From the Director's Desk

One month into the school year, I am very pleased to be writing to share my thoughts and give you an overview of what has taken place and what is forthcoming. I also take this opportunity to warmly welcome all the new families who have joined Pathways in this academic year. I hope you have had the opportunity to understand the working of the school through the various Form mornings and orientation sessions.

Rewards and Recognition

A large number of parents attended the Primary and Secondary Awards ceremonies and as you know at Pathways we believe in recognising multiple excellences. There has been recognition for students who did well at the Trinity school music exam (details below) and at open or inter-school sports activities. For the first time, we have launched the Pathways merit scholarship. This year this was given to students from Grade 8 up for academic excellence. It could be extended to other areas as well. We have also begun

Showcasing

Showcase assemblies to recognise secondary school students who have done something unusual beyond school and is worthy of recognition. This must be something they have done of their own initiative and in addition to their regular activity in school. As some of you have remarked, this inspires others to extend themselves in different areas.

However I would like to share with you some of the dilemmas which accompany this. Where there are winners there are inevitably losers. As I have said before, the recognition of success is accompanied by a lack of recognition of others and we would not want this event to make a student feel less special. For this reason we do not intend to extend this to Primary school students where because of the sensitivity of this age group, it is our philosophy that every student must be celebrated for whatever they are good at.

Finally, we have also looked at recognising excellence in academic areas and in exemplary citizenship, more frequently than at the annual academic awards ceremony. This will happen every quarter. And secondary students who have achieved the highest proficiency level at the end of the first semester will be invited along with their parents to coffee with the Directors.

Model UN

We were delighted to host the middle school Model UN, welcoming schools from across the NCR and from around the country. We remain one of the few schools in the country to give middle school students the opportunity to be UN delegates, discussing extremely complex issues. The General Assembly agenda was New Battlegrounds: The Future of Cyber Security and Cyber Warfare, the Security Council debated Transnational Terrorism with Special Focus on ISIS and Boko Haram, the UNHCR on Resettlement and Rehabilitation of refugees and migrants affected by ISIS, the UNDP on Sustainable Development Goals. A special session on the All India Political Parties meet had students taking on the role of individual leaders from parties in India to debate on Adoption and implementation of Uniform Civil Code. Introduced to lobbying, moderated and unmoderated caucuses, crisis situations and the protocols of the UN, students astonished us with the level of their research and understanding of global issues.

Celebrating Korean Thanksgiving

We were delighted to celebrate Chuseok with our Korean families. A number of parents came into school to highlight an awareness of this day with a sweet which was distributed to the whole school. Chuseok,  is one of the three biggest and most important holidays in Korea. Family members from near and far come together to share food and stories and to give thanks to their ancestors. I would like to thank the parents who contributed to our children’s awareness of this

Founders Day Planning

A major highlight of the year for students is Founders Day. This year the event has a strong learning focus creating an awareness which does not necessarily fit into a particular curriculum area. In primary this is on the environment and in secondary it is on Shakespeare since it is his 400th death anniversary. To protect subject areas secondary school rehearsals have been scheduled after school for the first phase and students who for various reasons are unable to devote this additional time will be absorbed into activities and presentations for the Shakespeare carnival and festival that comes before the performance. This is a new feature and promises an exciting opportunity for all students to engage with the world of Shakespeare. It is always a difficult choice between wider learning for all and the needs of the academic programme but as always every student will have some part in our two Founders events.

Safety Systems

As part of our ongoing school improvement process, the school commissioned a professional external group Momentum India to audit our safety infrastructure, system and processes. The school is recognised as having some very strong systems in place already and we are committed to continue to improve in this important area. Once the process is completed it will lead to relevant staff training, upgrade materials and tighten systems as per recommendations.

Upcoming Developments

The school will shortly begin building a new academic block. This will support better facilities and space for the MYP and increase specialist areas like Music rooms, Dance and Drama. I will be writing to you separately regarding this.

This week the school is celebrating Kindness Week: focusing on creating a recognition of the value of spreading caring and understanding. Our children today need to be actively taught about caring for the feelings of others around them and their role in strengthening and encouraging others. A variety of activities have been prepared by the school counsellors in collaboration with the student council.

Finally, I am delighted to share that the school is supporting a very special art exhibition at the India Habitat centre by Amrit Khurana.

Amrit Khurana

Amrit is on the autism spectrum and has been working in the school under the guidance of our art department, especially Mr Anil Goswami. She is a gifted artist, speaking through the images she creates. Her presence in school creates a better understanding in our other students, of the potential giftedness of students with special needs than the best lecture could do. 

Dr. Shalini Advani
School Director

From the Senior School Principal, Mr. Alexander Abraham

We are already 6 weeks into the new term and each day unravels new areas of joy and sharing and learning for all of us as a community. Whenever a new year begins its like starting a whole new chapter of one’s book and while there is a link to the previous chapter which one wrote the previous year yet it is the opportunity to carve out a whole new path for oneself. It is with the same zest and vision that the entire community at Pathways Noida has embarked upon the new academic year and it is really wonderful to see how already so many days and weeks have been filled with new learning.

Over the years our IGCSE and DP results have shown improvement and this is in large measure due to the hard work and commitment of our students and teachers and to the tremendous support we have received from the parent community to help shape our children. In the IBDP, Shaheer Haider topped the batch and the Highest achievers in the IGCSE exams were Anmol Kaul, Aastha Agarwal and Bhavika Hotchandani who all secured 7 A*. Furthermore, our students have secured admissions in New York University, Queens University of Belfast, Parsons Art and Design School (New York), UC Los Angeles, Virginia Tech, Northeastern University, University of Exeter and some Indian Universities where our students have taken admission are as Shristhi School of Design, Ashoka University, Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Delhi University etc. Our graduates write into us consistently about how they are finding life in universities abroad so much easier because of their intensive preparation here at school and because of the diverse opportunities at Pathways School Noida. Over the course of the last 6 weeks itself we have seen more than 45 universities visit us and share wonderful career paths for our students.

Over the last month and a half, we have had eventful days where our students have excelled in creative areas as well as academic pursuits.

The secondary awards celebrated the academic successes of our students and the various other recognitions do that over the year. Students were awarded for proficiency and merit awards and overall academic excellence. Besides this there were Special Awards which celebrated our students’ overall contribution to the life here at Pathways and enabled they were able to take their learning beyond the formalized assessments to areas where they would make a difference to the community at large.

Kavya Gandhi

I would also like to share that Kavya Gandhi of Grade 10 has now been ranked No. 1 in Delhi state for Badminton doubles in the Under 19 girls’ category. Also Jahanavi Dutta our School Interact President has been selected as the Zonal Interact Representative for Rotaract Delhi. Two of our students Stephen Abraham of Grade 12 and Ananya Jain of Grade 10 recently participated in applying for a STEM challenge and have been inducted as Young Members of the prestigious New York Academy of Sciences and will be participating in a world-wide STEM training and challenge by the Academy.

Jahanavi Dutta

However, what I see of far greater value and worth are those tangible changes we see in our students from the moment they begin an academic year till it draws to a close. More often than not there is unparalleled joy we as educators have, to see a diffident student turn out to be confident and articulate, a student learns to play a new instrument and leading to a discovery of her varied other interests, another who overcomes typical teenage emotional challenges to become a balanced and committed individual offering comfort and strength to others.

We are extremely proud of our student council and Interact clubs who have been over the last month so active expressing their gratitude to Teachers on September 5th and tying up with Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA). Also they had been a Bake Sale and a Foodathon drive to support CANSUPPORT and the Delhi Foodbank. It is remarkable considering that these and other initiatives have been student driven with a motivation of giving back to society and to those who are in need.

We look forward to the exciting months ahead and of teaching and learning not just in a classroom environment but through all our interactions and of building and building towards a stronger and more vibrant community that prepares for our students for life ahead.

Pathways Merit Scholarship 2016

The school is proud to announce the launch of Pathways Merit Scholarships for students of Grade 8 up. These have been awarded based on the overall academic grade for students with MYP points of a minimum of 56 of 63,   IGCSE with a minimum of 5 A*   and DP of 38 points and over. Congratulations to our scholarship winners.

Kyu Dong Cho                                 Grade 11

Aastha Agarwal                                 Grade 10

Bhavika Hotchandani                      Grade 10

Anoushka Nalwa                              Grade 10

Utkarsh Gupta                                  Grade 10

Mantika Singh                                   Grade 10

Ishaan Gupta                                     Grade 9

Yash Gupta                                         Grade 9

Samiksha Gumbhir                          Grade 9

Harveen Anand                                Grade 8

Dev Verma                                         Grade 8

Vanshika Goel                                   Grade 8

Academic Awards Primary School, Mrs. Aruna Jha

Students from grades   2 to 5 have been recognized   for their achievements on 25th  August, 2016. The ceremony commenced with the welcome speech by the new Primary School Presidents, Joel Gaba and Arnav Kansal followed by lighting of the lamp and  a melodious alaap. A song   written by the famous poet, Shri Rabindranath Tagore, was also presented by the primary choir.

The occasion was graced by an esteemed personality, Mr. Manavjit Sandhu, as the chief guest, who   represented the country, in the Rio Olympics 2016, as a member of the Indian shooting contingent.  Students were   motivated by the kind words shared by our school director, Dr. Advani and chief guest, Mr. Manavjit Sandhu,

who reminded the student fraternity and audience to focus more on the process of accomplishing goals rather than winning or losing. The objective of the ceremony was not only to facilitate students who are meritorious, but also motivate those who have been determined to move ahead and try treading challenging paths. The spirit of competition has been visible not only between peers but also by competing with one’s individual abilities by seizing opportunities to progress academically, culturally and in different areas. It was   a proud moment for parents to see their children, receive awards and be recognized for their hard work.

The new student council for the year 2016-17 has also been   appointed. Students in the primary were taken through an experience of a   free and fair process of elections. Each stage of election provided opportunities to develop skills for life and help them emerge as leaders. With great pride they were anointed by the School Director Dr. Shalini Advani and primary school, Principal Mrs. Usha Lamba. The student council took the   oath and pledged to work hard for the student fraternity they represent and promote the values and vision of Pathways School Noida with utmost integrity.

The council took pledge   to build and nurture a community of thinking, compassionate, responsible and balanced   world citizens. The council with pride walked the aisle, holding the respective flags, wearing   badges and feeling responsible. The new student council and their families were congratulated for their new appointments.  It was a moment full of emotions for many parents and teachers who have worked along with the students to mould and groom them, to carve a place for themselves. The ceremony was concluded with parents, teachers and students having tea and interacting with each other.

Academic Awards Secondary School, Bhavika Hotchandani Gr 11

“The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand."

Vince Lombardi

On the 17th of August 2016, the Academic Award Ceremony and Middle School Parliament Investiture took place at our school, to celebrate the success of our students during the academic year 2015-2016. We were honored to welcome our chief guest Mr. Sandeep Marwah, a Film, Television and Media personality, also the Founder of Noida Film City. He was pleased to see the immense discipline, organization and the plethora of opportunities that students in Pathways are offered, thus providing them with a chance to excel themselves and achieve their potential.  

The event commenced with the auspicious lighting of the lamp and a traditional African folk song performed by our students to encapsulate the spirit of success and achievement. This choral choir piece, the "Click Song"

by Miriam Makeba, the Legendary South African singer and human rights activist was introduced to a global audience in the 1960’s. We were all inspired as Dr. Advani brought out the true essence of determination and perseverance by mentioning Dipa Karmakar, the gymnast who represented our country at the Olympics; an admirable epitome of success herself. We were encouraged to focus on our talents and not our failures.

We then moved on to our next segment, which was the giving away of the awards. This year, there was something special, Pathways Merit Scholarship of Rs 25,000 was awarded to meritorious students for their outstanding accomplishments.  This came as a pleasant surprise to many students and parents. Next, we had the special awards presented to students who had gone beyond academic expectations and stretched themselves to excel in other school areas as well. This was followed by the Proficiency and Merit certificates recognizing students for achieving the top grades across subjects.

As students, we hold great pride in our teachers who supported us throughout the year and we thank them from the bottom of our heart.

The awards ceremony ended with a melodious string ensemble presented by some of our Senior School students. The final event was the Middle School Parliament badging ceremony; our young leaders will sure make us proud. The Student Council President, Karan Pandanda, gave the vote of thanks and the event concluded on a note of immense pleasure for everyone. 

Trinity Music Examinations by Mario Maxwell Muller, Head of Music Dept.

The music programme at Pathways Noida allows learners to express themselves through using music as medium. The music curriculum encourages learners to be creative and investigate several composers, explore different rhythms and foster an appreciation for music. The ideologies of the IB learner profile allow learners to be risk takers. The challenging task is to prepare for external examinations where their competencies and skills are tested and assessed by examiners from England. This year Pathways Noida achieved excellent results for their Trinity Music Examinations. All learners had to prepare themselves adequately for being able to sight read, perform three songs from different categories and complete aural tests where their theory abilities were assessed. To be effective communicators our learners are taught to be confident when they perform.  Massive congratulations to the following students from both Primary and Secondary School:

Farid Arora for achieving a Distinction for Violin Grade Initial

Prisha Sehgal for achieving a Merit for Singing Grade 1

Shyla Majumdar for achieving a Merit for Singing Grade 1

Dhriti Bhattacharya for achieving a Merit for Singing Grade 1

Agamya Singh for achieving a Merit for Singing Grade 1

Chalek Ladhani for achieving a Merit for Singing Grade 1

Jaiya Peterson for achieving a Merit for Singing Grade 1

Arushi Lakhanpal for achieving a Merit for Singing Grade 1

Taijasi Nigam for achieving a Merit for Singing Grade 1

Esha Anand for achieving a Merit for Singing Grade 1

Aditi Amritesh for achieving a Merit for Singing Grade 2

Anarghya Saxena for achieving a Merit for Electronic Keyboards Grade Initial

Amogh Dwivedi for achieving a Distinction for Electronic Keyboards Grade 4

To achieve a Distinction learners have to achieve above 90% and to be able to achieve a Merit learners have to achieve above 80% - 90%.

 Some of our learners with the external examiner Mr. Brian Northcott 

   for Trinity College of Music, UK

Thank you to all the staff in the Music Department for preparing these students. A special thank you to Mr. Kamal Verma and Mr. Poneet Sharma.

“Breakthroughs in Biotechnology” by Dr. Justin McCarthy at Pathways Noida - Mr. Samuel Osmond, IB Coordinator

On August 24th, the IBDP Biology and Chemistry students had the wonderful privilege to attend a Seminar on “Breakthroughs in Biotechnology” by Dr. Justin McCarthy is a Senior Lecturer, Director of Biotechnology and Science Foundation Ireland. Dr. McCarthy is currently a SFI Principal Investigator in the Analytical and Biological Chemistry Research Facility (ABCRF) and Director of the Signal Transduction Laboratory.

A proud recipient of Johnson & Johnson/Science Foundation Ireland, Healthcare Innovation Programme Award, Dr. McCarthy engaged the young learners of the DP in a very interesting discussion on how bio-engineering has opened new avenues in the field of scientific research and has made possible those aspects of scientific inquiry that were only considered a distant dream a few decades earlier.

The discussion involved a wide spectrum of topics from “designer babies” to “gene therapy “ and brought in a new insight into the understanding of Biotechnology and ethics.

The MUN Oakridge, Hyderabad, Arushi Lakhanpal of Gr 7

The MUN in Oakridge was definitely an exciting opportunity for

everyone, and even if some of us didn’t get awards, I’m sure we all enjoyed the experience. Since this was the first MUN for most of us, including me, we had to learn all the rules and procedures, make our speeches, and prepare everything in a very short time, but we managed it all. This helped us improve our time-management skills, and further helped us in Oakridge.

My first day went great; the chairs were extremely helpful and explained all the procedures before we started. The hardest part was probably framing the speeches in a short time limit. Our ultimate goal was to win an award, and to do that, we had to make as many speeches as possible. What was even more challenging, was to make our speeches, and have valid information, since the agenda requires deep research.

Model United Nations helped me get a deeper understanding of global problems since most of the topics given were current problems, just as in a real United Nations conference. It also improved my critical thinking skills, since it taught me how to think and research fast and in-depth. It especially taught me how to be more spontaneous, because with more than 40 people in the room, we wanted to be the people who spoke as much as possible, which meant being quick at speaking, framing, and delivering speeches.

My committee (ECOSOC) discussed about child marriage and its effects, everybody spoke their views on the AGENDA before getting into serious discussion about our sub-topics, such as solutions for the cause, how this affects girls, and many other interesting debates/discussions.

Other committees had different agendas, such as DISEC, which discussed Improving the humanitarian situation in regions affected by the Syrian Civil War, and HRC talked about Preventing the discrimination of physically or mentally disabled people, especially in cases of employment and inclusion in popular media. Other committees, like ILO worked on Protecting the rights of migrant and immigrant workers. SC suggested how to De-escalate the crisis in the South Sudanese region. All other committees included different agendas about world problems, which were discussed in debates, caucuses, and by lobbying.

The last day was probably the day with the most pressure. All our hard work had summed up to this. We had to make as many friends as possible, and make them sign our resolution. Although this didn’t help us win awards, it contributed to our marks a lot.

In the end, all of us were proud of our efforts, regardless of whether we won an award or not. This was definitely an enriching experience for all of us and I can’t wait to try again next year.

Film-making workshop with Mr. Ujjal Das by Varsha Pandanda Grade 7A

On the 6th of September, 2016, Grade 7 had a film-making workshop with Mr. Ujjal Das, due to our ongoing Digital Design unit; ‘Movie Making’. Mr. Das is the co-founder of Shtick Films (P) Ltd and has 20 years of experience in making Advertising films, documentaries and feature films. In Digital Design unit, we are making a film on a particular global or national issue that is quite common in the world. For example, racism, poverty, lack of education, gender inequality and many more.

The workshop was conducted so that we could understand the different techniques and stages film-makers go through when they make a film. What better way to learn this, than from an experienced film maker and industry-expert. We learnt many things in the workshop, such as, the different stages to shooting a film, which are, Pre-Production, Production and Post-Production. In the Pre-Production, we have to plan the entire movie out to every small detail. It is important that we keep a tabulated chart for our planning. The chart will include, things like location/setting, date, crew for each scene’s shooting, requirement of props, make-

up, camera etc., Cast, Cost, Budget and many more. Next, comes the Production stage. This stage is basically the shooting process which is relatively easy, thanks to the Pre-Production. However, what a film-maker must know while shooting are the different shooting tactics used to express a particular film’s meaning better. Some camera shots include, Close-ups, Mid-shots, Wide-shots, Pan- from left to right, Dolley/trolley shot, Juxtashot and many more. These techniques help in giving depth and dimension to the film. Lastly, the Post-Production stage. There are 3 main parts in this stage, 1- Edit, 2- Decision and 3- Creating a List or a Log. These are the main things that help in making a film worth watching.

To conclude, it was a great experience and we learnt so much. Everybody was so intrigued that we were all taking down notes galore. One of the main highlights of the session was, that it was very engaging. We would like to thank Mr. Das for his time and coming to our school to conduct a very valuable session. Thanks to this, I am sure everyone has a pretty clear picture of how their movie may turn out. Thank you Mr. Ujjal Das!

Slam Poetry Workshop - Ishaan Gupta-Grade 10

To some students, poetry is a form of creative expression, to others, it is just a difficult element of their Literature classes! However, afterschool on Thursday the 25th of August, around 35 of us had the chance to explore a more unique, modern and fun genre of poetry: Slam Poetry. Two aspiring Slam Poets from one of the Delhi Slam Poets group, Shibani Das and Aastha Singh, led this workshop.

They first got the students creative juices flowing by asking them to draw one item that symbolizes them. The students rose to the challenge; images of items from tangled earphones to books graced the sticky notes. They then helped the students differentiate between more conventional poetry and Slam Poetry. The students contributed to the discussion and learnt that Slam was more focused on conveying ideas that concern us in interesting ways to live audiences. The students then got to watch professional slam Poets on YouTube as well as live performances by Aastha and Shibani. Thus inspired, the students created their own short poems and passed them around the class where their peers wrote responses also in the form of poetry. Now that we had the creative skills and inspiration to write poems, Shibani and Aastha taught essential skills for performance and a couple of brave souls from the student audience presented their original pieces. We also did a Penguin dance to shed our inhibitions of going up on stage!

 It is safe to say that the students who attended the workshop are sufficiently prepared and excited for the upcoming Slam Poetry Inter-House competition!