Physical Education Department - Sports Updates by Mr. Deepak Thakur, HOD

1.            Early Morning Basketball Soccer Team Practices:

To develop healthy sporting culture and strong sports school teams for the future we have started with early morning coaching for teams for secondary school Basket ball and Soccer.  The practices are from 6.15am to 7.30am on every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday for Basketball and Thursday and Sunday from 6.15am- 7.30am & 7.00am-9.00am respectively for Soccer. I would like to thank parents for supporting their child to attend the morning practices. In the future  we will be starting the practices of Athletics as well.

2.            Team Practices After School Hours:

The regular practices are going on for the Swimming, Squash, Badminton, & Golf from the beginning of the academic year. The details of Practices held after school is as follows:

Sr. no       Sports             Days                                                                          Time                                                                                                              

1              Swimming        Monday,Friday & Saturday whenever required     3.50pm-5.15pm

2              Squash                   Monday & Wednesday                                        3.50pm-5.15pm

3              Badminton              Monday &  Wednesday                                       3.50pm-5.15pm

4              Golf                       Monday,Wednesday, Friday                                 3.50pm-5.15pm

3.            Swimming Championship at Inter School Competition held at Vidya Global School Meerut:

It gives me a great pleasure to inform you all that Pathways School Noida Swimming Team has secured a 2nd position in the Inter School Swimming Competition held at Vidya Global School Meerut on 29th & 30th August, 2014 by winning 7 gold, 5 silver and 5 bronze medal. Our school has just missed the championship by 2 points. There were 21 schools participating in the competition from Meerut, Dehradun, Mussoorie, Chandigarh, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, and Noida.  I would like to congratulate our swimming team for their excellent performance and hard work they have showed during practices and competition. The Swimming team performance are as follows: Ansh Anand, Taijasi Nigam, Falak Suteri, Saara Khungar, Hyun Lee, Navya Gupta, Snigdha Khurana, Sahurya Joshi, Rananjay Singh & Shubhankar Nehra. 

                                                                    Chae Eun Lee  - Best Swimmer Award U/15 Girls

                                                                   Harshita Gupta - Best Swimmer Award U/13 Girls

4.    2nd Invitational Inter School Squash Racket competition winners from Pathways School Noida

 It gives me a great pleasure to share the result of 2nd Invitational Inter School Squash racket Competition held in our school from 11th – 13th September, 2014.There were 8 schools participating in the competition from around Delhi NCR. More than 150 matches took place in 3 days from 9.00 am – 5.00 pm.

The Squash participants of Pathways School Noida have made us proud by Securing Overall Championship in Girls Category and Runners Up championship in Boys category. I would like to congratulate winners and participants of Pathways School Noida for winning 2 Gold, 2 Silver & 2 Bronze medals which have contributed for achieving the championship. Below are the details of Pathways School Noida Winners: Kritin Kaila, Suhani Goyal, Navya Gupta, Suhani Goyal, Saideep Ganesh, Kavya Gandhi, Vanshika Goel, Taapsi Kohli 

                                                                                                    

University Visits

This week saw a lot of interaction among the students of the Diploma Program and Universities which visited the campus to share the unique opportunities that they offer to students for undergraduate study. In the run up to the preparations for college applications, this US University Fair surely gave direction and some guidance to both the decided and the undecided student on the way forward. As a prelude to all these discussions, a presentation on ‘Financial Aid and Scholarship Information’ was jointly conducted by the Admissions Officers of the different universities.

SciencesPo, a leading university of France,

visited our campus today. Since its creation in 1871, SciencesPo has been France’s preeminent university for the social sciences. Its alumni include a Secretary General of the United Nations, four Managing Directors of the IMF, numerous corporate leaders and five of the last seven Presidents of the Republic. Many of the classes are taught in French, but it is possible to study entirely in English. They offer dual degrees in with international partners including Columbia University in New York, the London School of Economics and Fudan University in Shanghai. The interaction of our students with Ms. Neha Khanna, the Deputy Representative of SciencesPo to India, has sparked a lot of interest in the students of our senior grade and true to the spirit of the IB, they are exploring these opportunities that present themselves from different parts of the world.

by Ms. Deblina Chakraborty, College Advisor 

Parent & Me by Aneesha Sahni, Coordinator, Early Years

Parent and Me day gave the parents of Pre Nursery and Nursery an opportunity to explore a day in their child’s life at school. The parents were extremely supportive and participative. They let their inhibitions down as they got involved with the daily activities and mingled with fellow parents.

It was nice to see them line up and move around the Primary school building. They got a chance to experience the Art, Music, PE, Dance and Drama lessons. They all spent half an  hour in the classes listening to the stories, singing the routine circle time rhymes and worked on the daily calendar. It was an enjoyable, engaging and an educational experience.

Art – It was exciting to see the parents so involved with the

children. They came together with Ms. Manpreet to do some clay modelling (working on fine motor skills) and made pen stands. The students were super excited to see their mums and dads do the same things they do on any other day thus having a stronger feeling of belongingness.

PE – MPH was buzzing with the most excitement having the parents alternate between the role of an instructor and a student. They were an equal part of the shenanigans as the kids. The students and their parents actively participated in games like Hopping, Fire on the Mountain and played with other PE equipment like the Hula-hoops. It was fantastic to see the students show off their gymnastic skills they had acquired in such short time.

Drama – Parents played a game called ‘Magic Stone’ and dramatized Cinderella with their kids. It was great to see parents be a sport and volunteering thereby encouraging their children to act and understand different facets of Drama. Some parents who were initially a little shy also settled in. Thanks to the warm up activities like ‘Whoosh Exercise’.

Dance – The students danced on‘Tarzan and Jane’ and ‘Itni si Hasi’ song. They were as energetic as the song itself. It was a great sight to see the parents shake a leg with the children to the Birdie Song. The lesson perfectly ended with a ‘Goodbye’ song.

Music – Music is always intriguing for the students as well as the parents to see so many instruments and equipment. The students and the parents were given shakers and had to follow the patterns led by Ms. Snigdha. They also sang several Hindi songs, one of them being ‘Upar Chanda Gol…’. They were seen moving on the ‘Fruit Salad Song’ with Ms. Aastha and Mr. Kamal.

Parents were appreciative of the seriousness with which teachers approach education especially in the performing and fine arts and in PE for such little students. They could see how these programs build a child’s confidence, language and attention span.

Primary School Election & Investiture 2014 by Ms. Vandana Parashar

Pathways School Noida recently witnessed the excitement and euphoria of the Primary Students council election.

All the 20 young leaders were ecstatic after the announcements for their posts.  Of course there were some sighs as expected, but that’s natural. All of them congratulated each other in true sportsman spirit.

The whole process took 3 weeks to complete. Beginning with announcing the posts and the responsibilities where students realized that being a council member is not as easy as it appears. All the students who had spent one academic year in school were allowed to contest of various positions. Our School principal Mrs. Usha Lamba conducted a workshop on ‘what makes a good leader’ which enabled students to grasp the qualities of a leader. With this base, Grade 5 students voted for top 20 students who according to them possessed those qualities.

These top students interacted with Dr. Advani and Mrs. Lamba and shared their plans for the primary school.

These 20 candidates began campaigning soon after through extremely creative and innovative posters. The entire school was brimming with energy and excitement as the

students went ahead with their campaign. A couple of days later, all 20 made speeches in front of the students of Form 3, 4 and 5 to ensure that people get to know them and subsequently help them win.

On the day of polling, the fervor all across the school was really invigorating and we all could sense it. Students of Grade 3, 4 and 5 voted for their favorite

candidate and chose their leaders. The results were announced by our school director Dr. Advani who congratulated the newly elected council and encouraged them to take on their positions with lot of enthusiasm and dedication. Students were elated with the results and are looking forward to do put their plans into action! We wish them all the best for this year and hope they make us proud by their ideas and efforts.  

Primary Student Council

2014-15

Position	Name
President (boy)	Aadi Singh
President (girl)	Varsha Thimmaiah
Sports Captains	Kritin Kaila
	Falak Suteri
	Ansh Anand
Air House captain	Keshav Sahni
Vice captain	Sparsh Grover
Water House captain	Vansh Gupta
Vice captain	Ananya Shahani
Earth House captain	Madhav Sahni
Vice captain	Devmay Dewan
Fire House captain	Natasha Gupta
Vice captain	Aarjav Bajaj
Cultural Secretary	Arpit Khurana
	Arushi Monne
Magazine Editor	Aditi Amritesh
Secretary of Environment	Ananya Rakheja
	Anmol Vishwanath
Secretary of Technology	Sanket Hotchandani
	Daksh Chaudhary

Global Youth Forum - Speaker of the Year by Ayona Sengupta Form 10

This year, at Pathways Noida, several students from Secondary school participated in a Global Youth Forum competition, Speaker of the Year. We were nominated by our teachers for this opportunity during the previous school year. Over the summer vacations, we were sent numerous documents and links to help us prepare for the big event. Just before the first round, we attended a training session for the same.

The first round was conducted on the 6th of September. In this round, we were required to speak for one minute. As this year’s theme is nutrition, we were asked to relate our speeches to the big idea. We were also asked to gear our words towards solutions. The people organizing the competition brought in a media team to help us shoot our videos. The entire process was rather nerve-wracking but all of us got through it successfully.

Another part of the first round was the group discussion. This discussion was an informal discussion between all the participants from our school. We talked about different things such as the effects of alcohol, the rise in the amount of teenagers who smoke and the need for a balanced diet. The thing about the group discussion was that it had no form of moderation. Many a times we had to yell to make sure we were heard. Ironically, instead of shying away, most of us doubled the fervor with which we debated though we may have lost our train of thought somewhere along the line as I distinctly remember one girl talking about Maggi.

This competition was an extremely interesting event. It encouraged each and every one of us to speak and put forward our solutions. It taught me how to truly take into account other’s views and translate these ideas into my speeches.  It also taught me to be extremely quick on my feet as I recall forgetting more than half my speech and having to improvise most of the time. All in all, this competition was rather different in its nature and target group. I enjoyed it quite a bit and I do hope we get a chance to participate again next year.

“Habitat for Humanity Initiative, Pathways Noida” by Shreya Gupta Form 11

In the past academic year, 2013-2014, the School Interact Club raised funds through numerous fundraisers such as Burger sales and the Annual Christmas Carnival, for an organization called Habitat

for Humanity India. Together, Pathways and Habitat for Humanity India, adopted the project of renovating one school in the disaster struck area of Uttrakhand that had been destroyed due to the flash floods in 2013. An amount of Rs. 2,50,000/- was donated for the reconstruction of a school in Saindul, Uttrakhand from the funds raised. The construction and renovation of the Saindul school has started and is on track. The material has been purchased for the school construction and the excavation and foundation work is in progress.

We would like to thank everyone who worked tirelessly to help raise funds for this project. We would also like to specially thank all the parents who contributed enthusiastically to the Christmas Carnival and supported in raising funds for this noble cause. We will soon have more updates as the construction progresses.  Together, the Pathways community managed to help establish a school and soon many children will be studying there and reaping it’s benefits. A very heartfelt thank you to everyone who made this project a success. 

Doon School MUN 2014 by Madhav Jaichand Grade 11

“You cannot create experience. You must undergo it. ” as said by Albert Camus.

My recent experience of participating in Doon School MUN 2014,

reverberates the underlying essence of this quote. The overall experience was extremely enriching, though it was not how I had envisaged it to be. I was initially very scared and hesitant to have nominated myself for DSMUN and to be honest quite nervous as it was my very first MUN. The anxiety escalated as it was one of the most prestigious MUNs, at Doon school. While I had done some formative research, read about it, discussed with my peers, however nothing could have prepared me for the unique simulation of the United Nations at Doon. Apart from providing me with an exposure to a very highly intellectual environment, this amazing experience also provided me with an opportunity to interact with various other students from different schools, nationally and internationally.

It was the seeing and interacting with a whole lot of other first time MUNers that set me at ease. The days were a whirlwind of attending individually assigned committee meetings, raising points of personal privilege, dealing with the sudden crisis which was bombarded on us as a surprise element, and ultimately the committee passing a resolution.

From discussing ‘Child Labour’, to presenting the participating country’s view and questioning the other delegates, our Human Resource Committee (HRC) was an exciting place to be in! With all of this being very intriguing and providing a sense of absolute novelty, what interested me most was the social aspect of this invigorating experience. I fondly carry the snippets of all the fun that, we, the delegates, had at the hotel after our long and hard day. The fun, intense discussions, late night snacks, were just some of the moments we all shared. I am sure we were quite a handful for the teacher escort, though I am also convinced they would have their share of nice memories too!

 Going through this experience I gained a great amount of experiential learning within an incredible environment of administrative integrity. The DSMUN also provided me with an opportunity to enhance my public speaking skills and debating skill, which I earlier believed to not have sufficient dexterity in.

This being my first MUN ever, I value it a great deal. With this renewed confidence and exposure, I am keenly looking forward to more MUNs. 

The Interact Burger Sale By Divya Tyagi – Form 10

Have you heard of filling two needs with one deed? Interact Club is a perfect example!

While the Interact members are all geared up to give back to the society, nevertheless they find opportunities to elate the pathwayzians too. 

On this August 22nd, Interact held a Burger Sale during lunch at the school premises. The endeavor included selling burgers, soft drinks and French - fries, making the lunch time packed with a myriad of ecstatic faces. The primary objective behind the sale was to raise funds for the Sai Bal Sansar School. This noble cause and the Mc Donald delights, hauled students and teachers not only from Pathways but from other schools, participating in the school’s Resonance Festival to contribute munificently too.

With the enormous amount of efforts put in by all, the event was a raging success, with the total collections amounting to approximately Rs. 46000. This event marked the raging accomplishment of another successful Interact initiative.

Building Homes – Building Hope!

My experience at Savda Ghevra was one that has affected me very deeply. As we were told of this activity, it seemed a fun prospect to paint the walls of somebody’s home given that we had never done it before but as I went through with the trip,

experienced and interacted with the people whose house we were painting, I realized how fortunate I was to get the opportunity to connect with them and to be privileged enough to have a place I can call home. We live in a city where we are comfortable in our own bubbles of life, it’s realities and luxuries; but this trip made me step out of that bubble and experience firsthand, a new reality, a different reality, one which made me feel and realize how much of the world, my country and my city, I was missing out on. A house might just be a building but it is a place of comfort, safety and togetherness of the family. For Habitat for Humanity to be taking such initiatives to give people like Ms Seema a home, a place of safety, comfort and love, it is absolutely commendable and inspirational. I am inspired, motivated and touched by Habitat for Humanity’s efforts to support the millions that live, deficient of a place to call home and will definitely encourage and participate in their endeavors in the future.

By Radhika Sharma, Grade 11

The day trip to Savda Ghevda organized by Habitat for Humanity has been one of the most memorable, hands-on field work experiences. Out of the very few that I have done till date, this activity was the first one which I didn’t perform in personal interest. Of course CAS is required for the ‘Diploma’ in IB, but when one does the activities willfully, you actually end up enjoying doing it.

The activity was to paint the inner walls of a two story house, for those who could neither afford to get it nor do it themselves. The splashing of paint on the walls, climbing on highly unstable ladders and watching some falling into septic tank all was seeming to be fun but throughout the activity I kept on asking myself that why am I doing this? What is the reason CAS is done? Is it really needed?

Well, by at the end of this activity I pretty much got my answer. When we met the people for whom we painted the houses the very happiness on their faces and the warmth with which they welcomed us was a lot more than just enough to answer all doubts…

Our jobs were made much easier by the people who got the paint, mixed it, filled the heavy buckets and arranged for the equipment, else would have been pretty tough for us

Thanks to the people of Savda and Habitat India we could also see the Water ATM and learn how to use it.

Surely it was an experience to remember forever.

Pramothesh Mukherjee, Grade 11

On the 29th of August, Grade 11 was taken to small village called Savda Ghevra where the famous organization, Habitat for

Humanity India, organized a much awaited activity, which was to paint houses for the small community inhabiting the village. Even as we were walking towards the small homes that were to be painted, we tiptoed our way, trying to avoid the rain water that had clogged the drains and filled up the potholes. This served as proof of the hardships that the community was going through other than most of them being handicapped or disabled.

Next, five groups of students were allotted houses which had to be painted white from the inside. The interior of the little houses seemed dull and dark, to show this we took pictures before we started doing our job to compare and contrast the difference a little white paint could make. We took a step back to admire our work and suddenly the houses looked brighter and more habitable. I was satisfied and happy to see the outcome as the children who visited us during the activity were contented to see their ‘new homes’. Additionally, we learnt that the villagers are only provided with one bucket of water in four days so, I was glad of the fact that they had atleast one thing to check off their list of basic needs; a home.

Shamini Singhal, Grade 11

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