Keeping the SIS Family Spirit Alive

Andrea Maes-Prior, Principal SIS Regensburg

Last year, the Christmas spirit couldn’t grow as usual, as strict hygiene measures prevented the school community from getting together and mingling. Therefore, the annual Christmas production and the annual Christmas bazar couldn’t take place at the school in the same way as it did before. Students and teachers at SIS Regensburg had the idea to produce a video with different student performances and to hold an online Christmas school assembly – keeping the SIS Regensburg family spirit alive.

SIS schools are not just schools, they are also families. As such, it is difficult when their members are not allowed to come together. Up until the middle of December, lessons took place in the school building, but the hygiene measures prevented students and teachers from mixing and mingling as freely as they usually do. The assembling of larger groups made up of different educational levels of the school was impossible.

In the run-up to Christmas, a time when the school usually gets ready for its Christmas production and its annual bazar, the absence of the SIS Regensburg team spirit was felt. At that point, SIS Regensburg music teacher Ms Zentner and performing arts teacher Mrs Ilchyshyna-Altun had the idea to produce a video with student performances that could be shown to all students right before Christmas break. Little did they know at the early planning stages that students would have to watch the video from home due to the distance learning that had to be implemented mid-December.

As the planning for the video progressed, the students chose the following values as the overarching theme: • Friendship • Thankfulness • Tolerance • Charity • Family

Each performance in the video highlighted one of the values. The two teachers did not have to wait long for volunteers to come forward. At break and lunch time, as well as after school, solo artists came to the music room to be filmed. The performing arts students devised mini plays around the theme. All of the performances were painstakingly put together to form a 37-minute-long video. At the time of completion, the school authorities had communicated that the schools needed to be closed due to the pandemic situation and online lessons took place at SIS Regensburg. Even though students were still able to learn together in their year groups online, they were no longer together in the school building, which further decreased the opportunity of honing soft skills and the appreciation of talents outside academic learning.

At that point, the idea took shape to hold a Christmas assembly online for the whole school community that would not only provide an opportunity to show the video, but also allowed the announcement of the winner of the student council bingo and the teddy bear raffle, and the celebration of the SIS Regensburg community. More than 120 participants tuned in on the last day of term via the MS Teams app with appreciative smiles showing on the cameras. Needless to say, the assembly was a roaring success and the event came to an end with all staff members sending off the students to their holidays. A quote from one of the performances in the video resonated with everyone long after the MS Teams meeting had come to an end: “The best present this year is that we are healthy and together.” 