More than just a school - a new wing has been added to the model institution in Göd

On 31 August, the new wing of the Wheatseed School in Göd was inaugurated. The opening ceremony was attended by the Minister of Justice, Bence Tuzson; István Szabó, President of the Pest County Assembly and Zoltán Kammerer, Mayor of Göd.

At the opening Mass, Father Tibor Ország, parish priest of Dabas blessed the new building. The building, which includes a gymnasium, was inaugurated by Szilárd Horváth, director of the Catholic school, which is based on Hungarian organic education methods.

The new wing is an integral part of the main building

Established in 2004 by four families, the foundation school's first building was completed in 2010, designed by Ferenc Salamin. The main building was built on land donated by the municipality, without any state or church support, and was built by the community itself.

Investment in the new wing, which has just been inaugurated, started in 2021. The new building, also designed by the Ybl Prize winner Ferenc Salamin, is an integral part of the main building. The Pest County Assembly has granted Búzaszem Alapítvány a HUF 762 million subsidy for the construction.

The Wheatgrain School moves forward in many areas with the expansion

The largest area of the new 870-square-metre, two-storey building, equipped with solar panels, is the gym, which also serves as a community space for the city. At the same time, the new wing houses the new canteen and kitchen, a library and new teaching rooms, as well as changing rooms and storage facilities.

Before the investment, both gymnastics and folk dance classes were held in the lobby of the institution, which educates nearly 200 children; now they will each have their own room, and there will be no need to dress in the classroom and use lockers. The new canteen is more than twice the size of the old one, so the children can eat in two rounds instead of four. Another major step forward is that the institution now has its own library.

An exemplary educational model born from the initiative of four families

According to the report sent to our newspaper, the foundation school, which started in 2004 with 7 children, now educates 190 children, with an enrolment over-enrolment of 3-4 times more every year. The report also reveals that the initiators of the institution were young parents who wanted to raise their children in the same way as they had done at home: in a Christian, Hungarian, family and nature-oriented way. Father Tibor Ország, the honorary citizen of Göd, former parish priest of Göd, now parish priest of Dabas, supported the initiative from the very beginning and it became a reality.

"Every day for the past 21 years, the school community has responded to the pedagogical questions that have arisen in the coordinate system of Christianity, Hungarian folklore, family and nature, thus creating the educational system that is now called the Búzaszem model, and which has led to many people visiting the school," the summary reads. "Today, Búzaszem is more than a school, it is a model institution for many Hungarian educators and communities."

The report stressed that experience shows that students come out of the Wheat Loaf with high intellectual and emotional intelligence, so they can easily get into different secondary schools. They added that, in addition to the use of organic pedagogy, this is also due to the fact that, since 2018, smart devices have been taken out of the hands of children at school and at home, in collaboration with parents. As a result, children do not have their own smartphones, tablets, digital games and social networking sites until the end of eighth grade. "The reward is a flourishing of relationships and high levels of emotional and intellectual intelligence," they write.

Tribute to Béla Mokos

Speeches at Sunday's opening ceremony paid special tribute to Béla Mokos, who passed away this summer at the age of 52. He was a founding member of the school and led the construction of the first building, and the construction of the new wing of the school. He was president of Búzaszem Alapítvány from 2018 until his death, and three of his children graduated from the school. At the opening of the school year, his seat was left empty and he was honoured with his photograph placed there.