Author: Gina Hearn

We at the English College in Prague were saddened to read of the recent death of Michal Mejstřík. He was known to many in the Czech Republic as a distinguished economist. But at the ECP, we remember him primarily as an enthusiastic supporter of the College.

Career

He studied econometrics at the University of Economics in Prague and then worked at the Institute of Economics of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. He also studied at the London School of Economics and in 1997, became Professor of Economics at Charles University. In a professional career spanning over 30 years, he served on many academic and professional bodies.

English College Foundation

At the start of the 1990s, Michal was already a respected economist. Prague was an optimistic and exciting place in those days. But when Ann Lewis and the English College Foundation were working with the first Headmaster, Hubert Ward, on realising their vision of opening an English-medium school, although there was huge appetite for new ideas after forty years of communism, they were bound to be regarded with a degree of suspicion by Prague parents. Who were these foreigners and why did they want to open a school in Prague? Did they even know what they were doing? So amazing though it might seem to us now, there was no guarantee that their mission would succeed.

ECP’s first student

Michal was one of our key supporters at this time. He understood what the founders of the school were trying to do. He showed his commitment to their aims by enrolling his son, Kryštof, as its very first student. Given the importance of the Czech ‘grapevine’ after the revolution, this was very important. His support and the trust he showed in the College were crucial to the community’s acceptance of the English College and many more parents followed his lead.

The ECP’s Blue Doors opened for the very first time on 4 September 1994, to 117 students. Last year, we celebrated our 25th anniversary. More than 1,400 students have graduated with the IB Diploma, the vast majority of them going on to study at prestigious universities in the UK and around the world. In May 2015, at a reception at the British Embassy to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the ECP, Michal spoke movingly about what the school meant to him and his family.

Zdeněk Tůma on Michal Mejstřík

Deputy Chairman of the ECP Governors and also an ECP parent, Zdeněk Tůma, knew Michal well. He said:

“Michal was a man full of energy and new ideas. I did not understand how he could handle all his activities, but he always delivered what he promised. We cooperated for almost 30 years on both academic as well as business projects and it was enjoyable each time. He will be missed not only by his family.”

We send our sincere condolences to Lenka and to Kryštof and to all Michal’s family and friends.

Covid restrictions have meant that we have all had to re-think how we do things, including providing careers advice. Here at the ECP, we are continually striving to provide the best possible experience for our students and so we are becoming even more inventive.

ECP Community

The pandemic has shown how supportive the wider ECP community is. Our alumni have always been very willing to advise current students. Normally, we are able to offer sessions with graduates who regularly come into school to talk about their journeys from leaving the ECP to where they are now. Careers talks have ranged from the Diplomatic Service and the medical and legal professions to business and finance and interpreting.

Using Technology

However, Covid has meant that we have had to suspend these live lectures for the time being. But we have thought of a way to use the technology we are all now so familiar with to ensure that students can still receive careers advice from our graduates.

So we have just launched the ECP Careers Video Library.

We asked graduates to record a video, giving a talk about their careers. We were not looking for slick, corporate-style motivational videos. What we want to provide for our students is the authentic voice of ECP graduates, providing a mixture of factual information, a bit of advice and something that will show students what they themselves could be doing in ten or twenty years’ time.

Helping Students

So we are very grateful to the graduates who volunteered to produce the first videos. We have more in the pipeline and hope this will become an expanding, permanent resource for students in the future. So if you are an ECP graduate who would be willing to record a video for the library, we would love to hear from you. As one graduate said “Not only is it helping current students, it is helping my country.”

Although we can’t be together in school, the ECP has still been able to collectively remember those who died serving their country. The theme of the school year is TIME and therefore it was appropriate that Dr Brown, in his address to students at the Remembrance Week assemblies, spoke about how the passage of time affects our view of past events.

The Colours of WWII

He told students about conversations he has been able to have with his parents, both of whom were children during WWII. Both of them remember the colours of this period of history. For his father, the colour of the war was yellow. It is because it was the colour of fires caused by incendiary bombs, which lit up the night sky. His mother remembers the wartime years as being very grey. Everything was rationed and you had to have coupons to be able to buy things in the shops – even food. But when the war ended, it was as though the lights had come back on again. For some, it was the arrival of American soldiers, with their brightly coloured clothes and comics.

Written History

There is now no-one left who was alive at the time of the First World War. We therefore have to rely on written history for accounts of the battles that took place in the fields of Flanders. Of those who fought against the Nazis in WWII, only a handful of veterans now remain.

Poppy Appeal

Remembrance Week is a way to keep their sacrifices alive. At the ECP, we hold annual assemblies during the week before Remembrance Sunday. We sell red poppies for the Royal British Legion’s Poppy Appeal. Ex-service men and women make the poppies to support the charity’s work, helping those who still need its support today.

Alexandra Brízová, President of the ECP Student Council, also contributed to our reflections during Remembrance week. Here is her video in which she explains that the poppy was adopted as a symbol of remembrance after WWI. It too meant the return of colour, as the poppy was the first flower to grow again after the battles ended.

Remembrance Sunday

The culmination of Remembrance Week is usually our participation in the Remembrance Sunday ceremony, which is organised by the British Embassy and held in the Commonwealth War Cemetery in Olšany. On this day, we remember all the men and women who fought and died in the service of their country and subsequent conflicts and similar ceremonies take place in every village, town and city in the UK. ECP students play an important part in the ceremony by helping young Scouts, Cubs and Beavers from the 1st Prague Scout Group place religious symbols on the graves of the war dead buried in the cemetery.

Poppy Blanket

This year, we are not able to attend the Olšany ceremony, but this didn’t stop Alexandra from organising a team to ensure that the ECP could still remember. They created this poppy blanket, which we laid on the steps of the school.

 

 

 

 

2020 has been an exceptional year for everybody, for many of the wrong reasons. So it is easy to overlook the outstanding successes of the ECP graduating class of 2020.

84% go to their first choice university

Despite all the challenges associated with lockdown and IB exams being cancelled, many of our students still achieved the excellent set of grades they worked exceptionally hard to achieve. This was reflected in their final university destinations with a massive 84% of students reaching their first choice destination and 93% reaching either their first choice or second choice university.

This is especially impressive given how aspirational our students are, with many of them applying to the very best and most competitive universities in the world.

New Destinations

The destinations of our students were particularly diverse this year with 10% opting for new options in Europe in countries such as Italy, Spain, Belgium, Sweden and Germany. Others chose destinations a little further afield with 5% of students applying to institutions in the US, Singapore and Australia. This was alongside the usual popular destinations of the UK (43%), Holland (10%) and the Czech Republic (21%).

Top Universities

As well as the successes that ECP students usually enjoy, with many of our students this year achieving places at highly ranked universities such as Oxford, LSE, UCL, Kings College and Edinburgh, we have also had a lot of personal successes with students choosing for the right university for them. This includes specialist institutions such as the BIMM music institute in Berlin or the Future Games Institute in Sweden. 

‘Putting something back’

Jan Barta graduated from the ECP in 2004 and he is now a successful entrepreneur. A firm believer in the principle of ‘putting something back’, he generously funds several scholarships for current students. Two Barta Scholars were exceptionally successful this year.

Oxford University & the LSE

Karolína is off to Oxford to study Biomedical Science and David will be studying International Relations and Politics at the London School of Economics. Neither would have been able to study at the ECP without Jan Barta’s financial support.

We caught up with them to find out how they were feeling at the start of the academic year:

Karolína said:

“I recall that merely a couple of years ago, securing a place at such a renowned institution comprised of highly esteemed alumni such as Stephen Hawking, Bill Clinton and Malala Yousafzai would have seemed entirely inconceivable and yet here we are. At the moment, I am incredibly excited to become a member of the Oxford community and to meet like-minded individuals with overlapping interests and aspirations. I am likewise thrilled by the immense variety of societies that Oxford offers and I am really looking forward to this new chapter in my life.”

She was particularly happy to offer some advice to current students.

“Whether you are writing your Personal Statement or being interviewed, always emphasise what you are genuinely interested in. Try to showcase your enthusiasm for your chosen subject and to enjoy your interview in the process. Also, bear in mind that the interview is, in essence, another exam or a competition if you prefer – your performance will literally be graded by the interviewers, averaged and you will ultimately be ranked. Therefore, my greatest word of advice would be to revise all your subject relevant knowledge and to reach as further as you can beyond the scope of the syllabus for it is this that will most likely determine the status of your application.”

The cover photo shows Karolína with ECP Governor, Jan Kovařovic, receiving the Chairman of Governor’s Prize for Academic Achievement at this summer’s Graduation ceremony.

David was equally excited at the prospect of moving to London, saying:

“Soon, I am going to start my studies at the LSE. I am excited to start this new chapter of my life at such an excellent institution. I am grateful for all the support that I received from the staff at the ECP because they helped me to get there. And should I be asked to give current ECP students some advice, I would say: 

1) Make the best of your time at the ECP. Because one day, however distant or close it may be, you will walk through the blue doors for the last time as a student. 

2) In the meantime, you can strive to be the best version of yourself. One of many great advantages of studying at the ECP for me was how supportive everyone was when I asked for help. And this helped me to grow as a person immensely. 

3) This leads me to the last piece of advice: Ask yourself how you want to grow. I assume that you probably set yourself some SMART goals at the beginning of the school year. And some of you could probably recall that the ‘M’ in SMART stands for measurable. I would like to challenge you to keep in mind another adjective that begins with ‘M’ as you set your targets and that would be meaningful. Ask yourselves: is this meaningful for me, for the way I want to lead my life? 

Enjoy your ECP days and good luck meeting your SMMART targets!”

You can read a recent article on the website about David here.

Good advice from them both, as always. Regardless of the students’ success, we are equally proud of them all.

Year 6 student, Kryštof Sršeň, has just achieved recognition for scientific research not normally associated with secondary school students. He has been named in a research article in the peer-reviewed international journal, Plos One.

Scientific Research

The goal of the work was to make an analogue with an increased binding affinity for the IGF2 receptor and develop a method by which this affinity could be measured. In the long run, this could help scientists find cures for some types of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. 

Otevřena věda

Kryštof was working with far more experienced scientists on the Otevřena věda programme at Akademie věd ČR. Initially, he watched the other members of the team. But as the project continued, he became relatively independent. He performed all the steps involved in protein purification from bacteria, which produced the protein they used after being genetically modified. This summer he became more involved with the genetic modification itself. Apart from a range of laboratory techniques such as working with bacteria, gel electrophoresis and high pressure liquid chromatography, Kryštof learned how to write and understand scientific papers and protocols.

Conference Presentation

He said, “I enjoyed the fact that I got to meet so many new people studying the fields of biology and chemistry. I think that it’s such an amazing opportunity for a high school student. One of the highlights was when I participated in the judged student conference at the end of the year. I had to present all my research to a relatively large audience.

I would like to thank my supervisors, Lenka and Pavlo, as well as everyone else in the group, for making the whole experience so enjoyable.”

University

Kryštof joined the programme a couple of years ago at the suggestion of his then Science teacher. He was looking for ways to improve his university application. His name on a research paper will certainly have done that!

This week saw 2020’s first visit from ECP graduates, offering advice to students in Year 5 and 6 thinking of a career in medicine. It was Michael Barabas’s second visit to the ECP since leaving for university in 2009. But for Yagmur Caglar, this was the first time she had been back in school since graduating in 2016.

Where to study – Prague or the UK?

Yağmur is in the 4th year of a six-year degree course at the First Faculty of Medicine of Charles University. But when studying for the IB, she was not sure what she wanted to study at university. She thought she might study Civil Engineering. It was a lecture at school from a representative of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders) that decided her. She said “I knew, after hearing about MSF’s humanitarian work, that I wanted to help people. That is why I decided to become a doctor.”

She chose to stay in Prague and had some good advice for ECP students also thinking of medicine as a career. “Make sure that the course you apply for is internationally accredited so that you will be able to work in your chosen location.”

Alternative Routes

But a first degree in Medicine is not the only route to becoming a doctor. Michal was initially attracted to a career as a research scientist. His first degree was in Pharmacology from University College London. However, it was while at UCL that he realised that he didn’t want to spend all his time in a laboratory. So after completing his first degree, he switched to Medicine, achieving an MPhil and MB/BChir at the University of Cambridge. This is less well-known route into medicine, but one that Michal has benefited from. He told us: “I was a little older than most of the other students on my course, something that stood me in good stead, particularly when it came to dealing with patients.

Michal is now just about to take up a new position at University General Hospital here in Prague. This is after completing his first two Foundation Years as a hospital doctor at the UK. First it was at Hinchingbrooke and then at Papworth hospitals, the world-famous centre for heart transplants, both in Cambridgeshire.

The English College in Prague Network

The English College established the English College in Prague Network (ECPN) in 2015 as the College’s extended alumni network. It is for all ECP alumni, their parents and former members of staff. Its aims are to support the ECP and to promote a life-long relationship between the College and its members.

All alumni automatically become members of the ECPN. We are very grateful to those who, like Michal and Yagmur, give up their time to come back into school to share their experience with current students. Amongst the careers covered since the launch of the ECPN are the diplomatic service, journalism, law, economics and business, interpreting, art, design and photography, sports management, medicine, dentistry, astrophysics and aerospace engineering.

The ECP’s 25th anniversary got off to a cracking start this week. We held a birthday party in the playground, complete with tea and cake – lots of cake! How better to celebrate this significant milestone in the history of the English College in Prague than to hold our very own version of the Great British Bake Off?

Creativity and skill

The students’ brief was to bake and decorate a cake that represented either the English College in Prague, the number 25 or one of the many countries that are represented by students in school. 

There were some very impressive cakes, which were expertly judged by two of the English College’s Board of Governors. Dr Barbara Day is one of the ECP’s Founder Governors who has been involved with the school since 1995. Zdeněk Tůma has been a Governor of the ECP since 2001 and his son graduated from the College in 2015.

The judges awarded points for the design concept of the cakes and the execution. Mr Tůma said: “It was good to see students taking part in the 25th anniversary celebrations. The cakes all showed their creativity and skill and it was difficult to decide on only one winner.”

The winners

The results were very close, but when the scores were added up, the winners of the ECP 25th Anniversary Great British Bake Off were 4C – Mr Straughan’s Tutor Group. They had made a magnificent cake that impressed the judges with the attention to detail. The winning House, that scored the most number of points overall, was Aqua.

ECP’s iconic blue door

Year 3 Ignis students described their cake like this. “This cake is meant to represent the aspects of ECP that we believe make the school special. At the front of the cake is the iconic blue door that greets members of ECP every morning and bids them farewell at the end of the day. A beer glass and a teacup clink at the back of the cake, showing the way that two different cultures join together seamlessly. The cake as a whole is shaped similarly to the building – a place many of us have learned to call home in the last 25 years. This is more than just a cake, it is a commemoration of hard work, learning and unforgettable memories.”

After the judging, everyone tucked in and enjoyed eating the cakes, which tasted as good as they looked!

Over 1350 graduates with the IB Diploma

The ECP first opened its blue door to students on 4 September 1994. Since the first 103 students started studying at the English College twenty five years ago, over 1350 have graduated with the IB Diploma, an internationally-recognised qualification that opens doors to the most prestigious universities around the world.

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Taste Asia Festival 2019

The English College in Prague was alive with excited chatter recently for this year’s Taste Asia Festival. Students had organised the third Festival to give students, staff and parents the chance to experience Asian culture. Delicious food, graceful dancing and expressive music all blended together to make a magical afternoon.

ASEAN representatives

We were honoured to welcome representatives from the Embassies of five of the ten ASEAN countries – Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand. Mrs Nattanipa Burusapat, the interim Chargé d’Affaires at the Royal Thai Embassy, explained about the ASEAN group of nations and congratulated the students’ achievement in putting on the Festival.

Not only did the diplomats support the College by attending the Taste Asia Festival, but they generously supported the fundraising as well. Chefs at the Embassies had prepared delicious pad thai and spring rolls to add to the other Asian delicacies generously donated by students’ parents.

CARE

We were also delighted to welcome Katarina Klamková from the charity CARE Česká republika. She told the audience that she and her team had identified a special project to receive the money raised at the Taste Asia Festival. It is going to a small school in Thailand for refugees from another Asian country, Myanmar. Because they don’t yet speak the language, the children are unable to attend Thai schools so our money will help to give them an education.

Student team

Dr Brown praised all the students who had organised Taste Asia “Once again, ECP students have shown how they can organise all aspects of a complex school event. As well as laying on the food, music and dancing, they persuaded five Embassies to sponsor the event and as a result, raised the magnificent sum of 30,000 CZK for a school in Thailand providing an education for Myanmar refugees.”

“Although the English College is a Czech school, which teaches in English, the ECP has an international outlook. Charity work forms an important part of what we do and our students welcome the opportunity to help others wherever they are in the world.”

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Nikita Poljakov left ECP in 2008. He studied at Charles University, UCL & LSE & is now journalist – Deputy Editor-in-Chief at Hospodářské noviny.

Nikita Poljakov was late for his talk to a group of Years 5 & 6 students, but for a very good reason. He had been recording an interview with DVTV. As a journalist – Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Czech Republic’s leading broadsheet – he is a respected commentator on the country’s economy. So we were delighted when he agreed to come into school. Nikita shared his journey from the ECP to Hospodářské Noviny (HN). He was talking to current students thinking about their own future careers.

Specialise

Nikita graduated from the English College in 2008. He went to Charles University, UCL and LSE, where he studied Journalism, Political Science and International Economics. He had always known that he wanted to be a journalist, from the time that he studied English with Ms Rankin. But he soon realised that he also needed to know about a subject in depth in order to have something to write about. This led to his decision to specialise in economics. He then successfully applied for a grant from the Bakala Foundation. This brought him to the attention of HN, who offered him his first job in journalism. He worked first as a London correspondent and economic staff writer focusing on industrial sectors, private equity funds and financial groups. He is now responsible for the weekend section of the newspaper, with the responsibility of selecting what subjects are covered each week.

Solutions Journalism

Working on the weekend edition has given Nikita the freedom to explore what he calls ‘solutions journalism.’ “So much of what we read in the media is purely negative, criticising but offering no solutions. I felt that I wanted to try to have a positive influence as well as shining a light on injustice.”

A good example of this is his current project – Nejsi sám – working with his former ECP classmate, David Gaberle. The statistics for male suicide in the Czech Republic are shocking, accounting for 80% of all suicides of young men. Nejsi sám draws attention to this growing problem in Czech society and encourages young men to seek help when facing crises in their lives.

He and David, a photographer, have created an exhibition of images of men – shown through frosted glass – who have attempted suicide, but who managed, or who were persuaded, to step back from the brink of taking their own lives. “Czech men, in common with men in many other societies, find it difficult to talk about their feelings”, Nikita said. By drawing attention to these statistics, he wants to raise awareness, not only of the problem, but also of the solutions that are available to those who find themselves at such a desperate state that they contemplate suicide. Their exhibition, deliberately entitled ‘Nejsi sám‘ – ‘You are not alone’ but addressed only to a man – took place in Lucerna pasáž earlier this month.

Fake News

Nikita’s other main professional focus as a journalist has been misinformation or fake news, as it has become known. He won an Open Society award last year for his work on Russian hybrid warfare.

 

ECP’s Patron, His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales

The English College in Prague is delighted to announce that their Patron, His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, has agreed to the use of his title in connection with a new Prince of Wales Scholarship, which will enable an ambitious Czech student from a disadvantaged background to study at the school.

We are inviting applications from students currently in Year 7 or Year 9 of their Czech school. The successful candidate will receive a full scholarship for six or four years at the English College, dependent upon their age on joining us in September 2019. The Scholarship will be awarded to a student who would not normally consider applying for a place at an independent school because of lack of funds and enquiries will be conducted into the financial status of the applicants’ families before the Scholarship is awarded.

The ECP Scholarship Programmes

Headmaster of the English College in Prague, Dr Nigel Brown, said: “It will provide a sense of symmetry to the ECP Scholarship Programme. We will be able to celebrate our two Founder Patrons, HRH The Prince of Wales and President Václav Havel, by enabling two young people to benefit from an education at the ECP, starting in September 2019, which will be the English College’s 25th anniversary year, having opened its doors to students for the first time in September 1994.”

How to apply

If you think your child would benefit from the sort of academic education offered by the English College in Prague, please download our application form here and submit the completed form to our Registrar Irena Smetánková together with a motivational letter from your child, of approximately 400-800 words, written in English, explaining why they would like to study at the English College in Prague. Candidates will also have to pass the school’s entrance exams in English, Czech, Maths and non-verbal skills and be interviewed in English by a selection panel consisting of the Headmaster and three independent, external members. The closing date for applications is 23 April 2019. 

The entrance exams will be held at the English College on 2 May 2019 and the interviews on 6 May 2019.