Author: P A

The ECP is featured in Expat.cz’s March 24 article, Going the distance: teacher tips for doing distance learning – better.

Distance learning brings many challenges, ranging from technological hiccups to back pain and eye strain, and as children settle into remote education for the unforeseeable future, parents need to help them build stamina for learning at home. 

We spoke with two experienced teachers from The English College in Prague, a six-year grammar school in the Vysočany district, to see how they are rising to the challenge of teaching from a distance and what advice they’d give parents and children on the other side of the screen.

Daniel Ibbitson, Head of Computing and E-Learning Co-ordinator, said that The English College Prague was already using Google Apps for Education prior to lockdown, so the transition was rather seamless.

On Google Apps, “We can view all work in progress, we can have smaller breakout groups within each class and we also use a chat function, which allows for quick one-to-one communication,” he says. “Also, Google Classroom allows us to publish all class assignments and take in submissions and we’re then able to give the students written, verbal, and video feedback.”

Emily Rankin, Deputy Head for Teaching and Learning, says that while the school prepared promptly for distance learning “Time spent adapting in-class activities for the online arena, such as collaborative presentations or Socratic discussion,” took some adjusting to.

Both teachers recognize that it can be a challenge to motivate all pupils every day, but they are also inspired by how well students have performed under such challenging circumstances – and they are committed to helping their community get the most out of online learning for the duration.

Read on expats.cz about ECP tips for doing distance learning better:

https://www.expats.cz/czech-news/article/great-tips-for-distance-learning

“Please be aware that in our eyes the ECP teachers are true heroes of our lives in the current Covid time learning situation. We cannot express enough our appreciation of their work. Their efforts directly form our children and they are indispensable to them.”

Irena Duffková

Parent

The access link for the concert is here:

For the sixth year in a row, a group of students, ECP scholars led by Mrs Švejdová, has been working on raising funds for the Václav Havel Scholarship, which is intended for a Roma student.

Every year, the team prepares a benefit concert, an auction and a Roma Awareness Week, thanks to which our students gain better knowledge of the Roma community.

New initiative

The work on all related events was thwarted by coronavirus last year. However, the students were not discouraged and continued to work for this cause throughout the year. Instead of a concert and auction, they prepared an arts competition for Roma children called Tříkrát co. Thanks to the competition, they managed to get not only pictures for the planned auction but also valuable contacts. The competition has thus become a new tradition.

The first scholarship holder Marek Horváth, who graduated from The English College in 2018. He spoke very nicely about the scholarship via Romea organisation here. At the end of the interview, he invited potential applicants for the Václav Havel Scholarship not to be afraid and to apply to study at our school.

Concert programme

Students have also created a new website for the scholarship available in Czech as well as English  language. This year, the scholarship team has decided that despite the current situation the concert will take place, although it will be only in a virtual form. The students addressed a number of Roma musicians – known as well as unknown ones. They also contacted important personalities of the Roma community and the outcome is an hour-long programme where ECP students will perform as well.

The students have expanded the Roma Awareness Week to include a Cultural Diversity Week. This move has enabled them to prepare a programme focusing on the issue of integrating different groups into the majority society in greater depth. Students will have an opportunity to discuss positive discrimination in a debate. Other activities for students will include Angeline Aow’s lecture on diversity in education and a showing of the film Girl on a mission.

The week will culminate with the aforementioned concert. We hope it will bring great satisfaction to the entire Václav Havel Scholarship team for their hard work. We believe that this year we will be able to raise the remaining amount to cover six years of study at ECP. Most importantly, we hope that we will be able to find a suitable Roma scholar. We will be very happy for your support of our efforts.

You are welcome to send any contributions for the scholarship to bank account number: 481831023/0300. Thank you.

Our theme for this year’s Literary Festival was, perhaps, more meaningful than ever as we have all found ourselves with more time to read than usual during the current pandemic…  For many of us, reading has provided a real escape, has contributed to our sense of well-being and is definitely something that we want to celebrate!  

Speakers

Kathryn Evans, award winning author of Beauty Sleep and More of Me, opened the Festival with a motivating presentation entitled Resilience and Reading. She discussed her favourite books and the positive impact that reading has had upon her.   

International best selling author, Ross Welford took the day forward. He not only did incredible magic tricks, but also gave tips on how to improve creative writing skills.  He was very popular with the students. They enjoyed taking part in the writing exercises and loved his answers to their questions.

The Festival came to an end with a session by Rob Bradley – freestyle rap world champion, poet, song writer and author of Reasons to Write Rhymes. He astounded all by performing an ‘on the spot’ rap using 60 random words suggested by the students. Rob went on to share his literary journey and to stress the importance of self-belief and following your creative passions.

Student activities

Throughout the day, in between presentations, the students completed a range of reading related activities. This led to them gaining points for their houses. These included making a reading den, creating a book trailer, writing and reciting poetry, writing a short story or creating a book illustration.  In addition, they produced reading related websites for their houses and fabulous twitterboards based on literary characters. Two teams from each house competed in a Big Book Quiz. It was quite a day and the results from the students were outstanding!  We’re already looking forward to next year!   
Mrs Selbie- Librarian

Watch this book trailer produced by Sofie Balharová from Year 2

The beginning of the new term has flown past in a flurry of creativity as students from across our House Teams (Aqua, Ignis, Terra and Ventus) rushed to make the deadline at the end of January for their Cultural Olympiad submissions. Normally a large whole school event at Salesiánské divadlo, we had the challenge, this year, of not only making it happen virtually – but also complying with the current state regulations on social distancing, and digital submissions. No easy feat for our creatives! 

Over 100 students from across the College rose to the challenge and produced an incredible array of solo and group performances, finding inventive ways to imaginatively combat the restrictions with multi screen videos, creative Google Meets and impressive home studio recordings. This year, the theme of ‘Time’ inspired all the submissions, with innovative, imaginative and resourceful responses. The categories included Performance and Visual Arts. A panel of external professional judges added a touch of glamour to the proceedings, and the virtual format of the event lent itself to showcasing a wide range of support messages from across the school – see our Opening Montage – an entertaining watch.

Results

On the afternoon of Friday February 12th, all students took part in a watchalong event of 2 Parts. It was an entertaining extravaganza of humour, wit, creativity, cringe and, of course, talent, led by our in-house MC Mr Hillier. After a closely fought battle, Ventus emerged the victors by just 1 point! Kindest thanks to our Culture Captains – Monika, (Aqua) Bibi (Ignis), Josephine (Terra) and Sofia (Ventus). They worked tirelessly under extenuating circumstances to steer some excellent participation from their teams. They showed superb creative leadership and were impressive all-round Ambassadors for the Arts. Well done to all involved. 
Ms MacLeod, Head of Arts

The English College in Prague has just published a new issue of The ECP Newsletter.

You can read it via this link.

Summary:

• HM’s message
• Student successes
• Cultural Olympiad
• News
• Competitions
• Helping others
• Student works
• Screen-free day
• ECPN

You can look at the archive of ECP newsletters here.

The English College in Prague Theatre Department/Arts Faculty presents a selection of performances from our recent examinations with the London Academy of Musical and Dramatic Arts:  

The Dreamplay is one of the later, more symbolist works of August Strindberg. To sum up, it tells the tale of a daughter of Heaven’s descent to Earth to learn about the suffering of humankind. In this piece Ruti Etlin performs the role of the long suffering lawyer who goes on to marry the daughter of heaven and share her adventures.

In Saint Joan, G.B. Shaw explores the history of the legendary mystical saint of France.  Operating on several levels, Anise’s powerfully delivered text guides us to compare and contrast Joan of Arc’s confinement with our own.

Streetcar Named Desire is the most well-known Deep South drama from Tennessee Williams.  Estella Marlowe, one of our art scholars, impresses with this understated delivery highlighting Blanche’s inability to deal with her own denial.

The Virtual Open Day at the English College in Prague is a unique opportunity to learn more about the school. Prospective students and their parents can participate in live sessions with the school’s staff and students and ask questions in group or one-to-one discussions. Participants will meet the Headmaster, Dr Nigel Brown, the Leadership Team, Heads of Faculties and also the Admissions Registrar, Ms Barbora Němečková, who coordinates the admissions procedure and can offer detailed information about the curriculum, application process and entrance exams.

You can register to our Virtual Open Day by filling out this form. Subsequently, you will be contacted and gain access to more detailed information, links to live sessions and a possibility to set up individual meetings. You will also be able to take part in virtual sample lessons.

Open Day Programme:

13.00	Start of Open Day
13.00 – 13.15	Headmaster’s welcome
13.15 – 13.30	Pre-recorded videos on the Open Day microsite
13.30 – 14.30	ECP Leadership Team presenting the school’s Top Ten, followed by a talk from student representatives and then Q&A session
14.30 – 14.45	Pre-recorded videos on the Open Day microsite
14.45 – 15.05 15.05 – 15.25	Session with the Registrar – in Czech Session with the Registrar – in English
Free time between live meetings	Pre-recorded videos on the Open Day microsite
15.30 – 16.10	Virtual sample lessons
16.00 – 18.00	Individual pre-booked one-on-one meetings

Do you need more information?  Please contact:

Barbora Němečková, Admissions Registrar

+ 420 283 101 206

www.englishcollege.cz

You can add this Calendar Event ( ics ) to your calendar.

Both parents and students are welcome to join in!

The English College in Prague has just published a new issue of The ECP Newsletter.

You can read it via this link.

Summary:

• HM’s message
• Christmas at ECP
• News
• Student Council
• Science
• Time
• Arts
• Charity
• ECPN

You can look at the archive of ECP newsletters here.

The Virtual Open Day at the English College in Prague is a unique opportunity to learn more about the school. Prospective students and their parents can participate in live sessions with the school’s staff and students and ask questions in group or one-to-one discussions. Participants will meet the Headmaster, Dr Nigel Brown, the Leadership Team, Heads of Faculties and also the Admissions Registrar, Ms Barbora Němečková, who coordinates the admissions procedure and can offer detailed information about the curriculum, application process and entrance exams.

You can register to our Virtual Open Day by filling out this form. Subsequently, you will be contacted and gain access to more detailed information, links to live sessions and a possibility to set up individual meetings. You will also be able to take part in virtual sample lessons.

Open Day Programme:

13.00	Start of Open Day
13.00 – 13.15	Headmaster’s welcome
13.15 – 13.30	Pre-recorded videos on the Open Day microsite
13.30 – 14.30	ECP Leadership Team presenting the school’s Top Ten, followed by a talk from student representatives and then Q&A session
14.30 – 14.45	Pre-recorded videos on the Open Day microsite
14.45 – 15.05 15.05 – 15.25	Session with the Registrar – in Czech Session with the Registrar – in English
Free time between live meetings	Pre-recorded videos on the Open Day microsite
15.30 – 16.10	Virtual sample lessons
16.00 – 18.00	Individual pre-booked one-on-one meetings

Do you need more information?  Please contact:

Barbora Němečková, Admissions Registrar

+ 420 283 101 206

www.englishcollege.cz

You can add this Calendar Event ( ics ) to your calendar.

Both parents and students are welcome to join in!

Please tune in for this year’s virtual Christmas Concert, streamed on Monday 14th December at 4pm via our YouTube channel English College Prague You Tube and also our website English College News & Events. Students and staff from the Music Department have been hard at work, during the distance-learning period, and have prepared an array of performances for you.