Welcome to the American School of Warsaw's Parent Teacher Organization (PTO)!
We are privileged to have immensely dedicated parent volunteers, who help to bring together faculty, staff and families to enhance our children’s educational experience.
PTO Highlights
After helping new families find their feet on the first day of school in August 2020, volunteers from the PTO get together for a group photo.
The Spring Faire takes place close to the end of the school year and features a garage sale, fun entertainment and delicious food.Once a month parents are invited to Coffee Morning to socialise, have fun and learn about upcoming volunteer opportunities at school events. Previous Coffee Mornings have seen cultural presentations from the Polish, Chinese, Korean, Turkish and many other communities.UN Day is one of the most important days on the school calendar. It is a day when we celebrate our diversity by coming together and sharing elements from each of our own cultures.The Romania station at United Nations Day.The Color Run takes place on the same day as the Senior's last day of school, and is typically organised for students in the Elementary School. Students, parents and staff dressed in Santa hats take part in a fun run around the running track just before the Christmas break.Parents prepare lunch for teachers and staff.
The PTO organizes regular school events like UN Day or Book Fair. The PTO also helps new parents integrate into our community through regular adult-only events. In the 2020-21 school year, these events may look a little different due to Covid-19 restrictions.
My name is Maria Daifoti and I come from Athens, Greece. I am married to Nick and we have two daughters in ASW, Nino in 3rd grade and Zoe in 7th grade. Together with our dog Whiskey we arrived in Warsaw in 2018 and since then I have been an active member of our school’s community. I have a background in journalism and international relations and I was working for 12 years as a reporter of foreign news in a big TV station in Athens.
Besides my PTO commitment I enjoy my yoga and Pilates classes, my passion for painting, jewelry making and dancing. What I have loved about Warsaw, since day one, is the opportunity to take long walks and bike in the beautiful parks of the city. This the best time for me to clear my head and recharge my batteries - I totally recommend it!
Even though I am Greek I consider myself an international citizen and what I have enjoyed most during this time of expat life is getting to know people from all the parts of the world. The more I engage in the international community the more I realize that we have more things in common than differences. We share the same feelings and the same worries, but we express them in a different way. As you can imagine, I do it in my “big fat Greek" way!
I have lived in Italy, England and Bulgaria and have always been grateful for the great gift of international friendships. Maybe this year, you won’t have the opportunity to see me laughing loud with my friends in the cafeteria but I will be communicating with you via eNotes once a week and I will be only a Zoom away for our PTO coffee mornings, for simple chatting and for making sure that our parents' community will stay strong during this period of uncertainty.
Volunteering for me is a blessing and I feel that this world will only get better if we stay united! Because as Pink Floyd once sang, 'Together we stand, divided we fall'!
My life moto is 'use your dreams to make your reality'! So this year, we will dream together to achieve a much better reality! And there is no better way than volunteering for our PTO!
Hello! I am Rupali Dua, an Indian, a mother of two boys studying in ASW, Pranit (Junior IB) and Aarit (Grade 8). We moved to Warsaw in June 2019 when my husband took up an assignment in Poland, with the bank he works for.
Our stay so far has been way beyond our expectations and we feel reasonably successful. In the last year, while the boys settled well in school, I spent a fair amount of time associating myself with various projects run by the PTO as well as the teachers.
I am now a homemaker, after having pursued my professional interests in India, for over 10 years, in the areas of Training and Quality & Process Improvement Consulting.
I am a ‘people's person’ and enjoy every opportunity I get to interact and be of help to people around me. It is truly my pleasure to be a part of the PTO Board this year and to be able to contribute in any way possible. I look forward to meaningful interactions with the ASW community.
Hi, I’m Emma. I hold both British and Irish citizenship and moved to Warsaw from
Amsterdam in December 2020. I have a son (Kaden) in grade 8, and a daughter (Orla) in
grade 6. I grew up in a second-generation military family, so experienced changing home
and school multiple times during childhood, as well as being immersed in something of a
military “subculture”. I see some parallels between military life and expat life, and recognise
that these lifestyles come with both opportunities and challenges.
My degree is in Computing and Informatics, and I’ve worked in various technical roles for
IBM and a large British financial services company.
I left paid employment to spend more time with my children, but I have been lucky enough
to be able to do regular voluntary work at a hospital, schools, charities, a museum, a library
and for my local police force. I also had the great fortune to be selected as a Games Maker
for the London 2012 paralympics which was an incredible experience.
I am a lifelong learner, and as such gained my Postgraduate Certificate in Education when I
trained as a secondary school Computer Science teacher. Coincidentally, I chose to write my
PGCE dissertation on how schools might foster a sense of belonging for internationally
mobile pupils! Our rather unexpected move to Amsterdam led me to change tack slightly, so
I gained my CELTA qualification there (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults).
I am embarking on a distance learning degree in International Studies with the UK’s Open
University this autumn.
I hope to be able to foster my own sense of belonging here by being actively involved in the
school community through the PTO, and am looking forward to meeting and working with
many of you over the coming year.
My name is Eveline Bouwens and we moved from the Netherlands to Warsaw 3 years ago. We have three boys: Daan is in grade 4, Max is in grade 1 and Bart goes to the Montessori Academy for International Children. This year I joined the PTO as ES Coordinator. In this role, I will be coordinating grade level activities for the Elementary School together with the ES grade level representatives, for which parent involvement is needed (festivities, celebrations, decorations). Hope to see you soon!
