Dear Parents,

As you are well aware, the Federal Government of Germany has not yet complied with its legal obligations with regard to the extension of the European School Frankfurt. We believe that the German government is deliberately delaying the decision until it is too late to implement the obvious solutions.

The management of the ESF and the City of Frankfurt have proposed an interim solution, as the implementation of a permanent solution would be impossible before the influx of SSM staff and families to Frankfurt. Rather than agreeing to finance the interim solution, the German Ministry of Education is still pondering other options.

These options would not be consistent with the pedagogical concept provided by a Category 1 European School, in particular they would not provide for students without a language section (SWALS), nor would they provide a Pre-Primary section or a Special Educational Needs (SEN) programme. These options would, therefore, not support the needs of children of SSM staff coming to Frankfurt from all 27 Member states.

Consequently, we, the Parent’s Association, support the short term plan suggested by the ESF and the City of Frankfurt as the best solution to meet the immediate influx of students in September 2014. This, however, would only provide an interim solution until a more permanent expansion of capacity is completed. Time is running out and unless the German government makes a decision soon there will be insufficient time for this plan to be implemented by September 2014.

The Parent’s Association has been very active over the past few months in trying to work towards a satisfactory solution for our children and the new students expected in September 2014 including:

• Writing to Chancellor Merkel requesting her intervention;
• Writing to President Draghi requesting his intervention/support;
• Meeting with Mr Kivinen, Secretary General of the European Schools; and
• Attending various meetings with the ESF, the ECB, EIOPA and the City of Frankfurt.

In light of the lack of a positive response from the German government, we now need more parents to become involved in highlighting the seriousness of this issue. We propose the following course of action:

• Lobby all personal contacts who may be of assistance within Germany, Europe, National Central Banks and governments;
• The PA will organise a petition in January which will be sent to the German Minister of Education; and
• The school Administrative Board meeting will be held in the school on 22nd January with interested parties present to discuss the issues. We would ask for as many parents as possible to turn up to show their support. Final details of the action to be taken will be circulated in January.