Christmas Charity

 On the 6th of December Christmas charity fair was held at gymnasium. Students baked cupacakes, cakes, waffles, shaked milkshake coctails, sold Chirstmas tree decorations. All shool community attended at this Christmas fair during lesson breakes and donated money. IB students held a donation event to gather donation for Kenya's Kitale St. Marys school. 30 euros were gathered.This event is a part of implementing project "Diversity out of the school: don't box me in".

Malteser Soup Campaign 2016

 On December 10th, IB students from Didzdvaris gymnasium participated in charity campaign Maltesers soup. Every year before Christmas, Maltesers charity collects donations for lonely, poor and disabled children and elderly people. On early Saturday morning volunteers from IB1 and IB2 gathered at one of the main shopping centres and encouraged people to donate for one of the most vulnerable members of our society. IB students collected donations from people and thanked them by giving a post card or Christmas’ toy. Some volunteers’ helped outside the shopping centre by serving soups for donations. This kind of service of IB students contributed to the society and improved our own personal skills. Through Maltesers charity campaign we improved our communicative skills by politely asking people for help and donations, we became more open minded and caring, because when you find out more about a problem like poverty and contribute to its tackling, you feel more empathy for other people and understand them better.

CAS Convention 2016

  CAS (Creativity Action Service) is the core element of the IB programme. It encourages (forces) students to step out of their comfort zone and do something they do not have the time or guts to do. Schools in Lithuania which offer the IB programme communicate and work together in order to improve the implementation of CAS. One way to do that is CAS convention, which happens every year in different IB school in Lithuania. This year Šiauliai Didždvaris gymnasium had the honour to invite other IB students from The American International School of Vilnius, Vilniaus Licėjus, Tauragės ‘Versmės‘ gymnasium and host the convention which‘s topic was ‘Diversity‘.
The convention started on 18th of November. The guests were greeted by the Principal of Didždvaris gymnasium Vitalis Balsevičius, then the CAS convention was introduced by school‘s CAS coordinators Paulius Baranauskas and Simona Česnaitė. After that Sonata Dedūraitė, EVS volunteers Johannes, Nino and Tabea introduced EVS, talked about their experiences so far. Then IB students had a lecture from Jolanta Šiūparienė (city council) about children rights. Later participants had a dance lesson from IB Alumni Liudas Nekrošius, made postcards and toys for children, elders and lonely people. The 1st day finished with a debate on the topic ‘THW give equal pay-out to Lithuanian athletes for both olympic and paralympic victories‘ and the brain battles.
The 2nd day started with a treasure hunt around Šiauliai, where teams had to take photos of specific objects in the city. Then, when the winners were announced forum theatre was organized. 3 different discrimination/diversity issues were presented, other IB students could change any person who was acting and try to solve the issue in some type of way. The CAS convention ended with students filling in reflections and Paulius Baranauskas thanking the participants for a great and productive interaction during this event.
All in all, CAS convention was a great opportunity for IB students from different Lithuanian schools to get to know each other, make connections and compare learning styles, share experiences and better ways of doing CAS. We hope that our guest left not only with new facebook friends, but delightful memories too.
See you next year!

Food Bank 2016

 In October, 21st and 22nd and October 31st and November 2nd and 4th, our school‘s volunteers contributed to Food Bank initiative and encouraged people to donate food for poor families. Students volunteered in several grocery shops and warehouse in the town encouraging and collecting food from people who bought long-life food for the families in need. Even though it is said that the rich doesn’t feel empathy for poor, people were very generous and donated a lot of food, which will make poor children’s’ winter easier. For volunteers it was very rewarding to talk with people and ask for their help to support families. Sometimes it is hard to ask for help and that’s what you can learn from this activity – to not be afraid to ask for support and help when needed. Also every time someone donated food it was very heart-warming to thank those people and feel their genuine willingness to help. It is very important to contribute and do one’s duty for the society and people in need because poverty can hit anyone, doesn’t matter one’s age, gender or race. So showing empathy for others and taking action to fight social inequality was very rewarding to IB student volunteers.

IB Convention 2016

IB convention 2016 was held in Taurage on January 15th-16th. IB convention is an educational project created by International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme students of Kaunas Jesuit Gymnasium. It strives to bring together first year IBDP students from across Lithuania in order to promote communication, cooperation and amity among schools.

This year's IB convention focused on the importance of service through students‘ active participation in a variety of service activities. The convention also devoted plenty of time to allow students to share their daily challenges, explore the academic side of IB and indulge in creative work.   
After warm opening words from the principle of Tauragė Versmė gymnasium, coordinator of IB convention Justina Čižniauskaitė introduced the participants with the agenda of convention.
Firstly, students played fun and relaxing ice-breaking games which were designed by TVG students. Afterwards it was time for more serious activity – visits to Tauragė kindergarden and day care centre. There IBDP students could demonstrate their personal attributes developped from IB learner‘s profile: empathy, tolerance, care and honesty.
Second part of the day started with IB compass game. The goal of this game was to help each student know where they are in IB and if they are going in the right direction. The rules are very simple – everyone had to stand in a straight line and close their eyes. Justina was reading statements and if a person agrees with it, he must go one step forward, if not – stay still. After the game students had a little reflection session in groups and shared their feelings and experience in IBDP.
Later everyone was invited to listen to a speech delivered by Saulius Bagdonas, founder of „Aktyvi Tauragė".
The evening was far from boring as well. It was time for CAS simulation, where participants were put into groups and they had to come up with projects that included two or three CAS components, to briefly design them and present. 
Next stop – brain battles. After long, interesting and tense game cam free time where students spent time talking, sharing impressions of the convention and just building friendships among each other.
The next day of the event was as exciting as the first one. Immediately after delicious breakfast, students were invited to participate in Orientational Game. During it not only did they get a chance to know Tauragė better, but they also did fun and amusing tasks.
Before the end of the convention, its coordinator Justina did a presentation on universities all around the world, their requirements and possibilities. Moreover, the advantages and disadvantages of gap year were discussed as well.
Team of Šiauliai Didždvaris Gymnasium (IB1: Vytautė Milvydaitė, Klaudija Švambarytė, Eglė Jurgaitytė, Vytenis Šliogeris, Natas Kanišauskas; IB2: Aneta Urbonaitė, Mantas Kleinas, Lukas Vaitkus, Emilija Kazlauskaitė) also had an opportunity to participate in this convention. Not only did they bring unforgettable memories and experience, but they also found a lot of new friends.

Malteser Soup Campaign 2015

  On 12^th of December, a Maltese Soup Campaign was held in Šiauliai shopping mall “Saulės Miestas”. The aim of this was to help poor, old and sickly people of Lithuania.

At 11 o’clock there was a great opening ceremony near the Christmas tree, where the Mayor of Šiauliai spoke about this campaign and encouraged people to join in. Later talented artists entertained visitors by performing all day long.

Students from our gymnasium participated in it as volunteers, as did other people. They asked the mall visitors to donate money and a large sum was collected! Very generous donators received a Christmas tree decoration with Maltese Soup logo as a gift.

All people were invited to eat soup that was made by different restaurants to support the campaign. It was given out in tent built near the entrance of the mall. Many people enjoyed it warm in chilly weather!