Dear families,

As this is the first newsletter of 2024, I wish you happiness and health and I sincerely hope you have enjoyed your Christmas holidays and have returned to school relaxed and full of energy.

I am very pleased that in September many new parents joined our Management Committee, bringing along their concerns, ideas and commitment. This helps us to continue collaborating with the school, amongst other topics on two priorities of the Annual School Plan 2023/2024 – Well-being and Sustainability. We have been working on the School’s Well-being policy which should be approved during this school year. Having seen the success of the KiVa parent evening organised on 21 November, we are thinking of organising further events on different subjects supporting Well-being, about neurodiversity, mental health, proper use of mobile phones, to name a few. We will keep you informed about further news on these topics and about relevant dates in our monthly newsletters and by WhatsApp.

In our Sustainability working group we are trying to find a way to bring new life back to the school garden next to the Nursery building. Again, volunteers are needed in order for this project to flourish.

As you might know, due to the changes in General Rules about the safety and security, the school and AMPA cannot co-sign the service contracts anymore. Therefore, for the coming months one of the AMPA MC priorities will be the future of School Transport. We are defining and finalising the details of a proposal which will be recommended to those families using the service. What is certain, is that the school transport volunteer’s group needs to increase in order to ensure the proper service. The new service model will be starting in the 2024/2025 school year. Many thanks to those parents who have offered their help already!

Also, the organisation of the Extracurricular Activities for nursery and primary school will undergo some changes. We have launched a survey aimed at nursery and primary school families and will inform you about the results and all possible changes.

Although the Canteen service has been outsourced by the school since September 2023, and AMPA is not a signature part of the contract anymore, we continue collaborating within the Canteen Committee which had its first meeting on 22th of January.

Please let us know (info@ampaescuelaeuropea.com) if there are any concerns you would like to share with us, any (educational/social/other) topics which you feel would make for an interesting AMPA Talk, or if you are interested in joining as a volunteer any of our Working Groups.

Have a great year!

Reet Escribano, AMPA president and your AMPA Management Committee