The English College in Prague Model United Nations
…a conference at which students across all countries engage in thought-provoking debates and discussions about current political issues like the United Nations…
ECPMUN is proud to present our new conference of 2019, which will take place from the 26th January until the 27th January in Prague. Our Model United Nations conference is a charity project, which takes place in the centre of Prague. Students from all around the world may participate. They learn about current political and economic issues through discussions and debates in the format of United Nations’ procedures. We are proud to welcome many guest speakers at our conference. Our speakers will share their experience and present their engaging stories from the political and economic spheres of the world right before our debates begin.
We welcome high school students from a variety of different cultures and backgrounds. This ensures that our conferences are diverse, intriguing and allow our delegates to make friends from all around the world. Importantly, we aim to make MUN an enjoyable and fun experience where you, your co-delegates and your supervisors learn and make amazing memories.
Our ECPMUN team works very hard to ensure your time here is well spent and is doing everything in its powers to make the ECPMUN conference as enjoyable for you as possible. In case you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us via e-mail at [email protected].
We cannot wait to see you there.
Sincerely,
Your MUN team
More information is available on the following links:
Parents and prospective students will have a tour of the school at the Open Day with a student guide and can observe lessons
You will have an opportunity to talk to members of staff/students/Admissions Registrar
At 3pm students can choose a demo lesson they would like to participate in
Parents are offered a panel discussion with the Headmaster and his team at the same time
From 3:30 to 5:00pm teachers and students will showcase activities of individual departments
Read about The English College in Prague (ECP) in Mladá Fronta Dnes
In its supplement „Secondary Schools“, Mladá Fronta Dnes daily quotes our Headmaster, Dr. Nigel Brown, talking about The English College in Prague, our entrance exams, English language preparatory course, growing number of students, IB studies, university destinations and more.
Our Open Day takes place already this Thursday, 17th January, from 1 pm.
Come to visit us and learn more…
Open Day Programme
Parents and prospective students will have a tour of the school at the Open Day with a student guide and can observe lessons
You will have an opportunity to talk to members of staff/students/Admissions Registrar
At 2.30pm students can choose a demo lesson they would like to participate in
Parents are offered a panel discussion with the Headmaster and his team at the same time
From 3.00 to 4.30pm teachers and students will showcase activities of individual departments
CERGE-EI Projects in Applied Economics for Talented Students
This year, 10 of our Year 5 economists were selected from schools across Prague to take part in the CERGE-EI Projects in Applied Economics for Talented Students. They attended Charles University once a week from September to December and worked alongside PhD students on various research projects. In the final session the teams presented their work and answered questions from industry experts and academics. A number of our students won prizes. The programme is an excellent opportunity for our Year 5s to get an early insight into university level economics as they begin their IB studies.
This year we celebrate the 90th anniversary of ECP’s Lime Tree of Freedom, which is in our school garden.
We have decided to explore what had happened in the years since the planting of our lime tree, in the Czech Republic and the world, in the context of human rights. Each form group picked up some years and created cards with a description of events taking place in the given years.
The exhibition on the occasion of the Lime Tree of Freedom’s anniversary and lighting of 90 candles symbolically launched the last big event of this year’s school calendar – the ECP Christmas Fair.
Christmas Fair
From reindeer ring-toss to sugary strudel, our 2018 Christmas Fair was a merry time, made all the sweeter by knowing that funds raised go to charity each year. This year the English College Student Council chose to donate Christmas Fair proceeds to Ježíškova vnoučata (Jesus’s grandchildren), which grants Christmas wishes to elderly people who are alone on the holidays. The charity provides gifts like books and cosmetics, visits from volunteers, and trips to places like the theatre or childhood homes.
“It was great to see the whole school united and laughing together,” said Year 2 Student Council Member Emma Horáková. “The best part was definitely the push-up challenge, where everybody was standing by and cheering for the contestants. Overall, it was a splendid way of giving back at the time of Christmas.” A number of games were buzzing with participants, from chess to candy ping-pong. There were also student musical performances, a Christmas quiz and enough cakes to rival any Prague cukrárna.
In just a couple of hours, the fair raised over 10,000 CzK. “I think the Christmas fair was very successful,” said Year 5 student Jan-Jakub Jonáš. He led his tutor group’s hot chocolate-brewing endeavour and particularly enjoyed sampling the many food offerings on hand.
A big thank-you goes to Student Council Adviser and Head of Science Ms. Jean Kerr for organising the event so support can be given to charities each year. Ježíškova vnoučata in particular has brightened the holidays for over 14,000 elderly people; see here for more information.
Some holiday reading for everyone – the latest edition of the ECP iNewsletter. It is the 12th issue of our electronic newsletter and informs for example about a student trip to Yale, a reunion of ECP Head teachers, a lecture by Terezín survivor, reports from work experience student stays in London, charitable concerts, news from ECP alumni and many more.
If you need a reason to smile, look no further than the annual ECP Christmas concert. Once again we visited the beautiful Emmaus Monastery. We were treated to a demonstration of the musical skills of our exceptional students, but also the joy of sharing in performances. This year every year group was represented, and performers from absolute beginners to budding virtuosi were there to entertain. It was also a particular joy to listen to a performance by a singer from the children’s home at Dolni Počernice. A leaving collection was taken and raised over CZK 11,000 for the Smile charity – a student-led ECP initiative that raises money for these students. As Student Council President Michael Best noted, the money raised at the concert will already be used this weekend to buy presents for the children in the home. Smiling performers, parents, staff and especially the recipients of the gifts, made possible by the generosity of the guests and the enterprise of the Smile students.
Still to come, the annual Christmas Fair on 13 December at ECP, a combined Interhouse Floorball competition and whole-school end-of-year assembly at Podvinný Mlýn. Merry Christmas!
Parents and prospective students will have a tour of the school at the Open Day with a student guide and can observe lessons
You will have an opportunity to talk to members of staff/students/Admissions Registrar
At 2:30pm students can choose a demo lesson they would like to participate in
Parents are offered a panel discussion with the Headmaster and his team at the same time
From 3:00 to 4:30pm teachers and students will showcase activities of individual departments
ECP students saw their history books come to life last week. They all study the horrors of the Second World War and visit Terezín to see where the Nazis held Jews, Roma and ‘political’ prisoners, many of whom were transported from there to Auschwitz. In total, more than 150,000 Jews were sent to Terezín, including 15,000 children. One of these children came into school last week. Her name is Doris Grozdanovičová.
Transported from Brno
Mrs Grozdanovičová recounted how at first, when the Germans invaded Czechoslovakia, she was happy. “We were happy because there was no school!“ But things in Brno, where she lived, soon changed and in 1942, she was rounded up with her family and transported to Terezín.
She recalled her years in the camp, where she was from 16 to 19, the age of many ECP students. Despite all the deaths and terrible conditions – around 33,000 people died in Terezín – Doris Schimmerling, as she was then, survived. She considers herself to have been very lucky. Many of the prisoners had to work in the laundry or the kitchens but she is well known for her job in Terezín where she looked after the sheep. This photo of her – the only one to come out of Terezín – shows her with them. She now has over a thousand toy sheep in her flat, which well-wishers around the world have sent to her.
Everyday Life in Terezín
She had to work from 7am to 5pm. But she managed to take a book out into the fields with her and she says that although it was hard during the winter and she suffered from frostbite, she thinks that working outdoors made her more resistent to the diseases that were endemic in the camp.
She told the students about the friendships she had with other girls in the camp and how important they had been to her. She also talked about about the secret synagogue that existed in Terezín and offered to accompany them on their school trip to the camp to show it to them.
Liberation
By the autumn of 1944, she was alone in Terezín. Her mother had already died in the camp. Her father and brother, Hanuš, had been sent on one of the last transports to Auschwitz. But just before the camp’s liberation, a Czech gendarme, Josef Urban, who worked in camp, offered to adopt her, as his own daughter had died three years earlier. The adoption never happened, but she still visits Josef Urban’s relatives today. Although their father died in Auschwitz, Hanuš survived and together, they went back to Brno. They both returned to their studies and she graduated from Masaryk University with a degree in English and Philosophy.
Life in Prague
Mrs Grozdanovičová then moved to Prague and worked as an editor with a publishing house and used her English and German translating and interpreting. She is a member of the Terezín Initiative and an executive editor of its magazine. She frequently visits schools to tell her story and we were honoured that she shared it with our students. Eye witness accounts are very important and the ECP regularly invites into school people with important stories to tell.
Her son, Jan Grozdanovič, is one of ECP’s Governors.
Doris tending her sheep in the Terezín Ghetto, 1943, Památník Terezín, FAPT, A 4424.
