For bilingual families, choosing a school may no longer be a dilemma. The Two Hour School has opened in Prague.
It is quite common these days in the Czech Republic that each parent of a child comes from a different country. Often it is an English-speaking country or, for some reason, English is one of the languages the family uses at home. Families like this always face the decision of whether to send their child to a Czech or English speaking school, of which there are many, especially in Prague. Often, at least in early childhood, a Czech school is chosen, either because of trying to involve the child in the local environment, to improve Czech, or simply because English speaking international schools still represent a significant investment. The Two Hour School in Prague is intended for these children.
This unique educational program for English-speaking children attending Czech schools is new to the Czech market. Its aim is to provide children with lessons in English in an engaging and fun way twice a week, giving them an insight into the English way of teaching, in order to open up opportunities for them to study at an English or international school in the future.
Two Hour School was founded by two English-speaking teachers living in Prague, Jon, from Eng-land and Ben, from the US. Jon is married to a Czech and Ben’s wife comes from France. At home, however, both families mostly speak English.
“Ben and I have both been dealing with the dilemma of choosing a school for our children in recent years. Being teachers ourselves, this was a particularly important topic for us. We learned, however, that this is something many families face. This gave rise to the idea of setting up Two Hour School – a program that would give children a British supplement to their Czech education for a fraction of the cost of studying at an international school,” explained Jon Ogden, one of the founders of Two Hour School.
Children at Two Hour School use their knowledge gained at Czech school, but they apply it in English and based on the English national curriculum. The curriculum supports thematically based integrated thinking processes and includes the humanities, natural sciences and mathematics. Because the teaching is based on the principles of cooperation and practical application, in addition to developing language ability, the children also develop their social interaction skills. They are also physically active during the classes so they don’t spend extra time sitting behind a school desk.
The Two Hour School program is taught in two groups divided into 6 – 9 and 9 – 12 years of age. Courses can be attended in classrooms in Prague 2 in Londýnská 34 or in Žukovského 6, Prague 6. The price per month (16 lessons) is 6000 CZK. Registrations are now open.
For more information about Two Hour School please visit www.two-hour-school.cz.
