On June 12, 2012 an agreement on cooperation with Gymnasia No. 9 that is in Simferopol, Crimea, was signed. Gymnasia No. 9 is a UNESCO Associated School, the specialization of the institution matches with ours. Gymnasia No. 9 is one of the leading schools in the capital of the Crimea. It has a strong position in teaching the English language, the development of international relations, experience in making their own text-books, etc.
It is not by chance that in June we organized an International Ukrainian-German Seminar at the Crimean partner school, about which our site informed its guests.
On July 1, the Interact Club changed its leaders. MOKRUSHYNA Mariya became the president of the club, and SUKHOBRUS Ihor became its vice president. They held their posts instead of OCHERETIANKO Anastasia and LYMARENKO Karina.
They were elected for these positions in early spring, but according to the Interact statute, they can only take up their duties beginning with July 1.
This year, for the first time, almost all Interact members had a rest and gained experience in Sevastopol, about which our site already informed its guests. Interact has been operating on the basis of the FCG since 2009.
From now on Kevin offers two different types of courses: intensive and standard. What remains unchanged is the individual approach to the needs of every student. Therefore before taking a course we invite you for an interview where you will discuss all your priorities.
Intensive Courses
Standard Courses
Intensive courses are suitable for the students who lack the time to take longer courses. The last 3-4 weeks each.
The Standard Courses offer deep analysis andimmense practice with all aspects of the tests. The average duration of the courses is 3 months.
BONUS: Dos and Don'ts of a Motivation Letter! How to write great motivation letters to leave a good impression on the Admission committee? This section is a bonus section of the intensive courses and it is provided to the students at no cost.
A workshop "The European dimension of education" will take place at Simferopol gymnasia No. 9 http://9gimnazia.krimedu.com, the best one in the Crimean capital, on June 13-14. It will be held at the expense of the Institute for Civic Education, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany. Our Gymnasia and its principal are the project’s co-coordinators. Moreover, lecturer Karlheitzduerr will be helped in his work by our teacher Khvorostantseva N.V. 30 teachers from Simferopol will participate at the workshop. It is expected that by the end of 2012, another seminar of the kind will have been held in Lviv. A year ago, the similar seminar took place at our Gymnasia for 30 teachers from Cherkasy.
Today the Gymnasia was visited the by a guest from the distant and exotic Norway. Thomas Føld comes from Oslo, the capital of Norway. At present, he is living in a small town of Eydskoh, where he has been deputized to the City Council by a party. He learned about Cherkasy and Ukraine from his Internet acquaintance with a girl from Cherkasy. He has been to Cherkasy more than once, so has some plans for the development of friendly relations between our towns.
The guest called on the FCG to make a motion for establishing cooperation in the sphere of education. The talks were conducted with the FCG principal and vice-principal Ananyeva N. V., during which their participants discussed ways of possible cooperation in the future.
The British Council has invited Kirsanova Estella Volodymyrivna, Potiomkina Olha Vasylivna, teachers of English from Cherkasy First City Gymnasia, and a group of 6 Gymnasia pupils to participate in the festival "Big Dance" as part of the British Council’s project “Connecting Classrooms ", held in Kyiv on May 18 2012. “Connecting Classrooms" is put into practice by the British Council with the support of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of Ukraine.
The National Contest Committee of V All-Ukrainian Competition of Charitable Projects "Doing Good Starts with You" has finished its work.
Selected finalists are being invited to Kyiv to attend the National Forum of "Doing Good Starts with You." Among the finalists there is also Interact-Cherkasy, which became a finalist due to its participation in the project "We can do it together! It is easier to do it together!" which is run in the orphanage “TEPLIY DIM (WARM HOUSE)”.
The forum will be held on May 22, 2012 in Kyiv, in the Teacher’s Club, beginning at 10:00 a.m. Its schedule includes round table meetings, presentations of charitable projects, and the ceremony of awarding the winners and laureates of the contest 'Doing Good Starts with You. "
We would remind you that V All-Ukrainian Competition of Charitable Projects "Doing Good Starts with You" was launched on August 30, 2012. In sum, 302 charitable projects arrived at it.
Nastia Ocheretianko, the president of Interact, will go to the finale of the contest.
Cherkasy First City Gymnasia takes an active part in the British Council program “Connecting Classrooms”. The other day we received the information about BBC World Class from Alice Castle who had interviewed the teachers of English and pupils of our school on Annual News Day on March 15, 2012. This time the BBC has planned something really exciting. It wants to find out if the schools want to get involved. The idea is to get as many schools as possible to take part in a huge school assembly. The students will talk about what matters to children in the world today.
The gymnasia organized a twenty minute assembly on May 8, 2012. We talked about the topics the pupils of the ages from 12 through 15 were really interested in. They were asked the question “What matters to me?” Here are some students’ replies which will be sent to the BBC World Class. There is the program called World Have You Say which will be broadcasting from schools around the globe. Hopefully, this information will be also included.
In 2011-2012 academic year, 51 school-leavers are finishing Cherkasy First City Gymnasia. 40 of them (78%) have passed such international examinations in English as a Foreign Language as TOEFL, IELTS, Cambridge ESOL. Four school-leavers passed TOEFL (level C1, B2, B1), 2 school-leavers - IELTS (B1, B2). Most pupils took Cambridge ESOL (FCE) - 34 (27 – at the FCG, 7 - at the British Council in Kyiv). The results were decent: 23 school-leavers (68%) received Level B2, 8 - B1, 3 - C1. According to the order by the FCG principal, enforcing the requirements of the information-methodological letter “On the order of graduation the school year and the state final attestation at secondary schools in 2011/2012 academic year” № 1/9-61 of 27. 01. 2012, and according to the international certificates received by the pupils, all these school-leavers are to be marked 12 as an annual estimate in English, to be exempted from the state final attestation and be marked 12 at it.
On May 7, the Gymnasia pupils took their state final attestation in English. Only 10 school-leavers were present at the exam, the rest automatically received 12 points.
On April 30 the Gymnasia was visited by a small delegation from the U.S., which visited Cherkasy within the scope of professional exchanges of the Rotary global movement. Mark Whitfield, the team Leader, and Ashley Pepsin, a College Recruiter, from Pennsylvania, learnt about the work of the FCG, were present at a little concert in foreign languages, had a talk with the principal, N.V. Ananieva, E.V. Kirsanova and N.V. Hvorostantseva. Nastia Ocheretianko, the Interact President, and Viktor Sukhobrus, the Vice President-elect, were asked a lot of questions.
All in all, Cherkasy was visited by four members of the project, but the others were working outside the Gymnasia.
NOTE: On the request of the local Rotary Club CHERKASY-CENTER we’d like to announce that a selection of children with the diagnosis of heart arrhythmia is being made for treatment in Germany. Participation in the project, examination by German doctors in May, treatment is free of charge. Children from all regions of Ukraine may take part in the project.
On April 28 the Bush family from the U.S. (Elysia Bush, ESL Lecturer and Perry Bush, Professor, Fulbright Program Winner) came to the FCG for the first time to deliver a series of lectures for its teachers and senior pupils.
The lectures were accompanied by Power Point presentations. The subjects of lectures “Academic Writing”, “Academic Research”, “American Literature” interested everyone. In particular, the pupils enjoyed the opportunity to participate in role situations. Cassidy, a 14-year old youngest family member, was invited by Potemkina O.V., a teacher-methodologist, to be present at her Lesson of English at Form 7. The teacher managed to organize the discussion, emphasizing the importance of Dialogue of Cultures.
The meeting was made possible owing to the assistance of the Cherkasy Woman Center (Director - Victoria Kuzmina).
On April 25, 2012 the Gymnasia was visited by Douglas Teshner, the director of the Peace Corps in Ukraine. The meeting with the American official was held in the Reception Room. The guest was greeted with Ukrainian songs by Y. Hanenko, a Form 8-B pupil, and O. Rafayilova, a Form 11-B pupil.
K. Zrazhevskiy, a Form 8-B pupil, played a musical piece for the piano.
N. Valieieva and V. Abramova, Form 11-A pupils, N. Hlushchenko and
J. Drobysh, Form 10-B pupils, welcomed D. Teshner in German, Spanish, French and English.
Ananieva N.V., a vice-principal, told the guest about the close contacts with the U.S. Peace Corps in Ukraine since 1996 and remembered the Peace Corps volunteers in Ukraine, who worked at the FCG (Jody Cornell, Bonnie Robinson, Jerry Shoberleyn, Michael Zatloff).
SVATKOVA VLADISLAVA, a Form 3 schoolgirl,hasoccupied the ABSOLUTE FIRST place in English among almost 50 000 participants of the popular English language contest “BRITISH BULLDOG”, which is held in Russia and the former Soviet Union countries, by the "Institute of productive teaching." Vladislava was the first at the Gymnasia, in Cherkassy region, in Ukraine and Russia.
Good results were also shown by Nudnenko Daniil, a 4th former, Krasiuk Roman, a 7th former, Mazurovskiy Dmitro, an 8th former, and Yuliya Drobysh, a 10th former.
The project is coordinated at the Gymnasia by Tkachenko L.D., an English teacher,
From April 19 to 21 a festival of Ukraine’s Euroclubs will be held in Kirovohrad. Our Gymnasia Euroclub will also participate in the festival. So tomorrow, Polina Arapova, the club's president, together with Tsupilo Katherina and Mariya Mokrushina, her clubmates, will go to the nearby regional centre. Voitsiakh S.O., a social pedagogue, will go with the participants of the festival to Kirovohrad.
Our club will participate at II stage of the festival in the category "Euroclubs and youth organizations."
The festival will be held at the Kirovohrad Regional Centre for Children and Teenager’s Creative Activities (CCTCA), which is one of the best in Ukraine in terms of work.
MYKHAILIUK Sviatoslav, a Form 9A pupil, has been recognized the best Year-2012 player of Division A of the basketball league in which teams of youths born in 1997 play. This came to our knowledge after holding Ukraine’s basketball championship among the youths of this age group in Gorlivka, Donetsk region, on April 4-7.
The Gymnasia pupil’s achievement is affirmed by a diploma he was awarded by Ukraine’s National Federation of Basketball and an original cup.
Let’s recall that Sviatoslav is a holder of the stipend from the city mayor in 2011-2012 school year. He is a pupil of the 9th form, he is 196 cm tall.
BANADYSIEVA ANGELA, a Form 10A pupil, has become a finalist of the prestigious international program FLEX. The Gymnasia pupil will study the whole next year at a school in the U.S.A.
Currently, two Gymnasia pupils, Tanchyn Tetiana and Anna Solohor, are completing their stay under this program in the U.S.A.
The Program Coordinators in Ukraine reported that Cherkasy region would be
represented by 7 finalists, 5 of them were from Cherkasy.
The name of Vic Jackopson is known to every teacher and student of the First City Gymnasia, Cherkasy, Ukraine. He has visited this school many times, contributing greatly to its innovative development. He has had many meetings with the students during which he brought up in them human qualities and values and encouraged their desire of sharing and caring. On the 3rd of April 2012 on the invitation of the school administration Vic Jackopson met with the students of the 10th-11th forms. Both the teachers and the students listened with great interest to his story about his life and irresistible desire to help other people.
Big Dance will be the ultimate dance experience in 2012. This biennial festival will feature 9 days of dance in unusual spaces throughout the UK – shopping centres, parks, galleries, and lidos - showcasing the diversity of dance styles in the capital and across the country.
The next Big Dance will take place across the UK from 7-15 July 2012 and includes a 7-week countdown period starting on 18 May 2012 as part of London 2012 Festival - the finale of the Cultural Olympiad.
Everyone is invited to join in and make dance part of their lives in 2012 and beyond.
Big Dance is London’s Legacy Trust UK programme and was initiated in 2006 by the Mayor of London in partnership with Arts Council England. Big Dance 2010 saw 850 events across the capital over the 9 day festival and 6-week countdown.
We have received the results of the popular English-language competition “Greenwich” held for several years by the Center of Creative Initiatives “Klievier” and Gorlovka Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages.
166 Gymnasia pupils participated in the competition this academic year. The results were high. 97 Gymnasia pupils received Gold, Silver and Bronze certificates (58% of all the participants). 27 Gymnasia pupils received Gold certificates (17%).
Last year 266 pupils participated in the competition, but the results were more modest - only 11 Gymnasia pupils received “gold”.
A long-awaited QUEEN BALL was held on April 4. There were 9 pretenders, dreaming of the Gymnasia Queen’s crown for all their life. On behalf of the strict jury, however, the principal was announcing nominations one by one as long as only two pretenders remained with no titles. Then he took a pause that seemed to be endless. When the name of one of the two last pretenders was announced, PRUDYVUS DANA was so excited that she even kneeled. She understood that she and only she had just become the Gymnasia Queen-2012.
Her result of 44, 0 points being the best, the Queen’s crown was put on her head. Having sung a song in an oriental language just before the announcement of the results, Elnara Aliyeva, the current Queen, solemnly passed the crown to the winner.
The Queen was congratulated by her fans and one of the authors of the idea - Rebenko N.V., a teacher.
