From the Senior School Principal, Mr. Alexander Abraham

It was Nelson Mandela who once said that, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." How wonderfully put by a man who was a visionary leader who saw that schools with a vision and a desire to make a transformative change in their students would be able to ensure that they can make a noteworthy difference to our world.

It is extremely cheering to hear students’ words such as “so thrilled to get back” and “school is such fun and learning- so much to do- never a dull moment”. This is thrilling to all of us educators who long before the students returned for the new academic year have engaged in planning and professional development programmes in the last ten days of July.

Even before the vacations ended our IBDP results were released and we are proud to share that Sagnik Aich and Ashira Pachera topped the class with 36 points. The students who graduated this year from the school have all been placed at very good colleges across the globe and even in India and we will continue to work at looking at ways how the processes will be firmed up so that results will be more enhanced over the years.

Even as the new academic year is barely a fortnight old we have had many busy days already. As always we encourage our students to become thought leaders.

The IBDP Orientation for new students had sessions conducted by Form 12 students on International Mindedness, the Learner Profile, the Extended Essay and the TOK and the CAS. This was something that Form 11 students could connect very well with as they embark on the road that their seniors have already travelled.

Similarly, we encouraged our students to engage with the major issues troubling our world.

We had an excellent talk given by Dr. Sujata Aishwarya Cheema, from Jamia Millia Islamia, who shared perspective on Understanding the Israeli Palestinian conflict. The talk was engaging and enabled students to be challenged to reflect on the issue and the plight of the inhabitants. What was one of the highlights of the talk was when the Q & A session took place amongst the many questions raised by students was when a young middle school student asked, “How can we as students make a difference to the intense conflict in the Middle East?” That truly captured the ethos of the school where education should surely engage students to reflect on how they can make a difference to this world of ours.

Over the last few weeks the school has been very strict on rules including punctuality. Students are now to be in school latest by 8:00 a.m. if they are travelling by their own transport. I am glad to share that we have seen that students are remarkably conscious of this effort and have responded well. There are clear penalties also for assignment submissions to come by the due dates as without this it becomes impossible for academic rigour to become ingrained in our students. This effort is to enable our students to realize that education is best equipped with self-discipline and focus and is rewarded in the long run- a skill that lasts a lifetime.

Senior school has so much to look forward to with Founder’s Day auditions and practices, the Inter School Festival “RESONANCE”, Inter house debates and the Interact Burger sale and the list goes on. The American journalist Sydney J. Harris once said, “The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.”  All then that we can plan and prepare and achieve through our educative processes is to enable our students not just to reflect but become women and men of action and with new perspective step out into the world to make a perceptible change.

Alexander Abraham

Senior School Principal