13 August 2014

From Director's Desk

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
They new Early Years area is providing a spacious and creative learning space for our youngest children. Similarly the relocation of the library has been a very popular move leading to an enormous jump in the number of students who are dropping in or
using the library to do quiet work.  

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
                                                  School Director