school extension (in the newly renovated building ) will be  CE2, CM1, and CM2 (unanimously approved).

Following the theft that took place on Tuesday, October 13, 2020, in the gym’s locker rooms, new measures to be taken were discussed. The principal summarized the actions carried out by the management team. The police have asked to hear the six students who were victims of this theft. This is still in progress. 

We insisted that LFI Tokyo should take dissuasive steps to deter thieves by reminding them of the penalties incurred, which are particularly severe in Japan. Consular Councillor F. Roussel also emphasized the importance of reminding all students of the rule. The various actions that can be taken will be discussed in the ad hoc committees (CVLC and CESC).  

The School Council unanimously validated the conclusions of the health protocol monitoring group that had already been transmitted to the families.

Answers to main questions:

• Students who wish to study indoors now have several rooms at their disposal, open during school hours. The library can be used to study by 3è, 1ère, Term (students who need to prepare for exams this year).
• Parents can contact teachers whenever necessary, in addition to the individual parent-teacher meetings scheduled during the year.
• The school has submitted to AEFE a request for a refund of its Covid-related expenses (sanitary equipment and cleaning teams).
• Several awareness campaigns will be targeted to students this year (example: school harassment), the management suggested that these issues should be addressed “in-depth” with students committees  (CVLC, CESC), rather than as a one-day event.  
• Proposals for “Discovery trip and excursion” will be discussed during the next meeting of the health protocol monitoring group.