Asociace ředitelů základních škol ČR

10:01 Mar 23, 2015 

yeah my head's spinning and my work is giving me dirty looks...and I'm going to make it even sicker, we in America do have an association of "lower secondary" principals because we generally have 7th and 8th graders in "middle schools", separated off from the older and younger general populations, we need not ask why ;) https://www.facebook.com/NAMSP.org - here they are also principals, that's what he'd say to us, that he's our "pal", our "principal" (i.e. rat on your friends if you get pinched or else).
So were this a purely American translation I'd call it the Elementary and Middle School Principals Association, it's wordy, downright mouthy and will feel out of place in Central Europe I'm afraid...

09:47 Mar 23, 2015 

Would the principal of the Ostrava secondary school (in addition to the principal of its primary school) be allowed to be a member of the association (bearing in mind the age range of a normal Czech zakladni skola)? My head’s beginning to hurt…

09:42 Mar 23, 2015 

But in both of your links, they have a primary school that only goes up to age 11/12. That definitely is a primary school in anyone’s book. For the “druhy stupen zakladni skoly”, they attend a secondary school which provides lower secondary (and then also upper secondary) school, i.e. this is a typical UK (not Czech) setup. With a bit of “principal” thrown in :). As you say, this association’s going to have to explain exactly who and what they are on their homepage.

09:41 Mar 23, 2015 

at Wiki: Motto Let the world come to you
Established 2005
Type Private International School
Principal Jan Petrus, Brett Gray
Location Ostrava, Czech Republic
Colors Red, Yellow, Green, Blue
Website http://www.is-ostrava.cz/

09:38 Mar 23, 2015 

I just can't see the "principal" - I opened the School Staff info and there is no principal.

09:33 Mar 23, 2015 

And just maybe this could solve the other half....my buddy Mark works here, Vaclav Klaus's son started this school, and they go not only with primary school, but also with principal
http://www.is-ostrava.cz/?lang=en
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1st_International_School_of_Ost...

09:30 Mar 23, 2015 

And, thanks Stuart for the ESHA list - looking at that list I see that its members are not united either in terms of the names of their organizations. There are principals, school heads, school directors, school leaders, head teachers and even headmasters. But they do mostly use "primary schools" - at least that seems to be settled :)

09:24 Mar 23, 2015 

“Primary principals association” in my opinion is worse than “primary school principals association” because that is a specific reference to “primary education” (rather than “school”) and really is ruling out “lower secondary”. If we accept that “základní škola” is “primary school”, then keep school. But “základní vzdělání” is something else. I don’t translate it as “primary education” or, if I do, I add a note that in the Czech system this also encompasses lower secondary education.

09:21 Mar 23, 2015 

I see your point Stuart, this is an interesting debate...I think this is one of those things where it just differs internationally, it's impossible to find one all-encompassing term, and right on their home page they need to explain precisely whom the association concerns - it's hard to generalize without feeling something is misrepresented...as to leaving out "school" I'd not dance that far out on the veranda, since English is not native in CR it needs to stay there for clarity's sake, the Aussies did leave it out, but I see that as being a site by Aussies for Aussies...

09:18 Mar 23, 2015 

A short list is here, Veronika (under "members") http://www.esha.org/aboutesha

09:18 Mar 23, 2015 

Putting aside the principals/head teachers/ school leaders topic, would you include the word school? I noticed that many Australian associations of that type simply omit it as go by: ...primary principals association. Does that sound ok to you? Or would you re-phrase it so that the word "school" could be used (f.e. as Scott suggests)?

09:15 Mar 23, 2015 

but I would also like to avoid head teachers as (if I understand it correctly) our Czech ředitelé do not necessarily have to be teachers, too. I wish I could find a list of such associations as I am quite sure there are plenty of them. Nevertheless, we need to find such name that would most follow the general usage despite it might not be as precise as we would wish.

09:06 Mar 23, 2015 

I'll see your Dane and raise you an Aussie mate :) :)...a native-English speaking country using primary: http://www.appa.asn.au/ - we could probably find examples half the day probably supporting even other variants...I'm just saying these Czechs have done a nice job of orienting their English towards Eurospeak and since I see primary all the time, I've got no idea why they should veer off course, it says to me principals (headmaster is certainly out of the running for several reasons) of younger students who have associated for their schools', common and personal benefit, finito

09:04 Mar 23, 2015 

I took it from the other angle, Scott. If this is to be an official name and they want to join (or interact with) an international association of (lower) secondary headteachers (i.e. these are people who will, in theory, also be in contact with foreign headteachers of schools for pupils up to 16 - perhaps more so than with primary school headteachers), they're going to look weird calling themselves “primary school headteachers”. [sorry for all the edits!]

09:00 Mar 23, 2015 

Denmark has “Folkeskole” (roughly equivalent age-wise to základní škola, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danish_Folkeskole_Education ). They have a Danish Association of School Leaders, describing it as representing “Denmark’s approximately 4500 school leaders in the public primary and lower secondary school”. http://www.esha.org/Documents/The Attractiveness of School L...

08:55 Mar 23, 2015 

I see it exactly the opposite Stuart :) I see no reason to confuse and complicate this with nuance...for the purposes of their association's official naming, this detail can perhaps be regarded as immaterial....whereas primary does not distort, it gives me a clear idea what this association is about by such a title, my kids go to Zakladni skola Stipa and it's a primary school - goes on up from grades 1 to 9, of course being American I'd prefer calling it "elementary school"...moreover there are no associations of 7th to 9th grade principals in the Czech Rep. nor will there likely be to even feel excluded...In my work experience, the universities here with their papers as well as the Zlin Region (for EU) have been using for years this simple structure > preschool (sometimes nursery), primary school, secondary school on up you go....

08:43 Mar 23, 2015 

Bit of a no-no these non-gender-specific days. In the UK, it's the National Association of Headteachers.

08:29 Mar 23, 2015 

These are head teachers of primary AND lower-secondary schools. Using "primary" would confuse other associations of what are purveyors of genuinely (solely) primary education.