PULTEVENT
International school events: 7 formats for family nights, awards and culture days
A sports hall in an international school outside The Hague, a Friday in March. Twelve folding tables, each with a paper flag stuck in a cup of sand: Japan, Ghana, Brazil, Sweden, and a table that could not agree and made its own flag out of two napkins. The PTA chair is counting pizza boxes. A father from Chennai is teaching his table the difference between two cricket terms nobody asked about. On the wall, the projector is warming up with the school crest.
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International schools have more events per term than most companies have per year: family quiz nights, International Day, sports awards, leavers' assemblies, fundraisers. They also have audiences that speak thirty languages at home and share one at school. Teachers and PTA volunteers organise most of it, usually on top of a full week.
PULTEVENT is a tool for exactly that kind of volunteer host. The organiser runs the console from a laptop browser; the hall projector shows the game; families answer on their phones after scanning a QR code, no app or sign-up. The guest screens follow each phone's language, so a parent who reads Japanese more comfortably than English sees the interface in Japanese. Phones need internet, so the school's guest Wi-Fi needs to be switched on for the evening.
7 formats for international school events
1 Family quiz night
Families play as teams on one phone each. Rounds on the school, the city, general knowledge, and a picture round for the youngest team members.
How to run it. Write a round each with three or four teachers. The children will go wild for the one set by the PE teacher.
The classic PTA fundraiser, minus the marking at the back of the hall.
2 International Day flag round
Flags, dishes and landmarks on screen, and families guess the country. The team from that country is sworn to silence, which is harder than it sounds.
How to run it. Include every nationality in the school, even if it is one family.
Every child sees their country on the big screen at least once.
3 Guess the teacher
Baby photos, or a surprising fact, of teaching staff. Families guess on their phones, and the reveal gets the loudest laugh of the evening.
How to run it. Ask staff to volunteer, never compel. There are always enough who love it.
Pupils see their teachers as people for a moment, and parents meet the staff in a relaxed way.
4 Timeline of the school year
Events of the school year, from the first day to the ski trip, put in the right order on phones.
How to run it. Use photos from the school's own archive, cleared for use.
A playful way to look back at the year before a summer event or leavers' evening.
5 Awards evening with a student vote
Categories chosen by staff, with a student-voted award for the teacher of the year or best house event. Votes from phones, results on screen, then the ceremony with music.
How to run it. For a vote by students, make sure the device policy of the school allows it for that age group.
The student-voted award means something because the room saw the vote happen.
6 Leavers' video and slideshow
Clips from former teachers who have moved to other schools abroad, a slideshow of the year group from their first day, credits with every name.
How to run it. Start collecting clips in February. Leaving teachers are hard to reach in June.
In an international school many classmates will scatter across continents. This is their last shared screen.
7 Break screens and timings
Between the quiz rounds, a break screen with a countdown tells parents when the bake sale closes and the next round starts.
How to run it. Put the raffle and bake sale times on the same screen.
No more shouting over a hall of 200 people with a microphone that howls.
One phone per family
Families play as teams on a parent's phone, so younger children can join without a device of their own.
Parents read their own language
The phone interface follows each parent's phone language. Questions appear as you write them.
From quiz night to prize-giving
Quiz, voting, awards, slideshows and break screens live in one console.
Built for volunteers
The PTA chair can run it after one practice evening.
Children and phones
Most international school events are family events, and the children are too young for their own device, or the school prefers they do not use one. The simple solution is one phone per family, held by a parent, with children shouting answers at it. For older students, check the school's device policy first. Some schools allow phones for a supervised event; others prefer teams on shared tablets.
"Can I press it?"
"You can press it after we agree on the answer."
Thirty languages, one hall
The school's working language is usually English, sometimes with a second language like French or German. At home, families speak everything. The guest interface on each phone uses that phone's language, which helps the parents who manage perfectly well in English at work but relax into Korean or Portuguese on a Friday evening. The quiz questions themselves appear as written, so keep them simple, and read them aloud from the front.
A PTA volunteer's evening
Plan to arrive an hour early. Connect the laptop to the hall projector, open the console, put the splash screen with the school crest and the date on the wall. Test the QR code with your own phone on the guest network. Ask a colleague to test from the far corner of the hall; the signal is often weakest by the stage.
The school may already have a quiz template from last year. The built-in decks in PULTEVENT are mostly in Russian today, so plan to write your own questions or ask teachers to contribute a round each.
International Day
Many international schools hold a day or evening where families bring food from home, children parade with flags and classes perform. A flag and food quiz on the big screen, run between the performances, keeps the audience seated and gives the families behind each food stall a moment of glory.
Graduation and awards
For more formal occasions, keep the games small and let the ceremony lead. A splash screen with the graduates' photos, the student-voted awards and a credits roll at the end are often enough. Leave the Horse Race for the after-party.
Budget and trial
PTA budgets are small, so try everything in the free 3-day demo without a card first. The full version is a one-time licence with no subscription, which means one decision rather than a yearly renewal. See pultevent.ru/en for the current price.
About the author
PULTEVENT was built by Ruslan Barashkin, who has hosted weddings, birthdays and office parties since 2014: over 500 events, best host of Moscow 2024 and of Saint Petersburg 2023 at the TOP 100 Awards. He made it for his own nights first. The rest is at pultevent.ru/en.
How to run a family quiz night at an international school
- 1
Agree the date with the school and ask for the guest Wi-Fi to be on for the evening.
- 2
Collect a quiz round from each volunteer teacher and photos for the flag round.
- 3
Build the quiz and the awards in the console, and set the splash screen with the school crest.
- 4
Arrange tables by family teams and put the QR code on screen as people arrive.
- 5
Play the rounds with break screens for the bake sale and raffle.
- 6
Close with the scoreboard awards and a slideshow of the evening.
FAQ
Do children need their own phones?
Can parents see the game in their own language?
Do families need to install anything?
Is there a ready-made school quiz in English?
Can we show a slideshow of the year?
Can grandparents abroad join?
What does the school pay?
See also
Run brighter events — with PULTEVENT
All audience interactions, a second screen and timing in one app. Guests join by QR — internet is needed for you and for them.
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