Ananyeva N.V., an FCG vice-principal will spend all this week in Canada, participating in the workshop dedicated to the beginning of implementing the project SMRT of distance learning, which will be launched as soon as January 2013. The project became a reality thanks to the cooperation between the FCG and Cherkasy ICEA agency.
The SMRT Program was initiated by the Canadian College of English Language (CCEL), one of the leading language schools in the world. The educational process involves the use of different online resources by students.
On December 7-8, 2012 the municipal stage of the All-Ukrainian subject olympiads in foreign languages was held. The olympiads took place at Gymnasia No. 31.
On December 10 appeals were held. Our Gymnasia has 39 winners: 14 in English, 13 in French, 8 in Spanish and 4 in German.
11 pupils took first place (Solohor Anna, Sukhobrus Igor, Kravets Valentyna, Striletska Daria, Krasyuk Roman (English), Paliy Maxym, Shvayko Anastasia (French), Kovalenko Anastasia, Valeriya Sluchynska (Spanish), Polina Samoilenko, Oleksandra Kovalenko (German).
OUR CONGRATULATIONS TO THE WINNERS AND THEIR TEACHERS!
On December 5-6, 2012 the principal participated in the nationwide scientific methodology workshop for principals, where the German language is studied. The workshop was held at the Municipal Teacher's Club. Among the specialists who spoke to the participants of the workshop were the first secretary of the German Embassy to Ukraine, the Director of the Goethe Institute in Kyiv, Boris Zhebrovsky, a Deputy Minister of Education, Science and Youth, Oksana Kovalenko, a chief specialist of the Department of General and Elementary Education of the Ministry of Education, Science and Youth, etc. The purpose of the workshop was developing in Ukraine the network of schools in which German would be studied, improving teacher training, developing educational exchanges, and so on. The principal met with Ms O. Kovalenko and had a talk with her. She promised to visit the Gymnasia the next spring. The next week, the principal would conduct several meetings at which he would talk about the workshop and the prospects of the German language at the FCG.
Today we played host to a troupe of school students from UK who have just staged a play in Cherkasy, based on the work of Charles Dickens. Called ‘Great Times and Bleak Twists’, the play draws on episodes from Dickens’s fiction. It played to an audience of 600 people in Cherkasy.
The students come from Chilton Cantelo school in south-west England, which has been working under “Connecting Classrooms” project with Cherkasy First City Gymnasia here in Ukraine. The students are all sixteen or seventeen year olds, who have taken Drama as one of their GCSE options.
The Deputy Head Teacher from Cherkasy First City Gymnasia, Nadiya Ananieva, described the play as a ‘great event’ for the city. “Drama is not an optional subject in the Ukrainian curriculum, so to see students perform who have selected this as an examination subject is fantastic.”
Julian Pomroy, one of the teachers accompanying the group, “As my first visit with a school group to Ukraine, it has been everything I expected and more.”
The students clearly enjoyed themselves, having their first taste of Ukrainian life. What were their impressions? The vast space of the Ukrainian countryside, and the food.
“Everyone keeps feeding us, even when we are not hungry,” one student commented.
On November 30 the results of the action "Days of sustainable energy" held at secondary schools were summed up at the House of Culture after I. Kulyk. Mayor Serhiy Odarych presented the winners of the contest with gifts and the schools with certificates for the best results in saving energy. It is pleasant to note that our Gymnasia was also among the schools-winners. Moreover, it was the only school that received the title of "School with the most efficient use of energy." Thus, we won the first place and that is what the administration congratulates everybody on.
The 9th International Olympiad in the fundamentals of sciences is starting soon. It will include 16 subjects. The organizer of the event is the Ural Federal University (Russia), and in Ukraine, the International University of Human Development "Ukraine". http://urfodu.ru/ua/ru
Last year our Gymnasia pupils won a lot of gold and silver medals for taking part in the olimpiad. This is the ONLY Olympiad in Russia, where the "subjective" factor doesn’t work.
The Project Coordinators at the FCG areVinogradova S.O. (for participants from primary school) and Zamuruyeva A.O. (for 5-11th formers).
The details about the Olympiad are in the SERVICE ROOM.
On November 25, a city Olympiad in physical education was held for the first time in Cherkasy. In Ukraine, the contest was also organized for the first time, having never been held before.
And ... the first attempt was successful for our pupils. PRUDYVUS DANA (the current Queen of Gymnasia) won the FIRST place, and ANDRUSHCHENKODENYS won the SECOND place. Now, they are preparing for the Regional Olympiad.
In December, a municipalbasketball championship will be held in Cherkasy. Traditonally, the Gymnasia will be representedonly by a youth team at the championship. All our attempts to createa girls` basketball team in September-October 2012 were unsuccessful.
So, the first qualifying games will be held on 10-12 Decemberin our school gym. All the games with the participation of our boys will start after 4. 00 p.m.
On December 6, 2012 Tsyganenko N.S., a Japanese teacher, has been invited to participate in the All-Ukrainian seminar for teachers of Japanese, which will be held at Kyiv Gymnasia of Oriental Languages No. 1, which is an FCG partner school.There will be also a meeting with the Ambassador of Japan, who spoke the word to personally meetall the teachers of the Japanese language in Ukraine.
On November 15 more than a hundred pupils and teachers saw off SEAN BASHARD, a Peace Corps volunteer in Ukraine. Sean was the fifth PC volunteerover the past 25 years.
Grateful Gymnasia pupils loaded Sean with souvenirs and gifts made with their own hands. Anna Solohor, a Gymnasia pupil, the FCG principal, Ananyeva N.V.,Tkachenko L.D. and others sincerely thanked the volunteer for his work at the Gymnasia.
The principal presentedSean with a keepsake picture "Cherkasy Center" by Olga Dzhoos, afamous artist from Cherkasy.
Soon Sean will set foot on his native American land where he will start making his professional career.
On October, 17 teachers of English T. Belyayeva and A. Zamuruieva took part in a seminar organized by Oxford University Press for primary teachers in Kyiv. The seminar was dedicated todevelopingliteracyin early years.Olha Madylus (the trainer from UK) paid special attention to the importance of creating a literacy learning environment which is motivating and fun. Every participant had a chance to feel oneself in students’ shoes and try different literacy developing activities. This Friday the teachers presented the information obtained during the seminar to the English teachers of primary school of our gymnasia.
We have received unofficial information regarding our Gymnasia’s rating according to the results in the External Independent testing-2012. This is the third time we are among the first hundred schools that have the best results in Ukraine. Besides our Gymnasia, PhyMLy is also among the first hundred of schools.
The informal data are available at http://forum.maidan.org.ua/T%D0% 97% D0% 9D% D0% 9E-2012. Soon, these data will be published in the Journal VISNYK TIMO (TIMO MESSENGER).
Let us congratulate our teachers and pupils on such a great achievement!
In 2010 the First City Gymnasia, UNESCO Associated School, Cherkasy, Ukraine, joined the British Council Program “Connecting Classrooms”. Much work has been done on the main projects of the program but the Bicentenary of Charles Dickens (1812-2012) has been paid special attention to and it’s no wonder because the students of the senior forms study the subject “English Literature” 2 lessons per week. Besides the school has competent and enthusiastic highly-qualified teachers of English Literature.
The regional, city and national mass media wrote much about the creation of the ABC-book mini-museum at our Gymnasia. From the very beginning of its establishment, it became clear that there was little room for the museum in the playroom. Then it was decided to install it in a more spacious and convenient place.
So, during the autumn holidays the mini-museum received a new residence – the lobby on the ground floor of the Gymnasia’s elementary school.
The Gymnasia’s administration asks everybody and all to help in replenishing the collection. We are also ready to buy old ABC-books, as well as the ones from other countries. Please send your proposals to serte@i.ua
So the day in the Gymnasia’s life, preparations to which began as early as January 2012, came. It was then that we started to take part in the British Council in Ukraine’s program "Connecting Classrooms" and began preparations for the celebration of the 200th birth anniversary of Charles Dickens, the famous classic of English literature. A detailed plan for holding various activities dedicated to this memorable date at the Gymnasia, was drawn up. The activities agreed Vic Jackopson, a well-known in Ukraine philanthropist and benefactor (Hope Now International Charitable Christian Fund), agreed to open these activities. He twice visited the Gymnasia with lectures and multimedia presentations on the life and work of the famous writer, and also applied to the administrations of secondary schools in the UK with the initiative to stage a play based on Charles Dickens’ works and the opportunity to perform it in English at Cherkasy First City Gymnasia.
Our website has reported already that the finale of the all-Ukrainian contest of the quality of products “Ukraine’s 100 best goods" was held in the capital’s Ukrainian House from October 22 to October 24, 2012. In the category of education services, our Gymnasia became a laureate and received a Diploma and a stylish statuette. The awards were received by V.I. Bereslavska, a Merited teacher of Ukraine. All the preparatory work had been done by Vinogradova S.O., a vice-principal.
During the final days of the contest a display of the Gymnasia’s famous people was mounted in the Ukrainian House. After returning to Cherkasy, it was installed on the first floor of the Gymnasia. The Diploma is displayed near the principal’s office.
Besides, there, in Kyiv, all the visitors could obtain information about the Gymnasia by receiving copies of our newspapers and watching electronic presentations.
Next week, a group of Cherkasy teachers and students will go to the territory of the European Union. They will go to take part in a seminar which will be held in a small German town of Bad Libenzel, Baden-Wuerttemberg.
For the first time, and the program has been in action for a quite long time, its participants will meet with Rainer Wieland, the Vice-President of the European Parliament, a member of the European People’s Party. The meeting will be held on October 24 in the European Parliament, in Strasbourg.
The program also involves several other meetings and visits.
As you know, from October 22 to October 29, 2012 the Gymnasia will host the delegation of young British pupils from Chilton Сantelo School, the County of Somerset. 8 boys and 3 girls, accompanied by two English teachers will spend a week in Cherkasy.
The visit schedule is almost ready. They will visit the Gymnasia, they will be received by the Mayor Serhiy Odarych, they will visit Uman, Kyiv, Chyhyryn. But the main feature of the program will be the performance in English that the amateurs from Britain are going to present for the pupils of several Cherkasy schools at the local Drama Theatre. The amateur theatricals will be based on the works by Charles Dickens, whose 200th anniversary is being celebrated around the world.
The preparation for the visit is coming to an end. The guests will stay with the families of the Gymnasia pupils.
On October 11, 2012 new governing bodies of the Gymnasia board were elected. So, once again, Sylenko V.A., a teacher of History and Law, was elected the Chairman of the Board. His deputies became Ocheretianko Anastasia (from among the pupils) and Ivanenko I.V. (from among the parents). Dudnik S.V., a social teacher, was elected the secretary of the board.
The list of the board commissions was confirmed. A commission on international and project activities was added to the commissions of the day. The commissions’ heads were elected.
The board considered several questions concerning the educational process.
The Polish Language Center "English Point" has invited a group of pupils from Cherkasy First City Gymnasia to take part in the international project "O'Henry". The project team consists of 14 FCG 9th graders led by Kirsanova E.V., a teacher-methodologist of English.
