The Bishop Grammar School.
The Bishop Grammar School
The Bishop Grammar School is a comprehensive school situated in Klafar, a suburb of Žďár nad Sázavou, in the heart of Vysočina region. It was founded in 1992 by the Bishopric from Brno and the Czech Kolping Society. To get to the school, you need to pass entrance exams and you end school after 4 or 8 years (depending on how old you were, when you started) with final exam called Maturita, which is something similar to British A-level.
The modern school building consists of two 4 floor buildings, which our school shares with a secondary gastronomical school. On the first floor, there is an entrance hall and locker rooms. There is also a school canteen that is sometimes used as a conference hall and two cafeterias, where students and teachers can sit and enjoy a break between classes. On the three remaining floors there are classrooms as well as a lab, specialized classrooms, and English library. On the fourth floor of building B, there is a multimedia room as well as a music classroom.
The school year on our school consists of two terms, at the end of which you get your certificate. On your certificates, you have final marks from both compulsory subjects and optional seminars. Compulsory subjects on our school are Czech language, English language, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geography, Civics, History, Second Foreign language (at our school you can choose between Russian, Spanish, German and French) Physical Education, Religious Education, Music and Art. You can choose optional seminars in sixth form (two in your third or seventh year and then two more in your last year). As I said earlier, you get your final marks from all of the subjects on your report card. I should also mention that we are graded with marks from 1 to 5, 1 being the best and 5 being the worst.
There are many activities, that you can do after your school finishes (which is usually around 2 PM). You can join the school club and then do activities offered by them. Those include swimming, a chess club, a photography club and many more. But sometimes you don’t even have to wait for the school to end to do something fun. There are days with native speakers, many interesting lectures about various topics with various different people and more. And of course, we have school trips and excursions during which you go anywhere, from places nearby to different countries. Our school also participates in an internship programme conducted by the Czech Academy of Sciences. It gives to students a chance to work by the side of people who have reached important milestones in the fields of their work. You also have a chance to experience something aside from normal school life with joining one of many competitions in different subjects.
Our school is also participating in many projects. The most well-known ones being DofE (Duke of Edinburgh awards) and CTM courses (Centre for talented minds). Our school is also connected to the British Council in Jihlava and organizes practice Cambridge exams regularly.
Adéla Drápalíková, KANJ seminář, December 2022
The Bishop Grammar School
The Bishop Grammar School was founded in 1992 by the Brno Bishopric and Kolping Society in the Czech Republic. At first Bigy was placed in the building of ŠECR and it owned only one floor. Next year it moved to the building right next to it. It is a comprehansive school.
From the outside appearance it is a modern orange building with four floors situated in a quiet part called Klafar, a suburb of Žďár nad Sázavou. The interior is modern, hall walls are full of students’ art works and floors are carpeted in red. Because of that, our school is not like other Czech schools, its environment is cosier and the attendance more enjoyable. Our school shares the building with another school SŠGAK (secondary gastronomical school), these students have a practical part of their studies in the school canteen and the school café. Last November there was opened a new lab called The Newton Science Centre where students can make chemical and physical experiments. The lab is equipped with modern devices and other useful things.
The headmaster of BiGy is Ing. Jiří Cočev and his deputies are Mgr. Iveta Dlouhá and Mgr. Josef Kratochvíl. There is about 30 teachers and about 5 supportive staff. There are also three assistents for handicapped students. Our school is currently attened by about 320 students in 13 different classes.
The school starts at 8 o’clock, but for older students, especially of Septima and Oktáva (in Britian – Sixth Form), the school starts some days either earlier or later in the morning. The last lesson ends at 4 p.m., but those last lessons are usually seminars or some optional lessons. The approximate number of lessons per day is 6-8. Break between lessons last 5 minutes and the snack break is 20 minutes long. The lunch break is around noon and lasts 30 minutes. In the last two years of study, we can choose subjects, which we might possibly need for our further studies at university. We are divided into two main groups - humanities and science students. This division helps us focus more on subjects, which we like and are good at. We study basic subjects -Czech/English language, Maths, Biology, History, Physics, Civics, Religion, PE, 3rd language (German, French, Spanish and Russian language), Geography, Chemistry, ICT, Art and Music.
It is typical for our school that students have lots of choices what to do in or after school. Every year, teachers arrange several trips, typically to England or all around Europe. Several times a year, departments of English/Czech plan trips to theatres or even some performances right in our school. Students of BiGy have a chance to get involved in many cultural programmes - Christmas party, live Bethlem or Passion play. At the end of each school year, a music concert of students from our school takes place. Students form music bands and start practising from the start of the year to eventually perform their best. Our school also arranges BiGy meetings - lectures, where successful graduates or other successful people from all around the country talk about their way to success.
Our school is very active in European projects. The EU funds many of interesting lectures which are presented at our school. The Bishop Grammar school cooperates with many universities (MUNI, CUNI or John Hopkin’s University) or with other schools (a Finnish school Kuokkalan Koulu).
Our school also participates in an internship programme conducted by the Czech Academy of Sciences. It gives to students a chance to work by the side of people who have reached important milestones in the fields of their work. Several students from our school are chosen from hundreds of candidates from the Czech Republic each year. They get the opportunity to spend one year with their chosen mentors. This direct form of studies gives students a huge amount of valuable information in the field they are interested in.
Ella Hedvičáková, oktáva, January 2023
