From the Middle School Principal, Mrs. Sunanda Sandhir

The first semester of the school year is always interspersed with quite a few activities including Founder’s day. The semester appears to come to an end quickly as if time has been telescoped. One benefit it has for the students being involved in various activities is that it allows them to explore various interests that they might have. At the same time the pace in the classroom is also very quick, so it becomes essential to encourage the children to stay on top of their assignments and responsibilities so they don’t lag behind. Another great outcome of all this therefore is that the students learn to manage time by prioritizing! This learning comes in handy as one moves ahead in life.

Communication is an essential 21st century skills. Students are

always encouraged to build and better it. An inter-house debate on 'The right to free speech is the foundation of all society.’  showcased student’s oratory skills and arguments.  It was an interesting and impressive debate.

As a part of history unit, an intersection panel discussion was also organised where student’s shared their views on the importance of peace organisations and the role of Super nations in creating the UNO in bringing about peace in the world and resolving conflict.

Model UN is a motivational experience for the students. It’s fun to pretend being a world leader solving the world’s most important problems in 48 hours or less.

Model UN activates students’ imagination and creativity – activities that students are naturally inclined to do. Keeping this in mind the students are given opportunities to participate in Model UN .Ten of our students went to Oakridge Hyderabad to  participate in MUN and won accolades for their ideas .We also organised an inter-school Middle School MUN at Pathways .In February ,the students will be participating in MUN at Overseas Family School at Singapore World Scholar Cup is another event where our three students team participated in the final round at Yale University .This competition brings together many subjects, because before the students can begin to specialize, they need to see the big picture. It challenges teams to work together and deals with serious global issues.

Three students Vanshika Goel, Prachi Sharma and Samarth Modi won  the silver medal in the debate  and were placed in  the top 100 schools out of 700 teams that participated. Vanshika Goel of Grade 9 also won a gold medal for the debate in individual category and a silver medal for being in the top 200 scholars.

The students also participated enthusiastically in the inter-section Poetry competition on the theme of “Relationships”. The responses were diverse both in terms of content and style. They were able to engage deeply with the theme creating poetry that was rhythmic, expressive and captivating. It was indeed a difficult task for the senior school teachers to decide the final winners. Some of these poems will be published in the yearly school publications.

Student-led conference (SLC) empowers students and helps them to lead their own learning. It puts them in the centre. The conference for grade 9 was held where the students evaluated and shared their progress with their parents .They then set goals for themselves .Grade 6 to 8 students will be also sharing their strengths and areas they need to develop during student-led conference which will be held on 10th December. This is an essential activity for student development and parents are therefore encouraged to attend.

It is motivating and satisfying to see combined efforts of staff, students having positive outcome. We will continue with our efforts to provide our students with an enriching environment which facilitates their learning and equipping them with right skills to take on challenges thrown at them as they move ahead in life.