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OUR SCHOOL

ESB was established in 2010. From the start the intention has been to recognize that parents want their children to receive a Hungarian education but at the same time they wish to see their children develop strong English skills. We learned quickly that parents also appreciated our educational approach that is centered on learning rather than teaching and skill acquisition rather than knowledge. It became clear that for many of our parents, they wanted ESB as a full time day school, not just an afternoon school. We now offer both!

We carry forward our ongoing educational philosophy and practice to a daytime school. Our commitment is to cultivate positive and caring relationships between students, families, staff and school management with the purpose of achieving a creative, supportive and rigorous learning experience for children.

Educational practice

ESB will teach the Hungarian curriculum for Bilingual schools in Hungarian for Hungarian Literature, Hungarian grammar, science and Maths. The curriculum can be downloaded here. We will test students annually to make sure that they are achieving the standards that will allow them to progress to enter the best Hungarian schools at the end of grade 8. They will also receive report cards twice a year as approved by the Hungarian ministry for education. We will share the results with parents.

For the remainder of the subjects we will use the Cambridge International school curriculum as appropriate, specifically for extra Science, extra Maths and English. We will teach some science and maths terminology and language in both languages so that students will be able to recognise key science terms and expressions later.

“The world has changed and so must education”

What has not changed is that ESB believes that the role of education is to inspire students to reach their potential and encourage them to grow so that the can become positive contributors to our society.

However we live in a world where there is so much knowledge and content that is readily available. It is accessible quickly and seems to change and evolved constantly. Today’s facts can easily become tomorrow’s fiction. Therefore “what” we know is no longer most important. Instead we need to train ourselves and our children to focus on questions of how, why and to be able to access current information and use it to solve problems or support arguments and decisions.

The task of our school is to give students the confidence to challenge and discover. We need to encourage them to take risks and to create those opportunities within our programmes. Students need to be reassured that real learning only takes place when mistakes are made and time is spent reflecting on errors and learning from them. Children need to embrace the fact that getting it wrong is often the starting point to getting it right. To achieve this ESB works hard to positively encourage students’ willingness to search for new outcomes and reward that energy. Only in this way will they build the self confidence to grow.

Envisioned future

ESB students will become confident and assertive contributors to their society. ESB will be seen as the leading international bilingual school in Hungary.

Our Purpose

ESB provides an English and Hungarian bilingual education for primary and middle school children within a student centered learning framework

Our Principles

Teaching and Learning:
The English School of Budapest is a community for effective teaching and learning. We believe in pupil-centred learning, which is rigorous, creative and structured.
ESB Commitment:
The teachers at ESB are dedicated to supporting and inspiring the students and each other.

Our whole team

• Commits to excel
• Builds a creative English world to engage children
• Educates for both skills development and language knowledge

Personal Development:
At ESB we value honesty, courtesy, active participation in school life, enthusiasm to learn and cooperation with others.
Communication:
ESB recognises the importance of communication. We encourage and support effective communication between all members of the school community.
Participation:
We aim to maximise student participation at school and at home. We encourage families to see the school as their English-speaking community.

Skill Focus

Alongside developing children’s English, we aim to foster communicative and cognitive skills, especially critical and creative thought, using iPad research, group and class projects, planning and giving presentations using digital technology and collaborative/competitive interactive whiteboard learning. Our classrooms are vibrant, teaching is highly engaging: activities range from mummifying a tomato, to making a digital party political manifesto and campaign broadcast, or creating a human museum of Celtic gods. We skype between our two school sites to allow inter-class projects.

Home Learning

We have our own learning site, updated weekly to provide digital learning for students at home, including Pearson’s Active Learn. This is an online reading programmes which you can use at home with your children and carries a number of skill levels from beginner upwards. The Learning site has a teacher section and with your personalized password and username, you can find out what each teacher is planning to include in their lessons.

Performance Events

Our students also explore children’s literature, especially drama and performance poetry. This Literature programme leads to performance events: a Winter Show and a whole

Our PTA

At ESB we value the contribution our parents make to the school and to their children’s learning.

All ESB parents are automatically members of our Parent-Teacher Association (PTA).

Our PTA is modelled on PTAs in UK schools. It acts as a forum for parents to give feedback to the School Director on the Programme, for new ideas to be put forward on school development and for school events to be planned.

Meetings are held every half term and usually timed to precede a major school event.

English-speaking community

Our children and their parents see our school as their English-speaking extended family. We are very pro-active users of social websites, posting weekly photographs of learning activities and our events. The community is also built through these events. We hold an annual Halloween Celebration, Winter Show, Poetry Recital Competition, Interactive Storytelling Morning, Digital Family Quiz evening, World Book Day, Red Nose Comedy Week and Family Summer Fayre.

Summer Programmes

We offer a rich variety of summer camps, including an annual themed camp, a Young Business Entrepreneurs Camp and a 3D Art Camp, all hosted by English native speaker experts.