Minutes of the Extraordinary Primary School Council (Ce) and School Council (CE) 

held on June 22, 2020

Parents Representatives at CE : Mr Brancourt,  Mr Carraz, Mrs Cosmao, Mr Launey,

(the full minutes of the School Council are available in French on the LFI Tokyo website) 

Agenda: Consultation on easing restrictions of the school reopening protocol

Any change in the reopening protocol must be submitted to the Primary School Council for comment and to the School Council for validation.  Invitations to convene to the Councils shall be sent at least 10 days before the dates of the meetings. In case of an emergency, this duration can be shortened to 3 days.

Extraordinary Primary School Council

(the full minutes of the Extraordinary Primary School Council are available in French on the LFI Tokyo website) 

Two proposals had been submitted by the LFI Tokyo Management for examination by the Council:

-1- Kindergarten : increase school time from 1.5 day per week to 2.25 days per week, in groups of 12-13 pupils instead of 8-9 pupils;

-2- Elementary School : keep the current system and replace online language lessons by in-class lessons at LFI Tokyo

Based on the feedback we received through surveys and discussions, we supported the broadest change possible, while we were mindful of the constraints and understood that some parents were not in favor of a change for only 4.5 days.

Teachers highlighted that: children would find it difficult to change their routine again for 5 days; lessons had been prepared and organized based on the previously agreed schedules; it would be difficult to change the current organisation without creating differences between pupils (some groups would have longer school time than others).

Further to examination of those facts, we decided to vote to keep the current system until the end of the school year. The proposal was approved unanimously by Council Members, with the exception of the Primary School Headmaster, who chose abstention.

School Council

The revision of the school reopening protocol was added to the agenda of this Council. 

Three proposals had been submitted by the LFI Tokyo Management for examination by the Council:

-1- Junior High School: lessons restart at LFI Tokyo, with full classes, on mornings only. Online teaching ceases.

-2-  High School: specialty classes for Première will be taught at LFI Tokyo. Online teaching ceases.

-3-  For Seconde and Terminale classes, the Council will decide whether to fully restart classes at LFI Tokyo.

All scenarios were examined during an hour-long discussion. The consultation of Secondary School teachers indicated that a majority of them did not support a change in the current organization. It was also highlighted that any changes at the Junior High School level would also impact High School classes. Some teachers could not continue teaching online as they would be physically teaching Junior High at LFI Tokyo. However for many students this would not be an issue, since some Seconde students are currently out doing internships and Terminale students will be receiving awards from the ambassador for their Baccalauréat results on Tuesday June 30. The epidemic risk was also put forward. To which the Embassy commented that based on the current knowledge of the situation, if there had been any doubts about the safety of pupils, changes would not be considered. In addition, teachers highlighted that any change at this point would negatively impact the existing lesson plan. The survey organized by FLT indicated that a significant majority of parents requested a reopening of Junior High School classes, even for only a few days. The following proposal was finally submitted for vote: classes to restart for Junior High School but no change for High School. 6 council members voted in favor of the proposal (including the 4 parent representatives), 2 voted against and 8 abstentions were recorded. The Management of LFI Tokyo decided to follow this recommendation, but will discuss its practical implementation with teachers on June 22.

The following measures were adopted on June 22 :

For all Junior High School students, additional in-class teaching will be held at LFI Tokyo on 4 afternoons (Thursday 25th, Friday 26th, Monday 29th, Tuesday 30th), by groups of half class. In parallel, online teaching continues, including Première specialty classes.

Families of the Lycee de Tokyo Team