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EISP says goodbye to head teacher

School's new chief administrator will take reins in fall

By James Scanlon
For The Prague Post
May 23rd, 2007 issue

VLADIMÍR WEISS/THE PRAGUE POST
Sylvia May is retiring and moving to Portugal after spending nearly seven years at the English International School, Prague.
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After 27 years as an educator, nearly seven of which were spent as head teacher at the English International School, Prague, Sylvia May is ready to start a new chapter in her life. This summer she will say goodbye to professional life and move to a tiny village in northern Portugal, where she plans do a bit of traveling and enjoy her retirement years by the seaside.
COURTESY PHOTO
Paul Brewster is moving to Prague from England this summer to take over as head administrator at the English International School, Prague.
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“I feel it’s the right time,” says May, whose career has taken her from Europe to Asia to South America and back. And now, she admits, it’s time to take a long-overdue break.
May told the school board in September this would be her last school year. After an exhaustive, three-month search, the school announced last month that it had hired Paul Brewster, the current headmaster of Foremarke Hall in Derbyshire, England, to replace May.
“We were looking for somebody to carry on what we have already,” explains Mike Robinson, head of the international schools’ board of directors. “It has to be someone who fits into the ethos and wants to take the school the school forward and keep its uniqueness in that respect.”
Brewster, 49, will no doubt have big shoes to fill. May has been a progressive administrator, under whose leadership plans for building a new state-of-the art campus were finally realized. Students will be moving into their new digs in Prague 4 this fall.
“The new school opening marks a new beginning, if you like, for the school,” May says. “I think this is probably the biggest event in the school’s history, apart from when it first opened.”
Making a new campus a reality wasn’t the only thing May will be remembered for. She has been credited with getting the school more involved within the community. In 2005, May organized an exhibition of international children’s art, and her students have been featured in the Prague Fringe Festival for the past two years.
A peaceful place
“What I’ve done over the last six and a half years is organically grow the community of the school, organically develop and bring the curriculum up to date,” May says.
But it’s time to move on.
May’s new personal challenge will be something completely different. She’s packing her bags and moving to a farm on the outskirts of Povoa dos Mosqueiros, a place so remote it barely registers on most conventional maps of Portugal.  
Her new home is not quite “self-sufficiency,” but May says she and her husband plan to tend the land and grow their own food. The couple also has some vineyards and hopes to make wine.
And for those teachers looking for a quiet place to unwind and decompress, May’s door is wide open.
“It’s so peaceful,” she says. “They can come and de-stress and even learn to paint. My husband and I both paint.”
EISP received many applications for the head teacher slot, but it was Brewster’s “real passion for education and excellence” that placed him above the rest, according to Robinson, who was involved in the selection process. Ultimately, five finalists were invited to Prague for in-person interviews, school officials say.  
“What impressed me about Paul was that he has a lot of experience as a headmaster. He has a real quality of putting the children at the center of what he does,” Robinson says.  
Brewster has been with Foremarke Hall, an independent preparatory school, since 2000. Prior to that, he was the headmaster at St. Mary’s Prep School, also in England, for five years.  
After visiting Prague for five days last summer, Brewster says he was immediately taken in by the city’s charm, and when he heard EISP was looking for a new chief, he did not hesitate to apply.
“It was a direct result of that visit,” Brewster says. “Prague is a very nice place to live and a very interesting place to work.”
Although Brewster, who has been in the education arena since the early ’80s and has three adult children of his own, has never worked outside the United Kingdom before, he says he‘s excited about the move but understands there will be adjustments.
“Working within a school which is a deliberately international school, and with a whole variety of nationalities within it, is going to be partly new to me,” Brewster admits. “At the school I run at the moment — because we have quite a strong boarding element — we … also have a sprinkling of international students. So I have a lot of experience, albeit in a different context.”
Brewster indicates he isn’t planning to bombard the campus with a slew of changes.
“You’ve got to be careful to identify the things that are good and really valued and make sure you [maintain them],” he says, “because it can be quite easy to lose such things.
“The things that people value about EISP will certainly continue,” Brewster adds. “So, for example, the fact that the children are cared for as individuals is a very important thing.”

James Scanlon can be reached at specialsection@praguepost.com


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