Maltese soup 2017

Early in December 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 centers 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 center 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 2017

The students of IB1 and IB2 from our school went to the CAS convention in Vilnius Lyceum on the 1st of December. This is an annual event, which takes place in late autumn or early winter in different IB schools all over Lithuania each year. Last year, Didzdvaris gymnasium was honored to host this event, thus the students of our gymnasium were experienced and had the potential to compare these two events, reflect and enjoy the new activities in Vilnius.
The theme of this year's convention was ,,building bridges". The IB communities take up this constructive work by communicating, interacting, sharing and enjoying each other, while at the same time, contributing to the society. In Lyceum, IB1 and IB2 had the opportunity to hear lectures of ambassador of Ireland in Lithuania, who spoke about building bridges in diverse societies and representative of organization, which deals with gender awareness, who expressed the idea of how to connect genders and minimize gap between them. 
What is more, each school had to present its CAS projects, share good practices and reflect on what they have done. Didždvaris gymnasium presented debate club, brain battles, VB cup and Kenya project, while other gymnasiums reflected on their activities in elder home, hospitals, kinder gardens. One of the most memorable project was of Kaunas Jesuit gymnasium, where join charitable activity and partnership with Little Princess trust foundation, where real hair is given to children, who are suffering from hair loss due to illnesses. 
Vilnius, Kaunas, Tauragė and Šiauliai came together in this  event to ,,build bridges" using CAS between their schools, which resulted in new friendships, upcoming partnerships and lifelong memories.   

Food bank 2017

On October, 20 and 21 and October 30 and 31, our school's volunteers contributed to Food Bank initiative and encouraged people to donate food for Family house "Motinos Teresės šeimų namai". Students volunteered in several grocery shops and warehouses in the town encouraging and collecting food from people who bought long-life 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 be not 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, race. So showing empathy for others and taking action to fight social inequality was very rewarding to IB student volunteers.

Video of the Food bank reflection

IB tea time

On 19 October IB1 and IB2 students had a tea time meeting. During the meeting the Kenya project activities were presented. Students discussed how to implement the project, shared ideas.

CAS Conference 2017

 On May 24th, IB2 students presented their CAS (Creativity, Action, and Service) activities during the annual CAS conference. For some time now, students, who are finishing IB, eagerly share their experiences and good practices with younger generations of IB. Not only is this a great way for presenters to reflect on what they did during the two years of the programme, but it is quite useful for people, who are still trying to find their place in CAS.

This year there was variety of projects, carried out by the 11th IB generation. Lindy Hop, debate club, brain battles, sport events, volunteering in day care centres, food bank and even organising and exhibition of artwork were amongst the experiences presented. Speakers reflected on what they did, how they did it, their successes, failures, integrating the IB learner profile as well as advice for the generations to come. The audience had the opportunity to listen, take notes and even come up with the ideas of activities they want to do.

A few students of IB2 were awarded for the extraordinary achievements in CAS, involvement and initiative. The gesture was the finishing touch of their CAS experience. However, even though the CAS in IB is finished, it is easy to see, that the students realise the value of contributing to the community and will continue doing so in the years to come.