In the past week, 6th and 7th-grade students participated together in the project “School is My Second Home – Behaviour Rules.”

This thematic unit was designed in accordance with the recommendations of the Ministry of Education provided in the Guidelines for the Organisation and Implementation of Educational Activities in the 2023/2024 school year. As part of the project, teachers were tasked with selecting one topic from the Guidelines for each day of the week and integrating this topic into all lessons throughout the day. The entire project was implemented in line with the curriculum, school subjects and teaching units.

At the beginning of this school year, all schools received Guidelines from the Ministry of Education explaining how teaching should be conducted. The reason for this was the unfortunate events that occurred in May of this year and the desire to start the school year in a creative and, more importantly, stress-free manner. Among other recommendations, thematic learning was suggested. Out of about twenty recommended topics, the Teaching Councils selected several, one for each day of the week. During the first week, the teaching was supposed to be organised throughout the day in accordance with that topic, so teachers adapted their curriculums accordingly. It was suggested that thematic learning include correlational, project-based, workshop-based and environmental teaching.

For the first day, we chose the topic “School is My Second Home – Behaviour Rules”, within which we wanted to welcome our students, encourage and empower them at the beginning of another school year and remind them that we all need to contribute to feeling comfortable, safe and ready for new school adventures.

Teachers approached this topic in their own unique ways – through workshops, illustrations, discussions or dramatizations.

Everything that was common to all these lessons throughout the week – all the messages, beautiful thoughts, songs and drawings – was put by the 6th and 7th-grade students on a board they created during computer science classes with their teacher Maja Ivović at the end of the week.