Dear Parents, Dear Students,
After the terrible events that hit Brussels, the Parents Association received many concerns from worried parents related to the current security situation.
We take our responsibility to provide safe and reliable services for our children very seriously, and we fully share your concerns. Even before the events of last November, security always has been an important consideration for us. The existing measures, which include security checks of staff, are under revision and we will continuously assess what additional actions should be taken within the areas under our responsibility.
The specific measures taken and envisaged by the Parents Association regarding transportation, extracurricular activities and canteen are:
– Security controls of those employed and / or working for the Parents Association, where a common procedure for all European schools is being validated
– Trainings and a simulation exercises for APEEE employees on how to react in emergency situations
– Safety and bus evacuation exercises are in the planning for our children in nursery and primary. This information will be announced later.
Our President, Mrs Daguet-Babich, works in close collaboration with Mr. SCHLABE, Director of the School, Mr. Kivinen, Secretary General of the European Schools, the European Commission Security Directorate and other European Schools Parents Associations Brussels.
Therefore she attends the meetings and acts on your behalf.
The Parents Association together with all the previously mentioned relevant bodies, is seeking to:
– Establish security screening by the Belgian authorities of all persons who have access to the school
– Security checks and control before entering the school site,
– Regular presence of the police not only for monitoring but also for traffic control
– Surveillance inside the site and along its boundaries
– Training exercises to practice the action plan in case of emergencies,
– Structural change in the access to the school by bus.
You can find the summary of the meeting of 6 April on security, on the webpage “News of the Secretary General of the European Schools (click here)
Recently, the Board of Directors and the APEEE personnel have worked together to assess the risks in each of the services, transport (headed by Ms. Petrova), the extracurricular activities (responsible: Mrs. Karpati and canteen (responsible: Mr. Stricker).
We remind you that the Working Group Health and Safety, which has been strengthened by the arrival of new board members following the AGM on 1 February 2016, consists of four highly active members: Mr. Drantmann (coordinator), and Mrs Bodenez, Mrs Fidanidis and Mrs Gemmer.
You can contact the members of this committee at the email address hswg@bru4.eu
Rest assured that we’re listening.
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