Promoting academic integrity in the learning environment is one of the main priorities of the European School. Contract cheating, best described as the “outsourcing of student work to third parties”, undermines learning, damages learning relationships, and increases the tendency among students to engage in dishonest behavior in their professional careers. To mark the International Day of Action Against Contract Cheating, created by the International Center for Academic Integrity and celebrated on October 20, the American High School hosted the White Board Declaration Campaign on October 21, 2021. The AHS students demonstrated negative attitudes toward academic dishonesty. They are against plagiarism, express their ideas creatively and freely, enjoy learning and believe honesty is the key to success.

On October 20th, 2021, within the Global Ethics Day created by the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, the American High School held a hybrid poster presentation conference – Education Empowers Future Leaders: Thinking Ethically, Acting Globally. The AHS students presented themes addressing global ethical issues. The conference marked the American High School on a world map of organizations celebrating Global Ethics Day.

As part of their Who We Are unit, grade 4 students are learning about global citizenship and how to respect others despite the differences. While investigating their second line of inquiry students learned about cultures and different countries. They inquired into different languages, religions, holidays, traditions and food. For their formative assessment project students were asked to share their culture with the class. Students prepared presentations about food, holidays and famous people from their countries; they brought videos about traditional songs and dances and learned more about each other. Students not only had fun but once more understood that their differences make them unique and that being respectful is the main trait of a true IB leaner.

October 15 is Global Handwashing Day, a global advocacy day dedicated to increasing awareness and understanding about the importance of handwashing with soap as an effective and affordable way to prevent diseases and save lives. Grade 3 learners celebrated this event by creating posters, activities, presentations for our PYP students. 

On October 15, we celebrated Global Handwashing Day at the European Kindergarten. The teachers talked about the rules of proper hand washing. The kids learned about importance of maintaining hygiene norms for our health.

Students are now engaging with the world through their keyboards more than ever before, recording notes, completing homework assignments, and even taking tests. The European School PYP teacher Ani Bezhuashvili started teaching her students typing alongside writing, reading, and performing arithmetic. She introduced an online platform (https://10fastfingers.com/) for typing practice. Later, the teacher engaged the students in a typing competition. In Grade 2, PYP student Ivan Mi demonstrated a result of 7 WPM (Words Per Minute). During the competition, he managed to complete three levels with the highest score of 88 WPM. The certificate of achievement and a badge of Keyboard Crusher were awarded to him. Currently, Ivan is in grade 4 and types 100 WPM.

On October 4, the European Kindergarten once again opened its doors to our children. In the kindergarten playground decorated with colorful balloons, they were greeted by cheerful Zuzu, Mini Sunny and Lu, who led the children into their groups. We wish our kids a happy and successful school year!

On October 6th, the European School held the Chairman election for the Student Council of the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme (IB MYP) students. The Head of MYP Programme Ms. Oxana Akimova and Service as Action (SA) Coordinator Ms. Keti Guramishvili congratulated the elected Chairman - Mr. Nick Gersamia (Grade 9A). We would as well love to take this opportunity to commend Mr. David Mariamidze (Grade 10B) on his interest and passion in contributing to elections as the second candidate. Now it is on Mr.Nick's responsibility to continue the good work and to make the Council assured about the faith they have entrusted upon his shoulders.

In the framework of the AHS First Friday Forum, on October 1, 2021, a head of the Department of Classical Philology at the Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, a famous researcher and translator, laureate of the State Award Nana Tonia delivered an online lecture “Euripides and Politics”. The visiting guest talked about the history of the ancient Greek theatre, theatrical culture and its impact on society. Professor Tonia also discussed the tragedies of Euripides, his ideas and Athenian democracy. The lecture ended with a Q & A session.