ISI Inspection & further strategic developments
by Petr Pospíšil
On the day of the annual dinner on Friday 14th June the school went through a progress monitoring visit. This was a follow up visit connected to the main inspection we held this school year in November. Reporting inspector, Mr. John Dunston, came to check some of the processes that were identified as not meeting the standards fully for British Schools Overseas. Following the initial inspection, we put together an action plan to develop practice linked to the attendance protocols and processes dealing with recruitment of staff. We are now awaiting the final inspection report and unless it is published we cannot really say what the result was; however we have reason to believe that the outcome is positive. I would like to thank all staff, namely Mrs Vrastilova, who has put in a great amount of work to ensure our practice meets the required standard.
Secondly, I would like to inform all parents in writing about the announcement I made at the formal meeting between the management and parents held in late May. At this meeting, I informed all parents that in the coming school year we will be working on ways to resolve the situation with the announced increase in teachers salaries in the public sector published on several occasions by the Czech education ministry and also the finance ministry.
There are at the moment just two ways this can be resolved. One way will be to raise private funding to finance the school or to make some adjustments to the curriculum and apply for Czech government funding. At this stage we are still considering both options and are collecting information in order to make a well informed decision.
Despite some rumours, I would like to reassure all parents that we are not turning the International School Olomouc into a Czech school. We hope to meet soon with representatives from the Ministry of Education to discuss what the options are for us to keep the international curricula in place and maybe only increase the number of lessons that will be delivered through the medium of Czech language (from the current 3 - 4 lessons per week to about 7 lesson per week maximum). Since we want to continue serving foreign parents as well as our internationally-minded Czech community of parents there is very little room for big changes in the curriculum. Moreover, it seems that we are going to extend our registration as a British School Overseas with the Department of Education in the UK for another three years.
I will keep all parents well informed if there are any developments in this area. In the meantime, we are presently just collecting information and researching what options there are for us to resolve the issue. Please, feel free to write me an email or come to talk to me if you would like to contribute to the debate.
I would also like to thank very much some of you who have already written to me or approached me about this. Whatever direction we go it will be a long term strategic decision and we would like to make it with full confidence knowing that we consulted with parents as much as we could and from the very beginning.
Why should your child attend iSchool?
They will gain perfect knowledge of English.
Your child will become a global citizen with wide understanding of local and international topics.
We put a strong emphasis on the development on subject specific skills rather than on acquisition of knowledge.
Emphasis on skills development (not just memorising).
Individual approach; school’s ability to motivate for improvement.
Your child will be excited to come to school.
School philosophy
You are not buying success, you are paying for the school to monitor your child’s progress to their goals and motivate them to fulfil their potential.
We are not a selective school: we believe that everybody can be successful.
