There has never been such a celebration of Europe Day in the history of the European School Munich. The school is closed because of Corona, everyone is sitting at home. Nevertheless it became festive - only this time it was digital.
As the anniversary of the declaration of the French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman on 9 May 1950 fell on a Saturday this year, the European School Munich celebrated Europe Day the Friday before. The traditional flag dance could not take place due to the current situation, but the sports faculty came up with something very special. Until late into the night the teacher team around José Gallego, Kristina Scheiber and Bernd Auerhammer had been editing a video. It shows greetings from many members of the school family, with messages in their respective national languages: We are still here! Hang in there!
The planned event of classes S6 and S7 was moved to Microsoft Teams, organized by teacher Damien Barr. The interest was literally overwhelming. More people came than would fit into the Europahalle in analogue life. The team finally had over 400 participants, 250 of whom followed the livestream. Even more people would have liked to follow the speeches, but Microsoft played the bouncer for such a large number - nobody came in anymore.
The Director of the European School Munich Anton Hrovath called from his office at home (picture below). In his greeting, he reminded of the end of the Second World War, which was also celebrated on Friday, the day of liberation. Anyone could design Europe: "Europe is you and us." One should ask oneself and others what positive and negative experiences one has with Europe, how one can identify and contribute. It was important to him, in times of crisis, not to forget humour: "Laughter helps to get away from sadness." Surely we will overcome the crisis together. Afterwards, Martin Duggen, Interim Director of the Secondary School, also greeted the students and gave an outlook on the coming weeks.
The following online event was created by the pupils of S6 and S7. They read a poem by Henry van Dyke and continued writing it. In a video they collected mood pictures of what they appreciate about Europe. Another video dealt with European problems.
In the primary school the children also created works for Europe Day. Among others, the international section of the European School Munich, the SWALS, painted face masks with the national flags. Their message: Together we are strong. The Greek class P3 painted rainbows and encouraged their fellow pupils: Όλα θα πάνε καλά, Ευρώπη! All will be well, Europe! (Picture above)
Since the school will remain closed until further notice, the works of the school children cannot be displayed in the showcases and hung on the walls as is usually the case. As a replacement, there is the digital showroom on Sharepoint, as all members of the school community can visit the exhibition via their Microsoft account with the eursc.eu e-mail address. The video of the sports student body can also be viewed there.