A very warm welcome to the first
newsletter for this academic year. I am especially delighted to welcome the
families who have joined the school in this year and hope you will join the
Pathways community by being closely involved with the school. We are committed
to the idea that the school can only be a great educational space for our
children through a partnership between home and school and I welcome your
suggestions over the year.
Taking forward some aspects of
last year, I am happy to share separately, the results of the survey of the
school conducted at the close of the last academic year. Thank you very much for responding so well.
It helps the process of ongoing school improvement.
Awards and Recognition
I am delighted to share that the
Pathways schools have received the 'Best Innovative K - 12 School National'
Award at the Indian Education Congress Awards - 2014, that recognize excellence
in the Education sector.
In a landmark indicator the
Pathways group of schools is being recognized for an outstanding Green award.
Pathways Gurgaon is the first k-12 school in Asia and possibly the world to
receive the LEED Platinum award and the application process for Pathways Noida
is under way. It is an indicator of the
value we place on this important area of sustainability and conservation for
the future, even in our building and facilities
School Spaces
Traffic management
It has been a challenge to get
the road outside the school usable as one half was completely laid open and dug
up over the summer. The ongoing liason with the authorities succeeded in ensuring that half the road which had been completely
dug up with an open drain was covered a day before school opened. However it
remains only half done and muddy which is an enormous barrier to the smooth
flow of traffic. We are pursuing this actively but are informed that civil work
is being held up during the monsoon.
Meanwhile please do cooperate
with parking only at the side of the road and not in the middle or in front of
the school gates. A few parents have been writing in to me expressing
concern at the traffic jam outside because of inconsiderate parking by
some. We are implementing strict
supervision of this. Please inform your drivers to follow the instructions
given. We cannot teach our children to be caring, responsible citizens if we do
not lead by example.
Technology Development
We have introduced a bank of new
Ipads which will be used by Nursery – Grade 1 to promote reading and other learning
activity. Meanwhile students of Form 6 & 7 are now registered users of
Google Apps to support their online learning activities.
Last week both Mrs
Sandhir and I spoke at educational technology conferences –Mrs Sandhir at the
EdTech Review and I at the World Education Summit – and it was exciting to see
how far ahead we are at Pathways to what other schools around the country are doing.
Summer Activity
A number of activities over the
summer enriched the lives of our students. The annual summer activity camp Rediscovering Minds was well attended.
With workshops on music, dance, drama, Design Technology, Art, Technology,
Sports and a special camp on swimming it was an exciting learning journey.
A large percentage of Grade 11
students attended summer internship programmes. These included working at
Apollo, Hyundai, Hindustan Times, Dunkin Donuts, Shades of India etc. Some
students attended summer programmes at University of Chicago, UC Berkley or
Oxbridge Study Abroad.
A group of 35 middle and senior
school students went on a summer trip to the US where they had exciting
learning at the Kennedy Space Centre, Harvard, Broadway and visited the Niagara
Falls.
A team of students represented
the school at the IB World Student conference in Bath in the UK.
Staff
I am delighted to share with you
the varied publications of our teachers. 2 teachers Ms Vandana Parashar and Ms.
Sonu Khosla had articles published on the IB site.
Ms. Mayura Tiwari published
a book of her poetry. These are
indicators of the ways in which our teachers are vibrant intellects whose
enjoyment of their own growth feeds into what they bring to their classroom.
Before school opened teachers
went through a number of workshop and training sessions. These included a
session on story telling for Early Learner teachers conducted by Mr. Jimmy
Eapen, a training on Peer Assisted Learning Strategies by Dr Kevin Feldman and
multiple in house sessions on the MYP, a variety of software and pastoral care.
I am very happy to welcome to the
staff our new MYP coordinator Ms. Anshu Sharma who brings with her many years
of experience with teaching and leading the MYP.
Dr. Shalini Advani
Dr. Shalini Advani
School Director
