The European School celebrated International Mother Language Day on February 21st. Different activities were planned throughout the day to give an opportunity to culturally and linguistically diverse ES community to promote different languages and cultures: lecture on the importance of mother tongue by Giorgi Kekelidze, presentations, language corners, 15-minute language courses promoted awareness of languages, fostered tolerance and respect for others.

How we express ourselves? - This is the trans-disciplinary theme which gives freedom to students to express emotions, develop fantasy, and creativity and makes them think deeply how infinite imaginations can be… For grade 3 ‘Communication’, for grade 4 ‘Signs and Symbols’, for grade 5 ‘Migration’ – all these themes were united in a play along with jazz music “What a wonderful world” performed by the actors of the Shadow Theatre. Despite having different cultures, relations, dispositions or adventures, the students understood that life is beautiful, and can be expressed by light, shadow, shape or sound…The rhythm of jazz born in Africa and developed in America, mostly created by migrants, was presented to our international students by Georgian musicians who proved that true art does not have borders. In most cases, migration appeared to be the best way of expressing yourself.

PYP grade 4 students went to Tbilisi Airport on February 15th. Currently, students cover the unit Signs and Symbols. At the airport, they were able to see how signs and symbols are used in everyday life for different purposes. The students accurately recorded various signs and symbols seen around the building. After returning to school they wrote a summary about the excursion and held a discussion at class.

On February 14th -16th basketball teams from international schools of Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia competed at SRAA Tbilisi Basketball Classic 2019, organized by QSI Tbilisi. The European School team became the second place winner after the final match where the New School team scored just 1 point more than our team.

Within the memorandum of understanding, signed between NGO "Multinational Georgia for Strengthening Democratic Values" and the European School, our students attend an international conference at the UN Headquarters. On February 18, several ES students engaged in above-mentioned conference through videoconference bridging system from the Main Conference Hall of the ES. They actively participated in discussions and resolution writing process. The conference focusing on “Sustainable Management of Water and Sanitation for all” started at 7 pm and finished at 12pm. Similar opportunities to interact at MUN conferences “virtually” will be offered to the ES students in the future as well.

Today, ES kindergarten kids hosted the Director of Tbilisi Zoo Zurab Gurielidze. As children cover the theme “HOW THE WORLD WORKS”, they are curious about animals and want to know: Why does the elephant have big years, giraffe long neck and tiger stripped skin? How does giraffe sleep? Why dolphin is human’s friend? Children received very interesting answers on all above-mentioned questions.

On February 18, PYP assembly was held at the European School. The assembly was mainly led by Student Council members. The first thing students shared was the meaning of “International Tree”, which can be found in the PYP hall area. The idea of the “International Tree” is to unite teachers and students from different countries and cultures presented at the school. Grade 5 students then informed attendees about the PYP Exhibition including the main goals and aims of this event. The most amazing part of the assembly was grade 4's performance about signs and symbols. They performed the song “Soon we’ll be found” both singing and using sign language which they learned during the unit- “How we express ourselves”. Later students had the opportunity to talk about the upcoming “International mother tongue day” which will be celebrated February 21st. At the end of the assembly, Mr. Bacho (Art teacher) invited students to participate in the CITYART world festival.

Last week, representatives of WeSki Georgia organized a team building game for the European School students from 6th grade. Participants of this activity learned how to use properly hiking equipment: setting a tent, using a sleeping bag, compass, and other necessary equipment.

On Friday, February 15, the European School was visited by the delegation from Royal Russell School (Great Britain). The visitors organized mathematics contest for students aged 14-16 years. Together with the ES students, groups from other international schools as New School, Givi Zaldastanishvili American Academy and British-Georgian Academy participated as well. First place winner became a group of 10th grade students from American Academy, second place winner-the ES DP team. Special prizes and certificates of participation were awarded to winners of the contest. At the same day, Royal Russell School organized a professional development session for teachers of participating schools. Later, for enhancing collaboration with the ES they also signed a memorandum of understanding with our school.