Pathways, Noida… Much more than just a ‘School’!

‘Pathways’ is a fun place to be as you can study, learn, work and play here. I try and listen to everything my teachers and friends say in order to have a better understanding. We get to use different equipment like measuring tape, number cards, straws, and lots more for better understanding. We do so many activities to learn about different concepts instead of only reading about them.

We always used to read and write at my previous school but here we focus more on understanding than just writing. I never researched before; just studied from school books. But I enjoy doing research here! I get to read as much as I can. I am learning to write on my own without copying from any book or the whiteboard.  My work is absolutely, 100% my work; planned, drafted, edited and finally published by ME!!!! I knew ‘how’ to write, but now I am learning ‘what’ to write. I feel extremely proud of my published biography, as it’s my first piece of writing.

The PE programme is run by many teachers .  We play team matches with concentration. There are a lot of sport activities like badminton, swimming table tennis, basketball, golf and cricket. So many things under one roof… it’s actually hard to believe, but it’s true!

Pathways is like family of friends because everyone has been kind and helpful towards me and everyone else. Teachers at the school are very friendly as they explain and listen to us patiently. I miss my old friends a lot but I am sure I will make better friends here. I am here to LEARN and LIVE my life to the fullest!

Pink coloured balls

at my new school

to be here is fun for me

hindi, maths, english, uoi are subjects that I study

with new friends to make

a really good school this would be

years to look forward to

sing along with me!!!

Tanvi Amrit

Form 4

Secondary School Academic Awards

We will soon run out of our firsts, yet Pathways School Noida celebrated its ‘first’ Annual Awards ceremony on 29th of August 2012. The chief guest for the occasion was Mr. Dinesh Kothari one of the members of our Board of Governors.

The ceremony started with the lighting of the lamp, followed by a brilliant performance by the Grade six Choir.

The Director, Dr. Advani in her speech introduced the policy of awarding students at Pathways Noida. She specified that the awards reflect not just one examination, but the entire year’s performance by the students. Other than that we also celebrate areas other than academics in the special award categories, which align with the culture of holistic development in a child practiced in the school. At a later extension she also introduced Mr. Dinesh Kothari as a person with various accolades, ranging from being a leading financial analyst to notable contributions in school education.

Mr. Kothari in his speech compared his own experience of schooling to the students of Pathways and was envious of their quality of education. He further went on to comment that academic brilliance can be achieved easily, what sets the Pathways school apart is the value instilled in the students over and above academic excellence.

The speeches were followed by presentation to the middle school awardees. Punctuated by a captivating performance by the PSN Percussion Band, the senior school students received their awards. Keeping in sync with the Pathways culture, the Principals conferred the awards of Global Citizenship, Techno Proficiency, Social Responsibility, Ideal Pathwayzian and IB Learner Profile to middle and senior school students.

The best was set aside for the last. Pathways School Noida has four Houses named after the four elements – Air, Water, Fire and Earth. Amidst loud cheers, Water House was declared the first ever House of the Year.

The first ever Award Ceremony of Pathways School Noida will never be repeated, but the first ever joys and cheers of this ceremony will forever resound in the annals of the history of the school.

    

Sudripta Tagore

Head of English Department

From the Director's Desk

Welcome to the first whole-school newsletter of the year. I am delighted to see how the school is buzzing with activity, classrooms and playing fields overflowing with the creative energy which our students bring with them. Student numbers have grown dramatically and almost every grade now has two sections.

New Staff

Twenty five new teachers across the school join us in this academic year. They began with workshops in June and continued with these in July. They come with experience in teaching in international schools in the UK, US, Manila, China, Syria, international and national system schools in India and we are very happy to see how quickly they are settling in. We are especially happy to welcome our new Diploma Programme coordinator Ms Geeta Verma who comes with many years of experience at Pathways Aravali, our PYP Coordinator Dr Swati Sawant who brings years of experience from Ecole Mondiale school in Mumbai and Ms Sandhya Kumar our Advanced Learner Coordinator who joins us from a school in London. 

New Spaces

Students are enjoying the purpose built specialist rooms for Art, Drama, Dance and Music. These are located on the second floor of the secondary school and provide generous space for activities. Our Design and Technology labs have expanded considerably to make space for a metal work area and theory teaching spaces.

Meanwhile we are struggling with the civil works happening just outside our school walls. We are following up with Noida authority which assures us that they will move quickly and that they will not dig up the road outside Gate 2 and 3 at the same time. Meanwhile we ask you to cooperate with the requirements for drop off which may change from time to time.

Examination Results

Our Diploma programme results came in July and the Form 10 IGCSE results were released this week. It was heartening to see the results for the first year. I am very pleased to announce that Saurabh Mittal got an outstanding 43 points at the IB Diploma and has now gone off to his undergraduate studies at Cornell .At IGCSE, Sagnik Aich achieved 5 A* and 1 A grade. They have made us very proud.

      Saignik Aich                                                               Saurabh Mittal


           

We Congratulate

Three students – Pulkit Kapoor, Advitya Narang  (Form 9)and Aditya Kapoor (Form 7) -  who were chosen for the cricket tour of South Africa by the Yuvraj Singh Cricket Academy.

Partha Sharma (Form 11) who received a special commendation for his role in the Model United Nations assembly at Chandigarh.

Events

Independence Day celebrations were marked with a varied assembly and we were delighted to welcome Mr OP Kohli, grandfather of Taapsi and Parth who gave an account of the fight for freedom and the importance of a continued struggle for justice. You can read more about this event below.

 We held our first Primary Academic Awards ceremony on 17th and combined it with the investiture of our new Primary School Student Council.




Shalini Advani
School Director

Primary Student Council Members

Neel Barun - President

Esha Srivastava - Sports Captain



                                                           Neel Verma - Sports Captain

Snigdha Khurana -Air House Captain

Dev - Earth House Captain                                                                       Tamanna Fire House

                                                                                                                          Captain

Vanshika - Water House Captain

Jin Torrington - Parliament Rep.                                                Arshee Sahni - Parliament Rep.

Primary School Awards - 17 Aug. 2012

Lighting of the lamp by the Chief Guest, Mrs. Lata Vaidyanathan, Principal, Modern School

Primary School Choir

                                                                                   Prize distribution by Mrs. Lata Vaidyanathan

      Prize distribution by Mr. Praveen Jain, Director, Pathways School

                                                     

                   

English Literature and ‘I’-Interactions

On Monday the 13th of Aug, the Grade 12 English A students had a lively interaction with two luminaries from the world of Eng. Lit. This interaction was informal, with the easy exchange adding that much more to a range of issues and ideas discussed. Dr Shalini Advani was also a part of this interaction and she began the session with a brief introduction.

Professor Ania Loomba researches and teaches early modern literature, histories of race and colonialism, postcolonial studies, feminist theory, and contemporary Indian literature and culture. She currently holds the Catherine Bryson Chair in the English department at University of Pennsylvania. The students also had the privilege of interacting with Professor Suvir Kaul, who teaches courses in Eighteenth-century British Literature, Contemporary South Asian Writing in English, and in Literary and Critical Theory at University of Pennsylvania.He has taught at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, at Stanford University, and at the Jamia Milia Islamia as a Visiting Professor and held post-doctoral fellowships at the University of Canterbury at Kent and at the Society for the Humanities at Cornell University.

The exchange between students started with an easy question answer session on the length and breadth of their Eng A Curriculum and then moved on specific texts. Students came up with strong views, for and against many a text, principally; Jane Austen and Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’ The discussion took an interesting turn with Prof  Loomba and Prof Kaul throwing questions on feminine ‘types’. The insights into what literature can teach us and what it can make us critically scrutinize was indeed useful and the students learnt a lot in the 45 minute interaction. What was impressive was the ease and confidence displayed by grade 12, in voicing their opinions and justifying their stance. Our guests too seemed delighted with the spirited exchange and two generations of Eng Lit learners and teachers walked with new perspectives and some deep insights.

Geeta Verma

IBDP Coordinator

Independence Day

The spirit of patriotism was evident much before the words ‘Independence Day’ flashed upon the large grey screen- almost every student of Pathways World School Noida was wearing Indian ethnic clothes. The assembly that followed was not only a wonderful celebration of our 65th year of independence, but was incredibly thought provoking.

We began by honoring the men and women that laid down their lives so that we could proudly state, ‘we are an independent nation’. An interesting speech followed- whether nationalism was a good idea after all. Did it mask our perception of right and wrong?

 

The highlight of the day was definitely the guest speaker Mr.O.P Kohli, a Sahitya Ratna, Reader, Department of Hindi, Deshbandhu College. He began by asking those above sixty-five years of age to raise their hands. And including himself, there were only two present in the hall. He wondered whether we truly were independent- what about financially? And in terms of food and resources? His speech not only provided valuable insight into Independence Day but into events such as the partition as well. He gave us an insight into the events that led to partition.

Next was a little friendly competition between houses- an inter-house quiz on the history of the National movement. Water and Earth tied for first place, Fire acquired second position and Air was third.

The Primary School students added to the fervor by rendering some beautiful compositions. Finally, the event we were waiting for- kite flying. Smiles and laughter were prominent in the school grounds as the entire school trooped out to the field to try their hand at this. Some kites soared into the sky while some forlornly remained on the ground. All in all, it was definitely one of the best celebrations of our independence I had seen in a long time.

Supriya Ganesh

Form 10

From the Director's Desk

In writing this last newsletter of the year we automatically think of the twists and turns, expansion and development of Pathways School Noida over the past twelve months. So many things have happened that it is likely that we lose count of progress.

Looking Back

Student numbers have more than doubled and next year we move towards two sections for most grades. Inevitably our bus fleet doubled and further additions are planned for August.  There was a huge expansion in our sports facilities and we were happy to introduce golf, riding, squash and swimming in this year. Our first Board exam batches both in Form 10 for IGCSE and Form 12 for IB are currently taking these exams. At the other end of the scale, our Early Years section opened for children of 12 months upward.  Along with these changes we continue to aspire to the highest educational standards from the primary to the senior. Our teachers have continued to work tirelessly to develop new teaching approaches and care about the learning of every child in their care. This is apparent from the many conversations and letters of appreciation we have got from parents over the year.

Pre-term

It may seem odd to end this years newsletters with the voice of those students who are beginning at Pathways. In this issue we listen to the voice of those who have joined the school for the pre-term programme. Their experience of the concept-based learning, the different activities, the friendliness of students and the variety of teaching strategies gives a good perspective of the education programme which must be at the heart of a good school. The Pre-term students will be presenting their learning over the programme at an assembly for parents.

Coming Up

Students from Form 7 upward are sitting their final exams beginning today. Meanwhile Form 5 students are preparing for two major events. The first is the PYP Exhibition which is a unique presentation of their learning over their final unit of enquiry and the second is their graduation from Primary School. 

The week after school closes we begin with Rediscovering Minds the summer camp for students aged 5-14.

The last day for students is Wednesday 30th May. School will reopen for students on Wednesday 1st August. I hope you will all be able to take some time off together to spend as a family. Students will get a suggested reading list of enjoyable reading over the summer. Do encourage your child to spend some quiet, focused time each day. I look forward to seeing you back in the new academic year.

Shalini Advani

School Director

Middle School Principal

There are no seven wonders of the world in the eyes of a child .There are seven million Walt Streightiff

Grade 5 from Primary School visited the middle school for a day. This was to provide them with the experience of a typical day in the middle school. Students enjoyed various classes whether it was designing a name tag during DT class,  writing poems or creating art pieces .They had lots of questions as they moved to different rooms for different subject areas. Our endeavor is to enable a smooth transition from primary to middle school.

As the group of Grade 5 students moved out from the office after giving an account of the whole day at the middle school, one of them stayed back and said that he wanted to give me something !  With a smile, he slipped  a  spiderman sticker in my hand .This gesture was his way of expressing his happiness and approval  ! Moments like these gives us the pleasure, satisfaction and actually motivates further. Working with the children is indeed fulfilling. We are looking forward to welcoming them in August.

Another proud moment in the middle school was the Personal Project presentations which was the culminating event of a yearlong effort, passion and diligent work by form 8 students.

While the form 7 & 8 students are preparing for their forthcoming examinations, form 6 students are having Skype sessions with Old Mills primary school, Leicestershire U.K. The UK students have many questions on India and our life style and our students enthusiastically respond to their queries.

We will come to an end of this session in another few days and I cannot end without mentioning Form 8 which will move to senior school in the next session. Every class comes with a different character. The most remarkable thing about our form 8 students, which grew from 7 to 21 as the session progressed, is that they welcomed every new member with enthusiasm and not only helped them to settle but made them feel part of the team. This batch is filled with creativity and talent. They will be missed in the middle school !

“I'm so glad we had this time together

Just to have a laugh or sing a song

Seems we just get started and before

you know it

Comes the time we have to say, 'So long.”….Carol Burnett

Sunanda Sandhir

Middle School Principal

A Diary of Reflections of Form 5 Pre Termers

“I like this school as we don’t get homework like my previous school. Also, I love the Library as there are many books to read and collect information from.”  - Sarthak

“I like the fact that we get special attention from all the teachers here. People are very loving and friends share their things and teach each other. We are not pressurised for finishing the work, we can do it at our pace. We have less stress. It has a lot of group work and as a result you get to learn a lot from each other. I like waking up a little late too!”
- Govindpriya

“I find the way of studying very different here. In my previous school, we were just asked to open a book and simply start memorising it. I also like the sports facilities here. Clay modeling is also something new and fun to do. The research work involved is very interesting and it builds up on our previous knowledge.” - Saideep

A Diary of Reflections of Middle School Pre-termers

Amazing, nervous, exciting and fabulous! My first day at Pathways was all this and more. My new friends were as sweet as chocolate; my new teachers were as friendly as my previous school. Everyone took care of me.

I liked the way of teaching at Pathways. Teachers ask interesting questions and students find answers to them. We did many activities in English, Math, Science, and ICT. All of them were fun. DT and Art are my favorite. In DT we work in the workshop. In art we worked with glue gun and paints. Also we did newspaper rolling, this was my favorite. In my previous school, there were so many students so teachers couldn’t take care of everyone. But here and specially pre-termers were less so teachers could look into every students work and take care of them.

Soohyeaon Na

Pre Term Grade 6

Pathways has been a pleasant surprise after my previous school given how much difference there is in the teaching methods as well as the content and level. The children are also very different from what we had. Here the number of students in Grade 8 as a total is the half of what we had in each section. Such a change, I always kept thinking during the first few days, “Where are all the people?!”. The facilities are world class, the DT lab being the star of the show as no other school I know offers this subject. Every subject is taught with such detail, whether Arts or Music, I already know how to read notes! Every subject and activity is given importance, everything and everybody is equal!

I have grown in more ways than one. As a person I am much more confident about what I am, who I am and what my strengths and weaknesses are. I have become friendlier and more open to different people. In true sense, Pathways is and will continue to change me into a true global citizen. It will broaden my thinking and teach me to be consistent in my work, teach me to be hard working and teach me not to take things I have for granted. I will be a self dependent person and learn instead of mugging up, I will truly discover my interests and develop the same in subjects that I didn’t like before. It’s already started, Math is now one of my favorites and so is Art!!

Radhika Sharma

Preterm Grade 8

The learning environment is very different here in Pathways from most other schools.  The board (International Baccalaureate or IB) is different from others and the teachers focus on the more important parts of learning and they teach in a very nice way. They believe learning is a lot more important than just knowing the answer. We have lots of activities like Art, P.E twice a week; Drama, Music and Dance, since they build up personality ! I love the learning environment here!

At first , in my previous school , I couldn’t wait to get home , now when I get home I can’t wait to go to school again . I’ve grown more confident in speaking up in class, shifting to Pathways has done me a lot of good !

Anya Lauria

Pre Term Grade 6