Message from the Headmaster

Welcome to the English College in Prague.

We are a unique school in the Czech Republic and quite possibly across Europe. We are not a Czech school, not a British School and not an international School; rather we are a school informed by the traditions of British education but within the Czech system and we have students from across the world - 27 nationalities last year from Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas. We hope to bring together the best traditions of both British and Czech education and this is symbolised by our two patrons, former President Václav Havel and HRH Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales. The majority of our teaching staff comes from the English speaking world but we have many Czech staff too and our governors come from all walks of civil society in the UK and Czech Republic. This unique position also means that pupils at the English College graduate with both the prestigious International Baccalaureate Diploma but also the Czech Maturita.

We are also a young school. Exactly fifteen years ago this week the first 117 students arrived at the College, just five years after the Velvet Revolution. But we are a School that emulates the traditions of the Prague English Grammar School, formed in the 1920s.

The Czech nation emerged from Austrian rule in 1918 to attain self government but this was taken away again on two further occasions in the Twentieth Century. First the Austria-Hungarian Empire, then the Nazis and the Communists, thought they could govern the Czech people better than they could govern themselves. Ultimately these external forces failed and on all three occasions a School appeared in Prague; in 1927, 1945 and again 1994. These schools represented the twin values of democracy and liberalism, values that have fought so hard to be heard in central Europe in the last hundred years.

We try at the English College to be faithful to these values, but on a day to day, practical level. Liberalism means respect for others, recognising the advantages we all gain from growing up in a society that is diverse and accepts others for who they are. Democracy requires participation; it means actively doing something about your life and future and contributing to the communities we find ourselves in.

Of course the primary function of any school is to provide the best teaching and learning possible - without knowledge and understanding we are not equipped to make the right choices in life - and at the English College we are proud of the academic standards we achieve, the pastoral support we provide and the extra cultural, sporting and intellectual programmes that we run. The best way to see this is to come along and visit us and I look forward to welcoming you and your son or daughter when you do.