Open Day 2009 – a Day to remember

Our annual Open Day took place on Friday, 24th April starting at 2 p.m. and the glorious Spring weather presented our school wonderfully. White tents were placed along the avenue and flowers and bushes were blooming all over. Numerous visitors, parents and students took pleasure in the beautiful environment of our school, socialising with one another, enjoying the students' performances as well as the food and drinks provided.

In her welcome speech, Mrs. Preus recognised the changes that ISVA has gone through since the last Open Day: the expansion of the school grounds, the restoration of the historic avenue and the opening of the main entrance to Reimerweg have all been big improvements for the school to build on in the future. During the Easter holidays, the primary building and the cafeteria have been repainted and are almost as bright as the flowers in the park. “But something was still missing”, Mrs. Preus explained in her speech. After much thought, the school decided that, as a Berlin school, ISVA needs to have its own Buddy Bear. So, the highlight of the day was the unveiling ceremony of the long hidden and, so far, nameless bear.

The cheerful ceremony was led by the mayor of the borough of Spandau, Mr. Konrad Birkholz, and the Buddy Bear artist, Mr. Valeriu Kurtu. After the school choir, along with Ms. Mathias and Ms. Newman finished their performance, “Amalie Bear” was finally presented to the audience as the primary children released helium-filled balloons to welcome her.

The bright and colourful bear will soon be placed at the main entrance on Reimerweg and will be an eye-catching welcome for visitors and students.

The day continued with numerous activities, such as guided school tours, a bouncy castle for the younger children and pony rides around the field.

While this was taking place, a number of students were hard at work in the Rock and Hip hop workshops in the container rooms and cafeteria. With just a few hours to learn some tricks from some professional musicians, they did an extremely good job.
At 3 p.m., an audience gathered at the open air stage to see the results of their work. All were impressed with the dancing and newly learned scratching skills on the record decks in the Hip-hop show as well as the timing and playing of the musicians in the Rock performance.
Secondary students organised a Wii tournament and an art auction and a treasure hunt was arranged for primary students. Our talented magicians, Oliver and Yilsu, rounded up the event with another phenomenal show in the music studio.

We would like to give our highest gratitude to all the parents, teachers, students and volunteers that made the Open Day such a successful and fun event. We could not have done it without you! Thank You!