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" ""Furious"" retained ten of her original eleven breech-loading guns, five on each side, for self-defence from enemy warships. Six QF 4-inch Mark V guns replaced her original anti-aircraft guns. Four were mounted on the sides of the flying-off deck and two on the quarterdeck. The four guns on the flying-off deck were removed in 1926–27 for trials of the lower flight deck, but only two were replaced when the trials were concluded. Four single QF 2-pounder ""pom-poms"" were installed in 1927. During ""Furious""s September 1930 – February 1932 refit, her anti-aircraft outfit was reinforced by the addition of two eight-barrel QF 2-pounder Mark V pom-pom mounts where the forward 4-inch guns on the flying-off deck had been removed earlier.
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" The 5.5-inch and 4-inch guns were replaced during her refit in early 1939 by a dozen QF 4-inch Mk XVI guns in six twin dual-purpose Mark XIX mounts. One mount each was on the former flying-off deck and the quarterdeck while the other four were mounted two per side. Two more Mark V 2-pounder mounts were added fore and aft of the newly added island superstructure at the same time. While later refitting in the United States, the ship was fitted with a maximum of 22 manually operated automatic Oerlikon light anti-aircraft guns, which replaced the single quadruple Vickers .50 machine gun mount.
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" A single High Angle Control System director was fitted on the island and another on an elevated mount on the former flying-off deck. Two pom-pom directors were also mounted on the island for the weapons mounted fore and aft of the island.
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" ""Furious"" was assigned to the Atlantic Fleet after commissioning in 1925, although she spent much of the next several years conducting trials for practically every aircraft in the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) inventory. These included landing and flying-off tests of Fairey IIID and Fairey Flycatcher floatplanes, with and without wheels, to compare various designs of wooden and metal floats. The lower flight deck was greased to allow them to take off with a minimum of difficulty. A Flycatcher fitted with wooden skids was also tested and behaved perfectly satisfactorily. The arresting gear was barely used during these trials and it was removed shortly afterwards. Deck-edge palisades were installed in 1927 to keep aircraft from blowing over the side in rough weather. The first carrier night-landing was made by a Blackburn Dart on 6 May 1926 aboard ""Furious"". In the 1920s, the ship commonly carried one flight of fighters (Fairey Flycatcher), two of spotters (Blackburn Blackburn or Avro Bison), one spotter reconnaissance (Fairey IIID) and two flights of torpedo bombers (Blackburn Dart), each usually of six aircraft.
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" ""Furious"" was reduced to reserve on 1 July 1930 in preparation for a lengthy overhaul at Devonport. It lasted from September 1930 to February 1932 and was focused on refitting her machinery and re-tubing her boilers. In addition her quarterdeck was raised by one deck, the AA armament was revised and spraying facilities were fitted in the hangars. Upon completion, she ran a full-power trial on 16 February 1932 where her maximum speed was from a total of .
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" ""Furious"" recommissioned in May 1932 as part of the Home Fleet with a reduced crew before being brought up to full complement in November. Transverse arresting gear was fitted sometime during the mid-1930s. She was detached to the Mediterranean Fleet from May to October 1934. ""Furious"" was present at the Coronation Fleet Review at Spithead on 20 May 1937 for George VI. She became a deck-landing training carrier in 1937, although she was refitted in Devonport between December 1937 and May 1938 where the forward end of her lower flight deck was raised to make her less wet forward. During the Munich Crisis in September 1938, the ship embarked 801, 821 and 822 Squadrons and joined the fleet at Scapa Flow, before resuming her training duties after the peaceful conclusion of the affair. She was struck a glancing blow by the destroyer during this time, but suffered only minor damage.
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" From 1933 to the end of 1938, ""Furious"" carried 801 Squadron which initially flew a mixture of six Hawker Nimrod and three Flycatcher fighters. Hawker Osprey fighters replaced the Flycatchers in early 1934 and the Nimrods were withdrawn in October 1936. 811 and 822 Squadrons were embarked for reconnaissance and anti-shipping missions. They flew the Blackburn Ripon, the Blackburn Baffin and the Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers as well as the Fairey IIIF, the Fairey Seal and the Blackburn Shark reconnaissance aircraft.
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" The ship was given a more extensive refit from January to May 1939 that removed her 5.5-inch guns and palisades, mounted anti-aircraft guns on her lower flying-off deck, plated in the doors at the forward end of the upper hangar, and gave her a small island on the starboard side. ""Furious"" resumed her training duties after the completion of the refit and continued them until October 1939. As a deck-landing training carrier in 1939 ""Furious"" embarked 767 Squadron, flying Shark, Swordfish and Fairey Albacore torpedo bombers and reconnaissance aircraft, and 769 Squadron, flying Blackburn Skua, Blackburn Roc, and Gloster Sea Gladiator fighters.
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" ""Furious"" remained on training duties, combined with anti-submarine sweeps off the east coast of Scotland until 2 October 1939. She was then assigned to the Home Fleet to replace the sunken ""Courageous"" and embarked nine Swordfish aircraft from 816 Squadron and a detachment of three more Swordfish from 818 Squadron. The ship sortied on 8 October with the fleet to unsuccessfully hunt for the and escorting ships which had been spotted off southern Norway. After returning from this search, ""Furious"" departed her berth adjacent to the battleship in Scapa Flow for more futile searches for German ships on 13 October, the day before ""Royal Oak"" was sunk by . Afterwards she was transferred to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she and the battlecruiser formed a hunting group for German raiders. ""Furious"" served as the flagship for the convoy bringing most of the 1st Canadian Infantry Division to Britain in mid-December 1939. In the darkness on 17 December, the west-bound ocean liner SS ""Samaria"" passed through the convoy unseen. She ripped off the horizontal wireless masts on ""Furious""s starboard side, carried away five overhanging lifeboats from the port side of , and just missed the third and fourth ships in line.
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" ""Furious"" joined the Home Fleet off the coast of Norway on 10 April 1940 with only eighteen Swordfish from 816 and 818 Squadrons embarked; no fighters were able to join the ship in time. Sixteen Swordfish made unsuccessful torpedo attacks on German ships in Trondheim harbour the following morning. On 12 April, both squadrons attempted to attack German ships in Narvik in bad weather. Disappointed with the failure of the torpedo attacks the previous day, bombs were carried instead. 818 Squadron, making the first attack, damaged several captured Norwegian ships, but lost two aircraft to flak, although the crews were rescued by the British cruiser and the destroyer . Following 40 minutes behind, 816 Squadron was forced to turn back by heavy weather. One aircraft was lost while landing, but the crew was recovered. Another attack was launched the next day in support of the British ships entering Narvik, but they contributed little and another pair of Swordfish were shot down.
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" ""Furious"", ordered to remain behind after the bulk of the Home Fleet departed on 15 April, departed the Narvik area on 14 April, escorted by three destroyers, to refuel at Tromsø. En route, her Swordfish attacked Junkers Ju 52 transports that had landed on frozen Lake Hartvikvatnet approximately northeast of Narvik. Two of the Ju 52s were destroyed and several others damaged. She reached the port on 16 April with only 27% of her fuel remaining. She stayed there until 18 April when she headed south to scout the Narvik area. She was attacked en route by a single Heinkel He 111 bomber of the II./KG 26 wing from very high altitude. Two large bombs narrowly missed the ship, the closest only off the port side aft. The shock shook her propeller shafts out of alignment and jarred the port inner high-pressure turbine so she was limited to . ""Furious"" remained off the coast of Norway despite the damage and attempted to fly off aircraft on 22 April, despite severe weather, to discourage German aircraft from delivering supplies to the German forces in Narvik. One aircraft was shot down by the Germans and the others returned reporting heavy snowstorms between the ship and Narvik. The weather worsened the next day and Captain Troubridge decided to head to Harstad to check the damage from the near miss. It proved worse than anticipated and he was ordered back to the United Kingdom. Only six of the nine remaining Swordfish were serviceable.
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" After quick repairs, which included the removal of several rows of turbine blades, ""Furious"" returned to Norway on 18 May carrying the Gladiators of a reformed Royal Air Force 263 Squadron; they were flown off on 21 April once their base at Bardufoss was ready. One Gladiator and the guiding Swordfish crashed en route, killing all crewmen. The ship returned to Scapa Flow once all the Gladiators had been flown off, carrying only six Sea Gladiators of 804 Squadron and nine Swordfish of 816 Squadron for self-protection while ferrying 263 Squadron.
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" On 14 June, carrying only half of 816 Squadron for her own protection, ""Furious"" sailed unescorted for Halifax carrying £18,000,000 in gold bullion. On 1 July she escorted a convoy of Canadian troops bound for Iceland from Halifax and ferried over almost 50 aircraft with spare parts and munitions. On his own initiative, Captain Troubridge ordered all available space should be used to transport sugar to Britain. Upon her arrival, she embarked the rest of 816 Squadron, as well as nine Skuas of 801 Squadron and nine Swordfish of 825, and made a number of largely unsuccessful air strikes on shipping in Norwegian waters and on the seaplane base at Tromsø in September and October 1940, at a cost of several aircraft. Both Swordfish squadrons disembarked afterwards to make room as she prepared to resume her role as an aircraft transport.
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" ""Furious"" loaded 55 aircraft, mostly crated Hawker Hurricane fighters of No. 73 Squadron RAF, in Liverpool on 7 November 1940 sailing for Takoradi, Gold Coast on 15 November 1940 where they were flown off or off-loaded on 27 November with the ultimate destination of Egypt. During this time, she retained only six Skuas of 801 Squadron for her own protection. ""Furious"" was back in Liverpool by 15 December where she embarked 40 more Hurricanes for Takoradi. She sailed on 21 December 1940 joining with Convoy WS5A and the small carrier ""Argus"". The encountered the convoy on 25 December 1940, but little damage was inflicted by ""Admiral Hipper"" before she was driven off by the escorts. No air strike could be flown against the German cruiser because the Swordfish were embarked in ""Argus"" with bombs that they could not carry and their torpedoes were aboard ""Furious"". After ""Furious""s Skuas had flown off to search for ""Hipper"", space was made to land the Swordfish to load the torpedoes, but the Skuas could not locate ""Admiral Hipper"" because of the poor visibility. ""Furious"" reached Takoradi on 10 January 1941 arriving back in Britain on 5 February 1940 where she was given a brief refit. She made another ferry trip to Takoradi on 4 March, carrying 12 Fairey Fulmars of 807 Squadron and six Swordfish of 825 Squadron for self-defence.
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" ""Furious"" now had a new destination for her ferry trips and she transported 24 Hurricanes to Gibraltar on 25 April where they were transferred to to be flown off for Malta. She sailed for a brief refit at Belfast immediately afterwards. While in Belfast she was hit by one small bomb and near-missed by two others during a German air raid in early May, but was only lightly damaged. The ship loaded another batch of 40 Hurricane IIs, plus nine Fulmars from 'X' Flight of 800 Squadron in Liverpool, and arrived back in Gibraltar on 18 May. Some of these fighters were moved to ""Ark Royal"" via planks between the flight decks of the carriers berthed stern to stern. This time she accompanied ""Ark Royal"" and the two carriers flew off their fighters from a position south of Sardinia. ""Furious"" loaded 48 more Hurricane IIs and arrived back in Gibraltar on 1 June where some of the fighters were transferred to ""Ark Royal"". The two carriers departed Gibraltar on 4 June and flew off 44 of the 48 fighters. ""Furious"" returned to the Clyde for her biggest load of aircraft yet, 64 Hurricanes, leaving room for only nine Swordfish from 816 Squadron on this voyage. Upon her arrival on 25 June she transferred 22 Hurricanes to ""Ark Royal"" and that carrier flew them off to Malta the next day. Of the 42 Hurricanes left on ""Furious"", 26 were moved to ""Ark Royal"" when she returned on 28 June. This time, however, both carriers sailed to deliver the fighters to their usual take-off point west of Sicily. The tenth of ""Furious""s aircraft to take off crashed into her island, killing 14 men and starting a serious fire on the flight deck. The blocked flight deck forced the remaining six Hurricanes to remain on board and they were returned to Gibraltar. ""Furious"" exchanged 816 Squadron for 818 from ""Ark Royal"", then departed for home.
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" In July, ""Furious"" embarked nine Fulmars of 800 Squadron, 'A' Flight of 880 Squadron with four Sea Hurricane IBs, nine Swordfish from 812 Squadron and nine Albacores of 817 Squadron to attack the German-occupied ports of Kirkenes, Norway, and Petsamo, Finland, departing Scapa Flow on the 23rd in company with the carrier , two cruisers and six destroyers. The two carriers and their escorts gathered in Seidisfjord, Iceland, under the command of Rear Admiral Wake-Walker where they refuelled in late July. ""Furious"" attacked ships in Petsamo on 30 July with all her Swordfish and Albacores, escorted by six Fulmars and all four Sea Hurricanes, but there was very little shipping present. One small ship, MV ""Trotter"", was sunk, several oil storage tanks were set afire, and several wooden jetties were torpedoed. The British ships had been spotted before the attack and two Fulmars and an Albacore were shot down by the alerted defences. ""Furious"" was short of fuel and had to leave shortly afterwards, but she transferred her Albacores to ""Victorious"" to fill up that carrier's decimated squadrons before she left. Sea Hurricanes of 880 Squadron shot down a shadowing Dornier Do 18 flying boat on 31 July as the ship was leaving.
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" On 30 August, ""Furious"" left Belfast with a load of 49 Hurricanes, carrying three Fulmars of 800 Squadron and four Sea Hurricane IBs of 880A Squadron for self-defence, and nine Swordfish of 812 Squadron for ""Ark Royal"". She arrived in Gibraltar on 6 September and transferred 40 Hurricanes to the other carrier the next day. ""Ark Royal"" sailed for the departure point the following day, but could only fly off 14 Hurricanes because some of the Bristol Blenheim bombers used to guide the fighters to Malta failed to make their rendezvous. When ""Ark Royal"" returned, she transferred the six Swordfish of 810 Squadron to ""Furious"" and both carriers departed that same day to deliver the Hurricanes. This was ""Furious""s last ferry mission as she was sent to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for a lengthy refit. She arrived on 7 October and did not return to the United Kingdom until April 1942.
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" ""Furious"" spent the next three months after her return working up. In August, she was detailed to accompany the convoy bound for Malta in Operation Pedestal, but she was only to sail far enough with them to allow her 38 Supermarine Spitfires to reach Malta. This she did, just as ""Eagle"" was torpedoed, but ""Furious"" turned around after flying off her fighters and reached Gibraltar successfully. She loaded another batch of 32 Spitfires on 16 August and they were flown off the following day southeast of the Balearic Islands. After this mission, ""Furious"" was sent back to the Home Fleet for training. One last mission was necessary to reinforce the defences of Malta before Operation Torch and the ship arrived at Gibraltar on 27 October. She loaded 32 Spitfires and launched them on 29 August before returning to Gibraltar and being assigned to Force H.
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" As part of Operation Torch, ""Furious"" embarked 12 Supermarine Seafire IBs of 801 Squadron, another 12 Seafire IICs of 807 Squadron and nine Albacores of 822 Squadron to provide air cover for the amphibious landings by the Central Task Force. On the morning of 8 November, ""Furious""s Seafires strafed the Vichy French airfield at Tafraoui, destroying three aircraft on the ground and shooting down one Dewoitine D.520 fighter, the first air-to-air kill by a Seafire. Eight Albacores, escorted by Sea Hurricanes from two escort carriers, attacked the field at La Senia. They were attacked by D.520s as they began their attack dive, but they destroyed 47 aircraft on the ground despite the loss of an Albacore from anti-aircraft fire and the loss of three and damage to two more against the French fighters. Seafires of 807 Squadron from ""Furious"" covered the landings at Oran, engaging a flight of D.520s, shooting down three and destroying about twenty aircraft on the ground.
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" ""Furious"" remained with Force H until February 1943 before transferring to the Home Fleet where she remained for the rest of the war. In July, the fleet demonstrated off the coast of Norway in strength to distract attention from the Allied invasion of Sicily; ""Furious""s role was to allow a German reconnaissance aircraft to spot the British ships and make a report, then shoot it down. She was refitted in August and spent the rest of the year training. During the passage of Convoy JW-57 from the UK to Russia in February 1944, ""Furious"", escorted by the British battleship and the , attacked German shipping off the Norwegian coast on 24 February 1944. The carrier had the Seafire IBs of 801 Squadron aboard, plus the Fairey Barracuda torpedo bombers of 827 Squadron and 830 Squadrons. No aircraft were lost and a beached freighter was destroyed.
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" In preparation for Operation Tungsten, an attack on the , ""Furious"" and ""Victorious"" exchanged Barracuda squadrons, 827 for 831 Squadron, so that the squadrons that trained together could fly together. ""Furious"" also embarked 880 Squadron with eight Seafire L.IIC fighters to reinforce the six Seafire IBs of 801 Squadron. On the morning of 3 April 1944, 21 Barracudas of 827 and 830 Squadrons made the first attack just as the ""Tirpitz"" was getting under way for sea trials. The Germans were caught entirely by surprise and the ""Tirpitz""s smokescreen was only just beginning to form. The British aircraft enjoyed a clear view of their target and hit the German battleship six times. An hour later, the second wave of 19 Barracudas from 829 and 831 Squadrons arrived and scored eight more hits. Only one Barracuda was shot down from each wave and another crashed on take-off. 801 and 880 Squadrons were retained for fleet air defence during the operation. ""Tirpitz""s superstructure and upper hull was moderately damaged by the bombs, but her machinery was intact because the Barracuda pilots pressed home their attack below the altitude necessary to give their armour-piercing bombs enough velocity to penetrate ""Tirpitz""s main armoured deck. Nonetheless ""Tirpitz"" was under repair for three months.
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" The Home Fleet tried another attack on ""Tirpitz"" later on 23 April 1944, but bad weather prevented any attack from being made that day and for the next several days. Instead, the aircraft attempted to attack installations at Bodø on 26 April 1944, but found a German convoy instead and sank three ships. ""Furious"" and the escort carrier attacked shipping in the vicinity of Kristiansund and sank the ore carrier ""Almora"" and the tanker ""Saarburg"" for the loss of two aircraft on 6 May 1944. Another attack on ""Tirpitz"" by the Home Fleet had to be abandoned on 15 May 1944 because of poor weather. Yet another attempt on 28 May was foiled by bad weather, but a German convoy was successfully attacked on 1 June 1944. One ammunition ship was sunk and two others were set on fire.
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" ""Furious"" and the fleet carriers and made another attempt to sink the ""Tirpitz"" on 17 July 1944, in Operation Mascot. For this attack, the carrier embarked 880 Squadron with three Seafire L.IICs, 20 Grumman Hellcats of 1840 Squadron, Barracudas of 830 Squadron and three Swordfish of 842 Flight. The Barracudas, heavily loaded with bombs of up to , launched using a wooden ramp that was temporarily placed at the end of the flight deck, an early example of what was to be later named the ski-jump. The attack was unsuccessful against the fully alerted German defences as a smokescreen covered the German battleship so the Barracudas had to drop their bombs blindly through the smoke. Four more attacks on ""Tirpitz"" were made in August 1944 under the name of Operation Goodwood in a concerted effort to sink her. ""Furious"" carried twelve Seafire F.IIIs of 801 Squadron, another twelve Seafire L.IICs of 880 Squadron and nine Barracudas of 827 Squadron for this operation. The first attack on 20 August 1944 was recalled because of bad weather, but the attack on 22 August 1944 was spotted by the Germans and 11 aircraft were lost. Another attack was made two days later; one armour-piercing bomb penetrated ""Tirpitz""s armoured deck but failed to detonate, and another bomb did only superficial damage. A fourth attack was made on 29 August, but inflicted no damage.
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" By this time, the ship's age and limitations became increasingly apparent and she was placed in reserve on 15 September 1944. The ship was paid off in April 1945 being berthed at Loch Striven, was used to evaluate the effects of aircraft explosives on the ship's structure. ""Furious"" was sold in 1948 for scrap, and had been completely broken up in Troon by 1954.
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"= = = Jacques-Marie, vicomte Cavaignac = = =
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" Jacques-Marie, vicomte Cavaignac (1773–1855) was a French general. He was the brother of Jean Baptiste Cavaignac.
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" Jacques-Marie served with distinction in the army under the Republic and successive governments. He commanded the cavalry of the XI corps in the retreat from Moscow, and eventually became Vicomte Cavaignac and inspector-general of cavalry.
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"= = = European School = = =
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" The European Schools () is a network of schools, which emphasise a multilingual and multicultural pedagogical approach to the teaching of nursery, primary and secondary students, leading to the European Baccalaureate as their secondary leaving qualification.
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" The first European School, founded in Luxembourg, in 1953, had the objective of providing an education to the children of employees of the institutions of the European Coal and Steel Community - a forerunner of today's European Union. Originally, a private initiative of employees of the ECSC, the concept attracted the attention of EU founding father, Jean Monnet as capturing the spirit of the post-war effort to reconcile and integrate Europe.
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" As of September 2017, there are thirteen European Schools located in six EU member states in close proximity to European institutions. Nonetheless, the Schools are neither EU bodies, nor under the full jurisdiction of the individual member states of the European Union. They are instead administered and financed through the international organisation ""The European Schools"", established by means of an intergovernmental treaty, the 1957 Statute of the European School, since repealed and replaced by the 1994 Convention Defining the Statute of the European Schools. All EU member states, as well as the EU itself, and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) are party to this agreement. The Schools are legally recognised in all participating jurisdictions as public bodies.
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" Since 2005, upon a recommendation of the European Parliament, the title of an ""Accredited European School"" has been available for schools under national jurisdiction, which have been approved, by the Board of Governors of the European Schools, to offer the European Schools' curriculum and the European Baccalaureate. As of June 2019, there are eighteen Accredited European Schools located in thirteen EU countries, with a further three schools engaged in the accreditation process.
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" Following the establishment of the institutions of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in Luxembourg, in 1952, it became apparent that it was necessary to provide an education to the children of the officials of those institutions in their mother tongues. The lack of such provisions posed challenges in building an administration that reflected the diverse makeup of the ECSC's six founding member states, discouraging potential employees who heralded from outside the jurisdiction in which the institutions were based from relocating with their families. In 1953, employees of the ECSC established an association, financed by the High Authority of the ECSC, for the purpose of founding a school in Luxembourg providing nursery and primary education to the children of the institutions' officials. The school begun to operate on 4 October 1953, with teachers recruited and paid by the association.
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" However, by the spring of 1954, it was apparent that the solution was inadequate, with the school unable to provide a secondary education to its enrolees. The President of the High Authority of the ECSC, Jean Monnet, invited representatives of the education ministers of the six founding member states of the ECSC to Luxembourg for discussions on a school with intergovernmental status. The member state representatives transformed themselves into a Board of Governors, who would oversee the establishment of such a school. It was agreed that teaching staff would be seconded from the member states, who would continue to pay their salary, and that salaries would be harmonised by means of an additional supplement. On 12 October 1954, the first two years of the secondary school began to operate.
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" On 12 April 1957, the governments of the six ECSC member states signed the Statute of the European School, which took the form of an international treaty. Following ratification, the agreement entered into force on 22 February 1960. Under Article 6 of the Statute, the European School was to have the status of a public institution in the law of each of the contracting parties and was to have legal personality to the extent requisite for the attainment of its objectives. The organs of the school were to be a Board of Governors, which would have executive authority over the School, a Boards of Inspectors, an Administrative Board and a Head teacher. Article 8 provided that the Board of Governors of the European School was to consist of the ""Minister or Ministers of each contracting party whose responsibilities include national education and/or external cultural relations"", with the Board able to confer a position to a representative of the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community, as per Article 27.
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" Following the foundation of the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) in 1957 and the establishment of the school in Luxembourg, other European Schools were set up in Brussels and then in Mol, Belgium in 1958, in Varese, Italy in 1960, Karlsruhe, Germany in 1962, in Bergen, the Netherlands in 1963, and a second school in Brussels in 1974. In order to facilitate the setting-up of those new schools and to provide them with a legal basis, the governments of the member states signed on 13 April 1962 in Luxembourg a Protocol on the setting-up of European Schools with reference to the 1957 Statute of the European School.
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" In 1967, the institutions of the EEC, ECSC and Euratom were merged to form the European Communities. Consequently, the three organisations were represented on the Board of Governors by the European Commission of the European Communities, the successor institution to the High Authority of the ECSC. Taking advantage of the powers conferred to it by the 1957 Statute, the Board of Governors signed an agreement with the European Patent Organisation - a separate intergovernmental organisation - in December 1975 allowing for the creation, in 1977, of a European School in Munich, Germany for the education and instruction together of children of its staff. In 1973, the first enlargement of the European Communities sawthe United Kingdom, Denmark and Ireland join, who all likewise acceded to the 1957 Statute. In 1978, a European School was established at Culham, UK in order to serve the children of the staff posted to the Joint European Torus Joint Undertaking (JET), supervised by Euratom, for the development of a common nuclear fusion programme. By 1986, following the enlargement of the European Communities to include Greece, Spain and Portugal and their ratification of the Statute, the Schools were obliged to provide an education to the students of officials originating from the 12 EC member states. Finland acceded to the Statute in 1995 after its accession to the European Union.
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" Pursuant to the incorporation of the European Communities into the European Union in 1993, and envisioning the enlargement in membership of the EU following the end of the Cold War, it was decided that the legal and organisational framework of the Schools needed an overhaul. On 21 June 1994 the Convention Defining the Statute of the European Schools, which repealed and replaced the 1957 Statute of the European School and its accompanying 1962 Protocol, was signed by all 12 then EU member states. On 1 October 2002 it came into effect, following ratification by all signatories. Following the subsequent enlargements of the EU, the acceding states have also acceded to the 1994 Convention, which now includes amongst its contracting parties (following the most recent accession of Croatia to the EU in 2013) all 28 EU member states, as well as the EU itself, and Euratom.
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" The historical significance of the first European School, founded a mere 8 years after the end of World War II, was not lost on its architects. Children, whose parents had fought on opposite sides of the conflict, would not only be taught together, but, as per the curriculum of the School, learn history and geography in a foreign language and from a foreign point of view. ""May the Europe of the European schools definitively take the place of the Europe of the war cemeteries,"" René Mayer, head of the ECSC proclaimed upon the opening of a new custom building for the School on Boulevard de la Foire in Luxembourg, on 11 December 1957. This sentiment is echoed in the words inscribed in Latin on parchment and sealed in each of the European Schools' foundation stones. Translated into English, it reads:
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" The curriculum is common to all thirteen schools and is centrally controlled by the Board of Inspectors and the Board of Governors.
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" Compulsory subjects for Years 1–7 of the secondary school:
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" Compulsory for Years 1–3 of the secondary school:
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" Compulsory subjects for Years 1–5 of the secondary school:
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" Compulsory subjects for Years 6–7 of the secondary school:
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" Optional subjects:
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" All modern foreign languages offered are taught using the direct method where the lessons are taught in the language being learned, and the use of the student's native tongue is discouraged. These foreign languages lessons are shared with pupils from other language streams. The idea is to encourage the pupils to use the language they are learning as a means of crossing the communication barrier between themselves and pupils from other language streams. From Year 3 onwards of the secondary school, History and Geography as well as other secondary subjects such as Music are taught in each student's second language. Many of the pupils find themselves in a foreign country, so are surrounded by a foreign language. Some pick it up through language immersion, hence some lessons are taught in the national language of the host country.
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" The European Baccalaureate is the leaving certification of the European Schools, and should be distinguished from the International Baccalaureate (IB) and the baccalaureates of various national systems. It is a two-year course assessing the performance of students in the subjects taught in Years 6–7, and culminating in a final series exams taken at the end of Year 7. As per the multilingual ethos of the Schools, certain subjects are instructed and assessed in each student's respective second language. Details of the examinations are set out in the Annex of the Statute of the European School and in the regulations for the European Baccalaureate.