Good afternoon.
The school year 2023-2024 ended with the graduation ceremony on June 15, 2024.
The year, which, like the previous one, was difficult because of the ongoing war for the third year.
Frequent air raids were very annoying for us, which resulted in certain educational losses. However, the gymnasium successfully completed the school year, and the results of the year are no worse than last year.
The number of excellent pupils in grades 5-10 is stable, and there were 2 medalists among the graduates. Gymnasium students took part in city and regional student competitions and the competition for the defense of works of the Junior Academy of Sciences. Veronika Podakina from the 8th grade took 2nd place in the 3rd stage of the MAS in physics, which is a unique phenomenon for us. Unfortunately, the 4th stage of the foreign language competitions was not held once again, where we traditionally had winners.
Along with 725 pupils and gymnasium students, we taught more than 100 external students who are abroad because of the war. This work takes a lot of effort and time, exhausting teachers. And on top of that, the problems with power outages multiply the problems. However, we all understand that this is temporary, until we win. We have successfully coped with this work.
We continue to work actively with international projects. The UNESCO MASH project has received a new impetus. The Director became a member of the All-Ukrainian Coordination Council of the project, and the UNESCO Gymnasium Club (headed by Olena Omelianenko) was reopened. Teacher O. Naumenko was once again elected as an ambassador of the E-Twinning+ project.For many years in a row, teacher Ovcharova N. has been actively working in the TESOL project.For the third year in a row, the project with the Americans Speak Together (Khvorostantseva N.) has been successfully working.During the year, we were friends with sixth graders from a French school near the city of Tours (teachers Kornienko I. V, Naumenko O.V. and Basysta L.M.). Two gymnasium students completed their stay in the United States under the Rotary Youth Exchange program, and in 2024-2025, 6 gymnasium students will spend a year in the United States and Belgium.
We continue to publish the gymnasium magazine Hymnazist. After the legislators demanded that all school media be re-registered with the National Council of Ukraine on Television and Radio, our newspaper remained one of the few that was registered and continues to be published in paper and electronic versions. The last issue was published in May 2024.
It is worth noting the active work of the gymnasium council this year.
Also, we have once again received a gold medal at the International Exhibition “Modern Educational Institutions - 2014”.
Of course, we have big plans for the next year. 2027 is just around the corner. It is then that we will receive the status of an academic lyceum and change our name to the First City Lyceum of Cherkasy City Council. This name was unanimously approved by the board of the gymnasium in December 2023. We need to prepare the premises, redesign the layout of the classrooms, buy expensive equipment, and train teachers. In the fall, we will consider STEM education at a meeting of the pedagogical council, the issue of introducing the course “Intellect of Ukraine” in 7th grade, etc.
We have enrolled two first grades. It is possible that this is our last enrollment in the first grades, but this is the competence of our founder.
We are going to strengthen our material base. We plan to build a small shelter at the expense of the budget. At the expense of the charitable foundation “TO UKRAINE THROUGH EDUCATION”, we will repair the third floor, gymnasium living room, etc. Unfortunately, the lack of male labor may disrupt our plans.
The issue of teaching staff is still acute. The issue of providing teachers of French and Spanish remains unresolved. However, the vast majority of the staff has been retained and is ready to work in the new school year.
In November and December, we will celebrate the 30th anniversary of our newspaper.
We would like to sign cooperation agreements with neighboring schools #3, #6 and #19. During the arm wrestling championship, we invited representatives of these schools and saw a great interest in involving our neighbors in common activities.
As in the past, the issue of installing a barrier was urgent, the issue of installing a fence around the perimeter of the gymnasium is no less urgent. Unfortunately, the war does not allow us to even think about solving this issue this year.
That's how our work results are. Briefly. And plans for the next year.
We believe that peace will finally come, and we will continue to learn and teach, just like many years ago.
Have a warm and peaceful summer!
Sincerely, Sergiy Sayenko
June, 2024