Abstract
The European Schools (ES) are official educational institutions established on the basis of governmental agreements of the countries of the European Union, the most important of which is the so-called Convention on the Statute of the European Schools signed in Luxembourg on June 21, 1994. In all countries, the ES have the legal status of public institutions.
I have been working at the European School (EŠ) in Italy as a locally hired Czech language and literature teacher since 2005. In the 2004-2005 school year, the teaching of the Czech language was introduced at the European Schools, and Czech sections were gradually established in Brussels and Luxembourg.
The European School in Varese was founded in 1960 and belongs to the historically oldest European schools. The school has an average of 1400 pupils, who are divided into five language sections (English, Italian, German, French and Dutch).
SWALS students make up 22 percent of the total number of students, including all the Czech students I teach.