Real-world education

They say charity begins at home, but for the English International School in Prague, it starts in the classroom.

In the past, the school has been involved in Habitat for Humanity in Macedonia and Romania, a project in Uganda and sponsoring an orphanage in Ukraine.

This May, secondary students, accompanied by teachers, will take the train to Serbia and spend a week at an orphanage for which they have raised funds for sports equipment, books and various other items.

"It won't be a luxury experience, but it's really good for the kids to do," English as an Additional Language (EAL) Leader and Creativity Actions Service (CAS) Coordinator Jason Kucker said. "I've never had a student come away from that experience and say they regretted going. It's one thing to learn about poverty in geography [class]; it's another thing to see it."

The school's primary students raised 7,250 Kč this year to provide funding for one year of education for an orphan in Uganda.

This year marks the fifth year of international charity work within the school, Kucker said.

"We've always done an international volunteer project; we believe that all students should have experience in doing something for their school, for their local community and for the international community," he said.

The school, a cultural melting pot comprising students from 43 different countries ranging from age 2 (pre-nursery) to age 18 (year 13), has a strong emphasis on holistic learning, with teachers focused on providing practical skills that will prepare students for the real world.

At younger levels, teachers focus on relating the curriculum to real-life experiences, particularly as many students starting at the school are not native English speakers. In the senior years, programs like Helping Unite Belief (HUB) have been created to replicate professional working environments for the students and to try to prepare them for life beyond school.

The school's International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma program introduced business management for the first time this year, which ties in with the HUB program.

"The idea behind the program is to help students prepare for the real world," said David Lawler, leader of business and technology at the school. "Learning from a textbook is very different from the real world, so we introduced the HUB project, where the students are involved with running a business, and they all take on different roles."

"A lot of students spend a lot of time in education, focus on a job in the future, then they get there and think 'I don't want to do this' because they have no practical experience.

"This course allows students to be involved in finance, HR, marketing; they get a lot of practical application and so the HUB becomes a good platform for us," he continued.

Students in the business management course said they are already reaping the benefits. Year 12 student Dalibor Herbrich, the HR leader of HUB, hopes the experience will help him in future professional endeavors.

"One day, I'd like to be a manager, so I figured HR would help me quite a lot to work with people and know what their skills are, and determine what they can do and with whom they can work," he said.

Fellow student Laura Smith is also keen to go into business management once she finishes high school.

"HUB has helped a great deal," she said. "A lot of us want to go into business, and now that I've applied those skills in a practical way, I know this is what I want to do."

The HUB mainly focuses on fundraising and charity work, which is linked into the CAS, which is particularly beneficial when applying to university, Kucker said.

"We encourage students to set themselves apart from other applicants who may have comparable grades; if you've done something like our Serbian project, it shows you're a humanitarian, a global citizen, and you'll be an active participant in this new university community because you already have that kind of experience," he said. "Everything supports everything else as working well together; it's about building a big picture."

Out of the 16 students in year 13 this year, two have already been offered placements at Cambridge University.

The English International School is also the only school in Prague planning to introduce work experience at year 13, starting from next year.

"This way, we can teach practical expertise in school, in an environment we can control and nurture, and then hopefully during work experience students will gain real-life experience that could potentially lead to part-time summer jobs or future employment," Lawler said.

"With all of these projects, you can learn a lot outside of school, but you need the lens of education that the IB diploma program provides to really examine it carefully."

Laura Burgoine can be reached at
lburgoine@praguepost.com