Travel Award
2024 will bring another special opportunity for travel to the UK for a student at the Gymnažium Boženy Němcove (known as GYBON) in Hradec Králové, Czech Republic.
Students will again be aiming to win a travel award of 15,000 KC in a competition intended to enable the winner to improve their speaking, listening and understanding of English.
Organiser of the competition is Julian Wilde, former Principal of King Edward and Queen Mary School in Lytham on England’s west coast, who established a partnership between his own school and GYBON in 1994.
This is the fifth travel award competition for GYBON students and Julian feels that entrants always show imagination in planning their visit to England – visiting museums and galleries in London, going to sporting venues and seeing some of the country’s most famous landmarks and areas such as Buckingham Palace, Stonehenge and the Lake District.
“Entrants can plan any kind of trip, he said. Their means of transport, destination, length of stay, activities and accommodation is entirely up to them. Speaking and understanding English is the main purpose, so the judges will always favour those wanting to travel on their own. It’s a major adventure and a major prize.”
The first travel award was made in 2011 and the winner then Johana Macková is now joining Julian Wilde and Czech-born Lady Milena Grenfell-Baines (a Winton kindertransport child) on the panel of three judges.
Johana’s journey took her to the Edinburgh School of English and then to a challenging week-long hike on the West Highland Way from Milngavie near Glasgow to Fort William.
Winners receive their awards at a special ceremony at Gybon in May and all entrants are presented with a certificate.
These have been handed over to the students by Nick Grove from the British Embassy in Prague, by Michael Žantovsky former Czech Ambassador to the UK and the USA and by Milena Grenfell-Baines who also spoke to an attentive audience of Gybon students and staff about her experiences since escaping from Prague in 1939.
Johana Macková believes her visit to Scotland in 2012 was a significant factor in her later decision to study at the University of the Highlands and Islands in western Scotland, the first Czech woman to gain a degree there.
“I hope that many Quinta students will submit an entry this year. Travel certainly widens your thinking and opens your eyes. Going on your own means that you simply have to speak English to survive. The travel award competition is unique and most worthwhile.”
English teacher at Gybon Pavel Adámek who organises the entries is looking forward to receiving some excellent entries in a competition which this time is aimed solely at the Quinta year group.
“This is a wonderful opportunity for one of our students to visit the UK in the summer before his/her final year at Gybon. Their English teachers will be happy to advise them about the format of their entries, but the idea must be theirs.
The winner will be required to give an illustrated presentation in English to fellow students next October, so we feel that in this way the experiences and travel tips of the winner will be passed on to fellow students for the future.”
Gallery
Below you can see photos of the project from its beginning to the present. Here you will see photos showing our long-standing cooperation as well as photos from the winners.