Interact Club

The Interact Club took the initiative to share our celebration of Children's day.  The members of the Interact club and the CAS group of 11th and 12th grade students celebrated this day with the students of Prabhodhan school at Hazipur Village. We got a perfect attendance on this day as we had told the village children to tell their friends that they will be served with food, be allowed to play games and participate in varied sports, and would get gifts at the end of the celebration. 
 

The day began with a shared lunch in the school cafeteria. Our visitors thoroughly enjoyed sitting with Interact club members in the cafeteria, and being well looked after by them.  After time for free play, it was time for the games to begin. The village students had been prepared for certain races during their regular  visits to the school in our weekly CAS – Service sessions . We organized different races for them ranging from Sprint to Obstacle races . The children who stood first, second and third position were given prizes at the end of the races. At the end the members of the Interact club and the CAS group presented all village kids with a nicely packed gift comprising of a colouring book and crayons for the children. At the end , one of the village kid also spoke about the entire event and thanked us.  All the village children went back happy and the smiles on their face gave us happiness. We all enjoyed our CAS lesson with the kids.

Vidushi Sachdeva

Grade 11-A 

From the Director's Desk

I would like to begin by thanking all those of you who wrote or expressed your appreciation of our very successful Founders Day. The sharing of their learning through the exhibition and the vibrant programme showcased the wonderful talent of our students. If in the lead up to Founders, they learnt that hard work and attention to detail can be fun, all the applause they got on the day showed them a taste of success. Through every event, we look for the bigger learnings which go well beyond simply putting up a show. And true to the spirit of internationalism students share their responses with you in different languages later in this blog.

Diwali

Focussing on Diwali, students from Form 10 presented a thoughtful and unusual take on the festival. It included a television-style discussion group on today’s practices, the production of fireworks, commercialization, the rise in adulteration of sweets etc.  Looking for contemporary relevance, a new way of finding meaning in a traditional tale came through a student-made film which transposed the story of Ayodhya and vanvaas to the contemporary world of teenagers and a boarding school. In this very modern story, the central ideas of the triumph of good over evil, of brotherhood and jealousy came through in a different way. It was an excellent demonstration of how our students apply established ideas to new situations, cleverly using technology to do so. 

Linked to Diwali celebration, Friday was National Dress Day. At the primary school assembly children wearing traditional clothes from areas as varied as China, Japan, the US, Germany talked about their dress in a spontaneous display. The fabulous range of clothes from India including Punjab, Rajasthan, Bengal etc  created awareness of the relationship between dress and culture

 

Professional Development

Teachers from the Primary school attended a two day workshop conducted by the IBO. Workshop leader Jason Graham who flew in from Indonesia, focused on Teaching and Learning practices in interactive and stimulating sessions. This is what he had to say about the experience: "I was just in India running a PYP workshop with the great teachers at Pathways NOIDA in New Delhi. What a fantastic experience. Every time I run a workshop I always take away so much.  I learn so much.  This one was special."  The workshop was part of our ongoing journey towards full  PYP authorization, a process which takes a minimum of three years.  Next month we will welcome Khushnuma  Ferazndi from the American School in Mumbai who is the IB appointed consultant to the school. Meanwhile our teachers led by the PYP Coordinator Dr Swati Sawant and Mrs Lamba are hard at work putting together the documentation required for the process.

School System Issues

Please do remember to let the Form tutor know if your child is absent from school. This communication network helps ensure safety and will assist teachers in supporting work which has been missed.

Some of you will have found that in the uniform shop jackets or sweaters are not available in all sizes. We have been constantly pursuing this with our supplier who assures us that they will be in stock by next week. 

Upcoming Events

Please do remember to drop in to the Kahani festival hosted at the school on Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th. The events are particularly attractive for primary school but will be of interest to all those who enjoy storytelling, puppetry and performance.

The first inter-school tennis tournament is on this Friday and Saturday. Schools from Noida, Delhi and Gurgaon are participating.

The Gati dance group are conducting a special 3 day workshop on dance for students from Form 8. This will run from Thursday to Saturday.
 

The Australian illustrator and writer Frane Lessac who is in India for Bookaroo, the children’s literary festival, will visit school to talk to students from Form 5 – 7. You can find out more about her at http://www.franelessac.com/.  Many thanks to our parent Jaya Bhattacharya Rose for setting this up.  

Finally, middle school inter-house matches for soccer begin in the last week of the month.

Shalini Advani

School Director

From the Secondary School Principal

I proudly want to share the achievements of two of our Grade 12 students in this edition.   

          

  Evan Luthra

Our students at Pathways have within them one common denominator- the propensity to question, reflect and offer, sometimes even construct a solution to address a difficulty that enters their cognitive purview, including global  concerns such as the geopolitical situation of India, the global fiscal condition or even technological innovations and hazards. One such student Evan Luthra all  has developed 18 software applications.  Already due to his brilliance and popularity he has about 5,00,000 followers on his blog. He has been invited to Google conferences where he made his presentations in front of stalwarts in technology and received remarkable praise for his excellent work. He has made his presentations in the Google Conferences of Gurgaon and Mumbai. Evan also received a special commendation after presenting in Amity University Noida. This is the confidence and the exceptional achievement of Evan Luthra that we are all so proud of! He is indeed an example of being and thinking different, of harnessing his creativity and therefore is on the path of being accomplished. He was able to achieve it because he bridged the gap between his ideas and action. As Alfred Whitehead says, “The vitality of thought is adventure. Ideas won’t keep. Something must be done about them.” Congratulations Evan. We are very proud of you!

You can watch the video of his presentation on

 

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/16302360/EvanGoogleTalk.mov

Shubhang Arora of Grade 12,

who is already on a mission to spread awareness of issues he deeply cares about- by writing in newspapers, online blogs and articles. As they say, “The pen is mightier than the sword.” He attempts to reach out to people through his writing about current affairs and issues that affect us at large such as the loopholes in providing basic education, the concern of FDI in retail in India and of course the glaring and blatant corruption that our political system is plagued with. It is this character, belief and approach of this kind that endorses the ancient Chinese proverb- When winds of change blow, some people build walls and some other build wind mills. Such an effort from an individual, who is only at the threshold of adulthood, is what we are very proud of! Congratulations Shubhang and keep the good work going!

Shubhang’s online articles can be accessed on

http://www.governancenow.com/news/regular-story/fdi-retail-pros-and-cons

 http://www.governancenow.com/news/regular-story/delivery-public-services-challenges-ahead

The other two articles were published on ‘Millennium post’ dated 31st October 2012 and ‘Pioneer’ on 30th October 2012.

It is only rare that we find such exceptional achievers, but from them we draw great inspiration, even as adults. I see each child in his own way creating, building or even reversing his/her ideas about everything he/she is learning- everyday. With our youth, who are able to scale greater heights with their intelligence, awareness and vision, we are delighted to assist them as they explore their future.  As Tolkein says, “Not all those who wander are lost.”

 

Umar Jaffar

Secondary School Principal

Diwali Assembly

  On the sixth of November, Form 10 B, put together an assembly centering around the theme of Diwali. We began with a newsroom-styled debate, with people from different parts of the school participating to share their perspective. We discussed the in vitro-fertilization situation— how more women get this process done on Diwali as they believe it will improve their chances of getting pregnant, the gambling that is done on the day, firecrackers and the crass commercialization of the festival. The participants offered fresh and new perspective on the issues.

After the newscast, a video depicting “Ram Leela” in a modern day era was shown. Ram was a mortal, a young boy who was sent to a hostel, where he met Ravan- the school’s head boy. Needless to say Ravan kidnapped Sita, Ram’s iPhone. Ram joins forces with Lakshman then carry out an elaborate plan to retrieve Sita- and take Ravan down. In the end, of course, good triumphs over evil. 

Supriya Ganesh

Form 10 B

Founders Day - Reflections

On 20^th October 2012, we had our 2^nd founder’s day which was a success!!!! First we had a carnival in which the early years children were dancing and it was amazing. We had various performances such as primary play, Korean dance and Russian folk dance. Our parents were surprised to see us performing amazingly!!!!! We all look forward for our next Founder’s Day!!!!!!
 

Louise Wydemans and Arshee Sahni

Form 5


FUN FOUNDER's DAY !!
 

The theme of this founder’s day was internationalism...

This great event begun with some cute kindergarteners smiling and laughing in the carnival. The whole function showed cultural dances & songs from around the world. The founders day taught us many things that we didn’t know.

The founder’s day was a great success and every parent and guest loves the function.

Neel Barun & Jin Torrington

Form 5

 

“My Founder’s Day experience was very good.

 I made many new friends and at the same time I got to know about many new things, like different forms of dances : both Indian and international and about folk tales from around the world, especially Maori tales. As I worked on the Kalinka Dance from Russia for the Exhibition project I learned more about it. This helped me get into the mood of the dance more easily when we performed it because I understood the theme and the reason behind the steps. 

I really had a lot of fun!”

Ramsha Khan

Form  7A

"This Founder's Day was my first, and unfortunately, my last. It was quite a whirlwind of experiences for me. I tried what I thought was impossible, and discovered hidden talents. All our blood, sweat and tears paid off, as our performances were a huge success. The fond memories we shared, will be with me forever."

Divya Vijayakumar

Form 8B

“Actually it was my first experience of Founder’s day in Pathways. I had fun participating in the exhibition, as I love doing art and craft. While we had rehearsals I saw a few items. I think the Korean dance was the best after the Russian dance. They danced so well! My parents also loved it. Overall, I think this year’s founder’s day was awesome!”

Soohyeon Na 

Form 7B

“I thought that this year’s founder was pretty good. It was fun to rehearse with Ms. Elina and to learn something from another culture. I hope that next year will be as much fun as this year was!”

Anjali Peterson

Form  6B

El día de los fundadores- 2012    -  The Founders Day-2012

El veinte de octubre era un día muy importante para la escuela de Pathways Noida porque esta fecha significa el día de los fundadores. Este ano era el segundo año de la creación de nuestra escuela magnifica y todos los estudiantes y los maestros estaban estallar con alegría para celebrarla. La tema de la celebración era internacionalismo y todos los estudiantes tuvieron que participar el algunos bailes, canciones, y las varias barajas. Los participantes tuvieron antecedentes de culturas diferentes con muchas lenguas, comidas, y ropas de mucho variedad. Todo eso era representado en la celebración en nuestra escuela en métodos diferentes. Habían muchas bailes de diferentes partes del mundo, por ejemplo el flamenco de España, el baile de Corea, el bhangra de Punjab, etc, y también había cosas que representa la unidad entre todas las personas. Este aspecto era representado en la forma de una canción famoso que se llama" Nosotros somos el mundo".  Nosotros nos divertimos mucho y para mi y los compañeros de mi clase, era un día muy especial porque era el  ultimo día de los fundadores. Era un día muy memorable y yo nunca voy a olvidarle.     

Sudeshna Dutta

For 12 B


Le jour de “Founders”

Le 20 octobre, on a célébré le jour de “Founders”. On a organisé des expositions de cultures

différentes. Il y avait des danses, des chansons et des pièces de théâtre.

Moi, j’étais très heureux de notre succès. On a fait un programme magnifique.

Partha Sharma

Form 12 B / French

 

स्थापना (फाउंडर) दिवस

हम अपने विद्यालय के स्थपना दिवस को वार्षिक उत्सव के रूप में पूरी खुशी और उल्लास के साथ मनाते हैं | पिछले वर्ष के स्थापना दिवस का कार्यक्रम भी अतिउत्तम था और सभी को बेहद पसंद भी आया था | इस वर्ष के स्थापना दिवस का विषय था - ‘ अंतर्राष्ट्रीयता ’ | सभी कक्षाओं के विद्यार्थियों  ने इस कार्यक्रम में भाग लिया | प्राथमिक कक्षाओं के विद्यार्थियों ने बेहद ही दिलचस्प नाटक , नृत्य और गीत - संगीत के कार्यक्रम प्रस्तुत किये | माध्यमिक कक्षाओं के विद्यार्थियों ने भी अलग-अलग देशों के गीत - संगीत नृत्य, व नाटक प्रस्तुत किये | यह हमारे विद्यालय का दूसरा स्थपना दिवस था | पिछले वर्ष की तरह इस वर्ष भी हमने दर्शकों को बहुत मनोरंजित किया | स्थपना दिवस की तैयारी के दौरान भी हम सभी को बहुत मज़ा आया | हम सभी को उम्मीद है कि अगले वर्ष, हम और भी अधिक बेहतरीन और मनोरंजित करने वाले कार्यक्रम प्रस्तुत करेंगे |

धन्यवाद !

सौम्य जोशी ( कक्षा ११ वीं )

Report on Halloween Day

The student-run Interact Club of Pathways School Noida’s organized a themed dress up day for Halloween on the 31st of October 2012. The theme of the Halloween was “Angels and Demons”. Following the ancient tradition, middle and Secondary school students were requested to wear costumes related to the specific theme on Halloween day and all of those who came dressed up were supposed to give Rs 100 each. The money thus collected by way of fund raising will be used for the developmental work at Hazipur village school. The fund raising campaign was a huge success. It was great to see different kind of costumes worn by students of different age groups. Some of them became witches, some came dressed as fairies while some of them became demons.  Prizes were given to the Halloween queen and Halloween King.

 

S.Indira

Faculty Incharge Interact Club

Inter House Basket Ball Competition

Over the month of September and early October, Pathways School, Noida held its 2nd Inter-House Basketball Competition. All the four houses participated very enthusiastically in this event. The results are as follows:

Grade               Teams                       Score (Pts)       Winner

7 & 8           Water   House v/s Earth House               28 - 16                      Water House
9-12                   Air House v/s Fire House               Fire House won           Fire House
(Girls)                                                                                by 1 point(s)
9-12              Water House V/s Earth House                12 - 21                     Earth House
(Boys)

The players who displayed outstanding skills are being awarded with medals under the following categories:

•             Player with maximum score

•             Upcoming player

•             Fair play

In Middle School, the house teams consisted of Form 7-8 Boys & Girls whereas in Senior School, the house teams were separate for Boys & Girls. All the students were passionate to represent their house in this event. The matches were played on knock out format.

The houses had started practicing for their matches well in advance. On the day of the matches, which took place during the CAS Action lessons, all the teams played very devotedly. It was pleasing to see confidence and dedication bursting out of the players’ hearts and souls. Each match had something new to teach us. This event gave many their first experience as a part of a basketball team while others were able to improve their skills.

The development of skills is time consuming and requires regular practice and patience. Nevertheless, all the players displayed immense team spirit and performed the best they could. Overall, the performance of all participants was worth appreciation because ‘Champions keep playing until they get it right.’

Mansi Gupta

Sports Captain

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