Mensa Grammar School: achievements and events (2016)

Probably the most successful project was the competition Primary School Talent, organized by the school, for pupils of primary schools from Prague 5, 6, 13, and 17. A total of 46 children from primary schools competed in general knowledge, and responded to questions from the fields of mathematics, geography, history, TV programmes, literature, science, civics, etc. During general knowledge testing, pupils also had the opportunity to work with an Active Expression voting device.  In the second part of the test, children were to prove their knowledge of their local districts. We found out that most children knew answers to questions related to our state or continent, but knew next to nothing about where to find the closest sports facilities, hospital, or pool, what newspaper is issued by the district, and which celebrities live nearby. The patrons of the competition included the Mayor of Prague 17, Mgr. Jitka Synková, the Mayor of Prague 13, Ing. David Vodrážka, and JUDr. Petr Lachnit, First Deputy Mayor of Prague 5. The best three participants won interesting prizes – books, tickets for Legoland, and tablets. In addition, all of the participants received vouchers for Mensa IQ-testing free of charge.

The school managed to acquire over 10 million CZK from European funds in support of several projects. In March 2015, a project focused on the support of teaching Physics and Maths, and on the development of computer literacy, called Information all around. The aim of the project was to increase students’ interest in technical subjects, such as mathematics and physics, and to improve conditions for teaching these subjects. Attractiveness and practical use of these subjects were demonstrated to students through work with data from most of the subjects taught, which also supported interdisciplinary bonding. The project also helped in developing the key competences of students, particularly in the areas of work, problem solving, and financial literacy.  Within the scope of the project, we acquired modern teaching aids, responding to the needs and requirements of both teachers and students (experimental sets by Didaktik, Vernier metering devices, Active Expression voting devices, tablets).

The school premises are not only used during the mornings for tuition, but are also utilized outside teaching hours, in the afternoons and weekends, as the school offers the premises to organizers of regional Prague chess tournaments for primary school pupils of all age categories, which are organized by our former student, who also leads our chess club.

Besides, students were engaged in co-operation with the Prague Řepy Council, and helped in organizing events such as Earth Day, Indian Summer, and Neighbours’ Day. Some of the students and teachers also co-operated with the council in building a nature trail in Řepy.

Our school participated in several larger projects over the last school year, some of them international.

• The project titled “Munich-Prague: Life in Exile” allowed us to meet two of the most important persons of the project – Mr. Karel Hvížďala and Jiří Pehe, for a discussion. At the beginning, a representative of the Antikomplex organization managing the project gave a short talk about the purpose of the project. After that, students presented the results of their work – profiles of contacted exiles who had worked for Radio Free Europe. A discussion between students and guests followed, and it was obvious that the students were deeply interested in the topic of exile and RFE, as well as in the current events around the world, and that they are well informed about the topics.
• The “Young Custodian” project, undertaken in co-operation with Lobkowitz Palace, allowed our first- and second-graders to examine items from Lobkowitz Collections, on which only limited information was available. The students were trying to find information related to these items – they were given a month to find out anything they could, using available sources (scientific papers, relevant online sources, consultations with specialists, etc.). Subsequently, they wrote essays using the acquired information, prepared presentations, and in some cases designed promotional materials for awakening the interest of the general public. Approximately six weeks after their first visit to Lobkowitz Palace, they re-entered the premises of the palace and presented the results to the audience there (parents, family, classmates,...)
• PETree. The PET-MAT research team offered us participation in a project of creating a Christmas tree made of PET bottles, as a promotion of development of social responsibility and waste sorting. The goal was to build an approx. 7m tall tree in the middle of Maria Square, which is almost impossible within the premises of a single studio, and the help of students and teachers within the framework of Ecology lessons was therefore enlisted.
• Declamation contest. In January, the 2nd year of the School round of the declamation contest was held. All competitors prepared very good texts. The jury, consisting of both teachers and students, evaluated the quality of the declamation, selection of the text, linguistic and extralinguistic performance, humour, acting, and entertainment. All contestants received a reward for participation, the prizes for the winners of each category included, among other things, vouchers for books from Neoluxor bookshops.
• Project P55. Students were to write a short tale of a maximum of 55 words, with a surprising twist at the end. All of the short stories were displayed on the notice boards at school.
• Bankers to Schools project. After the success of this event last year, we accepted the offer to participate again this year, and organized a discussion for 7th- and 8th-graders within the framework of the project. The aim of the project is to arrange a meeting of students with an interesting and inspiring individual who will discuss selected economic issues related to financial literacy, with a special focus on use of information and communication technologies in banking. The main topic of this year was cyber security (e.g. cyber attacks and protection from them). Such meetings were only organized at 30 schools throughout the entire Czech Republic. Our visitor was Ms. Hana Kovářová, Director for Marketing and Customer Experience at Raiffeisenbank. She opened the discussion by introducing herself and trying to inspire students with her personal history, the rest of the programme was devoted to expert topics from the banking environment – banking history, system, function of the banks, bank products, banking corporations, structure and activities of banks, basics of banking operations, the use of new technologies in banks, and cyber-crime. Students were made aware of the ten commandments of banking safety, tried a short quiz, and by the end of the programme, they discussed expected changes in the banking system over the next 5-10 years.
• We also managed to organize several regular and several one-off events for students. The traditional ones included an adapted school trip for first graders (Prima class students), a ski and snowboard training course, a sight-seeing tour to Great Britain and Ireland, school trips, and a graduation ball. To mention just a few of the one-off events, let’s name climbing the Sněžka Mountain, the Night with Andersen, and several combined biology-palaeontology-mineralogy-geology field trips.

Student Achievements

Our students were successful in many fields in 2016, and recorded multiple achievements in knowledge-based competitions and Olympiads, as well as in sports and other fields. Besides the most significant achievements listed below, students participated in the Logical Olympiad, Talnet, Stretech, CTY Programme, Secondary School Expert Activities contest, Ecological Olympiad, Astronomical Olympiad, children’s Scientific Conference, ABAKU League, Debating League, Chemquest, and many other events, contests, and displays. Regularly, several students travel every year to study abroad.

The most significant achievements of our students are listed below:

• Amálie Hilgertová, World Junior Champion in kayaking, participated in Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games as a forerunner of the kayak competition.
• Martin Kent Kraus from 5th grade took part in the World Debating Championship of Secondary Schools in Stuttgart as a member of the Czech national team. A total of 55 countries from all around the globe (from Japan, through Peru, to Rwanda) and almost 600 students took part in the tournament. The Czech team achieved a better result than last year, despite the fact that it was the first championship for most team members. The competition level is also much higher than any Czech or international tournaments in which Martin had participated before.
• Vojta Tvrdík took part in the World Championship in the Pokémon strategy card game in San Francisco, which is played solely in English. This year, he competed in the category of children born between 2000-2004, with a total of 268 children from 30 countries, and being born in October 2004, he was one of the youngest participants. Any position within first 32 is a great success, and Vojta managed to secure a fantastic 26th spot, which was the best placement from the entire Czech team throughout all categories.
• Petr Dedek reached finals of the Logical Olympiad. As usual, almost all first to fourth graders participated in the primary round, several progressed in the regional round, and Vojta even managed to reach the national finals.
• Martin Sedmera – national finals of the Pangea mathematical competition.
• Pavel Kantner – Stretech – presentation of work from the field of history and geography, including publication in the Proceedings. Secondary School Expert Activities contest – reached the regional round with both his history and geography studies.
• Martin Dedek, Martin Kent Kraus – participation in the Brloh mathematical competition– 8th spot out of 517 competitors
• Martin Dedek, Martin Kent Kraus, Martin Sedmera – 2nd place in the regional round of the Prezentidáda rhetoric contest.
• Two school teams reached the international finals of the Náboj Mathematical competition
• Martin Dedek, Petr Dedek – 2nd place in the national finals of the Pangea mathematical competition
• Martin Sedmera – nominated for the national finals of the competition in programming and office software use. 

Related topics

• Mensa Grammar School

10.12.2016

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