Cherkasy First City Gymnasia, UNESCO Associated School, is situated in Cherkasy, Ukraine.
Іn November 2015 Cherkasy First City Gymnasia marked its 135th anniversary. This educational establishment has grown from a male gymnasia, First Labour School, First Exemplary Secondary School, Secondary School #1 to a polylingual school. It offers the teaching of 12 languages, namely Ukrainian, Russian, English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Turkish, Chinese, Japanese, Modern Hebrew. The gymnasia is officially acknowledged as the Education and Science Leader of Ukraine – 2011. It is an experimental educational establishment of the national level, a member of Ukrainian Schools of the Future Association, the Ukrainian Association of Teachers of Spanish, Ukrainian Movement of Teachers for Peace and Mutual Understanding. It is a magnet school for the Institute of Pedagogy of Ukrainian National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences. Besides it is the International Testing Center of Spanish as a Foreign Language (DELE), an examination venue for Cambridge ESOL exams. This school is a participant of Ukrainian project “School – Human Rights Area” and the British Council in Ukraine project “Connecting Classrooms”.
The FCG body of students totals 665 pupils aged 6 through 17. The teaching staff amounts to 69 members. Among them there are 7 Honoured Teachers of Ukraine, 1 Ph. D. in Pedagogy; 6 National Winners of Ukrainian-American programs: Teaching Excellence Award and Partners in Education; 46 specialists of the highest qualification category. Outstanding graduates of the school are the writers M. Drai-Khmara, O. Lebedenko, O. Korolevych, the graphic artist V. Zamyrailo, the historian B. Krupnytsky, the academician, scientist O. Barannikov, the former Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Ukraine to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland V. Khandogiy.
Cherkasy First City Gymnasia is a modern general educational school, new in its form, content, plurilingual and multicultural surrounding which provides for its students a high-quality education, developing and upbringing. Its School Parliament, Euroclub, Interact, Children’s Diplomacy Centre, English Club, language societies work effectively. The gymnasia is not only a unique educational establishment but also an effective scientific centre. In it the conception and model of a polylingual gymnasia functioning, Dialogue of Cultures scientific-methodological and upbringing program; regulations of polylingual and polycultural personality development and international cooperation centre are successfully defined, substantiated and experimentally proved.
The pedagogical staff (Principal S. Saienko) functioning is aimed at civic education and the polylingual and polycultural personality formation of its students: upbringing of dedicated citizens of Ukraine on the basis of dialogue of cultures, culture of peace and tolerance, international cooperation and partnership. The gymnasia is awarded a silver medal and the Diploma of the 2nd All -Ukrainian exhibition “Innovative Technologies in Ukraine – 2010”. In 2011 the Gymnasia became the winner of the All-Ukrainian contest-defense “The Best Model of the Education Establishment “School of the Future”. In 2010-2014 academic year 54 students became the prize-winners of the IV round of All-Ukrainian Student Olympiads. In the course of participation in the Ukrainian-American program “Future Leaders”, 82 students have become the national winners and got scholarships which cover their studying in American high schools during an academic year. Three gymnasia graduates got 200 points in English at the External Independent Assessment (ZNO). In 2012 the gymnasia was recognized the winner of the Second All-Ukrainian best website contest “Website Is The Face of Success” held in the frames of XV International jubilee educational establishments exhibition “Modern Education in Ukraine – 2012”, the Laureate of Ukrainian Production Quality Contest “100 Best Commodities of Ukraine” in the nomination “Educational Services”. In February 2013 at the International Exhibition “Modern Education in Ukraine – 2013” in Kyiv the First Ukrainian Web Rating «SWR» among educational establishments was presented according to which the gymnasia got the 1st place. The gymnasia is awarded a gold medal and the Diploma of the 5th International exhibition “Modern Educational Establishments – 2014”. In 2014 at the 4th All-Ukrainian Contest on the Best School Website the school is acknowledged as one of the winners. At the 9th Regional Pedagogical Exhibition “Education of Cherkasy Region” the gymnasia is decorated with the memorable award “The Image of Cherkasy Region Education – 2014”. In 2015 the gymnasia is awarded the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine Diploma for the 2nd place in the 5th All-Ukrainian Best Website Contest among general educational institutions. In 2015 the gymnasia gets the Institute of Pedagogy Certificate (NAPS of Ukraine) certifying the Semen Goncharenko Award in the nomination “Methods of Teaching”. In November 2015 the gymnasia was awarded the Honorary Diploma of the National Academy of the Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine.
In 2016 the gymnasia received the Certificate of the International Exhibition “Modern Educational Institutions – 2016” proving the gymnasia award with a silver medal. In 2016 the gymnasia got the 3rd place in All-Ukrainian Contest-Rating of work with gifted children “School is a Source of Talents”; two teachers of English became the winners of All-Ukrainian project “Teachers of English – Agents of Change”, and the gymnasia became the winner of All-Ukrainian project “GoCamps”. In 2015-2016 4 gymnasia students became the winners of All-Ukrainian Student Olympiad and the graduate Oleksandr Shvets got the 1st place in English at All-Ukrainian Contest-Defence of students-members of Mala Academy of Sciences research.