‘Education for Life’ It Is!
In manners big and small, planned and spontaneous, fun and serious, we try our best to make learning exercises meaningful for our children. The guiding light for the same is the principle of lifelong learning, which we follow with full dedication to arrive at an academic and co-scholastic structure capable of preparing a child not just for the next exam, but for all the surprises that life might hold for him. Education is not a journey with a beginning or an end. While we realise it, we are also extremely conscious of the fact with the pace at which the world is progressing, it is near impossible to predict what kind of challenges lie ahead for our students when they step out into the world as independent individuals. It is hence, that the concept of ‘Lifelong Learning’, is so important to us and the world of knowledge we are striving to create.
The month of November, we spent, introducing you to the concept of Lifelong Learning, and the manner in which it is followed in our school. As the next month looms closer, we brace ourselves to explore yet another value, but not before we give you a final peek into the various activities which speak loudly of our commitment to ‘Education for Life’. You have all been introduced to these activities earlier – but now is when we put it in the prism of Lifelong Learning, and serve it fresh to remind you of the efforts we are undertaking to make education a more fruitful journey for our children.
So here – Five Activities which carry the essence of Lifelong Learning in them!
Funkaar Week
Concluded in October this year, the Funkaar Week is a week full of experiential and creative engagements for the children. It is a week with no studies, but a lot of learning. Children get to explore varied arts, and their scholastic curriculum is pursued through the route of practical, hands-on learning experiences. Funkaar is an annual event, which creates equal amount of enthusiasm in students, teachers and parents. A detailed discussion of Funkaar can be found here, but for the purpose of this article, we can tell you that with the kind of responses students give us, we feel we are successful in fulfilling the aim of inducing love for learning in our children through this short period of exploring an overwhelming set of activities.
AHA! Time
A key USP of the school, the AHA! Time is aimed at unearthing and nurturing the ‘element’ in all of us. Our website will tell you a lot about this programme and its various subdivisions here. The Aha! Programme is embedded into our curriculum as a daily set of activities our children are exposed to in domains across visual and performative arts, as well as sports. Story-telling, Needle Work, Cooking and Nature-Awareness are also areas of learning our students are familiarised with. To create a joyous atmosphere of learning, and helping children develop skills other than academics are the aims of Aha! This extra hour of activities, daily, has so far been serving its purpose well, and this we say with confidence when we see our children identifying and living their passions in front of us each day.
Joy of Sharing Week
Here is another week of experiences which are not drawn straight from the needs of the curriculum, but which are very strongly inspired by the need of humanity and sensitivity in life. The Joy of Sharing week is a celebration of all those elements of life which often overlook our attention, but which are important parts of our environment and society nevertheless. The fact that we all have to rise above ourselves and exist as individuals who are caring, sharing and loving is our core message to all students during this week. This is also the message we would like to send out to collective humanity if we are survive and exist as an empathetic race. You may read more about it here.
Anandam
Anandam is a grand cultural feast which happens each year in the month of February. It is a celebration of all the learnings students have taken home during the Aha! Time. Students put on display their performances of dance and music and also display their paintings and craft in the form of an exhibition. It is also an opportunity for our parents to interact and understand the Aha! Programme and its achievements in a more direct manner. Students and teachers are already excited about this year’s Anandam – and we will keep bringing up for you the best updates from the programme here, on our blog!
OLE
It was just in our last blog article that we spoke to you about Outbound Learning Experiences, and the kind of value they add to the spirit of learning, togetherness, caring and understanding between peers. The OLEs are never random or whimsical destinations chosen for a vacation. Rather, they are carefully planned trips suited to a particular age group and its learning needs. You can know more about the recent trips undertaken by our students here. There are a few more outbound trips happening in December (one is underway as we write this article) and updates on the same shall be available all across our social media channels!
We hope this entire month, you all got to learn a little more about our school. As for us, we had fun talking about the best of our world, and reliving it all too – in a short span of a month. Stay happy, stay humble, stay a learner for life!
Nov 30, 2014 by Shiv Nadar School Noida