The Pathways Early Years opened with a flourish at Noida. A group of toddlers from one year upward delight everyone’s’ hearts with their curiosity and liveliness. The bright well-equipped rooms, the carefully constructed curriculum all create the special environment required for this age group.
Irish Puppet Performance
The school hosted a delightful puppetry performance in a packed amphitheatre as part of our relationship with the Ishara International puppet festival at the Habitat. A skilled puppeteer from Ireland, Tommy Baker had the audience in splits as he took on various characters and pulled students from the audience onto stage, even using masks and clever string movement to convert two students into an old couple.
Internet Safety Week
Technology and the internet may be a marvelous resource for learning but it also can be a dangerous space if unwisely used. A vast majority of our students use Facebook or go to Chatrooms, but not everyone understands that their privacy needs to be guarded or that it can be dangerous to give out information about yourself to strangers who you “meet” on the internet. To create an awareness of this, an Internet Safety Week awareness drive was planned by the primary and secondary ICT department and many activities were conducted. I strongly urge parents to reinforce this message and not treat laptops as private spaces especially in primary and middle school. Our intention is not to forbid these spaces because that is no longer an option in the 21st century. Instead it is important to gradually give access, training young people to know how to handle them.
Student News
2 students, Sameera Khurana from Form 9 and Ammarah Khalid from Form 11 represented the school at the inter-school elocution at Pathways Aravali. You can read their account below.
13 US universities visited the school and talked to students as part of our ongoing college counseling programme.
Classes for students of Form 10 & 12 are gearing up in preparation for their Board Mock examinations which begin on March 12th.
Adventure Camps and Summer Trips
Excitement is rising for the Adventure Camps scheduled for the end of the month. In addition to students from Form 4 - 11 going to locations like the Tirthan Valley in Himachal, River Rafting on the Ganga and camping in the Aravali hills, Form 2 & 3 will visit a farm and then spend the night in school.
Meanwhile we have begun introducing our students to the trips which will be available in summer. Since international travel requires advance planning for tickets and visas, we have begun with those. A trip within India is also planned and information will be sent out later for that. In this year, a number of international trips will be available for students to choose from. Each of them is carefully chosen for their educational value – they are not vacation holidays but will expand our students’ knowledge and understanding. Many of these are in combination with Pathways Aravali and Gurgaon. The following trips will be available:
· 9 days trip to China including Shanghai, Dangfeng and Beijing: open to middle and senior students
· 16 day trip to Verbier near Geneva in Switzerland. Focus on outdoor activity and language classes in Spanish and French. Open to students from Form 4 up
· 11 days trip to Spain – Barcelona, Granada, Seville and Madrid. Focus on understanding Spanish culture, dance, music, architecture and food. Open to students from middle school up.
· 12 day trip to the USA – the NASA centre in Orlando. Focus on knowing about Space travel, interacting with an astronaut, visiting Universal Studio and New York. Open to students from middle school up.
· 10 day Study programme to learn Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) at Anne Arundel College University of Maryland. The programme provides students with an integral solution to develop an understanding of the world through geospatial data analysis. Open to students from Form 10 up.
More details of each programme will be sent to you separately. Obviously a trip will only be scheduled if there are sufficient numbers who go. Each student group is accompanied by a teacher.
Information to Note
Mid semester break is from 4th March – 11th March. School reopens on Monday 12th March
Form 4 & 5 Adventure camp is on 27th February. There will be no school for them on their return on 1st and 2nd March.
School is closed on Tuesday 28th February due to State elections.
Please mark your calendars for our Art, Science, Maths, IT & DT Fair on Friday 16th March ( 9.30 am – 1 pm). Come with friends and family to marvel at the ingenuity, talent and creativity of our primary and secondary school students.
Shalini Advani
School Director
