Reporton the stay in the United Kingdom
Although I attend a lower form at the Johannes Kepler Gymnasium (further just GJK) than I did at Oundle Schoolduring my three-month stay in 2004, I will try to compare these two schools as it would be possible to find some useful conclusions. The education systems of the CzechRepublic and the United Kingdom, as I could experience them, are two extreme ones, between which the best and the most effective education probably lies.
I.Assessmentof the stay, benefits and opportunities for further development
I can divide the total benefits into three categories: benefits for me, benefits for the school I was sent by and for the school that accepted me.
The most important benefit for me was a great living experience, which helped me to develop my own and independent actions and responsibility. Thenext was meeting with new people, getting to know them and experiences we had together. These showed me how different national and religious groups live and work together, what advantages it has, but also difficulties. That means a complete view of international school. I also improved my language skills, of course – that is a benefit not just for me, but also for those, who are going to talk to me at the lessons of English – students, they can make outlook about British English (if the teacher uses just the American one)
For the school that sent me the benefit was in a successful extension of the tradition and in the opportunity to use the knowledge and ideas already tried at the British school. GJK gains experiences from these stays not only in the part of organization, but also in the part of communication between the two schools. I would like to point out that in this context a new meeting has been agreed – a visit from the UK at our school’s ball, which takes place on 27th January 2005.
The benefit for the school I was accepted by is also not inconsiderable. The Britons could meet a different, Czech culture. In this area I did my best with organizing a lecture with samples from Czech opera (Antonin Dvorak: Rusalka, a water nymph) at the Opera society meeting. My opinion is that my presence and effort made British students work harder.
The stay was perfectly organized so I can suggest just a few ideas. It might be an improvement to let the student at the school live a whole year to build in the student a complete impression about the school and to be able to compare particular parts of a year. On the other hand I understand that the stay concerns the fact that the financial funds should be used as sparingly as possible.
The food and the accommodation were at a good level. It might be good to delegate one member of the House as a guide that could invite the student sent, could help him in the orientation in the house and in the school and explain all the options at the school –as voluntary activities etc.
II.OundleSchool: good ideas and opportunities for further development
At Oundle it is very well arranged that every student has the possibility to control his educational progression – there is a Report, which includes a mark evaluation of achieved knowledge and effort and a written evaluation and is issued at every end of a quarter of year at a consultation with the Tutor that is a teacher, who is supposed to be the closest person to the student, control his report and study achievement and to provide a relation with the parents (feedback from parents about the report).
The biggest lack is that at the school a huge emphasis is put on exams and the students think they are taught for the exams and the universities and not for the life. That is definitely not a mistake of the school; the school can not of course influence the entrance examinations to universities a lot. But it would be hypocritical to say that it is just for the life and therefore it is better to teach the students what the university claims. On the other hand it is true that if the exams are conceived to include really relevant facts, then they are beneficial. If a student has problems with work, he can attend special voluntary courses. There are also special courses before exams to review.
In the voluntary part the British solution is interesting – there are so called Societies (e. g. Science, Law, Math) that current ideas in science are being talked about, that lectures of famous experts are in. These are the only lessons that a student can take part in, teaching one lesson as being a teacher. A very strange thing is that if a student wants to take a part in lessons – ‘teaching’ instead of the teacher (interesting parts of work, of course). I thing there is an opportunity for development for students to take a bigger part in the lessons (and to understand the work of a teacher).
There is also a bigger presentation of universities and colleges tempting future undergraduates to its collective, making lectures and discussions about popular topic.
I appreciate the voluntary character of societies and the fact that people go there from their own initiative, but it would be good to read something about the topic, so the discussion can be useful for all the members. That also relates with the fact that some students do not have any clue about common things – that is a visible insufficiency, but it is a proof of displacement to a higher specialization in chosen profession that the students achieve good results in.
It can beimproved by sending study materials on e-mail each session or a list of recommended literature.
At Oundle a system is arranged that deals with transgressions against the Oundle code and school rules – a clear and easy system of punishments for smoking, coming late and inappropriate behavior in lessons, which are compensated by a service to the school or by helping in public benefit corporations or by improving of environment of the school. Smoking is punished by charging a fine £5 or more for repeated action.
The school is very well controlled by cameras, which secure security of the students and physical property. All the school property is labeled with a code, so it is possible to identify and to administer it better.
There are many good ideas at the school, e.g. a student studying economics has to comment every week one article that helps him to start orienting in economics and to establish required habits in reading newspaper.
III.GJK: good ideas and opportunities for further development
As well as at Oundle at GJK there are very good teachers, who tryto do as much as possible. But in each of them there is a different idea about what a student should know. In my opinion it is necessary to motivate student’s interest in the subject that means fewer facts that he can not memorize, to motivate him/her by explaining the principle. The best way to do it is to divide it to smaller one-hour parts. In our lessons the photocopier is used little, because the teachers are afraid of being in the top 10. It is effective to gather the work on one sheet that guarantees easy further application. It will not be bad as well to writeall the books required on a single paper.
In our circumstances it is not, of course, possible to give every student a single set of books, because the school doesn’t have money for this and is not expected from the state to do this (in the first class – 6 years – are the pupils given a set of books free of charge, from 7 to 15 years it is required to lend it to the and then the students have to do everything themselves; our school is attended by students from 11 to 19 years). That is why the textbooks should be lent and labeled by a bar code that could by saved in a database, where would also by saved current owner, condition before borrowing and after returning. If the textbook would have been returned damaged, the student would have to pay back the difference between the price before and after. There is also an option of solution by lending for money.
The situation in the Czech legislature is interesting. It claims the student to be given a report that is written in evaluation of benefits (translated directly, it rather means a passing rate now) from each subject by a word from outstanding to insufficient. Therefore, no information about effort and preparing is given. According to this it is possible to add written evaluation and effort grade.
Also more writing in the form of essays would be better – in a system of short voluntary essays would everybody have to at least 10 essays a year from at least 3 subjects (or rather 3 per quarter) – that could stimulate independent searching for information.
The thing that can definitely be developed is using computers more often, especially school electronic mail and intranet, for study purposes (reachable from home), bulk sending of documents to classes and school archive where teachers could publish recommendations and in future put assessments of pupils so they could access and check their progress reports from home or other public places. In the future there could be multiple choice tests done either as a part of home preparation or as regular tests that would be corrected by computer and that would take pressure away from teachers.
Perhaps it would be suitable to create a students board that would engage with operations of the school and come up with improvement suggestions.
A very good idea is the Best sportsman competition thatdevelops versatility and motivates students to do sports. It is a pity that it is not possible to do sport (that is not usual) instead of regular physical training. The suggestion is to introduce more variety so not all students must play football.
School entry is solved very well by using electronic card; school starts to use cameras to ensure safety and security of students, their belongings and school property.
I think that it is not good to have students wait in front of the school when they are late; this can be solved in different way (see above, cards). It disturbs lessonsand teachers effort, it does not have educational effect and it could provoke derision of classmates.
It is important to express that school teaching at GJK is rankled as exemplary and our school is an example to other secondary schools. This should be used to deepen relationships with other schools in the CzechRepublic and abroad.
IV.Conclusion
I would like to express my thanks for the opportunity to represent GJK at Oundle and I am happy that I could participate in this project. I made this report to use all my remarks from the British school.