The history of the secondary grammar school in Balatonfüred started in 1955, when it opened in a small building inaugurated by the local council of Balatonfüred. This building presently functions as the Students’ Hostel of the secondary school.
Towards the end of the 1950s the number of applicants to the school increased so much that there was not enough room for them in the old building. The new, modern building was inaugurated on 18 January 1964 by Károly Polinszky, member of the Academy, deputy Minister of Education. The inauguration address was made by László Németh, writer.
The grammar school in Balatonfüred has had the name of Lajos Lóczy since its second academic year. The life of the excellent scientist of the turn of the century, the eponym of the school, was closely linked to Lake Balaton as the organization of the scientific study of the lake and its surroundings is related to his name.
Around Lajos Lóczy’ s birthday, every autumn the Lóczy-days are organized, which ensure some relaxation besides everyday studying for the students of the school.
With its forms of instruction the grammar school has tried to meet the changing requirements since its establishment. In the academic year 1958/59 already two classes started in each year, one of them was specialized in humanities, the other one in sciences.
Since the 1970s Lake Balaton has become one of the domestic centres of tourism, more and more foreign guests have started to arrive here, so teaching foreign languages at a high level was called for. Besides teaching Russian, the grammar school of Balatonfüred, which was declared a town in 1971, got the permission in 1972 to teach English and German in specialized classes. Since 1978 the school has been permitted to teach English and Russian, and since 1979 German, too, in an even bigger number of lessons. Therefore our school was unique in the county as special foreign language training was available in 3 languages at the same time. Since then this form of instruction has been the most important characteristic feature of our school. It is very popular with students, which is proved by the constant high number of applicants as well as the great successes achieved at language exams and school competitions.
In September 1976 our school expanded with a new line. With the support of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences a complex experimental scientific instruction was introduced.
Since the academic year 1991/92 students have been able to study in specialized information technology classes.
In the academic year 1998/99 the scope of education expanded further, with a dual language class specialized in tourism, where half of the class studies English, the other half does German.
The cultural parade of our school, the Lóczy Gala, was first organized in 1992. On this event our students who are talented at some kind of art can make their appearance in front of the local audience. We plan to continue this process so that our students can show every second year that they are gifted not only at sciences but also at different arts.
The school choir started as a girls’ choir, then in 1977 boys joined them too and since that time it has been a mixed chorus. The music-loving audience of Balatonfüred has a good influence on the work of the choir.
The concert-series regularly organized by the National Philharmonic Association helps students, who have been visiting these concerts for long years, become familiar with musical culture.
Lots of our students have a season ticket to the Petőfi Theatre in Veszprém. The actors and actresses of the theatre take an active part in the aesthetic and literary education with their performances and informal conversation with the students.
The sports circle of the newly established, young school chose the following motto by Ernest Hemingway in 1956: “Sport teaches us to win honestly and to lose with head erect. Therefore sport teaches us everything.”
Sports have always been important in the life of the school despite the fact that the existing circumstances have never ensured optimal conditions for students wanting to pursue sports.
In 1999 our school became an ECDL examination centre; therefore it is possible for our students to obtain the 7-module ECDL exam besides the school-leaving certificate.
Our literary dramatic group has operated since 1996. They have been highly successful several times on a national level, too. They improve the programme of the school-leavers’ dance with their performance every year.
We joined the “Europe Circles” (Európa Körök) movement in 1999. Our students take an active part in EU projects.
Over the years the organization of programmes related to festive occasions has become an organic part of school life.
Every autumn there is an opportunity for our students to relax a bit and to determine the school programme for some days in the course of the initiation ceremony of first-year students and the programmes of the Lóczy-days
The Students’ Authority usually holds its general meeting around these days. This is followed by a students’ forum, where they can get answers to their questions from the school management.
The school-leavers’ dance and the subsequent school-ball are organized by the third-year students every December.
In the course of the academic year another important task falls on our third-year students: the organization of the school-leaving ceremony in May, where they can say good-bye to their fourth-year mates.
From 11 a.m. on the last Saturday of May every year the former Lóczy-students organize a meeting, where every Lóczy-student is welcome for an informal chat or a commemoration.
For a long time it was a nice tradition of our school that the great ones of our cultural life visited the school almost annually. They first of all met our students in the course of the Lóczy-days, but came to the school with pleasure on other occasions, too. In our grammar school students had a literature lesson with László Németh and a study circle meeting with Tibor Déry. The physicist Ede Teller, the writer Dezső Keresztúry and the creator of the statue of Lóczy, Zsigmond Kisfaludy Stróbl came to the school to talk to the students. The members of the literary study circle visited László Németh in Sajkod and Gyula Illyés in Tihany several times.
We participate in the traditional programmes related to the town like the following: Kodály-concert, Quasimodo Poetic Competition, Local New Year’s concerts, local commemoration of 15 March, torchlight processions and vintage celebrations.
In the future the main ambition of the Lóczy Lajos Secondary Grammar School, Secondary Technical School for Tourism and Students’ Hostel is to prepare students successfully for the school-leaving exam and the entrance exam. In the secondary technical school classes specialized in tourism we endeavour furthermore to make students acquainted with the fundamental questions of tourism besides preparing them for the intermediate and advanced level language exams. We make an effort to provide the students of these classes with an intermediate level qualification with which our school-leavers can become the formers and creators of quality tourism around Lake Balaton. In our time the future of the youth is unimaginable without a stable knowledge of foreign languages and basic computer skills. Therefore these two areas of study are of high priority in our school curriculum.
Our school celebrated the 50th anniversary of its existence in 2005 and for its work so far the institution was awarded the Pro Comitatu prize by the General Assembly of the Local Government of Veszprém County, the maintainer of the school.
