The new Protestant school in Sudice welcomed its first pupils in September
#ECCB The first part of this incredible story has come to a successful end. The building of the Protestant school has been approved, and after 160 years, teaching, children’s games and laughter have returned to the small-class school at the village square in Sudice, north of Brno. The school has become an integral part of the family of schools belonging to the Evangelical Academy.
The idea was born in the circle of members and friends of the Protestant congregation in Boskovice. The first stage involved coming up with visions, strategies, holding discussions and negotiations. In July 2021, the Synodal Council agreed with the proposal from Boskovice for the Sudice school to apply for registration in the register of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports and become an official educational institution.
At that time, construction preparations also began. People from the congregation, from Sudice, as well as friends from the surrounding area spent hundreds of hours on demolition and clearing work.
In the meantime, project preparations were being finalised. The old house, which was built in the middle of the 19th century as a school, had been used in recent years as a preaching station, the building served as a place for Sunday services or as social housing. Significant layout changes and modifications had to be made for a modern kindergarten and school.
In March this year, the Ministry of Education approved the application and registered Sudice as an official church school and kindergarten. Since then, a huge amount of work needed to be carried out. The building needed to get approved by the end of August. In the middle of all this, the war in Ukraine broke out, inflation hit full force, and construction materials and their availability experienced unprecedented turbulence.
From the very outset, the project was managed by experienced architects Jana and Ondřej Syrovátka. The people from Boskovice say that if it had not been for them, the school would only have remained in the phase of dreams and wishes. “They worked out a plan that they stuck to. Ondřej worked directly on the construction site every day, while Jana negotiated discounts with suppliers, and when they needed to accommodate a group of plasterers, they took them into their own home. The Sudice school is a bold project, an untrodden path. We are honoured to have such dedicated people as Jana and Ondřej,” say the grateful locals.
During the design phase, the necessary classrooms, two serving hatches as well as an afterschool club were all able to be placed into the historic building. From an architectural point of view, the school combines the atmosphere of a historic building that is over 150 years old with modern features necessary for teaching and for maintaining a healthy lifestyle, such as ample daylight and advanced technologies.
The construction phase required an investment of over 6 million CZK. The funding was provided by the municipality of Sudice, the Boskovice protestant congregation, the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren, various grants and subsidies, as well as foreign churches and individual donations. The online donation campaign managed to raise almost 900,000 CZK, mostly from individual private donors.
In the last week of August, the approval procedure took place – it went smoothly and no objections were raised. On the last Sunday of August, the opening ceremony and blessing took place. A small, family-type classroom with a welcoming environment, where children of different ages can meet comfortably, is once again standing in the village square of Sudice.
And so, since the beginning of September, 15 children have been meeting at kindergarten here, and 24 kids have been attending the only class that has opened so far. Next year, another class should open, which should so far cover all of primary school in this small village school.
In many aspects, the Sudice school builds on the great experience of the Filipka primary school in Brno, which has gained excellent credit within the few years of its existence, both in terms of parental demand, as well as the level of education and the educational methods used. After Filipka and the School of the Brethren /Bratrská škola/ in Prague, the Sudice school has become the third primary school belonging to the family of schools of the Evangelical Academy. Together with secondary schools and vocational schools, the Evangelical Academy now has a total of eight schools. Among all Czech church schools, the Sudice school is the 150th.
Jiří Hofman