Introducing Szilágyi Erzsébet Secondary School of Budapest

Our school was founded in 1881. The school building was originally erected in the Castle area of Buda, on the site of today's Hotel Hilton. Since the autumn of 1936, education has been going on in the new building, in Mészáros street below the Castle.

 

The edifice is one of the most significant constructions of the Hungarian Bauhaus, with an amazing view to the Castle and the Buda hills .

 

the eponym of the school is the mother of our famous King Matthias. Her name has been used by the secondary school since 1922. As the legend says, Erzsébet Szilagyi sent a letter to the imprisoned Matthias to Prague by a raven - that's why there's a raven on the coat of arms of our school, holding a letter in its beak. (The raven was painted on Matthias's crest as well.)

First in the country, our secondary school became a UNESCO associated school in 1963, and the student exchange-program began with France, and then with Italy. Our contact with the school of Heiligenhaus, Germany is still active and going strong. Besides these countries we organize trips among others to England, Spain, and to the famous cities of Middle-Europe: Bratislava, Prague, Cluj-Napoca. Ourpartner school is Báthory Secondary School of Cluj-Napoca: the teachers and students of the two institutions often visit each other.

Our school could return to the eight-year educational system in 1993. This helps to initiate our unique pedagogical program, in which there is a favoured role of teaching languages. Five modern languages are taught: English, Spanish, German, Italian, French and following the tradition of classical secondary schools, Latin. Physical Education is held in a large number of periods, and students can opt for the branches of Maths and Art subjects in the 9-10th grades.

We are proud of the fact that Zoltán Kodály composed his Pünkösdölő for the choire of the school, and the piece is sung at every important school celebration and anniversary. The Christmas Concert and the Szilagyi Mass held at the neighbouring church of Krisztinavaros are worthy continuations of the famous music traditions of the school.

   

The sport activities of the school are also excellent. Our students not only compete with remarkable results, but large numbers attend the water-, ski-, and bicycle-camps as well.

     

In every November, on Erzsébet Day we celebrate with a gala,

 

and in spring the classes show us their talent at the drama-competition. In every summer we organize an Art Camp in Zebegény.

     

The Eco-Camp is also popular among the children, showing the students the living and lifeless nature, and introducing them to the traditional rural activities and lifestyle.

The one-week long "forest school", held in every May also aims at making our students love nature and have an ecological view at the same time.

As an acknowledgement of our ambitions and results, recently we've won the title "Eco-School", thus we've become part of the European Eco-School Network.

We announce several school competitions and tenders, and our students gladly participate in them, also obtaining excellent results at national contests.

We are proud of our old students' successes, and bringing up the growing generations we hope that as a result of our common work, they will also do their best in every segment of life.