The holidays are behind us, but let’s us keep the holiday spirit a little longer. This time we will focus on the last good man – Father Frost. How was it celebrated in the past and how today?

In the past, the arrival of Father Frost at school was a big event. The teachers came to school in the afternoon to decorate the hall and classrooms and prepare the program and gifts that the good man brought to the good and hardworking children. Usually sweets and school supplies, but sometimes individual classes also got a board game or some legos. Students and teachers prepared a cultural program for Father Frost with recitations, singing and dancing. This event took place somewhere between Christmas and New Year, as they did not have Christmas holidays at that time.

Now we celebrate the arrival of Father Frost or Santa Clause together with the holiday of independence and unity on the last day before the Christmas holidays begin. A cultural program is held with a variety of different shows as children eagerly expect and call out for Father Frost or Santa Claus together. He brings gifts that were provided by generous donors, and then says goodbye with a promise to visit us again next year.

But, regardless of when and how the good man from the north comes, the students then and now await him with wide smiles and sparkles in their eyes.

The school is extremely happy when a working machine comes, as is expected that something will be worked on or be restored. From a small building on top of the hill in 1970, we have become a large and modern school that can be proud of many its achievements. Though every achievement is not self-evident or was not easily acquired, but it made working with students much easier and ensured their better safety. In addition to co-financing of the municipalities of Črnomelj, Metlika and Semič, we obtained a large part of the financial resources through European projects and donations.

During these years, we acquired a multi-sensory room, renovated a classroom for housekeeping courses, we gained a school changing room, additional sanitary facilities, better energy efficiency, additional classrooms on the 1st floor of the former student dormitory, the connecting corridor between the school and the former student dormitory, dining room, a path to the sports field, classroom outside, toilets for the disabled, elevator… The school is now equipped with new furniture, modern IT boards and computers, and many accessories intended for children with special needs.

The 50th anniversary is an important jubilee, as part of which we will also ceremoniously open new, renovated rooms in the student dormitory, where our most vulnerable, but most heart-felt students have their classrooms.

Local people still like to call our school “Special School”. ‘Special Elementary School Črnomelj’ was our first name, which was used until 23^rd April 1978. At that time, in accordance with the new law on education and training of children and adolescents with disabilities in physical and mental development, the school was renamed to Milke Šobar – Nataše Elementary School Črnomelj.

And why exactly this new name, which in those years was also the name of today’s Šmihel Elementary School?

Since 1974, the school has had a pioneering movement named after Milka Šobar – Nataše, a local partisan commissar who fell during World War II and was declared a national heroine. The school organization then unanimously agreed that the school should bear this name, and the surviving relatives of the late heroine also agreed.

Nowadays, we call our school MŠN or Milka for short. Who knows if it will keep the name for the next 50 years?

New decades have always been something special for the school. We remembered the paths we had taken and enthusiastically expected new challenges.

For the school’s 10th anniversary, in 1980, the school published a brochure Our ten years. A special issue of the school newspaper Zvončki was also published, and the news about the jubilee could also be read in the national daily newspaper Delo (December 23, 1980).

Ten years later, we again published a special issue of Zvončki, and some articles were published in other media (for example in DELO, 27 December 1990).

In 2000, on the 30th anniversary, a special issue of Zvončki was issued, and in the local paper Belokranjec, an article written by the headteacher Ema Šujica, was also published.

The celebration of the 40th anniversary was very special. As part of the celebrations, we recorded the school anthem (text and music: Vlasta Lah, Nina Aupič, arrangement: Primož Vranicar). On April 15^th, 2011, an event was held in the Črnomelj Cultural Center, which was followed by a school open day. For the occasion of the 40th anniversary, a book was published.

How will we celebrate the 50th anniversary? You just might be surprised…

We all do things in life at our own pace. Eventually, we all reach our goal. The Milke Šobar – Nataše Elementary School first opened its doors with a delay. Literally. As part of then Črnomelj Elementary School (now Mirana Jarca Elementary School), classes began on October 1^st, 1970 with only two classes and 18 students. On December 2^nd, 1970, the school got its own premises, which represented the end of the first construction stage. The second part of the school building was completed in May 1973 and in the 1973/74 school year, and on September 14^th, 1973, the so called Special Elementary School was officially established. At that time, the school had 7 classes and 80 students. Today, on the threshold of its 50th anniversary, the school has 11 classes and 82 students.

The school never had an easy road. Nevertheless, we just might reach our goal…