Saint- Petersburg city Palace of Youth Creativity

Summer 2021
Ecology-Biological Center – “Hotnezh” expedition.

The expedition to the Leningrad Region was conducted for 15 children of the department Ecology-Biological Center. The tent camp was set up for 7 days on the banks of the River Lemovzha - a place that fascinates with its beauty and original nature.
This location is included in the list of Leningrad region wonders: the untypical relief for our flat land - the 30-meter Devonian cliff is breathtaking; spring water and a stunning forest is fantastic for every exploring biologist.
The main expedition purpose was to choose students’ own direction of research work and collect the first materials on the paleontological, ornithological and hydrobiological topics.
In addition to developing scientific, cultural and educational interests, students participated in the arrangement of a tent camp, a fire cooking and, of course, they played sports and intellectual games.
At the end of May-early June, our students have been going to the expeditions for more than 20 years.

the Contest "Day of Children's Inventions - 2021"

February 2021, we could see the results of the Open City Project-Contest "Day of Children's Inventions - 2021", which this time was held in a distant format.
This year, the students from educational institutions of St. Petersburg, Leningrad region and also from city Perm have participated in totally 9 nominations: "Household Devices", "Comfort+Idea", "Transportation", "Time Machine", "Bioengineering", "Architectural Ideas", "Space Ideas", " New Solutions’ Search ", "Video" - 377 projects, drawings and ideas were presented.
“Children's Inventions Day” became an open platform for the experiments, where each participant from 7 to 17 years old could present their original ideas to improve our life. Children’s works became an attempt to look into the future, pay attention to such important issues as safe and comfortable homes, school problems, caring for people with disabilities, caring for homeless animals, environmental and health problems, collecting space debris, new possibilities of transportation, etc. and certainly numerous robots and time machines.
The jury was included the leading designers and teachers in the technical sphere.
To be a part of this project means to get an important experience in understanding existing problems, solving specific tasks which is the necessary thing for any creative and professional person.

Dear friends!
February 12th, we celebrate the Palace Birthday!
We experience the joy of creativity and the bitterness of disappointment, we are proud of our students and colleagues and inspire each other of new ideas, every day.
These days, in the digital era, you will not surprise anyone with modern technologies and specific topic information... However, only a teacher can recognize what sequence and what semantic connections a child need - and it is the reason why children come to the Palace!
The teacher’s value is not about the ability to look through books’ pages and retell them; it is important together with a child to join non-obvious fragments and show an objective picture of the world. The Palace has always been able to create this process. We know the main thing in a teacher-student relationship is attention, support and love!
The Palace teachers work for the future, they are always "at the start", always in a search and put all their energy into the development, no matter what formats we have to work in.
I wish each of them to keep health, optimism and a feeling of happiness in our home - in the Palace! And of course, I should say my warmest thankfulness for friendship and cooperation to all our foreign colleagues, friends and partners!

General director
Maria Katunova

2021, January 27th - 77th Leningrad Victory Day

This week was very important not only for all the Palace teachers and students but for each St. Petersburg resident. Every year, January 27th, the whole city is immersed into the memories of the city N**i blockade terrible days. The whole week, the Palace of Youth Creativity was honouring the memory of the defenders and residents of the besieged city by “The Watch of Memory" at the Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad, by the project "The Candle of Memory" on the territory of Anichkov Manor; adults and children laid flowers at the monuments, the historical exhibition “The Mirror of Memory” was opened in the Multimedia Historical Park, and throughout this week, children have watched documentaries and feature films about the besieged city, discussed and shared their family stories in their classes.
And despite, no one was specially invited to those events due to the strong pandemic restrictions, many citizens came with their own candles, flowers and desire to be thankful for this huge their parents’ and grandparents’ sacrifice.
We remember that sacrifice and have no wish to repeat the war!

Video conference with Turkmenistan

October has started with a video conference "Support for talented youth" among leaders and teachers of children's institutions of non-formal education in St. Petersburg and teachers from the State Institution of the Joint Russian-Turkmen School named after A. Pushkin, Ashgabat city.
During the conference, the Russian experience of working with different ages talented children and forms of their support were presented to the colleagues in Turkmenistan:
- Summer shifts "Juniors Worldskills Russia" and shifts "Wise City" (Academy of Digital Technologies in St.Petersburg);
- implementation of a local history program for different ages schoolchildren, as well as the experience of preparing schoolchildren for participation in city and all-country competitions;
- organizing and establishing study activities in the press centre (journalistics) for teenagers;
- a unique approach to creativity and art of the Children's Design Center (St. Petersburg City Palace of Youth Creativity).
We are glad that, despite all these restrictions in different countries due to the Corona-19, specialists find the opportunity to communicate and exchange their experiences. We hope for further fruitful cooperation with the Turkmen colleagues and the opportunity to continue our meeting offline in the Palace!

Scientific and Practical Seminar of project "Saved Childhood"

Every year, September 8th, St. Petersburg comes back into the memories of the Second World War terrible days, when the city was under the N**is blockade. During the 900 days of the blockade, millions of city residents and soldiers died from starvation, cold, bombing, they were killed trying to defend their land, history and the great city.
The project "Saved Childhood" has been implemented for 3 years, it is aimed at joint schoolchildren’s research works from different regions of Russia to study children’s and educators’ biographies and destinies who were evacuated from besieged Leningrad to different Russia regions and other Republics.
This September 8th, participants’ meeting began with a small excursion around the exhibition, where the family relics of the wartime presented - things and photographs carefully kept by the former pupils of the boarding school and their educators' families. During the meeting, the colleagues from three Russia regions were talking about the steps that have already been done in this project, shared new findings, about the research results, discussed the educational potential of the "Saved Childhood" project for schoolchildren.
They noted that the project "Saved Childhood" not only helps to improve children’s research skills but also contributes to the development of emotional intelligence, critical, logical and strategic thinking, teaches teamwork, improves self-management skills, communication and trains children in self-presentation of work results - everything what today we call flexible competencies or soft skills.