The English College offers its warm congratulations to one of its Founder Governors, Dr Barbara Day MBE. It was announced in the Czech Senát recently that Dr Day is one of eight people honoured by the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes – Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů.
ÚSTR has honoured Dr Day for ‘her extraordinary contribution to the reflection of modern history’. Also similarly recognised was the dissident Tomáš Vrba. He is the editor-in-chief of the cultural reviews Lettre internationale and Přítomnost. Sabina and Jan Kratochvil received the award as well. In 2007, they founded the Museum of Czech, Slovak and Ruthenian Exiles of the 20th Century in Brno.
The Institute is a Czech government agency and research institute. Founded in 2007, its purpose is to gather, analyse and make accessible documents from the Nazi and Communist totalitarian regimes. It is a founder member of the Platform of European Memory and Conscience.
Dr Day said, “I’ve always admired the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes and the work they do, and am honoured to receive this award. I feel that the award is not only for me but for all those involved in the underground seminars passing on their knowledge to the next generation.”
A Founder Governor of the English College since 1994, Dr Day serves on the Education Committee. She is also Chairman of the School Council. She received the Commemorative Medal of President Václav Havel in 1998 and an MBE in 2002. You can read her full profile on the ECP website.
You are very welcome to visit one of our Open Days that are taking place throughout this school year.
Thursday 12th January 2023
Monday 6th February 2023
The Open Day at the English College in Prague is a unique opportunity to experience firsthand the atmosphere at the school. Prospective students can participate in demonstration lessons while their parents have an opportunity to meet the Headmaster, Dr Nigel Brown, teachers and the Admissions Registrar, Mrs Stanislava Jirešová, who coordinates the admissions procedure and can offer detailed information about the entrance exams.
Open Day Programme for 6th February 2023:
13.00
Doors open to visitors
13.15 – 14.00
Individual tours of the school for visitors guided by ECP students
14.00 – 14.20
Admissions session with the Registrar
14.25 – 15.10
Panel discussion for parents with the Headmaster, deputies and students
NOTE: Parking is available at the Galerie Fénix shopping mall car park.
As our Open Days are an important part of our school year, we like to take photographs during the afternoon and may use some of them in our displays or in marketing and other publications. If you do not wish you or your child to appear in our photographs, please tell our photographer and we shall, of course, respect your wishes.
The English College in Prague has published a new issue of The ECP Newsletter.
Read a new issue of the ECP newsletter. It brings information about Christmas at ECP, sports events, Year 5 ski trip, ECP Literary Festival, MUN trip to Poland, arts and so much more. You can access the newsletter via this link.
Summary:
HM’s message
Christmas at ECP
Events
Year 5 ski trip
Sports at ECP
Student activities
Arts
ECP Literary Festival
Book Talk
ECPN
You can look at the archive of ECP newsletters here.
You are very welcome to visit one of our Open Days that are taking place throughout this school year.
Thursday 12th January 2023
Monday6th February 2023
The Open Day at the English College in Prague is a unique opportunity to experience firsthand the atmosphere at the school. Prospective students can participate in demonstration lessons while their parents have an opportunity to meet the Headmaster, Dr Nigel Brown, teachers and the Admissions Registrar, Mrs Stanislava Jirešová, who coordinates the admissions procedure and can offer detailed information about the entrance exams.
Open Day Programme for 12th January 2023:
13.00
Start of Open Day
13.00 – 14.15
Individual tours of the school for visitors guided by ECP students
14.00 – 14.20
Admissions session with the Registrar
14.25 – 15.10
Panel discussion for parents with the Headmaster and staff
NOTE: Parking is available at the Galerie Fénix shopping mall car park.
As our Open Days are an important part of our school year, we like to take photographs during the afternoon and may use some of them in our displays or in marketing and other publications. If you do not wish you or your child to appear in our photographs, please tell our photographer and we shall, of course, respect your wishes.
František Fajtl is remembered as one of Czechoslovakia’s most decorated WWII fighter pilots. He was the inspiration for Jan Svěvák’s 2001 film Dark Blue World and is now one of the subjects of the Good Old Czechs His daughter is Jitka Režná-Fajtlová and we were honoured to welcome her into school as part of this year’s Remembrance Week.
Escape from Nazi-Occupied Czechoslovakia
Mrs Režná-Fajtlová spoke of her father’s escape from his homeland. Like many of his compatriots, he went first to Poland in 1939 and then fought in France. From 1940, he served in the 313 Fighter Squadron RAF and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. From 1944, he fought with the USSR on the Eastern front. She explained that her father fought, not because he wanted to fight, but because he wanted to liberate his country. She also acknowledged the debt owed to the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, and the British people. Until the Americans entered the war in 1941, Britain had stood alone against the Axis powers.
Imprisoned by the Communists
ECP students were fascinated to hear how, when the war ended in 1945, after first being hailed a hero, Fajtl was imprisoned by the communists in a labour camp. Mrs Režná-Fajtlová remembers her mother being summoned to the Ministry. An official told her that she would have to move out of the family home because it was too big for her and her two daughters. She protested and said her husband also lived there. But slowly she realised that he had been arrested and would not be coming home.
One of Mrs Režná-Fajtlová’s most moving memories of this time was of her younger sister, who was only a baby when their father was arrested. There was a photo of their father on the wall and every night, her sister kissed his photo so she wouldn’t forget him. When the family was eventually reunited, she greeted him with a kiss saying, “It’s Daddy – and he’s alive!”
Order of the White Lion
Asked why she thought the communists treated her father and the other war heroes so badly, Mrs Režná-Fajtlová said it was because they couldn’t stand being wrong. It was only after the fall of communism that her father was fully rehabilitated. In 2004, he was awarded the highest state honour – the Order of the White Lion – Český rozhlas interview 29.10.2004 – and promoted to General.
Mrs Režná-Fajtlová has written a book about her father. We will buy it for the library so that all our students can read his story.
Remembrance Sunday
Photo: Nicholas Edworthy, Year 2
We commemorate Remembrance Week at the English College every year. It is about remembering those who died for their country. On the Sunday closest to Armistice Day, which saw the end of WWI on 11 November 1918, the British Ambassador and Ambassadors from Commonwealth countries gather at Olšanské hřbitovy to lay wreaths at the war memorial and to pay tribute to those buried there. It is a special day for many people in the UK. Ceremonies like the one in Prague take place in every city, town and village in the UK, remembering those from the area who went off to fight and who never returned.
Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal
Another tradition during Remembrance Week is the RBL Poppy Appeal. The RBL organises one of the biggest charity collections in the UK. Volunteers sell millions of red paper poppies to raise money to help ex-servicemen and women and their families. The poppy was chosen as the emblem of the appeal because it was the first flower to grow back in the battlefields of France and Belgium after WWI. A factory was opened in south west London in 1922 that provided jobs for disabled ex-service personnel, making the poppies.
Pražská křižovatka provided the perfect setting for ECP’s Founders’ Day ceremony. A beautiful 14th century building, it has strong connections with our Czech Founder Patron, Václav Havel. We were celebrating the achievements of our students and remembering the people responsible for the opening of the English College in Prague in 1994. This year we paid tribute to our UK Founder Patron, Charles, Prince of Wales, now His Majesty King Charles III.
The Chairman of Governors, Denis Keefe CMG, reminded everyone of Prince Charles’s interest in Prague and the efforts made in the early 1990s to restore its historical buildings after years of neglect. Prince Charles also had a keen interest in education so when Václav Havel asked him if he would join him in becoming one of the English College’s Patrons, he willingly agreed. The two men had a friendship based on shared interests, not least in architecture. This was demonstrated by their joint support of the Prague Heritage Fund and its work in reconstructing the gardens below the Castle.
Royal Visits
Denis Keefe recalled Prince Charles’s first visit to the English College, in 2000, when he had escorted him on a tour of the Art Department. Our royal visitor had been so enthused by the work on display and in engaging in conversation with the students that because of his tight timetable, he had had to find a tactful way to end the discussion.
Guests were able to watch a video of historic footage of the two visits Prince Charles has paid to the school. The soundtrack to the video is one of Prince Charles’s favourite songs. He included it in a special radio programme to thank hospital radio volunteers who had helped entertain patients and staff in UK hospitals during the Covid pandemic.
Academic Excellence
But as well as looking back, ECP’s Founders’ Day is about celebrating the achievements of today’s students. There are subject prizes to recognise academic excellence and several students receive Founders’ Academic Prizes.
Talent Awards
In addition to prizes for academic excellence, a total of eleven students received Talent Awards to help them follow their interests outside school. Last year’s award winners told us how they had spent their prize money. One of them was Prince of Wales Scholar, Kryštof Folbrecht. He had bought a camera drone to enable him to develop his interest in filmmaking. From an award for cake making equipment for a student who would like to open her own cafe one day to one of our Ukrainian students who had to leave behind her full-size harp when she fled to Prague and is using her Talent Award to buy a Celtic harp, ECP encourages all its students to follow their passions.
Performances
There was also music and drama aplenty. We heard Shakespeare’s Sonnet 66 – as relevant today as it was in 1609, with its strong emphasis on the power of love. From Adele to Vivaldi, there was something for everyone and the final performance of the evening saw the whole of our Year 1 students coming together to sing Christina Perri’s A Thousand Years.
Visual Arts
Visual arts works were on display as well. Because of Pražská křižovatka’s wonderful mezzanine exhibition space, we were able to display all the work of our worthy prize winners.
President of the Student Council
And in one of the many highlights of the evening, the newly-elected President of the Student Council, Radim Sirůček, spoke movingly about what the College means to him.
He talked about the values of the English College. He said, “I’m sure you will agree with me, that some of the most important values that our school has been built on are open-mindedness, kindness, respect and healthy ambition. Values that have been inspired by our school’s Patrons.”
The English College in Prague has just published a new issue of The ECP Newsletter.
Read a new issue of the ECP newsletter. It brings information about new staff, start-of-year and DofE trips, sports events, Cheltenham Literary Festival and so much more. You can access the newsletter via this link.
Summary:
HM’s message
News
New staff
Trips
Sports at ECP
Student activities
Book Talk
Arts
ECPN
You can look at the archive of ECP newsletters here.
You are very welcome to visit one of the 3 Open Days that are taking place throughout this school year.
Wednesday 23rd November 2022
Thursday 12th January 2023
Monday6th February 2023
The Open Day at the English College in Prague is a unique opportunity to experience firsthand the atmosphere at the school. Prospective students can participate in demonstration lessons while their parents have an opportunity to meet the Headmaster, Dr Nigel Brown, teachers and the Admissions Registrar, Mrs Stanislava Jirešová, who coordinates the admissions procedure and can offer detailed information about the entrance exams.
Open Day Programme for 23rd November 2022:
13.00
Start of Open Day
13.00 – 14.15
Individual tours of the school for visitors guided by ECP students
14.00 – 14.20
Admissions session with the Registrar
14.25 – 15.10
Panel discussion for parents with the Headmaster and staff
NOTE: Parking is available at the Galerie Fénix shopping mall car park.
As our Open Days are an important part of our school year, we like to take photographs during the afternoon and may use some of them in our displays or in marketing and other publications. If you do not wish you or your child to appear in our photographs, please tell our photographer and we shall, of course, respect your wishes.
Dr Brown led a special assembly this morning to remember HM Queen Elizabeth II. Here is an edited version of his address:
Queen Elizabeth was on the throne for 70 years, from 1952 to 2022, and I want to spend a few moments reflecting on her extraordinary life and the extraordinary role of a monarch. Her uncle, King Edward VIII, abdicated in 1936, which meant that her father unexpectedly became King George VI and Elizabeth became heir to the throne, at just 10 years old.
The Young Elizabeth
Princess Elizabeth and her younger sister, Princess Margaret, didn’t go to school, but were educated at home like many girls from wealthy families in those days. She was taught French by French and Belgian governesses and when her father became King, she was taught law and constitutional history to help her prepare for her future role as Queen. She also received religious instruction from the then Archbishop of Canterbury, which proved important in preparation for her role as Head of the Church of England. Her Christian faith was very important to her throughout her life.
The War Years
Then in 1940, at the height of the German bombardment of London, the princesses Elizabeth and Margaret were evacuated to Windsor Castle, where they spent most of the war years. Elizabeth trained as a truck mechanic in the Auxiliary Territorial Service and there are stories of how, at the end of the war, on VE Day, when the whole of Europe was celebrating the Allies’ victory over Nazi Germany, she secretly sneaked out of Buckingham Palace and danced in the streets with the crowds, who were shouting “We want the King.”
Royal Collection Trust
The Royal Couple
Then, like many young people, she fell in love. Prince Philip was a handsome naval officer and after their marriage in November 1947, he and Princess Elizabeth lived in Malta. Our teacher, Ms Vella, is from Malta and she tells me that Malta is the only place, other than the UK, where the Queen lived. It was in the early days of her marriage to Prince Philip, who later became the Duke of Edinburgh and who started the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme, which many of our students take part in.
This was a very happy time for the Royal couple, when they used to drive around the island in a Morris car and Princess Elizabeth was able to use money for the first and last time because as Queen, she never used money. In fact, they loved Malta so much that they went back in 2007 to celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary.
Image_ GETTY
Her Royal Highness Princess Elizabeth becomes Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
Back to 6 February 1952 and the death of Princess Elizabeth’s father, King George VI. He died very young and was only 56, two years younger than I am now. Despite being in Kenya at the time, Elizabeth ascended to the throne immediately – the British system is all about stability and continuity – which is why Prince Charles is now King Charles III, without a coronation having to take place. She returned immediately to London and although her coronation was not for another year, her life had already changed forever.
What power does the British monarch have?
The UK is a Constitutional Monarchy, with historical conventions, customs and traditions. The monarch has no actual political power although he or she does appoint our Prime Ministers, open Parliament each year and approves laws.
I looked at the long list of the Prime Ministers the Queen knew in her long life. There were 15 of them, from Sir Winston Churchill to Liz Truss, who she formally appointed at Balmoral only two days before she died. If you look at the dates of birth of those 15 Prime Ministers, they were born just short of 101 years apart so the Queen’s reign spanned over a hundred years of our history.
Andrew Milligan_Pool_EPA-EFE_REX_Shut
The State Opening of Parliament
When Queen Elizabeth opened Parliament each year, she read out the Queen’s Speech – which will now become the King’s Speech – but although it was called the Queen’s Speech, it was written for her by the Government, setting out the laws they wanted to introduce that year. Until recently, the Queen wore a long white satin gown at the State Opening of Parliament and her ladies-in-waiting wore special sashes not too dissimilar to those you will wear at the graduation ball.
Every law passed by the British Parliament has to receive the Royal Assent – the last time a monarch refused to approve a law was in 1707, when Queen Anne refused to send troops to Scotland.
So really, the British Monarch has no actual power. But they do have influence. They are consulted by politicians and both encourage and warn those elected to govern the UK.
They also receive very many letters from members of the public and the children of one member of the ECP’s staff wrote to the Queen because they were worried about animals in the zoo being lonely and received a very kind and reassuring response.
Personal memories of the Queen
My own memory of the Queen is a little embarrassing as when I was young I conflated the idea of my own grandmother and the Queen. I think it was because they both wore tweed skirts and loved Scotland. That’s not to say that I thought I was royalty, but that the Queen seemed to me to be someone who cared for us and someone who you wouldn’t want to disappoint. The fact I always saw both of them at Christmas – the Queen always makes a speech on television on Christmas Day – muddled my young brain even more.
Queen Elizabeth in Prague
By the end of her reign, the Queen had visited 116 countries including, of course, the Czech Republic in 1996, when she toured Prague and Brno. At the dinner held in her honour at Prague Castle, she talked about her hopes that the Czech Republic would join the European Union and NATO. They seem like very distant days now as while this country is now a member of these institutions, the UK has left the EU.
Photo by John Stillwell
Two years later, President Havel went to Buckingham Palace and in 2018, I was lucky enough to be invited to a Garden Party at Buckingham Palace where I was just one of 6000 people from more than 600 charities and organisations supported by the Royal Family. Not all people support the monarchy and some feel it is an outdated institution – a legacy of the past that sustains divisions in society – but it was a reminder that whatever your view of the monarchy, the Royals have always supported good causes – one of which is our school.
Dr Brown at Buckingham Palace
70 years of unwavering service
I now want to return to the idea of service: Queen Elizabeth was a human being who was propelled into an extraordinary life, one that, with her sense of honour and commitment, she had no choice over, but one that she lived as well as she possibly could. For many, she provided stability and certainty and she will be greatly missed.
As you know, one of our two Founder Patrons has been the Queen’s eldest son, Prince Charles, who is now King Charles III, and I would like to publicly send the school’s condolences to him. I will be going to the British Embassy this week to sign their Book of Condolence on the school’s behalf. We will also have our own Book of Condolence in school and if you wish to sign it, please go to the reading room any lunchtime this week
The last Queen of England in our lifetimes
It was only in 2013 that females were given equal rights to succeed to the throne, when the Succession to the Crown Act was passed, but it is a sobering thought that we will not see a Queen again in our lifetimes. We now have King Charles III, who will be succeeded by his son, as King William, and then by King George although he is only 9 today. William’s daughter, Princess Charlotte, is 4th in line to the throne, but it is likely that George will have had children himself by then.
The Queen’s long reign reminds us of the passage of time. There is a story that someone used to hold back the hands of Big Ben if the Queen was running late, as Kings and Queens are never late. However, whoever we are, we all grow up, live our lives and grow old and it is important that we all make the most of our time here. For me, I think Queen Elizabeth II did a pretty good job.
The English College in Prague has just published a new issue of The ECP Newsletter.
Read a new issue of the ECP newsletter. It brings information about student achievements, the Graduation Ceremony, June trips and DofE expeditions and so much more. You can access the newsletter via this link.
Summary:
HM’s message
Student successes
Graduation Ceremony
News
Trips
Events
DofE expeditions
Student activities
Book Talk
Arts
ECPN
You can look at the archive of ECP newsletters here.
