The BCSA School Support Fund was established in 2004 following our experience in helping a Czech and Slovak school affected by floods in 2002 and discovering how this made a difference to their teaching of the English language. Each year a school was selected alternating between Czech and Slovak schools. These have included Czech elementary schools in Brno, Ostrov, Plzeň, Tábor and a grammar school in Olomouc; two Slovak elementary schools in Košice, one in Spišské Vlachy, another in Stará L’ubovňa and a grammar school in Sučany.
In 2018 the BCSA made a donation to a school for exceptionally gifted children (Škola pre mimoriadne nadané deti a gymnázium) in Bratislava. The school used our grant to establish an English language library. A student representative wrote “having another learning resource, we can use these books to further develop our reading skills without having to rely solely on textbooks. This also promotes our sense for artistic use of language and gives us a better insight into English literature.”
In 2019/20 grants were made to two Slovak primary schools for Roma children near Prešov. One in Rokycany that opened in September 2018 with 65 pupil benefited from a video projector. In December 2019 two pupils visited President Čaputová who had selected their drawings for her Christmas cards.
The other in Jarovnice, established over 50 years ago, received materials to support its extensive arts activities which have received many awards in children’s exhibitions.
In 2021 a grant was awarded to The Prague Shakespeare Company to support young people attending its English language productions; discounted tickets will be offered to schools teaching English.
The 2022 grant was awarded to the Masaryk Institute of Advanced Studies, part of the Czech Technical University in Prague. Its library purchased educational aids (dictionaries, textbooks and CDs) for teaching English to their postgraduates and also students of the University of the Third Age.
The 2023 grant was awarded to the elementary and pre-school in Radvaň nad Laborcom in north east Slovakia. There, 76 pupils from six surrounding villages are learning English. The school is using the donation for the purchase of textbooks, exercise books and teaching aids for their teaching projects.
In 2024 a grant was awarded to the grammar and secondary vocational school in Čáslav, Bohemia