SEVENTEEN YEARS OF PARTNERSHIP 2011 marks seventeen years of unbroken partnership between the Lytham schools and the Gymnázium Boženy Nĕmcové in Hradec Králové, the principal city of eastern Bohemia in the Czech Republic. It was in October 1994 that Julian Wilde, Headmaster of King Edward VII School, Lytham, took up an invitation from Vladislav Král, the Headmaster of the Gymnázium Boženy Nĕmcové to visit his school . From that single day visit and the very warm welcome received that the partnership between the two schools began. In the spring of 1995 Cyril Wildon and Gordon Grundy, Heads of Art at the then separate King Edward’s and Queen Mary Schools, took a group of four art students and an exhibition of work by all the pupils of the Lytham Schools to Hradec Králové . Later the same year King Edward’s hosted the second leg of this exchange. Art students from Gybon, accompanied by English teachers Pavel Adámek and Milena Halková and art teachers Zuzana Vebersiková and Iveta Jalůvková, spent a week in Lytham.

King Edward’s was next invited to form a triangular partnership with Gybon and with the Siebold Gymnasium in Würzburg, Germany for the annual international science seminar.

In 1997 six Year 10 King Edward’s boys, led by Simon Smith and Graham Finney, together six Gybon students travelled to Germany for the week-long seminar and this has continued ever since, with each school playing host in turn.

In 1999 King Edward VII School ( founded in 1908 ) and Queen Mary School

( founded in 1930 ) joined together to form the new King Edward VII and Queen Mary School ( KEQMS ) which now educates 500 boys and girls together.

Phil Butterworth led the KEQMS group of boys and girls to the 2010 week-long science seminar in Hradec Králové and in October 2011 the 15th seminar is being held in Lytham, with the Czech group being led for the first time by English teacher Petr Slezak.

There have been three choir trips in each direction. The King Edward’s choir, under the leadership of Director of Music Geoff Cassidy, pioneered the way in 1998. Subsequently mixed KEQMS choirs, led by Alastair Mackenzie and Andrew Barratt, have also visited Hradec Kralove with the highlight being the chance to perform in the 14th century Cathedral of the Holy Spirit . The Gybon choir, directed by Jaromir Schejbal, paid their first visit to Lytham in March 1999, giving concerts in St. Cuthbert’s Church and at KEQMS. Mary Winterflood, Judith Denver and Liz Cole are amongst those who have been involved in the choir trips.

A geography trip and further art exchanges have taken place, with the Czech students (many of whom live in flats) particularly enjoying the chance to stay in an English home and the KEQMS students enjoying visiting a country where everyone wants to speak English.

On the retirement of Vladislav Král in 2002, Jan Šterba, the school’s Head of ICT, took up the Headship and has been keen to continue the partnership.

In 2003 he invited Julian Wilde, Ron and Miriam Naylor and Cyril Wildon to be special guests at the celebrations to mark the 25th anniversary of the opening of the school in 1978.




Jan Šterba has stayed with Robert Karling, the present Principal of KEQMS, and his family during the science seminars in Lytham in 2005 and 2008 and Robert and Julia Karling have accompanied an art group to Hradec Králové. Individual friendships between members of staff, parents and students have led to a number of private holiday visits in both directions.

Throughout the seventeen years the partnership has enjoyed the support of the Embassies of The United Kingdom and the Czech Republic. Pavel Seifert, the Czech Ambassador in London, was the Principal Guest at the King Edward’s Foundation Day ceremonies in 1998 and his two successors Jan Winkler and, this year, Michael Zantovsky have both visited KEQMS at the invitation of Robert Karling. Lady Milena Grenfell-Baines – one of the “Winton children” – who lives in Preston has also lent her enthusiastic support to the partnership.

The partnership which has involved around 400 students and staff from KEQMS remains the only one of its kind between a British and a Czech secondary school and in 2011, to mark this unbroken association, former KEQMS staff funded a special travel award competition for Gybon students.

At a special ceremony in Hradec Kralove in June, attended by Julian Wilde and Ron and Miriam Naylor, the three travel prizes were presented by Nick Groves, Head of the Political Section of the British embassy in Prague. The winning Gybon students, Johana Macková, Lenka Rejzková and Veronika Palmová, have enjoyed successful visits to the UK in the summer of 2011.