Category: News

From 31^st March to 7^th April 2025, classes 1M1 & 2C participated in a trip to England & Scotland via Amsterdam. We took off at around 5pm for an eighteen-hour journey, arriving in Amsterdam at 10am April 1^st.

After disembarking off the coach, we walked to our cruise through the city’s canals. On our way, we passed by the beautiful Centraal Station. We boarded our designated boat and set off for a one-hour cruise. Getting to experience the beauty of the Venice of the North from the water level, we saw stunning bridges, Rembrandt’s house, numerous canal houses, and the city’s old floodgates. Next, we proceeded to the Dam Plaza by the Royal Palace & the Old Cathedral. We continued to the flower market, where we went shopping & for souvenirs. Lastly, we went for lunch at a local restaurant and then got onto the bus, heading to Ijmuiden for our overnight voyage to Newcastle upon Tyne.

We arrived in Great Britain on April 2^nd, went through immigration and drove for two hours to Alnwick. We visited the famous castle, in which the quidditch scenes from Harry Potter took place. Later we ate lunch and explored the local gardens. After getting back on the bus, we finally crossed the border of Scotland and headed to its old capital city – Stirling, where we saw the old monarchy headquarters and the Wallace Monument (although from afar). We returned to Edinburgh, settled in, and got to know our host families.

The next day we drove on a sightseeing tour to the Scottish Highlands. Passing through the glamorous valleys and by the lengthy lakes, we experienced the local nature enriched with elements of the region’s history and culture. After travelling the breathtaking Glen Coe valley, we got to Fort Williams, located right under the highest peak of Great Britain – Ben Nevis. Finally, we arrived at the last stop of the day’s journey – Glenfinnan, where the world-famous viaduct from (again) the Harry Potter series stands.

At 7am April 4^th we set off for Edinburgh – the capital city of Scotland. We got off by the Holyrood Palace – the royal property in the city. Then we proceeded to the Parliament building and entered the Royal Mile – a one-mile road leading to the Edinburgh Castle. Along the way, we came across closes – passages to the lower parts of the city, churches, and the city council buildings. We visited the castle, attended the cannon launch at 1pm and headed for the Scottish Museum. After exploring, we took a walk through the main street, where we did our shopping. In the late afternoon, we got onto the bus and returned to our host families.

On the morning of April 5^th, we gathered early and started our drive to York. Around midday, we arrived at the historic city and met our guides. We wandered over its historic bridge, through a park with signs of roman presence and cathedral remains, and by the former royal estate. Next, we took a walk on the city walls and partially circled the old town. Then we proceeded to the cathedral – one of the largest in Northern Europe, and finished the tour by visiting the Shambles. After sightseeing, we travelled to our hotel in Cambridge.

And then the last day of the trip came… We took off to London, where we got on an Uber Boat and sailed on the Thames from Greenwich to the city centre. We walked by the Big Ben, the Parliament, and the Westminster Abbey. Later, we headed to the Buckingham Palace, crossing through St. James’ Park. Next, we headed for our ride on the London Eye. Afterwards, we explored the exhibitions in the National Gallery, including the world-famous Van Gogh “Sunflowers”, Delaroche’s “The Execution of Lady Jane Grey”, pieces of Rembrandt, Rubens and other well-known artists. Lastly, we strolled through the Piccadilly Circus, China Town & Leicester Square, where we bought souvenirs and went shopping. We took a cruise back to the parking lot and embarked towards the Eurotunnel. By midnight, we drove onto our train and crossed the English Channel.

We spent the next day in the coach – talking, playing & watching movies, making stops every 3-4h. In the late evening, we arrived in Cracow, said bye and all went home. All in all, this trip was an enriching experience and a great occasion for integration. It will surely remain with us for a long time.

On April 11th 2024, classes 1m2,2m1,2m2 i 2i took part in a workshop entitled “Volunteering –  the power of young people in building Europe”. The classes were organized as a part of celebration of European Youth Week. We had the opportunity to talk about volunteering possibilities with the European Union funding and what it looks like, what is required for the application and much more.  We ended the classes with a quiz checking the knowledge we had previously acquired and a workshop during which we had to come up with our own ecological project that we would like to implement in our neighborhood.

From October 2nd to October 9th, 2023, the classes 2M2 and 4B went on a trip to Great Britain. We all gathered on Monday and departed by bus for a 19-hour journey to Amsterdam. From the morning, along with our guide, we explored this beautiful city. We started with a walk along the canals. Then we headed to Dam Square and listened to the city’s history. After a lunch break, we travelled  to Ijmuiden and sailed from there to Newcastle by ferry.

On Wednesday, we visited Stirling Castle, where we could learn about the history of the castle. The weather was not perfect, but the sightseeing compensated for the atmospheric inconveniences. After leaving the castle, we gathered in the parking area to meet the families where we would be staying for the next three days.

The next day, we headed to St. Andrews, where we saw the oldest university in Scotland, the ruins of St. Andrew’s Cathedral, the largest in the country, and walked along the town’s main streets and extensive coastline. Later, we also visited Glamis Castle, which served as inspiration for William Shakespeare to write the tragedy “Macbeth.” It also played an important role in the life of the Queen Mother, as it was her family home.

On Friday, we went to Edinburgh. Our adventure began with the Castle, then we explored the exhibitions at the National Museum of Scotland. Later, we headed towards the Scottish Parliament and Holyrood Palace, which impressed us with its majesty and rich history. We also managed to see the Bear “Wojtek” Monument.

The next city we visited was York, where we were guided by local guides. We had the opportunity to see the cathedral located in the city centre from the inside. York charmed us with its local character and friendly atmosphere.

We spent our last day in London, where we first walked through Hyde Park towards Buckingham Palace. We walked to the London Eye, from where we admired the city’s panorama. Later, we headed towards the Parliament and Big Ben. We saw the royal horses and the royal guard. We spent the rest of the time in Chinatown and the National Gallery.

After a long and productive day, we headed to the Channel Tunnel, through which we passed. After 26 hours on the bus, we officially concluded our trip.

We all returned full of impressions and unforgettable memories.

Joasia and Tamara, 2M2

On Friday, February 2nd, my class and I visited the National Bank of Poland in Cracow. We attended a meeting during which we learnt about electronic banking. We found out about the dangers that come with it and how important it is to have a strong password to avoid potential hackers. The speaker, a policeman, told us about many cases where people lost huge amounts of money due to logging in on unsafe websites or from phishing of e-mails or texts. The second part of the meeting was dedicated to showing us how to identify fake banknotes. We talked about all the intricate details on each note that help with distinguishing it from a counterfeit. Thanks to this meeting we now know how to securely use the internet in order to do our banking and how to prevent and deal with any risks connected to it.

Mariel Dominguez-Żyrek, 2m2

“The Gift”

Albert’s life has not been the same since Eve’s death. After losing his beloved wife last September, the old man felt as if a part of him had died with her. She was his whole world, the sole point of his existence – and without her, living did not seem to be worth it anymore.

Everyday tasks turned into incredibly hard challenges and activities that used to bring him joy, now miserably failed to do so. Albert spent all cold winter days barely going out of his apartment, where he buried himself in the memories of the past. Leafing through photo albums, reading old letters, and browsing through cardboard boxes in search of items that would remind him of bygone happiness became his new routine.

There was one object that he was particularly determined to find – a golden watch that was an anniversary gift from his wife. He remembered wearing it every day a couple of years ago, but could not recall what made him stop doing so. After a few days of fruitless search, he finally accepted the loss of this precious piece of jewelry.

“Maybe that’s only for good,” he thought to himself. Perhaps accepting this fact would be the first step to getting through his grief and letting go of the past.

Days and months passed, but life wasn’t getting easier. Before he knew it, the snow started to melt and days were becoming longer. Albert spent hours sitting on an old wicker chair on his balcony observing his surroundings. Nature was coming back to life – small buds appeared on bare tree branches, daisies slowly spread around the lawn and birds wove their nests filling the neighborhood with cheerful twitter.

Oh, how the old man adored those chirping creatures! He could endlessly stare at them flying, watch their dark silhouettes cutting out from the clouded skies, and listen to their gleeful songs. As his fascination grew, he began to leave grain in little bowls on his windowsill, in hopes that this feed would entice a songbird or two, so that he could take a closer look at them.

He didn’t have to wait for long – the very next day on the other side of the windowpane a small goldfinch appeared. Albert carefully approached, cautious not to scare the bird, and watched in awe as the creature pecked the seeds. He was convinced he had never seen anything as beautiful. However, he wasn’t given a chance to appreciate this beauty for long – as Albert sighed, the bird got startled and broke into flight.

Encouraged by this success, he left the food the next day, and the day after that, until putting a bowl on the windowsill and waiting for his feathery friends to come became a ritual. Soon they started to bring Albert small gifts in return – shiny rocks, coins, and slivers of coloured glass hit the parapet as the birds dropped them before landing and burying their beaks into bowls.

The gifts were not always useless trinkets though. Once Albert received a key to the garage, which his neighbour had lost a week before and another time – a previously missing silver ring that belonged to the lady who lived next door.

The old man grew to enjoy his life once again. Everyday he woke up to the sound of birds’ singing and he felt as if he had something to wait for and he was anticipated by someone, or rather multiple little someones, as well.

On one warm spring morning, he was sitting on the balcony in his chair, enjoying the presence of his feathery companions when he heard something land on a windowsill with an unusually loud thud. Intrigued, Albert paid a closer look to a newly arrived bird. A goldfinch, as it turned out to be, brought him a gift, upon seeing which he couldn’t believe his eyes. It was a golden watch – his golden watch! A few tears of happiness streamed down his face as he put a precious item on his wrist and suddenly, for the first time in months, felt complete.

In summers and winters, the birds came to Albert every day to eat and thank him with a song or little trinkets, bringing joy to his heart and peace to his mind. Even when there was no one to put the grains out anymore, feathered little creatures did not forget the old man and the love he had for them and still brought little gifts to his windowsill for years. and years to come.

We started our journey on Sunday, November 26^th , 2023 at Zakopianka parking lot, where we fought over the best seats on the bus which would become our prime means of transportation. When the dust settled, we welcomed our guide with applause and began our 24-hour journey. Our spirits were bright and we enjoyed our time listening to music, joking and watching a movie about George VI. We travelled half of Poland … Germany … the Netherlands … Belgium … (the latter two while completely asleep) … and in the blink of an eye we were at the France-UK border. We took a train trip through the marvel of engineering – the Eurotunnel – and soon we were fresh and ready at Greenwich Park in London.

We took many photos at the Prime Meridian and, after free time including delicious British breakfast, we set off on a long walk along Canary Wharf, watching skyscrapers hosting some of the world’s biggest financial centres, built literally on water. We saw the history of this district in the Museum of London Docklands. After a long awaited portion of free time, we explored the monument of the British as travellers and traders, known commonly as the National Maritime Museum. After another walk through Greenwich Park (never too many of them) and a bus ride to Croydon, there came the long-awaited moment of knowing in whose house we would be residing in the following week.

On Tuesday we took up a task of exploring one of the most historically important (and, in the eyes of many of us, most beautiful) district – the City of London. We started with a walk around the most iconic landmarks, including the Temple Bar Gate and St Paul’s Cathedral. After walking down the Millenium Bridge, we entered Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, where we became closer with the history of this immortal building. We had free time to buy souvenirs in there, with entire collections of fiction written in Shakespearean English. After a walk down the Thames, we took mandatory photos at Tower Bridge and entered the Tower of London. The fortress of tall ramparts with eye-watering views, hidden collections, armoury gathered thorough the history and awe-inspiring diamonds, crowns and ceremonial weaponry of the Royal Jewels collection, the Tower of London was a place of great splendour and one of the most memorable locations of the entire trip.

Next day, after waking up and experiencing the famous British weather, we headed for the one and only British Museum. It is not possible to put into words the sheer quantity of historical artifacts gathered (in more or less controversial ways) in the halls of this place: exhibitions from Egypt, Japan, Europe, Africa, Greece, Latin America, you name it, placed around the maze of this building. We then got on our bus for a long journey to Warner Bros Studio, calmly interrupted only by an exchange of musical tastes from the whole year (since Wrappeds came in just at that moment). Upon arrival, we entered the paradise of every Potterhead, seeing the entire process of making each of 9 Harry Potter movies, props, costumes and movie sets, experiencing scenes from the movies in real life and seeing an enormous model of Hogwarts. Positively tired we returned to our families, to be welcomed by a warm meal, much needed on such a cold day.

On November 30^th , we set off to the royal residence of Windsor Castle. In there we saw St. George’s Chapel, though it was more akin to a cathedral, with beautiful stained glass windows and carvings in stone and wood. After that we were lucky to experience Changing of the King’s Guard, and, after entering the main palace of this stronghold, we saw halls blooming with opulence, handmade ceramics, decorated armour, paintings of royals and the gigantic Queen Mary’s Dollhouse. After that, we were allowed free time in a shopping mall, which let us buy consumable souvenirs exclusive to Britain. Our next point were two museums in South Kensington: the Natural History Museum and the equally famous Science Museum. We split in two groups, each exploring one of the museums for two hours. The group in the Natural History Museum had an opportunity to see many interesting exhibits, including, but not limited to many stuffed or reconstructed animal species – terrestrial and aquatic, mesmerising skeletons of ancient creatures and an entire exhibition about human evolution. The other group visiting the Science Museum was able to see the most important milestones of the development of human technology. There were displays showing vehicles, steam machines and planes,  an enormous hall dedicated to medicine, amazing interactive space for playing with our senses and summarised history of the entire Coronavirus pandemic in one place.

On the last day of our trip, we said goodbye to our families with tears in our eyes, ate last beans and mushroom and embarked on our bus for possibly the most active day of the entire trip. We started at Westminster Abbey, with its stunning sculptures and carvings. Continuing our walk down Parliament St, we entered the National Gallery, with innumerable paintings of famous artists, the most notable collections of van Gogh’s and Monet’s oils. We then went on a walk down St James’ Park, bewildered by unusual birds flying in the branches of trees. Afterwards we took photos at the gates of Buckingham Palace and took the Tube to Piccadilly Circus. There we spent our free time glutting ourselves with the iconic food from China Town and, after buying the last souvenirs, we started our journey back to Poland.

We were travelling back the same way for another day and we were welcomed on the Polish border by stunning winter weather. This trip was an unforgettable experience, with many memories of places, jokes and lovely families who we had spent our amazing quality time with.

Joanna Stupka and Kasper Gut-Słaby, Class 3F