Exhibition dedicated to inspiring disabled sportsmen  

Zlatarski School Students organized and prepared this successful event as part of the Comenius Project "Integration and Equality through means of PE"

With the sports event of the year approaching, aka London 2012 Olympic Games, we are trying to focus the attention of the public on something even more inspiring - the successful performance of renowned Bulgarian paraolympic sportsmen during the last decades.

The organized exhibition at school definitely achieved this goal.

You can find pictures below: 

First two meetings for Comenius project “Integration and equality in the field of education by means of Physical education” 

The project marked a successful start with a meeting between the partners from Bulgaria, Cyprus, Portugal, Norway, Latvia and Spain (coordinators) as part of the project “Integration and equality in the field of education by means of Physical education”. Every participant at the meeting introduced the culture and tradition of their country to the students of Antonio Gala School, Dos Hermanas, Seville. Victoria Kovacheva (12А) and her classmates made a short film named “Bulgaria – Culture and Tradition”, which received a warm welcome from their Spanish peers.

The next meeting was in Ropazi, Latvia (January 2012), where each of the partner’s goals and activities for the period October – December 2011 were evaluated. Zlatarski International School presented a logo suggestion for the project, designed by the school's Art club. We also demonstrated three traditional games and discussed the results of a questionnaire related to students' attitude to PE classes. The games and the results from the questionnaire are presented below.

Zalatarski Team in Latvia

Games

Games

A warm welcome in Ropazi

A warm welcome in Ropazi

10-graders from Zlatarski School made a special collage for the Artists from the Home for Art Veterans in Sofia

In December 2011 students from 10th grade organized a Charity Christmas Party for the Artists from the Home for Art Veterans in Sofia. This wonderful initiative brought joy and Christmas spirit in the hearts of these renowned people. Happily, it wasn't the last initiative. In March the same students prepared a collage consisting of photos from the Christmas Party and created martenitsi with the message for health and long and fulfilled life. 

“Stop missing opportunities” - the project that joined students from Bulgaria and Monte Negro in the name of volunteering

The coordinator of the project, Anna Joukivskaia, and nine nominated students represented Zlatarski School on an exchange visit to Bar, Monte Negro in December 2011. The exsiting trip by train was only the beginning of an amazing and useful experience! In Bar the students was accommodated in host familiesand had the chance to get to know their peers in a home environment. Among the various organized activities, the most impressive was the visit to Home for disadvantaged children where the students from both schools had the chance to donate sweets and presents to the children and to spend quality time with them by playing games, singing songs and just enjoying their time together.  

  Award for Zlatarski School's Sports Teacher

At the festive opening of the school games for the academic 2011/2012 year in “Armeec” sports arena, Mrs Tatyana Vulcheva, sports teacher at Zlatarski International School, was awarded for a fourth consecutive time by the Mayor of Sofia – Yordanka Fandakova and Sofia Municipality. The well-deserved recognition is earned after Zlatarski table-tennis team (8-10 grade) won first place at the City Championship for students for the 2010/2011 academic year. This year we look forward our teams to dignify Zlatarski International School at the Regional, City and National Championships.

At the opening ceremony were present representatives of the Ministry of Sport, Ministry of Education, Youth and Science, Bulgarian Olympic Committee, National federations, National Sports Academy, Bulgarian Sport Association, Sofia Municipal Council, mayors of district administration, heads and teachers of educational institutions in Sofia. The deputy mayor of Sofia Council, Mr Lyubomir Hristov, was a special guest at the opening of the School Games 2011-2012 and he, on behalf of the Mayor of Sofia Mrs Yordanka Fandakova, congratulated the awarded teachers. The teachers were also greeted by the vice-minister of sport Ivan Cenov.

Charity Events at Zlatarski School 

The traditional “bring and buy” sale of home-cooked cakes and pastry took place on 04.11. and 21.12.2011 at Zlatarski International School. The events were organised by Zlatarski students, who are also members of the Interact Club. While some students were participants in the preparation of the sweets, other students acted as buyers.

We are happy to announce that the total amount gathered by the two charity bazaars is 1075 leva.  Part of the funds from the first bazaar were donated to the campaign “Buy and donate” for necessary products for children without parental care from the centres Novi Han, Dren and Gurkovo. The rest of the donated funds will be used in future projects of the Interact club at Zlatarski School.

Charity exhibition at Zlatarski

Students from Zlatarski International School organised a charity initiative, supporting the foundation “In Favour of Our Children”. On 2 February they managed to raise 320 BGN for the establishment of Children’s home for newborn children without a home and disabled children. The money was raised through the theatrical staging “Romeo and Juliette”, which was organised by the students themselves.
The students made lucky dips, which they gave out at the front of the staging before the performance to their classmates and teachers in exchange for a donation of 1 BGN or more.
“Good people and humanity do exist! More than wonderful is that we can find these qualities in the face of young people, who, on their behalf, form their earnest steps in life. Zlatarski School supports this initiative, but despite financial support, students wish to enrol in voluntary activities, such as the building and the repair of the house” – says the psychologist of the school Anna Jukivskaya.

On 14 February Victoria Kovacheva (12a), Veronica Bezinsky (12IB c), Elena-Avrora Kutevska (12IB c) and Petya Dimitrova (10b) united creative talent in organising a photographic exhibition for charity. By selling their pictures with romantic messages on St. Valentines Day they raised more than 370 BGN for the purchase of automatic surgeon knifes for painless blood taking at the Hospital for Active Treatment of Children with Oncohematological Disease.
370 Bulgarian Levs will be enough for the purchase of 7 boxes with 200 surgeon knifes in each box, which will vastly help reduce the pain of children with oncohematological disease. The money will be donated on 2 March, when 5 students from Zlatarski School will visit the children from the ward for oncohematological treatment, giving away “martenitsi” for the Bulgarian celebration of Baba Marta.
These “martenitsi” will be made on 1 March together with our guests from the High School of Tourism and Economics in Bar, Montenegro. Everyone is welcome to participate in the initiative!

Zlatarski School students welcome their friends from Montenegro

The project Stop Missing Opportunities, supported by ACES—Academy of Central European Schools, was initiated and successfully implemented by Zlatarski International School – Sofia and High School for Economics and Tourism, Bar, Monte Negro from September 2011 to March 2012. Selected students from both schools were the driving force for the implementation of the activities and had the chance to participate in various volunteer and charity events in their own countries and in the partner-country.
After the Bulgarian group of students and the coordinator of the project visited the partner school in Bar in December last year, it was their turn to visit Sofia in March. On the 1^st of March the students from Monte Negro and their hosts participated in the Matenitsi Art Workshop in Zlatarski International School. By uniting concentration and creativity they managed to create about one hundred martenitsi, part of which were given as gifts later the same day to the children from the Dragalevci home for orphans together with the gathered and bought toys from the initiative “Donate a toy”, which was implemented in school from November 2011 to February 2012. „The martenitsi you created and brought here made our children very happy. Thank you for the great presents”, said the Principal of the Dragalevci home for disadvantaged children, Mrs Sokolova. Our students and their guests spent about an hour in the home, where they played with the kids, sang songs with them and talked to them about different things.
On the 2^nd of March at 10am the participating group met in front of the Specialized Children’s Oncohaematological Hospital in Sofia. Together with a representative of Foundation Angelia, 3 students and 1 teacher met the children (access to them is limited) and put the martenitsi created by the whole project team on their hands with the wish for health and emotional strength. After this personal meeting, all participating students were invited in a study room where they were told about the painful reality these children and families are faced with. 370 BGN were officially donated by the students for buying medical supplies – lancets. The funds were collected through the charity exhibition organized in Zlatarski International School on the 14^th of February 2012 (refer to the news on the website). These funds will suffice for buying 7 boxes with 200 lancets for painless transplantation of peripheral blood for the needs of the children with oncohaematological illnesses. In the official “Thank You” letter to the students the Foundation Angelia team shared: „Thank you for the help and the invaluable support. We appreciate your gesture. You make the lives of these children happier.”

The last visit for the day was at the Foster Care Center (For Our Children Foundation), where the students were informed about the current policies related to the foster family systems, what challenges and problems people who want to become foster parents are faced with, how many children there are who successfully integrated in this type of care. More specifically we got more familiar with the “Children’s House” Project for children with severe disabilities, what is planned to happen in the near future and when the students will be able to take part in the repairing and refurbishing activities as volunteers. 320 BGN were officially donated in support of this project. „Be sure and proud of yourselves, that you, dear Zlatarski School students contributed for this we, from For Our Children Foundation, to feel your moral and material help for one of our most valuable projects, the creation of the Children’s House for children with severe disabilities. Your support for us equals a support for the children in need. We congratulate you that at this age you demonstrated power, decisiveness and character and you organized such a successful charity event”, said Ivanka Shalapatova, Director of For Our Children Foundation.