Summary of the Primary School Council held on 2021-11-17

Link to the detailed minutes in French (10 pages). 

https://www.lfitokyo.org/images/2021-2022/Trimestre-1/Cecole/CR-CEcole-20211117-prov.pdf 

Summary in 1 page 

Attended by the primary school director, the national education inspector, 8 parent representatives, 8 teacher representatives and 2 guest teachers.

• Report on the start of the school year: all the new personnel were able to arrive. Enrollment of 734 students as of 17/11 (down 1% from last year): 23.3 students per class for 34 classes in total, about 20 students whose families are waiting for visas.
• Work is progressing on the annex in accordance with the schedule for a move of the 15 classes from CE2 to CM2 at the beginning of the 2022 school year (right next to the LFI Tokyo). Work will also take place in the current elementary building during the summer.

Educational projects: 

• Christmas solidarity races set for December 8 for kindergarten, December 14 for elementary, with parents allowed to  attend this year.
• Generalization of daily physical activities, Olympics Day at the end of January.
• Performing arts as part of the artistic and cultural education program (PEAC)

Main answers to parents’ questions

• In CP PARLE (ex-bilingual), the distribution of the students was made by the kindergarten teachers to constitute 2 homogeneous groups of heterogeneous level. The curriculum has been adjusted to be compatible with the slightly reduced schedule.
• On the issue of students speaking “too much” Japanese: children are encouraged to speak French in class but it is difficult to forbid them to speak Japanese during recess. Accompaniment of parents is essential.
• Extracurricular: Mixed success of the reopening, there are still places available. More activities may be opened in January depending on the availability of space/health situation. New possibilities will be offered by the new annex.
• Canteen: a new chef has taken over since September, rather positive feedback on September-October (detailed feedback on the menus to be addressed to  restauration@familles-lycee-tokyo.com), a 2nd vegetarian menu implemented in December, 2 portion sizes offered for the whole elementary. Taste education. Limitation of waste. 
• Transportation: The 14 buses arrive in staggered order for students from PS to CM2, parents with vehicles are encouraged to leave the older children up the street. It was not possible to offer transportation for the extracurricular activities during the All Saints’ Day-Christmas period due to cost issues.
• Use of Google for Education (no advertising, LFI Tokyo owns the data) with individual email addresses from CE2 only usable within LFI Tokyo.  Pronote, Eduka, SeeSaw, all these systems are RGPD (General Data Protection Regulation) compliant 
• Ecology/sustainable development: discussion between the FLT eco-team and the extracurricular service for activities for the summer camp. Operation of cleaning up the neighborhood Vegetable garden renewed as well as composting. 
• Possibility of a virtual class the first week of January: rejected by the school council.

INFO-FLT

• Elementary Parent Contact Group: FLT is testing this year the use of an elementary parent contact group with a Line or other group in each class. Contact us to join the group in your child’s class.
• Inclusive School / Students with Special Educational Needs: FLT has created a group to understand what is being done in the high school and elsewhere to support families concerned (MDPH file among others). Contact the group at ecole-inclusive@familles-lycee-tokyo.com .