E.T.E.E.
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CULHAM SCHOOL PROJECT
(updated February 2011)
The European School Culham is the only UK example of this unique network of European Schools in the European Communities. All original European Schools are inter–governmental bodies, providing a curriculum that leads to the European Baccalaureate, an academic qualification fully recognised by all EU governments and beyond and unique in examining bilingually across subjects. Although the school is highly successful in terms of parental demand and pupil achievements, the governing body of the European Schools determined that the it no longer met the restricted priority purpose for which it was founded (i.e. education for families of European Commission employees), now that the Culham JET/Taurus nuclear fusion project is being transferred to France.
The English Trust for European Education (ETEE) was at the forefront of the proposal to transform the school into a state-funded European Academy, serving a wider sector of the local population, and therefore opening up and projecting its wider vision of trans-European education. Our original document envisaged the creation of an Academy with access based on needs, determined by the pupils circumstances and where as many European languages as possible could be studied simultaneously. This model was based on preliminary discussions across the whole political spectrum, though it was founded on the understanding that Academies were to be given curricular freedom and other wider powers.
A failed first attempt
A future European Academy was planned by an appointed, government backed, charitable Trust called CLASS. Their aim was to turn the school into an all-age inclusive, multilingual, co-educational establishment compatible with the English national curriculum, but where pupils would have been able to select a course of study leading to the European Baccalaureate. The UK government had intended to transform the existing school into an Academy by 2010, slipping then to September 2011 to allow for extensive talks at European level in relation to legal and administrative matters. In February 2011 CLASS announced that they would withdraw from the project and their statement can be found here.
Our position
Having been the initiators of this project together with the parents association (CESPA) we had hoped that a new academic institution would have been set up from the ashes of the current European school continuing to offer as wide a selection of European languages as possible, to ensure the diversity of educational experience which is at the heart of European schooling. However, the Academy project set up by CLASS provided an uncertain vision. We regret this initial project could not progress further and we are working closely with all stakeholders to explore other opportunities, prior to the announced closure of the Culham school in 2017.
These comments represent solely the position of the English Trust for European Education, a wholly independent charitable Trust unrelated to other stakeholders that may be involved in the transformation process for the Culham European School.
We offer a charitable framework to carry forward our vision of a trans-European network of schools committed to multicultural and multilingual education, with the transmission and projection to future generations of the European heritage. If you would like to help us please contact us.
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Fostering unity through education
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