From the Director's Desk

Three weeks into the new academic year, and it is evident that the school is well settled and into a host of activity. August is typically a month of multiple activity for the senior school so that various activities which take students out of regular class take place before they focus in earnest on the academic programme. It is equally a time to familiarise parents with our systems and processes and deepen your understanding of the IB programme.

New staff

Over 30 new members of staff have joined the school, having been through a rigorous special training programme conducted before school opened.  

The training included both IB features as well asour philosophy and approach at Pathways. We are happy to welcome them to the school.In leadership positions other than the IB coordinators and the GM Administration who have already been introduced, we are pleased to have our new Head of Music Mr Mario Mueller who has been Head of Music in schools in South Africa, the UK and most recently at St Andrew’s International School Thailand.   

Our new Head of Design Technology Mr Stephen Jones has taught and been Head of Department in schools in China, Vietnam, Oman and India.

We are also pleased to have appointed Ms Pooja Kapoor as our Parent Relations Coordinator. Her role is to track and troubleshoot concerns you have raised, primarily in areas of administration, finance, transport etc. The usual path to raising academic issues via Form tutors and the Principals remains in place.

 Interschool Event on Masculinity

One of the hallmarks of an IB education is to encourage students to think more deeply about ideas we take for granted. With this in mind we are pleased to be hosting an inter-school event on Masculinity. Today when we think of gender the automatic option is often to think of women, of feminity and feminism. But a focus on masculinity is as important. Masculinity too is created by society, by social expectations of what boys and men are expected to be like. From time immemorial boys have been taught, at a young age, that to be ‘a man,’ they must suppress their emotions, become dominant and be superior to women.

This has a powerful effect, not only on the emotional lives of men but also shapes the economy and culture.  Senior school students will examine masculinity through discussions, debate, music and drama.  Please note that because of this event Thursday 27th will be a full – length day till 3.40. The shorter day till 2.20 will be on Wednesday 26th.

Career Day & University Visits

August and September see multiple activities organized on college admissions and career guidance, as Grade 12 students begin to apply to universities.

A number of college visits are organized with universities . On Career Day this week 18 US university admissions officers visited the school,  and parents and students came together to understand the US application process . Coming up ahead are visits from universities from Canada, the UK and India. Elsewhere you can see the list of universities our graduating students got admission in.

Events of Note

The Primary & Middle School form mornings, introductions to the PYP & MYP and trainings on Phonics have been very well attended and all parents have expressed appreciation for the deeper understanding which they have got of the academic programme.

  

The secondary school Awards was a delightful way to begin the year by celebrating the academic success of students from the last academic year. This was a fitting round off of the very good IB & IGCSE examinations.  The number of students who stood out for their excellent results has risen steadily over the years.

   The Primary School gears up for the Primary Student Council elections at the end of this week and as posters come up around the school, the level of excitement has been rising.

  

 Administration Issues

 I would like to thank all parents for supporting the strict use of Exeat cards for admission. Meanwhile we continue to liaise with Noida authority on the repair of drains outside the school boundary.  The Administration department will also be launching a drive regarding parking outside the school walls. Despite requests, a number of cars are continuing to stop or even park in the middle of the road to drop off children. This is both a nuisance for those who follow the rules and dangerous for children crossing the road. A new, stricter system will have to be implemented from next week and I appeal to all of you to comply with the instructions of the security team. This is not an area where we would like to hold our students responsible but we will need to do this if instructions are not followed.

Dr. Shalini Advani

School Director

From the Senior School Principal, Mr. Alexander Abraham

Every year our students of Grades 10 and 12 have given the gruelling international exams in the IGCSE and the DP and we are absolutely delighted to share that this year both the grades that went into the exams have produced the best results so far in our school life. In the DP exams the toppers were Supriya Ganesh and Jae Woo Oh who scored 41 points each and followed closely by Shreya Biswal who scored 40 points. The school had an average of 32 points which is much above the world average.

Our IGCSE results have also been excellent with 132 student entries achieving A or A* in the IGCSE exams and 12 of our students achieving Distinction in the Cambridge IGCSE ICE award. Without a doubt while we are very proud of our students achievements we are also very appreciative of our committed group of teachers who have worked hard with our students to ensure that we had a really good result. We are also really pleased to share that many of our students have been admitted to very prestigious universities in the US, UK, Canada, and of course in India. Some of these institutions are Columbia University, UC San Diego, University College of London, Purdue University etc.

A major focus has been to prepare students for the months ahead. We had a very successful orientation programme for our Grade 11 students who have commenced their journey of the DP at the end of July. We are proud to share that this year a few of our recently graduated students came to share their experiences of the DP and all its nuances.

We also had on the 18th of August a Career Day which will enable our Grade 10-12 students to interact with Universities from the US who will share various ideas on how to apply to colleges and through break-out sessions, guide our students on what could ease their application process to the various universities. Over the next two months we will have close to a 100 universities visiting our campus from abroad as well as India thus allowing our students opportunities to listen and interact with the University officers.

There is a renewed focus on tightening systems and processes and to this effect we are now mandating that all students will need to have 90% attendance in a semester or they may not be allowed to sit for the exams. This attendance is cumulative over the months and is to ensure that students will be regular to school and through the contact time with the teachers in school appropriate teaching learning will take place. We are also pushing the academic honesty policy which discourages academic malpractice and encourages our students to be true IB learners by being independent and articulate thinkers. Another effort that we are pushing for very strongly is a non tolerance of delay in any submission. This is to enable students to get into the nature of being time bound in all submissions and more effective time managers and is a major skill to success in University life where one has to multi task effectively.

As I look out into the pages of the calendar for the busy months ahead I see activities marked out to fill out the days of all of us here at school. But I see much more…. I see moments of discovery for both students and teachers…. to see how there will be many an A-Ha moment of finding out new experiences which enrich our day. I see much more opportunities to raise the bar of excellence in whatever field or stage we put ourselves in and be able to say thus far we have come and even more. I see a scene from the celebrated movie “Dead Poet’s Society” where Robin Williams as the teacher stands on the desk and challenges the students by saying- “I STAND upon my desk to remind myself that we must constantly look at things in a different way”. The challenge for us as a community through this year is to “rise and stand” above the usual and look at every opportunity in a different way and seize the day as we move forward.

Where Did Our Students go in 2015..

Columbia University in the City of New York

University College, London

University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA

University of Southern California, USA

Virginia Tech

University of the Arts, London, UK

College of Arts, New Delhi

Glasgow School of Art

Pratt MWP College of Art and Design, New York, USA

IUBH School of Business and Management, Germany

Penn State University

University of Massachusetts

University of Western Ontario

Saint Mary's University, Canada

San Diego State University

Les Roches International School for Hotel Management, Switzerland

O.P. Jindal University of Liberal Arts

St. Peter's University, New Jersey

University of Kansas, USA

Malabar Medical College

Pearl Academy, Mumbai

Brunel University

Newcastle University, U.K.

ISBF, New Delhi

Amity University

G D Goenka University

University of Buffalo

G D Goenka University

Kingston University, U.K.

Bournemouth University, U.K.

The University of Strathclyde, UK

Pearl Academy, New Delhi

Pearl Academy Noida

HULT International Business School, London, UK

Secondary School Awards Ceremony by Vanshika Goel Gr 8B

It was the morning of August 14th and the day of the Annual Awards ceremony for the Secondary School.

The assembly started out with an orchestral piece titled, Country Gardens by Percy Grainger, performed by some students of the Secondary School, as the parents, students, teachers, and the honourable chief guest, Retd. Air Marshal Veer Narayan entered, which was followed by a choral piece in Latin titled, Gaudeamis Igitur, sung by the students of grade 8.

We also had Kyung Rok Hong of Grade 9 perform a melodious tune on his violin: Violin Concerto No 2 in B minor - O Rieding.

              

Our School Director Dr. Shalini Advani formally began the proceedings after the Lamp Lighting with an inspirational talk to the students and the parents; after her, the Chief Guest gave an equally motivating one.

We then began with the awards presentation. There were two types of awards given:

one, the Special awards for students who displayed attributes that stood out in areas beyond the curriculum. The awards were varied, some of them being: “the Inquisitive Learner award”, “the Community Leader award” and “the Global Citizen award”. The second category of awards given were the Academic awards, to students who excelled and met the standards across subject areas.

As one of the awardees, waiting in line to receive the Special award was an exciting moment, as nobody knew what they would be getting. The same could be said for the academic awards as it was a relief to finally know what we were getting. I’m sure that for all the awardees, it was a great pleasure to know that our efforts last year had paid off, and for next year, there will be even more people standing in line to receive their well-earned awards!! 

Inter House Trophy 2014-15

Fire House

Career Day at Pathways School Noida

This was a morning of excitement and learning at Pathways School

Noida as the students of Grades 10, 11 and 12 were inspired by the US story of Academic Research and Opportunity. When we saw that 4.5% of the world population is home to 27% of the world’s best universities, it warranted a discussion on the reasons for such success.

Mr. Ganesh Kohli, the Founder Director and Chief Mentor of KIC

Univassist, had brought in a team of Admissions Officers from 14 universities spread across the United States. He brought out an interesting aspect of the changing paradigm in Education. An example of how Einstein’s theory of Relativity is used to measure human energy and vibrations, thereby connecting the popular theory of Physics with the deeper implications of Psychology and Criminology. This makes our mindset of subject streaming into Science, Arts and Commerce obsolete. The Sciences and Music, Physics and Archaeology, Computer Science and Legal Studies are emerging combinations that have led to the success of the US Education Story.

This stimulating discussion was followed by workshops for Grades 10, 11 and 12. While the students of Grade 10 were prompted to think of the subjects that they can choose after IGCSE, the Associate Director of International Admissions at Purdue University gave the Grade 11 students an insight on How Colleges Evaluate Applications. The Admissions Officers of Miami University and SUNY Stony Brook spoke to the Grade 12 students about How to write a winning Application Essay.

Charged with information which gave rise to numerous questions, the students were led to the University Fair, in which parents and students interacted with the university delegates. There was heavy interaction on College rankings, Popular and Accredited courses, Admission requirements, Test Preferences, Campus Life and Housing.

Finally, the Grade 12 students and their parents settled down to understand how the school facilitates the College Application Process and to get a second round of information about the Diploma Program from the Senior School Principal and the Diploma Program Coordinator.

University Fair at Pathways Noida by Deblina Chakraborty College Advisor

It was a Fair with a difference – The academic block was abuzz with Senior School students and many of their parents during Lunch hour as they interacted with Admissions Officers from 10 different universities. While the students were very happy to ask numerous questions ranging from course requirements to campus life, the delegates from the universities were deeply impressed by the level of understanding of our students. They said that the students stand out in the way they are able to articulate their query and the diversity of interest and aspiration that they found in them.

During the First Semester we will be facilitating many University

Visits to expose the students to a wider horizon of opportunities that exist in the world. The overarching goal, however, is to help our students to make informed choices as they approach the Senior year with preparation and confidence.

The visiting universities were : –

Sl.No.	University Name	Country
1	Instituto Marangoni	Milan, London, Paris
2	Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Island	UK
3	Anglia Ruskin University, Chelmsford, London	UK
4	University of Victoria	Canada
5	Campus France	French National Agency
6	University of Ottawa	Canada
7	University of Northampton	UK
8	University of Central Florida	USA
9	Kent University	USA
10	St. George's University, Grenada	West Indies
11	Ashoka University	India

Trinity College London’s Music Exams hosted a Pathways School Noida

We take great pride in announcing the results of the Trinity College London’s Music Exams. Heartiest congratulations to our students and our faculty Mr. Kamleshwar Verma, Mr. Poneet Sharma  & Ms. Snigdha Das for training them so competently.

S.NO.	Names	Discipline	Result
1	Ameya Naik	Singing Grade IN	Distinction
2	Shyla Majumdar	Singing Grade IN	Distinction
3	Natasha Gupta	Singing Grade IN	Distinction
4	Arushi Lakhanpal	Singing Grade IN	Distinction
5	Neel Verma	Piano Grade IN	Distinction
6	Bhavya Balaji	Singing Grade IN	Merit
7	David Abraham	Singing Grade IN	Merit
8	Dhriti Bhattacharya	Singing Grade IN	Merit
9	Anandita Ralli	Singing Grade IN	Merit
10	Agamya Singh	Singing Grade IN	Merit
11	Chahek Ladhani	Singing Grade IN	Merit
12	Jaiya Peterson	Singing Grade IN	Merit
13	Ananya Shahani	Singing Grade IN	Merit
14	Taijasi Nigam	Singing Grade IN	Merit
15	Arushi Monne	Singing Grade IN	Merit
16	Esha Anand	Singing Grade IN	Merit
17	Varsha Thimmaiah	Singing Grade 1	Merit
18	Arpit Khurana	Singing Grade 1	Merit
19	Vanya Bansal	Singing Grade IN	Pass
20	Vanya Bansal	Violin Grade IN	Pass
21	Aditi Amritesh	Singing Grade 1	Pass

Independence Day Assembly, Aishani Durrani gr 7A

         

Independence means the time when a country or region gains political freedom from outside control. India got independence from British in 1947. This was the act of the parliament of United Kingdom that partitioned British India into independent states. The leaders helping India to be independent were Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Bhagat Singh, Lala Lajpat Rai, Netaji Subhash Chandra Ghosh and many more. These leaders helped India achieve independence. Even today we worship them as freedom fighters of our country.

Our school held an assembly on 11 August to celebrate Independence Day.

We had all kinds of acts and performances. We first had a drama play from the primary school about how eager they were to meet the leaders from the past and they even talked about historical places related to independence.  Then there was a small act from the middle school demonstrating different leaders’ dreams on what they wish to aspire after the independence. Then there was a small dancing act too. There was a survey done

by one of the middle school child on “Is India really independent?” The data was shown on “How many people think India is independent” and different answers to various questions. After the data was displayed the senior school brought up a debate related to the independence of India. There was a small question answer game session for audience. After all the acts, we stood up to sing the national anthem.

Freedom to me means walking on the streets alone. Freedom means standing up for what’s right and wrong. Freedom means telling what we feel in public. Freedom means having the right to make our own choices and decisions. Freedom is when we have the right to stand for our voice.  As a citizen of India freedom for me is living my life the way I want. And I conclude that I am proud to live in free India.

An interact club initiative – Book collection drive conducted during summer break, Mehak Singhal,

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” In today’s fast moving world, it is easy to forget the importance of education and its necessity for growth as a community. With this aim in mind, the Interact club students of Pathways School, Noida, therefore collaborated together and organized a book drive at school for the less privileged students of an IB school that we support in the city of Bhopal by the name “Eastern Public School”.

The students of this school mostly come from the less privileged sections of society and follow the IB curriculum. They are very keen learners and are being supported in their educational pursuit through grants received from donors. Every year, we students at Pathways Noida do our part in supporting their educational endeavors and do so by requesting students from the pass out batches to liberally donate their used IB and IG books to these students.

Our outgoing batch of students of 2015, more than willingly supported this cause and we managed to collect one big carton of used books which were finally dispatched to Bhopal in the last week of July’15. 

All our outgoing students were delighted to have this opportunity to help  as a part of the CAS initiative. We wish to thank all our outgoing students for their support and also commend the efforts of the Interact Club members who worked through the summer vacations collecting books from student’s houses.

Sports Glimpses

Golf Inter School Laurels

Our Golfers Played Inter School Golf Matches during the Summer Break On 3^rd, 6^th And 27^th June 2015.

They Secured 2 Golds and 2 Bronze in these Competitions.

The detailed results are as mentioned below:-

1^st match:- DDA Gutub Golf Course Tournament, 3^rd June, 2015

                   Sareena Khanna of Grade 4 - 1^st position

 2^nd match:-34^th Lufthansa Junior Golf Tour in association with Callaway Golf, 6^th June 2015

                  Kyoung Rok Hong of Grade 9 – 1^st position

3rd match : Little Master Junior Golf Tour Series At Jaypee Mini Golf Course, Greater Noida - June & July 2015

                   Sareena Khanna of Grade 4 – 3rd position

    Sareena Khanna- Form 4       

                                   

      Kyoung Rok Hong- Form 9

Pathways YSCE Cricket England Tour

The 20 day cricket exposure trip comprised of two legs and involved various competitive games and provided many opportunities to the kids for sightseeing as well as grasping as much as they could out of  the rich English culture. 3 Boys of Pathways School Noida Ayush Tiwari, Aaryaman Dewan and Yashasvi Singh were a part of the YSCE Pathways Cricket England Tour.

We  started with London, where we stayed for 10 days. The team played 04 games against prestigious educational institutions like Hampton School and Wilson School. They also got to play with one of the oldest Cricket clubs in London called the Totteridge Millhilians, not to mention our hosts British Airways Cricket Club. Our boys finished with 2 wins out of four games impressing one and all. All our opponents as well as officials were highly impressed by the skills displayed by our boys.

Apart from games, boys also got the chance to Visit Mecca of Cricket, the Lords cricket ground and do an indoor net session. Icing on the cake was a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet The Great Sachin Tendulkar who was there to meet the boys on a request made by Mr. Yuvraj Singh himself.

They also visited Madam Tussads, Lego Land and the beautiful beach at Portsmouth. A city tour for them was also organised by YSCE.Although Birmingham leg started on a sour note since couple of games got washed out, we finished wonderfully well. The boys made the most of the rainy days as they discovered Michael Schumacher’s in them at the Go-Karting tracks at Cannon Racecourse and Team Grand Prix. To compensate the washed out games two indoor sessions were also given to them at the Edbaston Cricket Grounds.

In the three games played at Birmingham, they won 2 and lost 1. At Cannock and Rugely CC, they defeated the 2nd XI of the club which is a huge achievement considering that we had boys as young as 11 years old representing our team.

Once again the trusted hands from Pathways raised their standards to notch a fantastic victory. But what made the victory sweeter were the important contributions made by almost all of them. Whether it was the fielding efforts of Medhansh, Advitye,Yashasvi and Vishesh or the timely bowling effort of Aayush from Pathways School Noida or the constant e paper from players like Ashutosh. Almost everyone chipped in. This was the real victory for each one of us.

All in all we had a great time with the boys. We provided them with best of opportunities at all times and did every bit possible to ensure that each kid went back enlightened. We believe that UK tour is not just educating kids about Cricket but to teach them about team spirit, discipline, gamesmanship, decision making and instilling confidence in them that they can be on their own.