“Shared achievements feel great”

Our school is situated in one of the prettiest small towns in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county, Vásárosnamény. Our settlement is in the heart of Bereg, and for this reason has been the education centre of the region for decades.

In addition to primary school teaching, we offer various forms of art education to introduce our students to the magical word of art. We have theatre performers, puppeteers, visual artists, dancers and musicians – piano, string and guitar courses. We have approximately 700 students and a staff of 71 teachers. Nearly 40% of our students come from underprivileged backgrounds, mostly from Roma families. We are committed to helping close the gap for disadvantaged students and the introduction of novel educational methods.

In addition to schoolwork, we offer a range of extracurricular activities to students, such as sports events, theatre and cinema visits, hikes and camps to make their lives richer. We believe that shared joy can positively affect the development of children’s personalities. Reducing the number of hours for teaching skill-based subjects in schools has a negative impact on the education of children. Holding 1-hour singing classes per week cannot replace the magic that classical music can work on the soul. This is why we are eager to take every opportunity to change the status quo.

“We are delighted with this marvellous opportunity for our children to experience how great shared achievements can be, and how much perseverance and hard work goes into this happy feeling. (…) This is a particularly inspiring experience for me because we live very far from the capital, where the programs and events with real artistic merit take place. From our small town, Vásárosnamény, we can only rarely get to visit a great theatre performance, the Opera House, the National Gallery or the Museum of Fine Arts. Many of my students have never even been to Heroes’ Square, let alone participate in such a meaningful and valuable program. In addition to the distance, adversity also plays a role in marginalisation.”

Headmaster: Zoltán Szabó
Contact for the Dancing on the Square project: Lászlóné Kovács