Open Gate welcomed 103 primary school pupils and 302 grammar school students to its 18th school year

Open Gate ushered in its eighteenth school year with 302 grammar school students and 103 first-tier primary school pupils. More than a quarter of the grammar school students entered the new school year holding scholarships from The Kellner Family Foundation. Petra Dobešová, previously the managing director of OPEN GATE - gymnázium a základní škola, s.r.o., has been named the Head of Open Gate School. The school has a stable body of teaching staff, just under a third of whom are male and a fifth of whom are native speakers of languages other than Czech. 

OPEN GATE numbers in 2022/23
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  • Open Gate Primary School’s years 1 to 5 welcomed 103 pupils on 1 September 2022. The eight-year grammar school is attended by 302 students.
  • The Kellner Family Foundation will support 82 grammar school students with scholarships this school year; for 13, this is the first year that they are receiving a scholarship, while the remaining 69 have already benefited from assistance in previous years.
  • This past school year, 36 Open Gate Grammar School students sat for the Czech school-leaving certificate, the International Baccalaureate (IB), or various combinations of these final exams. A third of those who took the Czech school-leaving exam achieved straight As and half of them passed with distinction.
  • The full IB was sat by 24 students and, once again, they achieved excellent results with one student scoring the full 45 marks and six earning 40 points or more.

Petra Dobešová appointed as the Head of Open Gate School

As it enters its eighteenth school year, Open Gate is now headed by Petra Dobešová. She replaces Petr Šlemenda, who switched to the management of Helping Schools Succeed – another project supported by The Kellner Family Foundation – in September. “Having been part of the school’s leadership in past years, I am not venturing into unfamiliar territory. We at Open Gate strive to be the best choice in education for students and parents. We view everyone as individuals in all their complexity and work on each student’s development with that in mind. We guide pupils towards a lifelong love of learning and the ability to engage in self-reflection. Teaching is not just confined to the classroom. We also immerse children in the real world and teach them that they themselves can influence it, here and now, and in doing so shape their own future,” says Petra Dobešová.I would like to express my great thanks to Petr Šlemenda, who decided to step down from his position as Open Gate’s head for personal reasons. I am delighted that he has accepted an offer from The Kellner Family Foundation to run the Helping Schools Succeed project, where he will put his wealth of teaching experience to good use,” added Petra Dobešová.  


Petra Dobešová is a graduate of the Prague University of Economics and Business, where she majored in Finance and International Business.  She broadened her teaching skills at Prague’s Akcent College, where she studied how to teach subjects for level two at primary school and for secondary schools. At Open Gate, she teaches financial literacy. She has many years’ experience of corporate project management. At SOTIO, a biotech company, she was responsible for a project to build superclean laboratories and served on the board of directors. In March 2017, she was named the managing director of OPEN GATE - gymnázium a základní škola, s.r.o., and since January 2019 she has also been The Kellner Family Foundation’s trustee responsible for the management, organisation and development of philanthropic projects. In September 2022, she was appointed Head of Open Gate School.

Open Gate teaching team

Open Gate School has entered the 2022/23 school year with a stable teaching team that is roughly one third male. A fifth of the teachers are native speakers of languages other than Czech, which contributes to the high-quality teaching of English, German, Spanish and French, while also helping to diversify the approach to academic subjects and education in general.  

Open Gate’s 2021/22 school leavers

This past school year, 36 Open Gate Grammar School students sat for the Czech school-leaving certificate, the International Baccalaureate (IB), or various combinations of these final exams. A third of those who took the Czech school-leaving exam achieved straight As and half of them passed with distinction.


Teaching according to the standards of the IB Diploma Programme has been available at Open Gate since 2009. The IB is one of the most challenging and comprehensive secondary-school examinations in the world. It is clearly held in the highest regard and its popularity at top schools is growing by the year. Open Gate Students have always performed outstandingly, both on an individual basis and taken as an average for the school as a whole.

Head of Open Gate School Petra Dobešová applauded the results achieved by those who sat for the IB in the 2021/22 school year: “I am really proud of our latest batch of students to complete the IB programme. They had to prepare throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and passed their exams with flying colours. Once again, we had a student who scored the top 45 marks and six students who earned a total of 40 points or more.” A comparison of Open Gate students’ results with those who took the IB around the world shows that they have consistently performed above average.

I am really proud of our latest batch of students to complete the IB programme. They had to prepare throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and passed their exams with flying colours. Once again, we had a student who scored the top 45 marks and six students who earned a total of 40 points or more.
Petra Dobešová Head of Open Gate School