Sydney Academy Academic Honesty Policy in The IB and SA Pre-IB Programs

Sydney Academy 

Academic Honesty Policy In the IB and SA Pre-IB Programs

Sydney Academy students are expected to maintain high standards of academic conduct.  They are encouraged to accept personal responsibility for their education and academic performance.  It is expected that their work is original thinking and/or provides the credit to the original source.  

“Academic honesty must be seen as a set of values and skills that promote personal integrity and good practice in teaching, learning and assessment. It is influenced and shaped by a variety of factors including peer pressure, culture, parental expectations, role modeling and taught skills.” (Academic Honesty)

At Sydney Academy, guidance for academic respect and responsibility are aligned with the IB publication Academic honesty, (updated 2011). 

At Sydney Academy we encourage our students to be: 

● Inquirers – who acquire the skills necessary to conduct inquiry and research 

● Knowledgeable – who explore concepts, ideas, issues and perspectives 

● Principled – who act with integrity and honesty; and take responsibility for their own actions 

● Open-minded – who are accustomed to seeking and evaluating a range of points of view 

● Risk takers – who are articulate in defending their beliefs. (IB Learner Profile)

These Learner Profile attributes used in education, will establish skills and behaviour that support academic honesty in a positive and practical way across our school and also respect academic integrity. It is our responsibility to develop ethical individuals and provide an environment that supports ethical and integral behaviour.

A copy of the General Regulations:  Diploma Programme and the IB Academic Honesty Policy will be provided to each student and their parents/guardians upon entering the IB Programme.  Students and parents are encouraged to familiarize themselves with these documents and to become aware of the consequences of academic dishonesty.  Reminders of this policy will be conducted throughout the programme.  As well, Sydney Academy's Code of Conduct outlines the "Responsible Behaviours in Learning" in the students' handbook. 

Academic misconduct is a behaviour that results in, or may result in, the student or any other student gaining an unfair advantage in one or more assessment components. 

Academic dishonesty occurs whenever you present something that you did not do as your own work or falsification of records. Academic dishonesty can take different forms:

• Plagiarism or using another's words without direct quotation; another's ideas or arguments without proper citation.  This includes citing Internet sources or artificial intelligence platforms and any ideas used intentionally or unintentionally.

• Copying information during a test or examination from someone else's paper, using unauthorized notes or study aids.  As well as communicating with another student during a test or examination.

• Submitting identical or similar work for credit in more than one course.  Submitting work completed by parents, tutors, or friends or copied from a classmate. 

• Fabricating or falsifying research data.

• Communicating about the content of an examination 24 hours before or after the examination with others outside the Sydney Academy school community.

“The candidate (student) is ultimately responsible for ensuring that all work submitted for assessment is authentic, with the work or ideas of others fully and correctly acknowledged. Candidates are expected to comply with all internal school deadlines; this is for their own benefit and may allow time for revising work that is of doubtful authorship before the submission of the final version.” Academic Honesty (2011)

Examples of Assessment pieces include, but are not limited to:

•  In-class and take home assignments

• All homework

• Quizzes, tests and exams

• All written and oral work

• Lab work and write-ups

• CAS activities, reflection, and documentation

• EE and ToK essays

• All IB Internal and External Assessments

Good Practice (Academic Honesty in the Diploma Program):

• Make sure that information you have used is acknowledged in the body of the text and is fully listed in the bibliography using the reference style agreed with your teacher.

• Cite your sources so that readers can find them; if you cannot state the origin of the source it is probably better not to use it.  

Academic Honesty Violations will be addressed in the following manner:

• Step 1:  Teacher and student will meet to discuss any violation that has occurred.

• Step 2:  The IB Coordinator will be notified of the violation.

• Step 3:  A parent/guardian will be notified by either the teacher or the IB Coordinator.

• Step 4:  Meeting may be arranged with parent/guardian, teacher, IB Coordinator, and administration as is needed.

• Step 5:  The IB Coordinator and administrator will report misconduct to all necessary stakeholders (such as the IBO) as required.

In the event of malpractice or misconduct during an IB exam, the following steps will be taken:

• The IB Coordinator informs the school administration and the student’s parent/guardian.

• The IB Coordinator reports the incident to the IB Information Desk at the International Baccalaureate Curriculum and Assessment Centre.  

Communication:

• The IB Coordinator provides documentation to IB teachers with regard to principles and practices of academic honesty as defined by the International Baccalaureate Diploma program.

• In September, the IB Diploma Coordinator conducts a discussion regarding the importance of academic honesty with year one (grade 11) and year two (grade 12)  students.   

• IB teachers hold discussions stressing academic honesty to students. They positively emphasize the benefits of students conducting themselves with integrity and academic honesty in all forms of assessment. 

• IB teachers reinforce good academic practices and provide examples of conventions for acknowledging sources. 

• The extended essay supervisor provides information on ways to acknowledge sources in the extended essay.

• The IB Coordinator reaffirms the values inherent in students conducting themselves as principled individuals via CAS activities and informs students about appropriate conduct during the exam sessions. 

• IB students are informed that plagiarism software may be used by teachers to investigate malpractice.

•  IB students will be provided with the Effective citing and referencing document and subject teachers will ensure that students are aware of how to avoid plagiarism appropriately for the subject.    

This policy will be reviewed on a yearly basis by the IB Coordinator, the administration, and IB staff and will be revised as necessary.