The first semester of 2021 was a time to rediscover our school space. A time to see old friends and make new ones, to understand and experience a new routine, and to once again occupy the school space with everything that it has to offer for pleasant and meaningful learning, following the rules that ensure our community’s safety.

It was a great joy to witness our school come back to life and be filled with the children’s energy. By organizing clusters and strictly following the protocols recommended by Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, we were able to allow the children to once again experience the learning possibilities offered by be.Living within our school’s different environments, such as the classrooms, the court, and of course, the park – a place cherished by our students, where they can play outdoors and be in contact with nature.

Going to school enhances the children’s learning through the exploration of spaces that favor the development of diverse activities, interaction with peers, and feelings and experiences that will be remembered for a lifetime. It enhances our childhood education project, which sees the child as a cultural and social subject, with a huge desire to know, with developing autonomy, and with a series of rights to be protected.

Returning to the school space also meant resuming immersion in the English language, in the way we understand that bilingual education should occur: “Experiencing daily life in English,” which is what gives meaning to the second language. In our school routine, we promote situations in which children experience, in a significant way, the social role of the English language in relationships, forms of expression, logical thinking, work with the body and the arts.

The school environment also provides the children with the possibility to experience sustainability – a fundamental pillar of our pedagogical project – in practice and in its broadest sense. Our educational activities foster an appreciation of caring for others, respect for different world views, respect for nature, intelligent use of resources, the experience of collectivity, and the construction of an ethical insight into the world.

In 2021, we were able to bring all these possibilities back to our children and rekindle our school’s greatest purpose: Create stories and make memories that will result in effective learning.

We welcomed the children with great fondness, safety, and affection. We observed them closely to understand how each of them were coming back to us after the experience of social isolation and distance learning. We provided the teachers with training so that they could reflect on how the pandemic has impacted and transformed the lives of children around the world and how we could help our children get through this particular moment of their lives and their education in the best possible way.

To be an educator is to constantly watch the children, perceiving in them their own moment, their characteristics and individual strengths, and valuing them as the unique, creative, and autonomous beings that they are, capable of pursuing knowledge and facing new challenges. We have been and remain constantly mindful of what they bring us and, alongside them, are organizing a series of challenges and learning paths – both cognitive and emotional – aimed at enabling their full development, within the context we are living.

Since the year began, we have observed many lessons and witnessed significant moments of conviviality, growth, learning, and joyful living! We hope that throughout this school year we will continue to forge a path of partnership, hope, knowledge, and beaming smiles. We continue to learn, experiment, and above all else, live! Let the second semester begin!