Headteachers, teachers, university lecturers and education experts met in Burgas on 4 November to discuss what schools can do to build values in children. The forum, "The Place of Values in School", was held at the Flora Exhibition Centre.
The private school Celestin Freinet organised the event. The organisers say the forum is a place to share experience and hold professional dialogue between different educational institutions. Burgas deputy mayor Mihail Nenov, who is in charge of education, health care, social services and youth policy, opened it.
Assoc. Prof. Dr Gergana Avramova and Assoc. Prof. Dr Zlatina Dimitrova gave the two plenary reports. Two panel discussions focused on school culture, leadership and upbringing through personal example and experience.
Assoc. Prof. Dr Zlatina Dimitrova, a lecturer at Burgas Free University, Ivan Stoyanov, head of Hristo Botev secondary school in Karnobat, and Ivan Peychev, deputy head for teaching at Celestin Freinet, were among the seven panellists.
They spoke with Gergana Todorova, a school counsellor at the Goethe Language School in Burgas, Radina Marincheva, a school team support specialist at the Teach For Bulgaria foundation, Tomas Garo, a teacher at the Kolyo Ficheto vocational school of construction, architecture and geodesy, and Maria Hadzhieva-Slavova, a teacher at Celestin Freinet. Nikoleta Petrova, founder of Celestin Freinet in Burgas, chaired the discussions.
They talked about how values turn into actions, how they feature in decisions by school leaders and in teachers' daily work, and how to build a school community based on trust and respect. They also discussed a school environment in which children not only recognise what is good but also show it to others.
The participants shared their views and experience from practice. They agreed that a school does not only pass on knowledge, but builds values through personal example, relationships and experiences.
The forum's partners presented learning resources and ideas for teaching practice.