2018 Update

In March 2017 The Prague British School  joined the Nord Anglia Education group. This means that PBS now has a local sister school, the English International School, Prague. The schools immediately started  working together as sister schools and will open as one school with three sites from September 2018. 

For an initial Q&A covering some of the key aspects of this development please click here.

The timeline below shows the when some of the key decisions will be announced as we work together to plan for our shared future:

We intend to invite our students, parents and staff to contribute to the transition process and will keep families informed when key decisions are made. We will also organise opportunities for children, parents and staff from each school to meet with each other over the coming months.

Each month in the newsletter there will be a '2018 Update' informing parents of the latest developments as the planning gets underway. These monthly updates are published below:

December Updates

The first Joint Parents Committee (JPC) met on Wednesday 14th Dec, with parents from the EISP, PBS Kamyk and PBS Vlastina. The committee is representing the views and ideas of the parents, and is a forum for an exchange of information.

It was an incredibly positive, informative and productive meeting. It was wonderful to be part of a meeting where the ideas flowed and excitement and enthusiasm for next year were shared.

For the minutes of the meeting please click HERE

Below is a message from the JPC members.

It has been a long, busy and highly productive term, in terms of teaching, learning and extra-curricular activities and in terms of planning for the next academic year. And on behalf of all teachers from Libus, Vlastina and Kamyk sites, I would like to thank parents for their continued support and wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and successful New Year.

Michael Bardsley

Principal

The Prague British International School

Merger Update - Prague British International School

As part of the process of creating The Prague British International School (PBIS), it was agreed that it would be beneficial to have a combined parent body to represent the interests of all parents and children. The Joint Parents Committee (JPC) was formed and held its first meeting on 13^th December. Attached are minutes of the first meeting. We would encourage all parents to read these and see the scope of activities being worked upon.

It is clear from this meeting that a great deal of progress has been made in critical areas. The result should be an excellent school that applies best practices from all three sites, to create a better place for our children to learn and thrive. At the same time there are areas where compromises have to be made by all parties – which is an inevitable consequence of any merger.

We encourage all parents to engage in this process in the best interests of our children. Contact the members of the JPC with your thoughts, to help build an excellent school.

Best regards

Members of the Joint Parents Committee

October Updates

20/10/17

This week we held open meetings at both Libuš and Vlastina for parents. We presented an update on the plans for joining our schools and gave parents an opportunity to discuss the plans together.

Michael Bardsley, the incoming Principal of the combined school, introduced himself and the three Campus Heads, Caroline Troughton (Libuš), Paul Baker (Kamýk) and Paul Kurczij (Vlastina). The Principal and Campus Heads have put together a comprehensive staffing plan for the new school which has been shared with staff for feedback. This final structure will be finalised shortly and staff will then be confirmed in roles. Mr Bardsley also confirmed that there would be some form of school uniform at the new school, a proposal that had the support of 68% of respondents to the parents’ survey. While it is recognised that the majority favour a less formal type of uniform, all aspects of the uniform will be discussed with students and parents in the coming months. A final proposal will be ready by the end of February.

The name of the new school was unveiled.

Many parents at both schools suggested this name in the survey. We believe that the Prague British International School brings something from each name, states clearly what we are and will naturally build on the established reputations of both schools.

The Q&A sessions at both sites led to open discussion which, together with the survey feedback from almost 500 parents, serves to highlight some of the priorities for the school in the coming months.

Clarity on the next steps for structured parental involvement was requested by parents. Since the meetings the management teams from both schools have agreed on a format for this involvement and this proposal can be found here. We will be contacting parents further on this in the coming weeks.

We also recognise that transport, traffic congestion, friendship groups, streaming, the school day, school fees and detail on the school uniform are all areas of importance for our families. We are committed to presenting detail on all these matters, at the latest, by the end of February (apologies, not February 1^st as was stated at the Libuš meeting!) at the latest. Of course, we will keep parents regularly informed and will make every effort to share further information before this deadline.

We are also pushing out plans to ensure that those families that will be moving to another campus next year have the opportunity to do so as soon as possible. The Open Day on November 2^nd is the first opportunity for parents while we will arrange visits for students in the near future.

Please remember that both schools have an open doors policy and we welcome the thoughts and comments of all families on this matter, in person, by email or on the phone. Please feel free to contact your school Principal or Head directly, or emails can be sent to feedback@pbschool.cz or comments@eisp.cz

09/10/17

We are delighted to be writing with some announcements for our new combined school. Thank you to everyone that has taken part in the parent consultation survey, we have had an outstanding response and both schools were well represented.

This early feedback has affirmed some initial and important decisions, giving us ten months to focus on enhancing the education for our students. With this in mind, we must emphasise that all of the information below relates to September 2018 onwards. There will be no changes this academic year.

We are pleased to share that we have an outstanding start to developing the Senior Leadership Team, working with the new Principal, Michael Bardsley, for the combined school:

· Caroline Troughton, current Head of Secondary and Assistant Principal for EISP, will take on the role of Head of Libus Campus and Vice-Principal of the new combined school. The Libus campus will become a dedicated IGCSE and IB Centre for Year 10 to Year 13.

Caroline studied Molecular Biology at the University of Portsmouth and then went on to complete a Master’s degree in Forensic Science at the University of Strathclyde. She taught in the UK for three years before deciding to teach internationally. She taught in China and then Mexico before moving to Prague four years ago. Caroline is a lead trainer for Nord Anglia Education’s worldwide Leadership Training Programme.

· Paul Baker, current Head of Kamyk Primary for PBS, will take on the role of Head of Kamyk Campus, which will cater for children from Pre-Nursery to Year 9.

Paul has been the Head of Kamyk Primary since 2007 and has worked for the Prague British School since 2003. Before moving to Prague Paul taught a number of year groups in a lovely little village school in Oxford. Paul has led the Primary School through two ‘Excellent’ ISI Inspections during his time as Head and is continually looking for ways to improve the school.

· Paul Kurczij, current Deputy Head of Vlastina Primary for PBS, will take on the role of Head of Vlastina Campus, which will continue to cater for children in Nursery to Year 9 as it does today.

Paul has been at PBS since 2009. He was appointed Deputy in 2011. During this time Paul has led curriculum changes and is currently responsible for staff development. He has been a part of the school’s success in achieving ‘Excellent’ in all categories for the last two ISI inspections. He is also a trained ISI inspector and has presented at COBIS conferences on authentic leadership.

These decisions were reached with the full, unanimous support of all members of the leadership teams at both PBS and EISP. We have also reflected on the feedback received from parents, both in the questionnaire and in person, regarding campus use. In particular we recognise the importance of developing the campuses to be state-of-the-art facilities that allow your children to achieve of their best. We also recognise the concerns regarding traffic congestion and parking and we will work in the coming months to ensure that these concerns are addressed through both a comprehensive school transport service and facility development.

We are sure you will join us in congratulating Caroline and ‘the two Pauls’ and wishing them all the best in their new positions. Although they will take up these posts next summer, they will of course be working closely with Michael Bardsley, and others in the EISP and PBS leadership teams to prepare for next September.

September Updates

19/9/17

I hope you and your children are having a successful start to the 2017/18 academic year. As you are aware, the English International School Prague (EISP) and the Prague British School (PBS) will be coming together as one school from September 2018 and we have recently undertaken an extensive recruitment process to identify an outstanding principal to lead our new combined school. I am pleased to announce that we have appointed Michael Bardsley to this role which he will take up from September 2018.

Currently Head of Senior School at PBS, Michael is a highly respected educator with a career spanning almost 25 years, including a decade of international school leadership experience. Since joining PBS in 2016, Michael has put systems in place that have had an immediate, positive effect on the learning outcomes of the students, including a school wide marking and assessment framework, restructured timetable and curriculum offering and a rigorous quality assurance programme.

Prior to this, Michael served as Headmaster of the British School of Amsterdam in addition to senior roles at respected schools in Thailand and the UK. Michael was also instrumental in developing the Association of Central European Schools and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts.

Michael is a transformational leader with strong experience of driving the development of schools and a commitment to nurturing a positive culture which engages and inspires the whole school community. We believe that this, together with his commitment to excellence and track record of supporting students to achieve outstanding outcomes, ideally positions him to drive our transition to one school.

I am sure you will join me in congratulating Michael and wishing him the very best in his new role. I would also like to thank Mel Curtis and John Bagust for their exceptional leadership during this time of change. Although Michael will take up his post next summer, he will of course be instrumental in leading the development of the combined school over the course of this academic year, working closely with Mel and John, the Heads of Schools and senior leadership teams at both EISP and PBS.

As you know, the new combined school will operate over three campuses, Vlastina, Libuš and Kamýk. Each campus will be led by a Campus Head and we will be working together with Michael to have these details finalised in early October. All parents will have an opportunity to hear about and discuss the future of the Prague school together at the meetings scheduled for the 16^th and 17^th of October.

If you have any questions, please contact me at george.ghantous@nordanglia.com.

Yours faithfully,

George Ghantous

Regional Managing Director, Europe and Middle East - Nord Anglia Education

08/09/17

We are pleased to confirm the dates for the next round of open meetings for parents on the subject of the 2018 single school. The meetings will be held as follows:

· Monday 16th Oct 6pm:  Libus

· Tuesday 17th Oct 6pm: Vlastina

If you have any specific comments or questions regarding this please do send them to feedback@pbschool.cz

June Update

The first of the major decisions in the time-line that we shared with you, was to define the management structure for the new school by the end of June. The senior leaders of both schools have worked together to develop this structure that we believe will ensure the best possible start for the new, unified school.

The plan is to appoint an Executive Principal across Kamýk, Libuš and Vlastina, supported by three Heads of Campus. The process of internally recruiting for these positions has begun, and Nord Anglia recognise the vital importance of the local knowledge and experience of PBS and EISP candidates. We would like to give parents, students and colleagues a chance to talk to the candidates and we are scheduling interviews accordingly after the summer break. The aim is to have people appointed into these key roles by the end of September 2017.

The Admissions and Marketing office will effectively be integrated from August 2017 as the team begin enrolling new families for the new, unified school. The Admissions team will be rotate between Kamýk, Libuš and Vlastina dealing with enquiries to both PBS and EISP with immediate effect.

Finally, the term dates for 2018/19 will be published by October 2018, however we would like to draw parents attention to the fact that the 2018/19 school year will start on Monday 27th August 2018 (and not 3rd September 2018 as PBS had previously published)

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about this. Alternatively emails can be sent to feedback@pbschool.cz

May Update

Over the last 4 weeks the various Integration Committees, made up of members of staff from both PBS and EISP have met. The management committee met and discussed three key areas of the 2018 integration: Leadership structure; Use of Kamyk and Libus sites; Mission and vision.

The two schools have a slightly different leadership structure and the possible models from September 2018 were discussed. A final decision on the leadership structure will be made by the end of June 2017. The committee looked at various permutations regarding the use of Kamyk and Libus sites from September 2018 and will now prepare detailed studies that will assess the feasibility of these options. The final decision regarding building use will be made by October 2017. Staff and parents will have the opportunity to contribute to the Mission and Vision of the unified school in a consultative process that will take place October – December 2017, with a view to having this finalised by the end of the calendar year.

The Primary School Leadership teams from PBS and EISP have been meeting a number of times since the announcement to discuss similarities, differences and challenges in the primary curriculum. All staff involved were pleased to report that there are many similarities in what and how we teach and any differences seem quite minor. Although we have a few challenges to solve, we all feel confident that we can come to an agreement before October. The Primary School English and Maths leaders have looked at tracking of assessment results as well as the curriculum materials we use with a view to having a similar system across EISP and PBS by the start of the next academic year and thus making the merge in Sept. 2018 very smooth in these key subjects.

The Senior School Leadership team from PBS met with their counterparts at EISP to look at the Senior school curriculum this week. There are significant similarities as both schools teach iGCSE and the IB Diploma. Opportunities for expanding and enhancing the subjects offered were explored and both teams are looking forward to a strengthening the senior school provision when the schools merge. Over the coming months, Heads of Departments will continue to work together to synchronise the delivery of the syllabuses to enable a smooth start to the 2018/19 academic year.

The Admissions committee has also met as the admissions departments will begin cooperating immediately as families begin enrolling for 2018 during 2017/18. The department structure has been approved and the committee will now focus on integrating systems and procedures.

In terms of giving both school communities the opportunity to mix socially EISP families have been invited to the Family Fun Day at Kamyk on Saturday 24^th June. PBS families are welcome to register for the EISP Sunday Golf and BBQ event that is being held on 4^th June at Zbraslav as well as the Early Years BBQ at EISP that takes place on Saturday 27^th May.

We have also organised a social event for all staff that will take place in early June and will allow staff at each school to form working relationships as we prepare to join together

April Update

This week we held open meetings at both Vlastina and Kamyk for parents to discuss the plans for 2018/19 when PBS will join together with the English International School Prague (EISP).

George Ghantous, the Nord Anglia Regional MD, introduced the Nord Anglia family, the core values of the organisation and some of the programmes from which the PBS community will benefit. Iwona Thomas, the founder of the British School in Warsaw spoke of her own school, which in 2010 took a similar step to that which PBS is currently taking. Iwona spoke passionately about the school she founded in 1992 and extremely positively about being part of the Nord Anglia family.

Mr Bardsley and Mr Bagust then outlined some of the initial planning steps that have already been taken in the few weeks since the announcement including: the formation of integration committees across the school; mutual staff and management cross site visits; coordination of sports events and facilities; planning for student council visits and planning for joint social events.

We then talked through the timing of some of the key decisions in the coming months. You can view this ‘decision timeline’ as part of the slideshow presentation here.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about this exciting development, alternatively emails can be sent to feedback@pbschool.cz There will be a '2018 Update' in the newsletter at the end of each month.