Perfect Fusion Between Japanese and Slovene Students
In April 2019 The Diocesan Classical Gymnasium hosted fifteen students and two teachers from Kanto Daiichi High School. The same number of Slovene students and teachers spent a week from 11th – 19th November 2019 in the capital of Japan.
We were staying at our exchange students’ homes. The first day in Japan was a big cultural shock for everybody. Everything is so clean and nice over there and people are extremely polite and calm. At school we prepared a presentation and Kahoot quiz on Slovene culture. After that we presented some of the Slovene cuisine: potica (Slovene holiday cake) and Gorenjka (most popular Slovene chocolate). After the program, organised by the Japanese school, every Japanese student took their Slovene guest to various tourist attractions around the capital. In a span of a week all the students got to see Tokyo’s best attractions. We have visited some of the more iconic sights Tokyo has to offer. A day trip to Kamakura was spent exploring one of Tokyo seaside resorts, different shops and temples, the other day we were enlightened by the digital art museum in which a beautiful display of lights created a unique artwork. Once we were already settled into the way in which Tokyo operates, we were brave enough to explore the city on our own. After getting lost and walking around for some time we finally found the famous Shibuya crossing and thus our adventure was complete. A few days were spent listening to Japanese lessons and learning how their school life differs from ours. On the last day we even made a Japanese dish called Udon. We made it all from scratch along with noodles. This exchange helped us become more culturally enriched, but most importantly, helped our hosts acknowledge the importance of learning English and motive them to study harder and improve their speaking and writing skills.
Katja Gorjup, English teacher, and Milan Zeman, Math teacher from the Diocesan Classical Gymnasium, were in charge of the Tokyo exchange 2019. /Meta Jesenko & Ana Marie Gradišar, year 3/
The best graduases of the DCG in the academic year 2018/19
Each year the entire school community celebrates St. Stanislav’s Day to mark the feast of the Institution’s patron. This year it was under the title of “Building Bridges Together” between all schools in St. Stanislav’s Institution, between the present, past and future, between the present students and alumni, between modern and classical, between you and me.
This year’s celebration was marked with holy mass and a solemn celebration on Wednesday 13th November 2019. Holy mass was celebrated at 3 p.m. in the parish church of St. Vitus in Ljubljana Šentvid by the Archbishop of Ljubljana Msgr. Stanislav Zore. The solemn celebration took place at 5 p. m. in the sports hall of the Alojzij Šuštar Primary School. Ms Alenka Potočnik, alumna of The Diocesan Classical Gymnasium, held the official speech. The performance was be given by the students of all schools in St. Stanislav’s Institution.
Other events in November are taking place, such as the opening of the exhibition of Tadej Žugman’s paintings (Kregar Atrium, November 6, 2019, at 7 p.m.); a festive concert of the Music School of St. Stanislav’s Institution (Matija Tomc Concert Hall, November 12, 2019, at 6 p.m.) and the opening of the ceramics exhibition »Jože Plečnik’s Architecture as an Inspiration« (Meršol Atrium, November 18, 2019, at 6 p.m.). Warmly welcome.
Our school string orchestra, under the skilled mentorship of Drago Arko and conducted by the unmatched Damijan Močnik, went to Krakow for a week from 19th-25th October 2019 to participate in an Erasmus+ exchange with the Polish Conservatorium of Frederick Chopin. After our last rehearsal on Saturday evening we boarded the bus and departed towards Krakow. In the early morning we arrived to Katowice where we attended the Holy Mass and took a city tour and were rather astonished by its beauties. Then we visited the church of saint Faustina Kowalska and stood on top of the bell tower admiring the magnificent view of Krakow. Then we proceeded to our hostel which was in Krakows suburbs. With nothing to do, most went to sleep to prepare for the next day.
Monday arrived too soon and after breakfast we took the bus to the school where we had our first rehearsal with the Polish orchestra. After an exhausting 5-hour practise we had lunch and then were divided into several groups led by Polish students to take a Krakow city tour. The tours were indeed interesting and we learned quite a lot about the city and its people. Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty much alike. In the morning we had rehearsals with the Polish orchestra, then we had rehearsals of our own and finally lunch. Most of us spent both evenings enjoying Krakow nightlife while trying to be sufficiently rested for the next day. Finally Thursday came. The D day of our great concert in the church of the Blessed Aniela Salawa. First we had our solo performance, playing Corellis Sarabande, Gigue and Badinerie and 3rd and 4th Part of Benjamin Britten’s Simple symphony. Afterwards, the Polish came on stage and we played Sanjarija, Ave Maria and Meditation, at which Marjeta Banko blessed our ears with her deeply emotional and astonishing violin solo. Then our Polish colleagues took over, having their choir reinforced with a couple of our girls, and performed their parts. After the concert we felt exhausted but satisfied and once more we boarded the bus, this time taking us home. /Erazem Ivanc, year 4/
We are honoured to announce that Domen Križaj, alumnus of The Diocesan Classical Gymnasium (12th generation) won the second prize at the Neue Stimmen international singing copetition. The above mentioned competition, which takes place every two years, welcomes about 1.000 young talents from around the world and has marked the beginning of international careers for many participants. The best singers qualify for the final round in Gütersloh, Germany, where they present their skills in front of a high ranking jury, intendants, agents and representatives of the music industry.
Domen has already had an outstanding career as a young singer. It all started in St. Stanislav’s Youth Choir of The Diocasan Classical Gymnasium and later with his incredible juggling between two university studies, namely at the Faculty of Medicine and The Academy of Ljubljana, both at University of Ljubljana. It seems the latter had the better of him. Domen has won several international awards and this year his music engagements include roles in Kaiser von Atlantis (V. Ullmann) and Madame Butterfly (G. Puccini), both in Theater Basel, Switzerland. Dear Domen, our heartiest congratulations on your outstanding achievement! You really deserve it. Well done! /Lily Schweiger Kotar/
The Slovene Team to compete for the first time at the Olympiad of Metropolises
The Olympiad of Metropolises is an international team competition, which is held in Moscow every year, its participants being 14-18 year old students, who live in the biggest metropolises of the world. The first olympiad took place in 2016 with 173 students competing from 22 cities, this year they came from 45 metropolises all together. They showed their knowledge of physics, chemistry, mathematics and informatics in a competition consisting of a blitz-contest and two main rounds.
From 1st – 6th September 2019 Ljubljana took part for the first time with a team of eight students, six from Gimnazija Bežigrad (T. Drnovšek, G. Gajič, Gal A. Gorše, D. Lisjak, A. Modic and M. Zupan) and two from The Diocesan Classical Gymnasium, namely Maja Budna and Urh Robič. We are happy to announce that the Slovene team was a prize-winner of a blitz-contest; an excellent result was also achieved by M. Zupna and A. Modic, both from Gimnazija Bežigrad, who were awarded silver medals in chemistry competition. The mentor of the DCG students is Helena Starc Grlj, teacher of informatics.
This is how Maja Budna experienced the event: »On Saturday morning, our team gathered at Brnik airport. We enjoyed a three-hour flight to Moscow. In the evening we were all quite exhausted, so we waited for the following day to explore Moscow. On Sunday afternoon we participated in the opening ceremony. Monday was the first competition day, when we participated in the blitz contest – the eight of us solving 80 tasks together. The next day went really well, with the first part of the official competition taking place in the morning. There were 5 hours available to solve 4 problems. In the afternoon we went on a sightseeing bus tour of Moscow. The next day the second competition followed and after lunch we visited a park. When we were all done with the competition, our exploring of Moscow had just begun. On Thursday, we took a boat tour down the river to see famous Moscow buildings from another view. The next day we were discovering Moscow by ourselves and in the afternoon we concluded the Olympiad with a closing ceremony. We were especially proud of Marjetka and Adam, who won the silver medal in chemistry. The official part was over but that did not mean we had already finished our visit in Russia. On Saturday, the Muscovites celebrated a Moscow Day with a huge number of events all around the city to mark the event. First, we took a look at the famous Cosmonaut Museum, then moved to the Izmail Park to enjoy the flea market. In the evening there was our last get-together to play games, before heading back to Slovenia on Sunday morning.» /Maja Budna, year 4/
During summer holidays, from 26th-28th August 2019, a traditional summer camp was held at St. Stanislav’s Institution. Twenty students from different countries, namely, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia, gathered in order to perform multiple physics experiments. The event was led by the following teachers of physics at the Diocesan Classical Gymnasium: Tine Golež, Martin Čokl and Iztok Kukman.
The participating students were divided into three groups and additionally into pairs – each pair was to conduct a different experiment at a time. Each experiment was tied to a different aspect of physics. Especially outstanding was the demonstration of a power plant, which used the potential energy of the water in order to produce electricity. Other experiments included measurement of geometrical optics, finding drag coefficient of a spherical body, calculation of maximum output of a solar cell, investigating how the acceleration of rotating ball depends on the slope of the hill, and many more. We were measuring, calculating, graphing and were introduced to numerical calculation.
In there three days we had an opportunity to see how theory can be applied to perform and predict outcomes of various experiments. /Lea Briški, year 4/
DCG students in collabortion with Whitney – a priceless experience
At The Diocesan Classical Gymnasium we had a wonderful opportunity to collaborate fruitfully with two American volunteers, namely Whitney and Jedd Sankar from Montana, the USA. Their contribution was invaluable for teachers and students alike and they proved once again that learning a language with native speakers is all about improving speaking and listening skills as well as building language confidence. At St. Stanislav’s we feel most thankful to both, Whitney and Jedd, for having them round.
Whintey wrote about her teaching experience at DCG: “My husband Jedd and I have spent the last 9 months in Slovenia as part of his Fulbright research grant. Our favorite cultural immersion activity by far has been volunteering in the English classes at Škofijska Klasična Gimnazija. We’ve had the opportunity to meet so many interesting, thoughtful, and well-spoken Slovenian high school students and to be able to engage in conversations about American and Slovenian cultures. I have no doubt that we have benefited at least as much from this opportunity as we have helped the students by sharing our knowledge and experience as native speakers”. /Whitney Sankar/
We are happy and proud to announce that a new two-year Erasmus+ project Small Countries Strong Cultures is being launched in cooperation with two other schools – namely Wellington School Ayr from Scotland (UK) and Sint-Jozefsinstituut College from Franders (Belgium). This will allow making room for the exploration of our common roots as well as for the endeavours to build our common future. For years we have been involved in a row of successful projects with Wellington School, who is the coordination instituion,; this time we are welcoming on board the college from Flanders.
In the next two years, our participating students will try to find the answer(s) to a (seemingly) simple question: Who are we and what connects us with others? The aim of the project is to spread and strengthen the awareness of national cultural heritage and its importance in building a strong European community. In the times when nationalisms are on the rise we want to show the young that they can be loyal to their local community, their country and the EU at the same time – but we need to be ready to learn from our past and become active citizens to shape a better future. We need to learn how to voice our opinions respectfully, how to look for common ground with others and at the same time be ready to accept differences.
All three participating countries have always been proud of their cultures, especially their languages, at some point we have all been part of a larger »whole« and each country now plays its part in modern European democracy. Throughout the project, we would like to encourage the young to take an active part in these process.
At St Stanislav’ Institution Alenka Battelino, Valerija Lah Peternel and Lily Schweiger Kotar are in change of the project. /Valerija Lah Peternel, project coordinator/
Your brief is to design a logo to represent our new Erasmus+ project, Small Countries Strong Cultures.
Your logo should represent the three participating schools or the countries they are in. The design should be made up from simple shapes and bright colours for visual impact. The three countries are Scotland, Belgium and Slovenia. The school websites are: www.wellingtonschool.org and https://www.sintjozefscollegetorhout.be.
The logo will be used on our project materials and needs to be of a striking design which makes an impact. You should consider a limited colour range for more visual impact, flat shapes without tone so that the logo can be reproduced digitally.
Here are last year’s winners to give you some inspiration!
The submission deadline is 16th October 2019. Please, send them at: [email protected] .We will announce the chosen logo on 5th November 2019.
During the Performance of Rutter’s Mass of the Children
St Stanislav’s international programme was strengthened this weekend (10th-12th May 2019) through a visit to our school from Mr Paul Vanthournout and Mrs Martine De Zutter from the Sint-Josefsinstituut College in Torhout, Belgium and Mrs Susan Coontz from Wellington School in Ayr, Scotland. This was our Belgian guests’ first visit to Slovenia but Mrs Coontz has been a regular visitor to St Stanislav’s during our twelve-year partnership with Wellington School. Together, the three schools are planning a new Erasmus+ project which will celebrate the strong cultures of our small countries.
This is how Mrs Coontz saw this brief, yet pleasant stay in Ljubljana: “Thank you very much to all at St Stanislav’s Institution for an unforgettable weekend with you in Ljubljana. On Friday afternoon the city was looking her very best in the bright spring sunshine for my arrival and we so enjoyed our trip to Lake Bled on Saturday. Walking round the lake let us build up an appetite before our delicious lunch overlooking the island. The highlight of the weekend was most definitely the 26th Annual Concert of the Choirs and Orchestra of St. Stanislav’s Institution in Cankarjev dom. John Rutter’s The Mass of the Children was delivered with great precision and musicality and parents, teachers and friends will be justifiably proud of the pupils’ performance. The natural enthusiasm of the singers shone through in the second half of the programme in songs from the shows. On Sunday, the weather was distinctly Scottish – cold and wet – and we spent the morning exploring the old town. As I write this, in my head I can still hear the young voices singing Triglav moj dom kako si krasan and I hope that it will not be too long before I visit your beautiful country again.
Thank you to everyone who made our visit so enjoyable and especially to Mr Simon Festanj, Mrs Lily Schweiger Kotar, Mrs Alenka Battelino and Mrs Valerija Lah Peternel. We look forward to welcoming you to Scotland soon. /Susan Coontz, Wellington School, Ayr, Scotland/
