A number of ECF directors and ECP graduates had the pleasure of attending the Czech British Chamber of Commerce and British Czech & Slovak Association Annual Dinner, held at the May Fair Hotel on 22 November 2024.
It was a great evening with several inspirational guest speakers. ECP Headmaster Dr Nigel Brown spoke about the ECP and its mission to provide an English-medium academic education to young people in Prague and to develop every individual’s potential to the full to prepare them for the challenges of today’s globalised society. We were pleased to see support for the ECP from the attendees and hope to stay in touch with them in the future.
Photographs by Erik Weisenpacher from @doubleyoubrothers
On Tuesday 5 November we celebrated the ECP’s 30th anniversary and Founders’ Day at Pražská křižovatka (Prague Crossroads), a spectacular meeting place in a former church founded by St Vaclav that is one of the projects of the Dagmar and Václav Havel Foundation.
It was particularly welcome to be able to celebrate this year following the news that HM King Charles III has kindly agreed to continue as Royal Patron following his accession to the throne – the King was a Founder Patron of the College alongside President Vaclav Havel.
We were joined by two Founder Governors, Ann Lewis and Martyn Bond, as well as by Vanessa Ward, the daughter of Hubert Ward, the Founding Headmaster of the College, who died recently. Vanessa Ward spoke movingly about her memories of her father and the adventure of starting a new school in Prague. She presented a scrapbook of press cuttings from those days which will form part of the College’s archives.
As ever, it was the students who set the tone of the evening, with prize-winners, musical and dramatic performers and the stories of our Talent Award winners all demonstrating the imagination and creativity of ECP – staff, students and parents.
There was also a very impressive display of artwork. The highlight was an amazing model of the reconstructed and extended school building. It was built by Year 3 student and aspiring architect, Ariya Man, and was complete with the roof and lower floors lifting up automatically to reveal classrooms filled with 3-D printed plastic furniture.
The alumni drinks party hosted by the English College Foundation in October has become a regular feature of our calendar going back many years. Recently, the ever-popular venue has been the Savoy Tap pub in Savoy Street just off the Strand. We have the upper room all to ourselves, complete with our own bar and barman, and the event gives newly-arrived students an early taste of a historic London pub.
The aim of the event is to enable new graduates of the English College recently arrived to study in the UK an opportunity to meet alumni of earlier vintages. Those present this time included an early ECP student who had left Prague for Bristol to take her IB, but now decided she wanted to get back in touch with her fellow-students in Prague all these years later. At the other end of the spectrum, we were delighted to welcome seven of the ECP 2024 graduates studying at various universities and colleges in London (plus one from Edinburgh!).
Four of the eight Directors of the Foundation are now ECP alumni, having graduated between 2002 to 2014. All ECP alumni are welcome at our events, so if you are not already known to us, please contact info@englishcollegefoundation.co.uk to be put on our mailing list.
Her Excellency Marie Chatardova, Ambassador of the Czech Republic, kindly hosted a Reception in support of the English College Foundation at her Residence in Hampstead on 26 September 2024. Such Receptions have been held every year since before the English College opened in 1994, barring the covid period.
Despite the rain, this was a lively and convivial evening, with music from a jazz duo, a delicious supper prepared by the Ambassador’s top chef, and a raffle with myriad prizes.
As always, this was also a fund-raising event, and raised more than £2000 for the English College Foundation Scholarship Fund, which sponsors a student at the College.
Among the speakers that night was Devid Jehlicka, a former holder of a scholarship at the English College. He was raised in a children’s home, but thanks to his scholarship was able to enjoy the school’s exceptional teaching and warm relationships. With excellent IB results he was accepted for LSE, from which he recently graduated. Throughout his studies he volunteered to work with young people at Arsenal. He is now coaching at Arsenal while contemplating his next career move.
The English College’s scholarship programme enables many bright children from families of limited means or difficult circumstances to flourish. So fund-raising will continue both here and in Prague. If you would like to contribute, you can do so here.
We are delighted to confirm that this year’s annual English College garden party will be held on Thursday 26th September at the Czech Ambassador’s residence in Hampstead, London.
If you’re on our mailing list you will receive further information shortly, otherwise please contact us at info@englishcollegefoundation.org.
The business was disposed of swiftly: 3 directors reappointed, and Annual Report and Accounts approved.
The Headmaster, Dr Nigel Brown, provided an update on the building renovation project. The building work should begin shortly. Meanwhile the school is using two venues 25 mins apart – the school’s existing annex and a primary school not yet fully occupied. The teachers are walking between the two so that students don’t have to. They are getting plenty of exercise as a result! The Headmaster further noted some practical difficulties and the anticipated duration of the building work.
Dr Brown reported that the ECF scholarship student (for year 4, 5 and 6), Maxine Janecek, is an exceptional student and is having a fantastic time at ECP.
The IB results this year have been exceptional with ECP ranked best in the EU. Interest in ECP is growing every year.
On the topic of scholarships, the Headmaster noted that he is looking to increase fundraising efforts with the aim of boosting scholarship funds from 8% to 10% of income. He also highlighted the exceptional life changing scholarships funded by ECP alumnus Jan Barta.
The AGM enjoyed two speeches by ECP alumni.
Petra Freddi (1999) was a student in ECP’s first year. She remembered how an advert shown her by her grandmother had ignited an interest in a British education. Without telling her parents, she applied and, following a successful interview, was offered a full ECP scholarship. She reflected how important her ECP experience was in shaping her life both educational and professional. She had a successful career in Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers as well as with private equity. Having spent much of her career in Hong Kong and Singapore, she is now based in London working for the Milken Institute.
Yegor Lanovenko (2010) reflected on how his family history, with grandparents peasants near Odesa but determined he should go to university, led to him becoming an ECP student and to where he is now. After graduating from the University of Bristol, Yegor embarked on a career in finance working for JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank and now private equity. He also created Opora, the largest Ukrainian charity in the UK, assisting Ukrainian war refugees. His efforts have not gone unnoticed: he was invited to a reception at No. 10 for key people dealing with the refugee crisis.
On 28th February, the English College Foundation will be hosting its AGM meeting at St Bride’s, London from 6.15pm. We will be joined by two alumni speakers and the ECP Headmaster will be present as well. This will be a great opportunity to hear about the academic progress of the school and to find out about the building project progress.
More details will follow and if you would like to attend or find out more, please contact info@englishcollegefoundation.org.
The ECF was happy to host its annual drinks party for ECP alumni at the Savoy Tap pub on 16 October.
The occasion was notable for the mass turnout of 2023 graduates, newly arrived and full of enthusiasm. They are spread among all London’s most prestigious universities: LSE, UCL, KCL, Imperial College.
A touch of glamour was provided by Maria Charvátová, aka the singer Maella.
We’re always keen to welcome more alumni to our events so if anyone knows of early graduates now living in the UK, for whom we don’t have full records, we’d be delighted to hear from you.
The Czech Ambassador, Marie Chatardova, hosted a party at her beautiful Residence in Hampstead on 5 June to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the Foundation. The guests included many long-term supporters of the English College in Prague, officers of the Foundation and Governors of the English College, two former and the current Headmaster, and a clutch of ECP alumni. Also present was Greg Hands MP, Chairman of the Conservative Party and a former Governor of the English College.
The guests enjoyed a glorious sunny evening in the Residence gardens, with music, an excellent supper and a raffle. All proceeds will go the College’s Scholarship Fund to support students who would otherwise not be able to attend the school for financial reasons.
The Foundation is very grateful to the Ambassador and Embassy staff for making this such an enjoyable event.
Following on from an online workshop on Careers in the Arts organised by the English College Foundation in 2022, this year we organised a similar one on Careers in the Media. These workshop are intended to give senior ECP students some idea of various careers that might be open to them,
The Careers in the Media workshop took place on 18 April 2023, with 17 students taking part.
We had three online presenters:
On Journalism, Giles Whittell, who worked for many years on The Times, in California, Moscow, Washington and London, and initiated and now heads Tortoise Media;
On PR and Communications, Eva Dvorakova, a graduate of the College and now head of PR activities at Clear Channel UK, a leading outdoor advertising company;
On the Video Games Industry, Teddy Keefe (accompanied by his colleague Darya Rubashna), who has worked for all the big names in the industry and currently deals with business development & strategic partnerships with TenCent Games Europe.
Speakers highlighted the pros and cons of their work – the excitement and “buzz’ of working under pressure with tight deadlines, and in journalism sometimes in the world’s hotspots, but at the same time often finding a work/life balance elusive, which can be hard on families and private life. They also suggested what, if any, degree courses are relevant, and how to get into the chosen field by more unorthodox methods or simply by trying your luck. What came across in all three presentations was that commitment, good writing skills, and a willingness to learn on the job are all essential.
