The Kritická gramotnost #5 [Critical Literacy #5] newsletter

Mrs Ilona Urbanová has been the Director of Helping Schools Succeed since September 2019. She joined at a time when everyone involved in the project was looking back at the ten years of its existence and thinking about its future development and the best way to use the huge amount of experience amassed. Under her leadership, a new strategy for the project’s future direction, referred to as Helping Schools Succeed Plus, has been created in recent months. She is no newcomer to the field of education – she used to manage a private language school and also took part in founding a high school. She will certainly put her wealth of managerial experience to good use at Helping Schools Succeed. We asked her about her first impressions and the direction she will steer the project in along with her team of teaching experts in the years to come.

The Helping Schools Succeed project has stepped into the tenth academic year, which is the first year under the leadership of its new director, Mrs Eva Lokšová. The 2018/19 school year will be marked by additional qualitative changes at the 22 public primary schools involved in the project. More than 800 teachers and more than 8,700 pupils will receive pedagogical and financial support this year. The project’s key issues include the development of reading and of reading and critical literacy, and formative assessment. The family foundation of Mrs Renáta Kellnerová and Mr Petr Kellner initiated the Helping Schools Succeed project and has been financing it since 2009.

The traditional Festival of Teaching Inspiration organized by Helping Schools Succeed took place in the Kunratice Elementary School on 10 and 11 November 2017; in all, 780 teachers from all over the Czech Republic attended 130 workshops there. For the first time ever the Festival also offered a panel discussion on systemic changes conducive to improvements in the quality of teaching and learning. The Kunratice Elementary School is one of the first schools involved in the Helping Schools Succeed project run by The Kellner Family Foundation.

The printed version of a special issue of the journal has just been issued; elementary schools across the Czech Republic will receive copies from us free of charge.

On Friday, September 8, the Czech Television Studio ČT24 show discussed the topic of the International Literacy Day. It featured Project Director of Pomáháme školám k úspěchu [Helping Schools Succeed], Hana Košťálová, who spoke about illiteracy both globally and in the Czech Republic, about developing reading literacy and critical literacy, and about the experiences gained from the Helping Schools Succeed project.

Education consultant Leona Mechúrová spoke on the Czech Television Sama doma [Home Alone] show about how to help children develop a love for reading, which, in our experience in the Helping Schools Succeed project, helps both teachers and parents when developing the child’s reading skills or in teaching them critical thinking.

At the close of August, in the municipality of Hrubá Voda not far from Olomouc, inaugural training took place for teachers at the Vítězslav Nezval elementary school in Most (the Ústí nad Labem Region), the Husova elementary school in Brno (the Southern Moravian Region) and the Slatiňany elementary school (the Pardubice Region).

The Kunratice Elementary School in Prague bustled with the second annual Festival of Teaching Inspiration on November 6 and 7, 2015. Instead of students, the teachers sat at the classroom desks; they had gathered there to absorb new ideas and practical tips for teaching.