From the Director's Desk

The old song “There’s no business like show business” seems to be coming alive in the corridors of Pathways as we move toward the school’s second Founders Day. Given the variety of different sequences being rehearsed it is a marvel that students are continuing to study and teachers to teach alongside. Through this process we hope to teach all our children the value of time management, of being able to balance different interests and to do everything seriously. As we did last year, in the last four days before Founders, we will be moving towards evening rehearsals. I will be writing to you separately with details about this.

Alongside the performances our students are preparing for an exhibition on the different performance areas. From Korean dance to Noh theatre, Tarana to Kalaripayat they are researching and writing about the forms they are practicing. Please do plan to spend some time on the 20th at the exhibition of work before you move to the amphitheatre.

Inter School Events

Middle and senior school students have been exposed to a number of inter-school events over the past few weeks. A team participated in the Model UN in Pathways Aravalli. Our middle school Robotics students won second prize at the Pathways Baliawas Robotics competition.                             
                                                                                 
                                                                    Pathways School Noida Vs Woodstock School Mussoorie

The new senior soccer team played matches against Woodstock school, Lotus Valley and are scheduled to play against Step by Step school this weekend. Two students were members of the Yuvraj Academy Pathways touring side which went to South Africa. A junior swim team will participate in an inter-school event in Aravalli.      Pathways School, Noida Vs Lotus Valley

You can read more about the events elsewhere in this newsletter.

Yuvraj Singh Academy, Pathways, team at South Africa

Robotics Event at Pathways School, Baliawas

Parent Teacher Meetings

Most parents attended the parent-teacher meetings held over the last two weeks and were able to get feedback on your children’s progress. It was good for our teachers to receive the strong appreciation which most of you shared for the school’s learning environment and programmes. Overwhelmingly parents commented on the development and progress of their children both academically and personally. Thank you also to those of you who gave suggestions for improvement. I am very aware that there are many areas of development which remain and we welcome your suggestions.

Professional Development

One of the most important areas for a school’s development is the continued professional development of the staff. At Pathways we take very seriously the philosophy that everyone is a learner – from students to teachers to administrative staff and support staff. We spend a great deal of our resources and focus on continuing professional development. Here are some of the recent and upcoming trainings:

•             Along with two teachers I attended the annual conference of the The Association of International Schools in India (TAISI). Speakers came from around the world to develop our understanding of assessment, individualizing learning, expanding the activity programme in schools etc. It was also an opportunity to interact with Heads of other schools and share ideas.

•             Senior school teachers will attend IB workshops on English, Economics, teaching and learning in primary school in Chennai and Mumbai.

•             Our Computer Studies teacher is scheduled to do an IB online workshop.

•             Primary school Form tutors will have a 2 day IB training by Mr Jason Graham an experienced PYP educator. This is on October 28th and 29th. Primary School students will therefore return to school after the break on October 30th and not 29th when school reopens for Secondary School.

•             The DP Coordinator will attend a Coordinators workshop in Kuala Lumpur

Each of these interactions develops a culture of development and growth amongst our teachers.

Shalini Advani

School Director

From the Primary School Principal

If your child comes home from school and says they have a 'lexile', don't panic! This is not a disease; it is a scaffold you and your child can use together to further climb the ladder to reading success. Enjoy! Students of Form 3, 4 and 5 have taken the Student Reading Inventory ( SRI) to obtain their lexile scores. Our library books have been lexiled too.

What is SRI?

This is an adaptive computer test in the sense that the test adapts to individual children. As children answer questions correctly, the test difficulty increases; if they get answers incorrect, the test difficulty decreases. At the end of this test, a lexile level is determined for the child. This is a measure of their reading comprehension ability-in other words, how well they understand what they have read, not just whether they know what the words say! This is a big step for reading.

PT conference

Thank you to all parents who came in to meet their teachers and a special thank you to all those parents who came in to my office to share the success and happiness of their wards. It only reassures us that we are on the correct path of educating Primary students and enthuses us to explore many new areas that we can add to enrich our program further.

Gandhi Jayanti

At a special assembly Ms Aruna and Ms Sana shared a beautiful movie that they made for students to reflect on Gandhi as a person who fits the IB Learner Profile. This was followed by singing his favourite bhajans – Vaishnav Janto and Raghupati Raghav -  that was led by the Indian Music Department.

Rehearsals

Our students are engaged with rehearsals, Internationalism and the Founders Day. The excitement has begun to build up and amidst this we are engaging them undisturbed from 10:15 to 1:30 in academics. The mornings and late afternoons are rehearsal times in the Primary. This ensures that students have their routine of learning in place too.

Usha Lamba

Principal

Primary School

The Itihaas Trip - A Visit to the Historic Sites of the Walled City

Kashmiri Gate is one of the 14 gates of the walled city of Delhi. During the revolt of 1857, the gate was attacked and bombed by the British, in an attempt to enter and take over Delhi. Before the attack, it was used as a gateway for people who wished to visit Kashmir.  The main gate was huge and was meant for the exclusive use of the royalty; the common man had to use the smaller gates on the side. The special gates would be opened just for the royal entourage to pass through. Dancers would dance for the king for around 10 kilometres of the way to wish him luck on his journey.

Classes 6 and 7 learned all of this and more on the Itihaas trip organized by the school. The study tour was related to the historic sites associated with the Revolt of 1857.

Our tour began with a visit to the Nicholson Cemetery, situated on the outskirts of the walled city. Our guide gave us a brief history about the Revolt and about the cemetery.

Then we walked into the walled city and examined the Kashmiri Gate from both sides. We explored the whole place. We were shown pictures of how the gate looked before the bombing and we were able to see all the damage the British had done. They had blown apart the bridge; the moat is now covered up, but we noticed the water was still inside. We learnt many other things about the wall and the gates eg the kind of bricks used, so we were able to identify the parts that had been restored because the new bricks were different; they were thicker.

We also visited parts of the walled city, including the haveli of the owners of Modern School, built in the nineteenth century. Some of the old tiles and wood work still looked  as good as new; the old site of St Stephen’s College; and the first church to be built in Delhi, St Jame’s Church.

The Itihaas trip was wonderful; we learnt a lot and, of course, we had lots of fun.

Chahana Bansal and Anya Lauria

Form 7A

Inauguration of Interact Club

On 19th September 2012, Pathways School Noida launched its first Interact Club. Working under the Rotary International foundation, Rotary Club Nirvana, Delhi provides support and guidance to our school’s Interact Club. With a membership of over 250,000 youth in more than 11,000 clubs worldwide, Interact is a club dedicated to community service for students aged between 14 and 18. We were honored to have with us, the President of Rotary Club Nirvana, Delhi, Mr. Pritam Mantri, the Vice President Mr. Rohit Gupta and the immediate past President Mr. Mohit Aggarwal as our chief guests.

The theme of the assembly was chosen as Internationalism, to co-incide with the celebration of the International Day of Peace on September 21st. keeping the International Day on September 21st. To project this theme, a lovely cultural performance was put up by the middle and senior school students. A Spanish song titled “La Tarara” was performed by Grade 11 students, and the grade 6 choir sang a Hindi song “Bade Chalo”. The programmed was commenced with a welcome address by our school director, Dr. Advani, followed by a motivational speech by Mr. Pritam Mantri. The President of Pathways School Noida’s Interact club, Apoorva Bihani also addressed the audience, followed by a presentation by the other core committee members who threw light on the upcoming events planned by the club. A movie showcasing the service activities initiated by the students of Pathways Noida was also put forth. Depicting the work done by the students by educating the children in the neighborhood village, the movie touched each viewer’s heart. The ceremony ended with the pinning ceremony of the office bearers of the school’s Interact Club. 

This event has been marked in Pathways history and I’m sure that there will be great work done by the club.

Preena Makhija

Grade 12

Member of Public Image Committee

Interact Club 

Sports News

There is no other place like in the sports arena to demonstrate and experience the power of pure determination. The reason why we are so drawn to sports is because of the excitement of two people or teams facing against each other to see who has greater skill and heart. Every time we set and go after a goal, a challenge will appear. If you have the mindset of an athlete, you will see these challenges as you see a more experienced opponent. They are someone you can go up against to not only to see where you stand, but to also improve your game. It’s the same with life. When challenges arise, you must use them to become stronger. This is the only way you can prepare yourself for even bigger challenges. The greater the challenge, the greater the reward. With a same mind set we have moved forward by forming teams for different sports like Swimming, Basketball, Soccer and Tennis after setting up team practices.

The process of creating strong teams is still under way as individuals learn to weld together, understand each other’s skills and communicate. It is our intention to develop strong teams in each of the sports. Although we have only had the opportunity for limited practice sessions in this academic year, we have encouraged our teams to participate in inter-school competitions and gain match experience.

Till date our Team has participated in the following Inter School competitions:

•            Noida Open Swimming Competition

•            Inter School Swimming Competition at Cambridge School   

             Noida.

•            Our Girls Basketball Team against  Pathways School    

             Gurgaon

•            Boys Senior School Soccer Team with Lotus Valley School, 

             Noida  22nd September,

•           Boys Senior Soccer Team against Wood Stock School 

             Mussoorie on 29th September.

Our two Cricketers Aditya Verma of Form 7 and Advitya Narang of Form 9 were a part of PATHWAYS YSCE CRICKET TOUR TO SOUTH AFRICA to play a league matches with different schools  around the world from September 4 to September 11, 2012. They had a great experience of cricket and knowing different culture by staying with a South Africans family.

Currently we have Team practices as follows:

1.           Swimming – Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday

2.           Senior Boys Soccer – Monday, Wednesday, Friday

3.           Senior Girls & Boys Basketball – Tuesday and Wednesday

4.           Tennis – Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Once after-school activities are launched in November we will continue to build up the passion and excitement in sports across the school.

Deepak Thakur

Physical Education HOD

SOUTH AFRICA CRICKET TOUR WITH THE YUVRAJ SINGH CRICKET ACADEMY

Along with 12 team members and 3 coaches from Pathways,  Aditya Verma of Form 7 and I arrived in South Africa. I had a wonderful tour.

While in South Africa, the landscape itself was worth seeing. As we met our hosts, we felt outside our comfort zone already. Most of us had not experienced so much cold weather earlier. When we arrived, we plunged into training at St. Stithians College who was hosting all of the matches on their vast field which would had around 7 pitches!

We played on the pitches in the different weather conditions that Jo-burg (Johannesburg) had to offer us. The new pitches were a bit unexpected  due to the rain that we had not expected. After a rather grim 1st day; we were blessed with sunshine but stuck with the cold. After living in England for 10 years, I felt memories of the cold, flood back in. However we persevered and resisted the cold and played some really good cricket.

We met some great individuals including Dr. Ali Bacher as well as the local coaches which helped us develop our skills in an organized session on the 3rd day of the 5 we spent there.

Although the result were not as good as we had hoped, we all played great cricket and made plenty of friends. While we were there, we also experienced new cuisine and met loads of new people. It was said that Budget (The Company that sponsored the event) would come back next year and make it an annual event with the hopes that teams from Australia and England will come over to play as well.

Advitya Narang 

Form 9

                             

  Our First Football Match Against Lotus Valley, Noida

On 22 September, Pathways School, Noida, football team played a competitive match against Lotus Valley International. We had very little time to practice but the coach taught us a great deal in those few days of intense practice .Despite just a few days of practice, the team showed great enthusiasm and confidence. They were well coordinated and displayed immense team spirit. The final score was 5-2. Lotus Valley beat Pathways by 3 goals.

The game began with the rival team scoring a goal. However, the home team scored another one and yet another one and we were leading by one goal. The lack of experience, since this was our first match against an outside team did begin to tell. In the second half the rival team scored 3 consecutive goals.

We were rather disappointed when we lost. However, the Pathways team firmly believes that it is not the winning or losing that matters but how you play the game. We may have lost the game but we put in our best and we thoroughly enjoyed the game. The experience has shown us our weaknesses and the team is now determined to work on them to ensure that they win the next match.

Angad Dev Dogra

 Form 12

SOCCER MATCH WITH WOODSTOCK SCHOOL, MUSSOORIE

On the 29th of September our school had a friendly football match against Woodstock School Mussoorie. The match was played on our home ground and started at 10 am in the morning. The opponent’s team was much more experienced than us in perhaps every way as they are an older school as compared to us and have a quite good football history in the state of Uttrakhand. The main purpose of the match was to find out our levels and as a practice for further games. Even with them having all these qualities our football team put up a very competitive match against them. The score in the first half was 4-1, down against us. Then with some more hard work by the team we managed to score another one and make it to 4-2 in second half. The goals for us were scored by the team captain Amar Gautam of Form 12 and our striker Udaiveer Singh of Form 9 but we still credit the whole team efforts in performing so well. We would like to thank Somorjit Sir for coaching and getting us ready for such big matches and we hope to work hard and make his efforts count. Those who were present during the match as audience, must’ve seen the intensity of the game and how well both the teams performed.

Amar Gautam

Form 12