17 May 2015

From the Primary School Principal, Mrs Usha Lamba


The school academic year 2014-2015 was filled with Curiosity, Creativity and Collaboration as primary students sought ways to follow the big ideas through the UOI themes and began to learn how to learn. Primary classes focused on the skills of being self-managers, thinkers, collaborators, researchers, communicators and creators, and the language related to these concepts.
At our Primary school assemblies all primary school students got an opportunity to celebrate not only the festivals but also their learning in class.

Term 1 highlight was the’ Lion King’ not only for its grandeur and performances but the exposure every child got though the process of the production. 
Apart  from this the students        Nukkad Natak for Social Cause -  ' Ek Mutthi anaaj'
collected funds through Read – a thon as they looked at equipping a Library for the ‘Bal Sansaar’ a local school supported by Pathways. Our Student leaders began to get more involved with many whole school events and raised queries and made several suggestions to their teachers to participate in house and interschool events. The teachers took ideas from students seriously and we saw many students participate in several cultural events organized by other schools in the NCR or South Delhi regions. It was very reassuring to watch our students make a mark with their presence wherever they went for Drama, Music, recitation and Sports. Pathways Noida hosted an Inter- School Tech Fest -P.A.T.H (Pathways Annual Tech Hangout). Amongst many categories, Our Primary students won laurels and prizes too.

Term 2 saw the teachers introducing a new Math book to raise Math standards and this came with its own challenges of bringing in a new resource mid-way through the year. It was very welcome by parents as many spoke to me on this during the PTA. Also, as we go through year end reviews we certainly see significant comfort and raised Math levels for many students. We also had many parent volunteers to read routinely with students from Form 1 , 2 and 3.
This has shown good results as we looked at raised Form 3 lexile scores. And, now we are looking forward to extending this next year to Form 4 as well. Students got really involved with Sports day and inter house sports activities. The Early Years students had their sports fiesta. They presented ‘ Kuk doo ku” at the Rhyme Time Day.                                      Rhyme Time Day     

The teachers packed active learning and very passionate and explicit teaching into the school days of the Fifth Formers as they worked on their Exhibition just before they end their years at Primary School.
                  PYP Exhibition  
Very recently students have been engaged with the plight of people in Nepal and have been running a collection of things that we could send them to ease their misery.

As we come to the end of the year we have begun to look for ways to keep our students thinking and sensibly engaged during their summer holidays. A tip here, many parents feel obliged to fill their children’s every waking moment during the summer because if they don’t they are afraid of complaints of “I’m bored.”  Learning to say, “I’m sure you’ll find something interesting to do” is a great tool for a parent.

Next time your child whines about being bored, simply delate a few simple items off your own overcrowded To Do list.eg: Try car washing. Put the dvds into the right cases, water the flowerpots, sort the laundry, clean the bath, make your bed, decide which old toys you want to give to charity. It doesn’t matter if they don’t do it as well as you would - that’s not the point – it’s giving them a little responsibility which is great for their sense of self-esteem. Older children can plan activities – give them a budget and let them research which theme park they want to go to and how to get there. They will be learning something and next time they are bored they will find something to do themselves rather than whining about it.

Have fun and enjoy being with your children as much as we have enjoyed working with them through the year.

Mrs. Usha Lamba
Primary School Principal