The English College has always had close ties with the British Embassy so it was a pleasure to welcome the UK Ambassador, Matt Field, into school last week. Here he is with three of our IB Chemistry students who are showing him an experiment.

Student Ambassadors

A school’s most important ambassadors are its students and so ECP students were centre stage of the visit, both metaphorically and literally. Karolína Mammadli and Loreta Votavová provided a dramatic interlude. Karolína performed a monologue from Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus and Loreta described an extract from Terra House’s winning entry at this year’s Cultural Olympiad, a chilling horror film.

Dmitry Cheremisin and Kryštof Folbrecht, who graduated from the College this summer, returned to act as the Ambassador’s guides. Kryštof is going to study PPE at Salzburg University and Dmitry will be studying Economics at the University of Cambridge.

Model United Nations Conference

Students wanted the Ambassador to hear about their plans for a MUN Conference in November. The purpose behind MUN is to show students what the United Nations does. It also encourages them to research and debate the important global issues faced by countries around the world.

The theme of ECP’s MUN conference is global peace. Our students believe that peace not only between countries and societies, but also between individual peoples is vital. It is necessary to create supportive and passionate societies that will come together to solve world problems.

Careers Advice

The English College places great importance on providing students with access to information about careers. So we were very grateful to Matt Field for agreeing to talk to a group of our aspiring diplomats. He told them about his own recruitment into the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. This included a language aptitude test that involved having to quickly learn twenty words in a language previously unknown to him and having to recall them later. He also had to take part in an exercise to test candidates’ soft skills in negotiations.

Brexit

Amongst the subjects raised with him by students was how diplomats deal with the situation when their own views do not coincide with their Government’s policies. He talked about the tricky problem faced by British diplomats around the world as a result of the 2016 Brexit referendum. This eventually led to the UK leaving the European Union four years later. It is no secret that many British diplomats personally regretted the decision. But, as Matt Field explained, democracy had spoken and given that it was the will of the British people, it was the duty of the country’s diplomats to explain it around the world.

That doesn’t mean that diplomats can’t have personal views, he explained. They are even allowed to be members of a political party. But if they want to campaign on political issues, then they must leave the service and become politicians. One of the most important non-governmental jobs in the UK Parliament – chairing the Foreign Affairs Select Committee – is held by Member of Parliament Alicia Kearns who had previously served in the Foreign Office, but who resigned in order to follow a political career.

The Ambassador also told students that their country’s own diplomatic service is not the only route to a career in international relations. There are many institutions that employ foreign affairs specialists. These include international non-governmental organisations and Matt Field worked for Oxfam before becoming a diplomat. There are also multinational corporations and international institutions such as the United Nations, the World Bank and the World Health Organisation.

ECP Graduate Diplomats

The English College is developing a reputation for educating future diplomats. As well as Jan Brunner (1999), who is currently Deputy Head of Mission at the Czech Embassy in Vienna, we now have our first Ambassador, Lucie Samcová-Hall Allen (2000) is Head of the European Union Delegation to Iceland. Other ECP diplomats include Tomáš Pospíšil (1999), DHM of the EU Delegation to Uruguay and Tomáš Minárik (2000), Acting Director, Department of International Cooperation and the EU at NÚKIB (National Cyber and Information Security Agency). And although technically not a diplomat, Daniel Braun (1998), is Head of Cabinet of the Vice President for Values and Transparency at the European Commission.

It will be interesting to look back in ten years to see which members of this group of potential diplomats amongst our current students were able to follow their dream and become diplomats.

Early Days of the College

ECP’s connections with the British Embassy go back a long way. Back in February 1990, the then British Ambassador, Laurence O’Keeffe, was present at a meeting at Prague Castle between the new President Václav Havel and UK Foreign Office Minister, William Waldegrave. This is when the idea of recreating the former Prague British Grammar School – on which the ECP was based – was first discussed. ECP Founder Governor, Ann Lewis, who was also present at the meeting with the President, remembers it well. She recalls that the President was enthusiastic about the idea although, as she says in the book Leaves and Branches, setting out the history of the first 20 years of the English College “none of those present on the UK side had ever heard of the old English Grammar School, but we were keen to pursue the idea.”

Since then, several Deputy Ambassadors have served as Governors of the English College. These include the current Chairman, Denis Keefe, who was Deputy Head of Mission from 1998 to 2002. He is a former colleague of Matt Field in what is now called the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office. He served as UK Ambassador to Serbia at the same time that Matt Field was UK Ambassador to Bosnia Herzegovina.

Students at the ECP are fortunate that our alumni are willing to come back into school to offer careers advice. Last week, our IB students were able to hear from four of our graduate Psychologists – Dr Ingmar Gorman, Anna Hejlová, Charlie Quoc Anh Dang and Dr Eva Nouzová. We are very grateful to them for giving up their time to help the next generation of ECP Psychology students. As well as providing factual advice, these sessions help students to picture where they could be in their own careers in 10 or 20 years’ time.

Range of Experience and Expertise

Ingmar and Eva are both Clinical Psychologists. Ingmar graduated in 2003 and moved to America. Originally planning to study Philosophy, he changed course and studied Psychology. He now works in the sometimes controversial field of the use of psychedelics to treat PTSD. He is Co-Founder of Fluence, a psychedelic education company. They provide mental health training in psychedelic treatments. Ingmar told students about the progress this research has made. He predicted that they could be available on prescription in 2025.

Eva, a 2007 graduate, is also a Clinical Psychologist. Her path took her to Scotland where she studied at Aberdeen University She achieved an MA Joint Honours in Psychology and Sociology, before a PhD in Psychology. Still with the hint of a Scottish accent, she fascinated students with a description of her research into how eye movements can be used to identify conditions such as schizophrenia. Eva has now returned to Prague where she has her own practice.

Working in a Prison

There was a change of mood when Charlie, one of the Class of 2013, gave a chilling insight into a darker area of psychology. With a Master’s degree in Criminal Forensic Psychology and Victimology from the University of Groningen, he works as a Correctional Psychologist with medium to high risk prisoners at a maximum security prison. He described what it is like to work in an environment where he has to constantly assess the risks he and others face from his clients. It is a highly pressured field where it is normal to move on after only a few years. Charlie therefore expects to transfer to consultancy work with the police in the future.

Change Management

Anna’s experience provided a contrast with the often intense work carried out by her fellow graduates. After graduating from the ECP in 2015, she gained her BSc in Psychology at Queen Mary University of London. She then moved to the LSE for her MSc in Organisational & Social Psychology. This included a year’s internship with a learning and development consultancy. Anna now works with commercial clients, advising on change management, for a management consultancy. She says: “One of the advantages of this branch of psychology is that I can leave my work behind at the end of the day. This is not always easy for psychologists working with patients to do.”

ECP Alumni

ECP has an extensive alumni organisation, launched at the British Embassy in 2015, as part of our 20th anniversary events. The English College in Prague Network (ECPN) helps our graduates to keep in touch with the College. And importantly, it provides current students with access to a wealth of experience and advice. The ECPN also puts graduates working in the same field in touch with each other – a true support network.

Building Plans

As well as encouraging the idea of ‘putting something back’, which was one of our Founders’ original aims for the College, these careers sessions provide graduates with the opportunity to visit their old school. They welcome the chance to catch up with some of their former teachers. Ingmar, Eva, Charlie and Anna were also able to hear about our exciting building plans, which will enable us to bring the whole school back under one roof and provide exciting new facilities.

As we start the new academic year, the English College in Prague is looking forward to welcoming our students back to school. Especially welcome are the new students joining us for the first time to begin their journey to the IB Diploma.

Studying the exhibits at the Ashmolean Museum during the Oxford trip

But September is also a time to think about this year’s graduates as they prepare to begin their university studies.

IB Results

This summer’s IB results were our best ever. All ECP students are able to sit the IB exams, not just those most likely to do well. This is what happens in some schools where only the top students can take the IB with the majority sitting only the Maturita. So for us to achieve an overall average of 37* out of a total of 45 across all 71 students in the year really is outstanding. *Compared to the world average of 30.24

Huge congratulations to all our graduates and their teachers on this amazing achievement. We are also delighted that three students scored the maximum 45 points. Only 179 students throughout the whole world, out of the nearly 180,000 who took the IB Diploma this year, achieved this exceptional feat.

Off to University!

So ECP graduates are now heading off to some of the most prestigious universities around the world. One of them is Dmitry Cheremisin who will be studying Economics at the University of Cambridge. Every year, the English College always sends at least one student to Oxford or Cambridge. This is partly as a result of the additional work we do throughout their school careers to help those who want to study there.

The Oxford Experience

This starts with Year 4 students when we organise a trip to Oxford, led by Deputy Head Laurence Baxter. Laurence comes from Oxford and has himself studied at the University. We were very grateful to four of our graduates for joining us in the grand surroundings of the Oxford Town Hall’s Council Chamber They led a session about studying and working in Oxford and the UK. We were also delighted to be joined by Councillor Ed Turner, Deputy Leader of Oxford City Council.

Kryštof Sršeň (2021), Filip Němeček (2014), Nella Bestová (2017) & Michaela Sommerová (2015)

One of the ECP graduates who joined us was Filip Němeček. Filip first studied Geography at St Andrew’s University in Scotland. He then moved to Oxford University to take his Master’s, where he is now studying for a PhD.

The City of Harry Potter, Alice in Wonderland and The Hobbit

As well as introducing students to the possibility of studying at Oxford, the trip enabled them to experience the history and tradition of Christ Church College, the Bodleian Library, the Ashmolean Museum and the Sheldonian Library. The Bodleian Library is famous for housing a vast collection of books and manuscripts. Our students impressed our guide by answering one of his questions faster than anyone had ever answered it before!

Christ Church College was immediately familiar to all Harry Potter fans. It is one of Oxford’s most historic colleges and was the setting for Hogwart’s Great Hall.

Christ Church College, which was used as the location for Hogwart’s Great Hall

Oxford is well known for the famous figures who have passed through its colleges, including the mathematician Charles Dodgson. The Reverend Dodgson is better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll. Inspired by the College’s magical surroundings, he wrote ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ during his time at Christ Church. J R R Tolkein was also a professor there.

Our students were able to see how the Oxford University college system, with its separate colleges functioning as individual communities within the larger university, encourages academic excellence and a strong sense of identity.

But as well as history and tradition, students were also able to enjoy the more modern delights of Oxford’s vibrant shops and restaurants and to watch undergraduates rowing on the Thames.

Watching rowers on the Thames

UNESCO World Heritage Site

Students also visited Blenheim Palace – a UNESCO World Heritage Site – with the journey to the nearby town of Woodstock on a double-decker bus an event in itself. It is one of England’s most significant Baroque grand houses. The ancestral home of the Churchill family for over 300 years, it was the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill, one of Britain’s most iconic leaders.

ECP Oxbridge Graduates

The trip was, for most of our students, their first introduction to Oxford and the possibility of studying there. Our next Oxbridge event will be later this month when some more of our graduates who studied at Oxford or Cambridge are coming back into school to answer current students’ questions and to inspire them to follow in their footsteps.