Extracurricular

The Creativity, Activity, Service programme at Zlatarski School
The school provides various opportunities to help students in their Creativity, Activity, Service programme. Aiming at the whole person education, extracurricular activities help our students to develop a value system, which they can strongly stand on to enhance their personalities and fulfil their goals. That is why it has always been a school’s objective each year to involve in CAS activities all students from 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th grades. The CAS programme helps young people to become aware of their growing potential and developing skills, which they can immediately implement in different projects not waiting until they finish their course of studies. Some of the activities can be taken within the school community, others go beyond the school. They include co-operation with different local, regional, national and international institutions, such as other high schools and colleges, universities, the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science, Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources, Ministry of Social Affairs, Bulgarian Red Cross Organisation, Local Community Council, European Youth Parliament, Model United Nations club, different charity organisations and foundations, participation in the Global Young Leaders programme and international school exchange programmes.

School Extracurricular Activities Offered
Creativity programmes
• Drama:
– student performances directed by professional theatre actors and directors, presented before the school community on different occasions
• Art design:
– art projects, supervised by a professional artist, where students create paintings, posters, masks, gifts, souvenirs, Christmas cards, traditional Bulgarian martenitzi, Easter eggs, etc. usually made for social institutions and fundraising campaigns
– taking part in school, regional and national art exhibitions
• School newspaper
– writing regular materials about school life
– discussion forum for school and out-of-school issues
– forum for presenting creative skills
– ‘notice board’ for school initiatives and CAS activities
– Contribution to the school website
• School choir and music band
– student performances on school celebrations and other occasions
– taking part in regional and national contests
• Computer and Design club
– developing computer-aided projects
– developing web design projects
– improving computer skills
• Culture and Civilizations club
– studying and presenting cultural issues
– organisers of the Roman celebrations events at the school
• Global issues forum discussion club
– studying and presenting political and social issues
– organising of TEDx talks
– filming short videos on issues such as AIDS, racism and xenophobia, bullying
• Annual talent show @ Zlatarski’s Got Talent
– Completely student run, organisation of themes, participants
– Promotion of the event within school and selection of acts
– Creation of materials, stage design, musical instruments, posters, prizes
Activity programmes
• Individual and team sports – training
• Volleyball
• Football
• Basketball
• Table tennis
• Ice skating
• Swimming
• Schools teams
• Organisation and selection of school teams
• School teambuilding in support of teams and adequate representation of the school at competitions
• Internal team training across different age groups
• Annual competitions between the students’ and teachers teams in football, basketball, and volleyball
• Zlatarski School’s Emergency Help team – student enthusiasts who give a hand whenever and wherever needed including moving chairs, cleaning the school yard in winter, mowing the grass
Social service programmes
• Charity Campaigns:
– Co-operative work with social institutions for old people, orphaned children, physically and mentally disabled people
– Bake sale
• Fundraising Campaigns:
– Fundraising campaigns and bazaars
– Making cards and donating the funds
– Making shirts and donating the funds
• Youth Red Cross school club (functioning under the supervision of Bulgarian Red Cross Organization)
– teaching and giving first-aid activities
– participation in anti-AIDS, anti-drug abuse and other health promoting campaigns
• Zlatarski School Interact club (established and functioning under the auspices of Rotary Club – Sofia)
– campaign organizers
• European Youth Parliament school club
– Organising the national and international participants to the annual conference
– Selection of topics and committees
– Student trainers, journalists
• Environmental Work:
– Taking care of local green areas, school grounds and children’s playgrounds
• Model United Nations:
– Organising the national and international participants to the annual conference
– Selection of topics and committees
– Student trainers, journalists
• International Club:
– Organising International week and the events
– Selection of participants, contacts with the media, invitation of parents
– Journalists, theme selection, work with embassies and international companies

Programs with two or three Creativity, Activity, Service elements intertwined
• School festivals and celebrations
– School year opening ceremony
– 22nd September – National Independence Day
– Halloween
– 1st November – Bulgarian Renaissance Enlighteners’ Day
– Christmas
– St. Valentine’s Day
– 1st March – traditional holiday celebrating the beginning of spring
– 3rd March – Bulgarian National holiday
– 9th May – Europe’s Day
– 24th of May – National holiday of Bulgarian culture and education
– Graduation of the senior students
• Taking part in school, regional and national competitions
• Excursions and expeditions
– Visits to museums, exhibitions, theatre performances
– School visits to other schools in Bulgaria
– Science expeditions in Bulgaria
– School organised history and culture trips in Bulgaria
– School organised history and culture trips abroad
– International trips and visits to other international IB Schools
• School exchange programmes
• National and international projects
– Participation in the Global Young Leaders Conference in the US
– School exchange projects with partners from abroad
– Online collaborative projects through YouTube and Facebook
– International understanding through Sport project with schools from 6 states
– International school exchanges
– International competitions organised by Zlatarski School

The following is a list of our successful Creativity, Activity, Service projects in the past few years:
International School Exchange Project One of the major international initiatives is the Comenius project – how sport activities integrate disabled people into local communities. In 2011 Zlatarski International School successfully applied for the EU’s international Comenius Project ‘Integration and Equality by Means of Physical Activity, Games and Sports’. The project aims at presenting how sports can help the integration of disabled people. By January 2013, twelve Zlatarski School students form grades 9 to 11, and ten teachers took part in exchange visits with other project-participants in Riga (Latvia), Rena (Norway), and Nicosia (Cyprus). From January 23 to January 27 Zlatarski International School hosted the next exchange visit. Representatives from 6 European Countries – Spain, Portugal, Norway, Latvia, Cyprus, and Bulgaria – visited the School. The participants presented specially adapted games in Sports classes, made martenitsi in the Art Workshop, and met actors from the pantomime theatre “Mimeart”, who represent people with hearing disabilities. The visit ended up with sight-seeing tours in Plovdiv and Sofia. Sixteen Zlatarski School students and their families were hosting the visiting foreign students.

Leadership International Conferences One of the most significant events that students take part in are the Leadership Conferences, where students are selected by the school’s pedagogical council to represent Bulgaria and the School. Students with distinctive academic profiles from Zlatarski International School were selected by the Governing body and the pedagogical council of the School to take part in the Global Young Leaders Conference of 2012 in Washington and New York, USA. The nominated students were: Sofia Karaboikova 10a grade, Ivette-Viktoria Atanasov 10b grade, Peter Tsvetanov 10b grade, Mihaela Antonova 10c grade, Lyuboslava Kehaiova 10c grade, Yordanka Dimova 11a grade, Kaloyan Kolev 11 IB b grade, Sofia Lozovich 11 IB b grade, Tsvetelina Ivanova 11 IB b grade, Denis Kolev 11 IB c grade, Georgi Apostolov 11 IB c grade, Ivan Dimitrov 11 IB c grade, Martin Golubarev 11 IB c grade. Global Young Leaders Conference (GYLC) is a programme for students 16-18 years old, delivering unique challenges at the most critical phase of worldly and academic life. The conference will be held in Washington and New York during the summer of 2012. The fundamental idea of this event, which gathers merited and motivated students from all around the world, is the development of firm leadership capabilities, confidence, independence and social commitment. In 2011 Evgenia Nestorova (Class 2012), Stefan Deskov (Class 2012), Mark Apostolov (Class 2012), Michaela Petrova (Class 2012) and Boyan Dinev (Class 2013) represented Bulgaria at the 12-day session in Washington and New York.

International trip to Cyprus 2012: Students from our School: Tina and Biliana (9th grade), Elitsa and Mario (10th grade) and Bojidar (11th grade) with the help of their teachers: Mrs. Nikolova – coordinator of the project, Mr. Pendev – sports teacher, Mr. Stefanov – music teacher, Mr. Vetsov – English teacher and Mr. Kostov – IT teacher made three documentary films: tennis training between Zlatarski students and paralympics sportsmen, a game with sport character developing speed, agility and flexibility and a clapping-hand video. The Bulgarian team was welcomed very warmly and cordially in the school of Nicosia. It was a new school with a wonderful campus. The parents of the Cypriot children welcomed us to their homes. The Cypriot families took us to the Cyprus Handcraft Center, where we saw handmade dishes and covers and we learnt a lot about the culture of Cyprus.
Charity Certificate from the National Library: On the 31st of October 2012 students from the 10th grade visited the National library to receive a charity certificate for the newspaper, which they have been “saving” with funds from the restoration grant. The edition is a satiric newspaper from the Bulgarian Rebirth called “Shutosh”, which has been edited by Petko Slaveykov and printed in Istanbul. Its first issue dates from 1873. The issues, which have been put in a binding, are overall preserved, but very fragile and in need of treatment. The newspaper, written before the Bulgarian independence from the Ottoman Empire, contains numerous articles, pamphlets, caricatures and short stories, many of which are still sounding relevant today. Members of the class and the class teacher Mrs. Vanya Angelova received the certificate from professor Boryana Hristova, director of the National library “St. St. Kiril and Metodii” and docent Elisaveta Musakova, head of department “Manuscripts and antique printed books”. The students had the chance to touch the history of the Bulgarian Rebirth press and to read and look through the surviving issues of “Shutosh “, the restoration they donated for.

The People to People programme in the USA Students of Zlatarski International School represented Bulgarian in Harvard in July 2011. The students who were nominated by Zlatarski School after a difficult competition and successfully passed the application process for 2011 People to People Leadership Summit, are: Gabriela Hristova (Class of 2013), Mirela Maneva (Class of 2013), Eva Staneva (Class of 2012), Lorin Raichinova (Class of 2012), Danail Vasilev (Class of 2012). Participation at this prestigious event at Harvard University not only gave them the opportunity to spend 10 days at one of the most selective universities in the world, but also to develop their leadership skills and to learn more about achievement.

Participation at a seminar for realization of young leaders, Brno, Czech Republic. The International meeting of IB students (Seminar for young leader’s forum), which was held in the Czech Republic. Valentina Petrova (11 IB b), Gabriela Hristova (11 IB b), Gabriela Todorova (11 IB c) and Mirela Maneva (11 IB b) are participating in the project “Youngsters for a better Europe”. The seminar is taking place from 4-13 November, 2011 in Brno, Czech Republic.

The project Stop Missing Opportunities, the so-called ACES Academy was held in March 2012 nearby Bratislava. Participants from Zlatarski School led by Anna Joukivskaia, coordinator of the project, took active participation in the successful realization of the activities related with this initiative. Over 300 teachers, students and official representatives of over 15 countries in Europe took part in ACES Academy 2012. The formal meeting was hardly accessible and the work – highly intensive. All participants, who had worked during these 6 months in cooperation with their partners, presented the results from their projects, discussed the challenges, which had occurred during the project and told each other about the realized activities. The students were the protagonists who presented the projects, which made the work very dynamic, spontaneous and creative.

A School exchange project was 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 1st 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.
Global Community Series On 21.03.2012 representatives of the American Embassy in Sofia visited Zlatarski International School and offered a lecture on intellectual property rights. More than 80 students attended the talk where they had the chance to ask questions and discuss the issue of intellectual property. The event was attended by our students in grades 10 and 11 as well as teachers in English, Philosophy and Literature. The event gave start to a series of discussions across the school on the topic. It was a pleasure for Zlatarski School to host this talk. The event was part of the ‘Global Community’ events at Zlatarski School, which aim to introduce our students to global issues and to present to our students with the chance to meet people from different professions.

MUN Thessaloniki Forum 2012 Four IB students of Zlatarski International School participated at the 7th annual Anatolia College Model United Nations event in Thessaloniki, Greece, between February 17 and 19, 2012. Valentina Petrova, Elizabeth Pyloridou, Miroslav Dimitrov and Kostadin Kolev recreated the delegation of Indonesia in four of the General Assembly committees. More than three hundred students from about a dozen schools attended the ACMUN, representing fifty-six virtual countries. The international visitors included students from IB schools in Germany and Turkey, as well as a trans-Atlantic delegation from Iowa. Students convincingly reenacted heated debates and dynamic exchanges over current problems like the place of slavery in modern societies, the fate of private militias, or the sovereignty of Tibet. Zlatarski’s delegation came out with a number of amendments and contributed to the formulation of several UN resolutions, which we sincerely hope the real-time United Nations might take into account.
In Favour of Our Children Students from Zlatarski International School organised a charity initiative, supporting the foundation “In Favour of Our Children”. On 2 February 2012 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.

St Valentines 2012 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 was donated on 2 March, when 5 students from Zlatarski School visited the children from the ward for oncohematological treatment, giving away “martenitsi” for the Bulgarian celebration of Baba Marta.

The IB conference – International Days held in Belgrade. In April 2012, a group from Zlatarski International School participate in an international conference in Serbia. Denis, Ivan, Tsvetelina and their English literature teacher Detelina attended the international conference “International Days at Rudjer”, which took place at Rudjer Boshkovich IB World School.
At the end of October 2011 Zlatarski students took part in the academic practice “Old Bulgarian cities”. The school trip was organised as follows: Sofia – Veliko Tarnovo – Veliki Preslav – Shumen – Pliska – Sveshtari – Rousse – Sofia.

Sport Football Achievements in 2011 The football team of Zlatarski School won first place in the class – boys 11-12 grade. For a consecutive year the sport achievements of students at Zlatarski School prove that our students develop both academic skills and skills such as sport discipline, motivation, confidence and teamwork skills. We are happy that once again we celebrate the first places in a number of competitions – 1st place in the “Studentski” area in football, 11-12 grade, 1st place in the “Studentski” area in table tennis, 8-10 grade. Our basketball team achieved a silver medal, while our table tennis team came ninth in Bulgaria.

Golden Medal for the Table tennis team 2011: The Zlatarski School Table Tennis team won the golden medal for Sofia and the champions were: Borislav Panov (10a), Luchezar Pavlov (10a), Filip Nasser (10a) and Petar Tsvetanov (9b). On 13 and 14 April the third (final) round of the Sofia school tournament in table tennis took place in the building of 153 PG. Our team won the first place! Badminton Congratulations to the badminton team of Zlatarski School (boys 8 – 10 grade), who won 4th place in the tournament in Sofia. Athletics Our athletes came 4th in the capital (boys 8-10 grade) and 6th (girls). The champions in Athletics are Nicolay Petrov (9a) and Stoyan Shukerov (10b), who came 3rd in the capital.

First in the National Multilingual Competition On 27 February 2011 the National Round of the National Polylingual Competition took place. Miroslav Miroslavov Dimitrov, a student at Zlatarski, won first place in the English – German competition. Congratulations, this is a national achievement. Congratulations also go to Mihaela Leandar Litova (11 grade), Rumyana Nikolova Romanova (11 grade), Borislav Borislavov Tomirkov (11 grade), Dimitar Evelinov Kaloyanov (10 grade). These students performed among in the country in the English – German competition. This success shows that students at Zlatarski are not only proficient in the English language, but they are also proficient in their second language, making them truly multilingual students. Congratulations to their teachers and we wish our students every success in the future.

The Games of Cupid 2011 On 24 February 2011 the premiere of ‘The Games of Cupid” took place at Zlatarski. Director and producer of the play is Poli Micheva, teacher of Latin and civilizations, and the actors are … talented students from Zlatarski School. “This is a love story based on Roman authors”, says Poli Micheva. And complementing the spirit of February, this play aims to capture everyone watching it with love sentiments and romantic thoughts. The actors are – Anton Hristov 11a, Konstantin, 8a, Alexander, 10a, Kaloyan 10a, Vassil 9v, Martin, Rada, Gablieva, 10b. The play set and constumes are done by Rumi Yordanova. For the good mood of the event is responsible…everyone of you!

Juvenes Translatores Competition 2011. Four of our IB students took part in the international translation contest and represented Bulgaria in the event. The event attracts more than 1605 schools from all over the world. The translation competition aims to increase young people’s knowledge and awareness of languages, especially after the very increasing need of multilingual citizens in the European Union.
International CAS Project in Turkey “Understanding the Presence of the Past” In April 2011, IB students Elena-Avrora Kutevska, Mark Chepilev, Veronika Bezinski and Vasil Ivanov took part in the International CAS project sharing their experiences in History. The project was coordinated by Daniel Parsons.

March of the Thracian Cohort in Sofia 2011: The parade announced the fourth edition of the Festival of Ancient Heritage Eagle on the Danube, which runs from 27th to May 29th in Svishtov. Zlatarski School took part in the event under the leadership of Mrs Poli Micheva, teacher of Latin, Culture and Civilization at the school. The program of the event includes: Procession of Roman legionnaires and vestals on Vitosha Boulevard with endpoint National Palace of Culture; Show reconstruction “Roman Legion in the province of Thrace recruit soldiers” – in front of the National Palace of Culture; Time for audience and fans to take photos of themselves with Roman legionnaires, vestals, and equipment of the cohort – swords, helmets, shields, etc. The event is held with the support of Sofia mayor Mrs. Yordanka Fandakova; parade organizers are Svishtov Club – Sofia, Svishtov Municipality and Council of Tourism-Svishtov.

Green Classroom Project 2011 The competition for “green projects’ was won by 8 ‘a’ class, who came up with the idea of a green classroom. During springtime, the realization of the project is on its way. As we already know, the project was financed by the Rotary club, where Interact Zlatarski is a member. Students from our Interact Zlatarski club and members of the Rotaract club were involved in the building of the classroom. Having in mind that this was an ambitious project, Interact Zlatarski invited all, who were able and willing to help, to join the initiative.

Model United Nations, Istanbul 2010 Zlatarski School participated in the international session of the Model United Nations Developmental Program (MUNDP) in March 2010. Delegates from the school participated in the debates on „Asia and the Pacific”.
Help for Haiti 2010 Zlatarski School students helped the Red Cross initiative in their humanitarian operations. Students collected money and gave it to the Red Cross organization to help deliver 2.5 million liters of clean water.

The Sustainable Development Week at Zlatarski School takes place in October every year. During this week at Zlatarski School there are lots of different activities in different subjects. For example, in Biology the 9th grades will play The Pollution game where students can see how as each business generates profit it also pollutes air, water or both. At some point all competing players have to cooperate and decide on actions to lower the pollution levels because if lethal concentrations are reached all players lose, that is everyone dies. In Geography and Physics there are going to be student presentations on the use of renewable energy sources. In Economics the possibilities of achieving sustainable economic development without wasting resources are discussed. The Historians are looking at the long chain of wars over the control of natural resources. The sustainable development are also discussed in English and Bulgarian Language classes, and we plan to watch Al Gore’s ‘An Inconvenient Truth’. “As for Zlatarski School’s contribution to the Global Day of Climate action, we planted some Geranium plants in the shape of 350 on the school campus where everyone can see it and send the picture. We chose Geranium for two reasons, on the one hand the end of October is not the best planting season in Bulgaria, so few species will survive. But on the other hand geranium is the symbol of health in Bulgaria, and we want to emphasize on this symbolic representation of the global climate health.”, says Lyobov Dombeva, teacher in Biology.

Science Fair at Zlatarski School: The Science Fair takes place in June every year, right before the end of the school year and it is the largest event of the school – a two days event that shakes the School grounds! On day one Prof. Dr. Litov opened the Science Fair with a plenary speech about CERN and then the students from 11 IB class presented their Group 4 Projects: a crucial part of their Internal Assessment in Science. On day two, we have various concurrent events among which: exhibitions of 3D models of molecules and jelly cell models that you can eat, made by the 10th graders, a workshop on cosmetics where you can create your unique cosmetic products line, physics and chemistry competitions, students’ presentations in biology and geography and more! No matter if you are a science freak or you have never been keen on science, we all join the event. We promise entertainment and education – 2 in 1!

Teachers from Spain visit Zlatarski School 2009 On May 12, 2009 English language teachers from Spain, participating in the Leonardo da Vinci Project and working on the subject ‘Exchange of training methodologies to promote multilingualism’, visited Zlatarski School. Our guests attended the open English lessons of Ms Snezhana Zorova in 8th grade, Ms Vanya Angelova in 9th grade, and Mr Dobromir Vetzov in 11th grade. In the following discussion, the teachers talked over achievements, problems, various approaches and resources used in teaching foreign languages, which are most useful for creating favourable training environment promoting multilingualism.

Zlatarski School Youth Forum for Europe takes place in May every year. Last year the General Assembly was held in the school auditorium. The event was traditionally dedicated to the Europe’s Day, May 9th. More than 60 students from 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th grades participated in it. All participants, divided into 7 committees, each chaired by a senior and experienced member of the school community, debated on various political, social, ethical, cultural and environmental issues, concerning the development of the European Union and all European countries. Each committee had a topic, on which they presented a resolution. After the debates the resolutions were voted by the delegates. At the end of the event the results were announced by the jury comprising Zlatarski School teachers and alumni. Five resolutions passed successfully, and two were rejected. Holding such events has become a tradition at our school and a way of preparing the students for their future role in the European society.

Spring Educational Trip to Italy 2009: Zlatarski School together with a tour operator organized a school trip Sofia – Ljubljana – Verona – Pisa – Florence – Rome/The Vatican – San Marino – Rimini – Murano Island/Burano – Venice – Zagreb – Sofia in the period from 31 March to 9 April 2009. The trip is part of Zlatarski’s tradition of school tours abroad. The main aim is the students to visit cultural and historical sights, while demonstrating knowledge and skills. The curriculum in history and civilization, Latin and philosophy require practical occasions. Many of the participants will, therefore, prepare presentations on certain topics placed by the teachers – antic, middle age and modern history of Italy.

2009 School Visit to the European Parliament in Strasbourg A unique opportunity to Zlatarski School’s students to get to the seats of the European Parliament, to meet new cultures through dialog with fellow students in a friendly environment, to come across new friends, to get in touch with European spirit. Zlatarski School initiates a competition for participation into the program Euroschool to visit the European Parliament in Strasburg on 27 March 2009. A right to participate have all students from 10th, 11th and 12th grade. Students wrote essays on the topics of 1) Democracy and Civil Society; 2) Environment, Transport, Energy; 3) Making Europe more active; 4) 2009 – European Year of Creativity and Action; 5) Social policy and employment; 6) The future of Europe. The best contestants presented Zlatarski School and Bulgaria in Strasburg at the European Parliament. The programme includes: replicating the work in the parliament on commissions; presentation of the schools; conference on groups in different commissions and shaping resolutions in international groups with contestants from schools from all Europe.

Zlatarski’s Got Talent 2012: Each year the talent show displays the best of Zlatarski School including students and teachers. In 2012 the winners were Volena, Alexandra Todorova, Ilayda Bairam, Konstantin, Nikolay Kardashev, David, Isabel and Petar, Mr Kostov and Alexander Vladimirov. The prizes for most favorite teachers received Mr Kojuharov and Mrs Iskrenova. Most strict teachers were Mr Todorov and Mrs Popova, and funniest teachers were Mr Parsons and Mrs Kostova.