Academic Integrity Policy
(Reviewed April 2025)
The academic integrity policy will be comprehensively reviewed by DSKI staff every 2 years or in between these periods if the need arises.
Learning success and academic honesty go hand in hand. A completed assignment/test/exam shall always represent your own work and provide answers in your own words. We encourage all members of our community to reflect, promote and model the five fundamentals of academic integrity - honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility as well as developing the attributes of the IB learner profile.
Responsibility of the leadership teams
Promotes honesty in disclosure about sources used for student work.
Promotes trust in all members of the community acting with professional integrity and transparency.
Promotes fairness by being consistent and judging students on their own merits.
Promotes respect by valuing each other's different opinions and respecting intellectual property rights.
Promotes responsibility by all members of the community supporting our academic policy and upholding its values and principles.
Uses a variety of practices related to academic honesty
Implement academic honesty into the curriculum in a manner that allows students to develop these skills over time
Follow up that students know the basic principles of academic honesty, as appropriate for their age level,
Confirm that all members of the school community understand the value of academic honesty,
Make sure that incidents of academic dishonesty are dealt with accordingly to the assessment practices of the IB programme and in a manner appropriate to the problem
The use of one common system (MLA) shall be promoted (MLA- Modern Language Association) shall be promoted.
Encourages students to follow the five fundamentals of academic integrity - honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility.
Responsibility of the teacher
Teaches a variety of practices related to academic honesty
Display academic honesty in own work, such as worksheets or powerpoint
Help students to develop the skills and attitudes required for an academically honest manner person
Handle cases of academic dishonesty in an appropriate manner (see programme specific
guidelines)
Encourages students to follow the five fundamentals of academic integrity - honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility.
Responsibility of the parents
Support the schools academic honesty policy and code of conduct
Support their child to finish all work independently
Promote ethical conduct when completing their work
Speak with your child about integrity and how we can learn from making mistakes
Encourages students to follow the five fundamentals of academic integrity - honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility.
DSKI is committed to high standards in learning of personal, ethical and moral conduct. Any of the following actions would result in a breach of this standard.
Handing in another person’s work partially or completely as their own
Improper or no citation of an outside source
Handing in the same work more than once
Dishonesty in evaluation such as tests, exams, quizzes or any other form
Knowingly assisting another student to cheat
Unauthorized or improper use of technology such as using cell phones, PDA’s, cameras, internet, headphones, electronic translators, etc.
Copy work from a fellow student’s work, or allowing them to copy your work;
Fraud: not acknowledging another person's words or ideas and using them as your own
Submitting another person’s work as your own
Submitting material downloaded from the internet.
If a student is found to be breaking these rules, the school may:
Grade the assignment, project or test with zero
Contact the student’s guardians or parents;
Report the misconduct in the student’s file.
Artificial Intelligence
All AI generated text, image, video or graphic must be labelled as AI generated referenced including the software used in the bibliography.
PYP Guidelines: Using Others’ Work
The attitudes advocated by the PYP that support the development of integrity and honesty in an academic community are set out in Making the PYP Happen: A Curriculum Framework for International Primary Education.
Of these attitudes, confidence, independence, integrity, and respect are the qualities most important for developing values of personal academic honesty and need to be actively encouraged by teachers in the primary school. In addition, the learner profile emphasizes being principled in our actions, which is also of primary importance to developing the practice of academic honesty.
PYP grades 1-3
The academically honest student:
Does
Accept help from parents, older students, and friends
to learn new information, read books and print material
Summarize understandings from audio-visual material.
Write, chat about new knowledge in his/her own words.
Start to gather knowledge from several sources into independent ideas and understandings.
Understand copying as cheating.
start to use keywords to take notes from written or visual materials (with teacher guidance)
work collaboratively in groups to share information gathering and present with input from all group members
Does Not
Hands in other persons’ work as his or her own.
Uses whole sentences from a book or print material and presents it as his or her own paper.
Copy work from another student.
claims another student’s work is his or her own work (in group work).
PYP grades 4-6
The academically honest student:
Does
Accept help from parents, older students and friends, and group members
to gather information use several sources, including print sources and internet
note taking in own words, using keywords and paraphrasing skills.
start to use interviews as sources with people who are knowledgeable in that field in information gathering.
Summarize understandings from audio-visual material in his or her own words.
developing a style of academic language in your own reports and summaries of information in his/her own words, with a.
list sources in a bibliography.
incorporates knowledge from several sources into ideas and understandings.
Accept/Understand plagiarism from any source as cheating.
contributes in group work by sharing information and understandings
Does Not
Hands in other persons’ work as his or her own. (The teacher intervenes and the seriousness of plagiarism is explained)
uses phrases or sentences from any source without citing it
Copy work from another student
claims another student’s work as his or her own (also when working in groups).
Copy another student’s homework
allow another student to copy his/her homework without permission
Copy on tests
Present material that is not true, as fact.
The Exhibition
As evidence of the culmination of the PYP, exhibition work should reflect all of the criteria for academic honesty presented in the primary years, and especially in PY4-6. In addition, exhibition work should show that students are able to independently work in an academically honest manner.
During the exhibition, an academically honest student:
Does
Accept help from his/her mentor
organize his/her own independent research
Come up with a central idea to guide his or her inquiry
Use sources from different places (organizations and individual resources)
Contact and start communication with real-life sources.
Contribute information in group work
use creative and or audio/visual formats to present understandings
use action plan to guide and reflect on learning process
Does Not
Uses sources as his/her own without citation
Misrepresent or misquote information from interviews
Rely heavily on mentors, parents or other group members to gather information or create presentations.
Submit/present material that is not true
Referencing and citation
Systematic introduction in the primary years are needed to successfully learn referencing and citation. This skill can be developed in a PYP programme using simple citation methods to acknowledge intellectual ideas and quotations. Missing references in assessments will be considered as a draft and a revision time will be given. Rubrics for referencing and citing shall be provided by the school.
Consequences of Academic Dishonesty
Academic dishonesty in the PYP is seen as a learning opportunity. Instances of text copying or no citation are seen as a draft and students have to work on their assignment again. Therefore have to revise the skills needed with the help of their teacher. Explanation of rubrics and follow up evaluation/self-evaluation to enhance reflection so that the ability of students on how to work in an academically honest way rises. Goals to reach the skills and attitude to improve academic honesty will be set by the teacher and students together.
Fraudulent assignments are considered a lack of language and or research skills and are addressed accordingly.
If a student with good language skills knowingly and deliberately breached any of the academic honesty rules, a meeting between the teacher, parents and student, and ultimately between the principal and parents may happen. Continued malpractice may be recorded in the student’s file.
Sources
Academic Integrity, Plagiarism and Cheating.” BC For High School,
bcforhighschool.gov.bc.ca/en/tile/academic-integrity-plagiarism-and-cheating/.
International Baccalaureate Programme Standards and Practises 2019
International Baccalaureate Learning and Teaching 2018
International Baccalaureate The Learner 2018
International Baccalaureate The Learning Community 2018
This policy will be comprehensively reviewed every two years to ensure that it is up to date, effective and relevant as well as being implemented in a fair and consistent way.