There were three people giving the presentation
Muriel Plag (email plag@deutsche-schule-hurghada.de) she is a German government appointment and a trainer of teachers for 5 years
Gamal Nawara (email schultraeger@europasschuleKairo.com) from Cairo school, 12 years
Klaus Wehmeyer(email wehmeyer.klaus@gmail.com) who will be the new head of Luxor school
They presented apologies from Samir Farag and Mandouh Phillipe.
There was a comprehensive information pack given out.
The idea for the school came after a class trip one year ago to Luxor and they found there was no international school in Luxor. It gained momentum when they went to Samir Farag with the idea and he told them his grandchildren went to the Cairo school.
My notes from the presentation.
Their mission is to integrate different nationalities, cultures and religions using the Montessori system. The school day is 08:15 to 16:00 and they provide healthy meals and snacks. There are breaks, playtimes and time to do homework. Languages are taught by native speakers. There is Arabic for religion and civics, English is taught in Grade 1 and Pre School, maths is taught in German and French is taught at Grade 5. They have not totally decided on what the final exam will be could be International Baccalaureate or German DIAP. In Cairo it is DIAP. There will also be an option for Thanaweya, the Arabic exam so children leaving the school can go on to Egyptian Universities.
The school starts on 18th September in a villa, location should be decided this week. Eventually the school will move to Teba, transport will be provided. There will be Kindergarten, Nursery and Grade 1 and 2. They are hoping for 10 students in each class as a start up.
In their Cairo school out of 250 KG students 245 speak only Arabic so they have experience of teaching children German and English from scratch. The nursery day can be 8-2 or 4. There is a 10% discount for parents applying this year. They need a minimum of 2-6 kids in each class 15 in total. In Cairo they started 12 years ago with 19 children and now have 750. They are now offering bursaries to worthy students in Cairo. They can offer extra German 30 hours a week. They can have one class for several grades 1-4, 5-7 and 8-10.
There were a lot of questions.
Children outside the start up age range, IF there was sufficient demand then they would think about doing classes.
Teacher recruitment was possible but they need kids first. the more kids the more teachers.
Extra German could be offered
A lot of comment and questions about the price
KG 1,900 € Preschool 2,440 € and grade 1-4 2,900€. 10% discount first year, 25% on second and subsequent children. The meeting thought this was very high for Luxor; hardly any Egyptian families could afford that. Also for many ex-pats they are not employed by international companies. I suspect that if demand was strong enough they would move on this. Volumes have to matter to them as well. A number of people were filling in the application forms with caveats as their kids were the wrong age or the price was too high. The feeling was if we gave them the chance to see demand and comments they might be more flexible as they want to start this. Tonight and tomorrow morning they are on site at the Sonesta for questions.
2 comments:
Thanks for the information and for attending the meeting. It's not going to be of any use to Tiya and I am quite surprised on the costs for Luxor, which is not Cairo! Will be interesting to see what else they have to say! After the day you had yesterday with the PC theft, thanks again for going. I think I am going to stick to hometutoring when we get out to you. xx
I thought Tiya was 2 so she would be the right age.
I think if they bring their prices down it will be excellent
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