Friday news

07. April 2017

Dear Parents, Guardians, Students, Graduates and Friends of Open Gate,

This week it was “touch-and-go” as to whether or not our third year of the charity event, “Run and help” would be able to take place. And then, lo and behold, for that critical two hours of Wednesday morning the weather not only gave us a break but the sun shone through in all its glory. Beautiful.

How did this miracle happen, seeing as the weather around the run has been, and continues to be appalling? Was it just luck, is there someone up there watching over us, or is it just as Mrs Charova, (our Petr Chara’s mother) says; “Whenever Petr had need of fine weather; summer camp, holidays, outings, the weather has always favoured him.” I begin to believe it. So thankyou to our Petr Chara! He was aided somewhat by close study of hourly weather predictions for the area directly above Mukarov and Babice, but I prefer his mum’s version.

Never afraid of innovation this year the Students’ Council came up with the idea that the school should produce a human logo of Run and Help for all our web visitors and viewers. To this end the whole staff and student body assembled on the forecourt of the school and formed a human logo, which when seen from above – film taken by one of our students with the aid of a drone – the results are quite something. For the moment you can gain an idea of the event only from this short snatch, but there will be more to come soon:

The runners as in previous years had the opportunity to pit themselves on either the challenge of the school running track and the campus of the whole school grounds in the pre-measured distances of 3, 4.4, 6 or 8.5 km or the marked route through the surrounding forest. Half of the runners chose the school option, the other half belted off into the woods along planned routes. Some of our students had a further dilemna; to participate in the Swimming Cup competition or the Run, or the History Olympiad or . . . So much was taking place, all had to be fitted in somewhere. We knew well in advance that there was to be this inevitable clash, but imagine if we had moved the Run to another time slot . . . brrrr, cold and wet. No. We chose well.

The school knows that the Run is not a race, not a competition, but an opportunity to help others by participating in a fun outdoor activity, and so yet again did it prove. Perhaps this is one reason why more km were run than last year (1327 km in total ) no pressure, just enjoy it. The cash donations to charity continue to be collected and will do so for another couple of days when all will be counted and tallied. Should you wish to make an independent donation that would be fantastic and you can do this either by sending monies with your child to the school office, or directly to the Konto Barier account:

http://www.kontobariery.cz/Projekty/Run-and-Help.aspx

At Open Gate then we have another Run and Help successfully behind us, but it is heartwarming to see that firms, businesses and schools up and down the country are having their own Runs throughout the months of April and May. If this is your case, then our thanks and appreciation go to you tenfold.

Our assemblies took place as usual with one added moment in each; Mrs Petra Dobesova introduced herself at the start of both junior and senior assembly explaining that she was the newly appointed “Jednatel” (Exec Officer) of Open Gate and was here to familiarize herself with the workaday activities and regimes of the school, visiting classes, chatting to teachers and all manner of campus staff. We wish her a warm welcome. Mr Kaspar gave a very brave assembly – he treated us to his experiences as a keeper of bees and beehives. Looked dangerous to me. And on Thursday Ms Adamova presented her topic “Happiness” to the seniors. Timely, considering the exam stress they must be under. She left us with one invaluable piece of advice;

“Handle every stressful situation like a dog: If you can’t eat it or play with it, then pee on it and walk away.” Hmmmm.

Ah, one cannot be too serious all the time.

Enoy this run up to Easter, and keep well. All best wishes. Peter Nitsche.

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