GRADE 13 – SEPTEMBER 1ST “A YEAR THAT STARTED EARLY”

This year, September 1st came a day early for everyone at our school.
However, the former 12th-grade students had unfinished business: a sealed bottle containing end-of-year wishes written on September 1st of last year hadn’t received a reply in June. So, technically, last year wasn’t over yet. Before starting 13th grade, we needed to finish this unfinished business.
So, we began our first lesson with just that: the bottle had been opened, the notes had found their recipients. The students were asked to review what they had written a year ago and categorize it: DONE | STILL MINE | NOT MINE ANYMORE
One note was in the DONE category, two were in the NOT MINE ANYMORE category, and all the rest were in the STILL MINE category. So we have something to work on and strive for.

With this, the end of the 2025-2026 school year was considered complete.
While the bottle was being unpacked, our new student, Alexey, had the opportunity to introduce himself by answering the following questions:
What I’m incredibly good at.
What I absolutely hate.
What people usually misunderstand about me.
What I could happily do for three hours.
What I want to achieve this year.
Afterwards, the students said their names and shared interesting facts about the class.
Then the class was divided into four groups. Each group was asked to come up with three headlines about the class at the end of Year 13:
1. One realistic headline.
2. One desired title, which may or may not be true.
3. One ridiculous, but technically possible, title.
The titles had to contain something specific about the class,
year, school life, exams, projects, teachers, or anything else the group decided on.

Once the posters were ready, the groups exchanged comments and tried to guess which one should be realistic, which one should be aspirational, and which one should be crazy.
Then the students voiced their opinion: “What should change this year, since it’s our last?”

Thus, the New School Year officially began.