From the Principal's Desk
When we closed school in March, we had a reasonable belief, like many others that we will return to our physical building in June sometime. That has not happened but what has happened is a tremendous amount of upskilling and relearning by all educators in the system.
The Shiv Nadar School leadership has met more frequently than ever before to take stock of the situation and strengthen our collective vision to ensure that the Standard and Quality of Shiv Nadar School Education will remain uncompromised.
This one hiccup year in the legacy of our school, is just that, a hiccup.
I promise you that we are here to re imagine school education, even before Covid-19, and build tenacious, robust children, with lifelong learning skills, adaptability, emotional resilience and a combativeness that will stand the test of time.
To find the synergy between technology, curriculum and pedagogy has been our key area of focus in these past weeks. Much of the training has centred around striking that harmony in teaching online.
As we progress ahead, I would like you to notice the connected learning thread that we weave across different subjects so our children can make real time connections, make meaning of the body of knowledge and process concepts, experiences, online discussions and more.
Our People, Our Strength
Turbulent times test the bedrock of relationships. I would like to share with you that in our institution each one works doggedly with an unflinching assurance that their jobs are safe.
No one has been dismissed or sent away on half salary, leave without pay and such like, which is the trend of the times at present. We are flowing against the tide because to flow with it, is radically against our values and ethics.
On Another Note
The entire Faridabad team raised money to provide dry rations to our 130 strong support staff, the bhaiyyas, didis, conductors, guards, janitors and more. I attach a few pictures in case you missed seeing them. We plan to support them for the next 3 months, each one of those families and then see how to raise more money to take it till the end of the year for sure.
We are the World
I hope you enjoyed the symphony of over a 100 children, teachers and parents singing the iconic song together. In case you haven't heard this in house production of Faridabad School, its time you did. It will fill you up with surging optimism and love.
Hiring for Talent
I have inducted more than 20 teachers in the Faridabad team, in the recent weeks, all talented, competent and aligned to our philosophy. This trend to hire is clearly different, you would agree. But we believe that great teachers make great learners. And we will make no compromise to continue to provide the cutting edge education to our children in these unprecedented times.
Technology
The Institution has made massive investment in upgrading the technological frontiers of the school. Veracross, is one example of the same. This deep and incredible learning Management System is now embedded across grades 1 to 10. It will soon be populated in Early Years too. The pathway to understand and use it will be steady and staggered and we will keep you informed of the continued progress and availability of new functions.
Webinar on Mental Health and Wellbeing of Parents
We launched our first in the series of the said webinar on Thursday,4th June. Parents of grades 7 to 10 were the invitees and we addressed several questions on how to cope with the stress, children's whimsical behaviour, family and work pressures and such like. The panellists comprised, Manisha Massey, our senior school counsellor, Mamta Sharma, our parent and certified psychologist, and myself.
Or next is in the series is round the bend and we will let you know of the date and the year group. Our plan is to cover all age groups and offer this opportunity to all parents.
Assessments in Middle School
We conducted our first marked assessments with the novel use of technology for grades 6 to 10 before the summer break. The children did us proud. I believe when we assume the best intentions of people they rise to their best. Our children conducted themselves with honesty and sincerity to do the tests remotely. My gratitude to all the parents too who were our co invigilators in this process.
My Conversations with You
I have met almost 500 parents in the last 2 weeks. It was wonderful for me to see you and converse with you. I do hope that you felt equally good to connect and hear what we are doing and thinking. I certainly will meet all our parents in the days to come. It is my fortune to see the tremendous attendance for our conversations. Let’s keep it going.
Online Classes Resume Today (15h June)
As we stand at the intersection of uncertainty and strong resolve, we are luminously clear that a shut school building will not shut out the learning of our children. If anything, it will only incrementally raise it to adapt to phenomenal change, increase the reservoir of empathy and compassion in their hearts and embrace reimagined processes, skills and knowledge.
Enjoy the Experience. Feel free to connect with me to share your thoughts.
Stay Safe Stay healthy and Stay Indoors as we fight this together.
Best Regards
Anju Wal
Principal
Shiv Nadar School
Faridabad
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Learning Styles Assessment and Social Emotional Resilience
The department of SEN+Counselling organized a session for Scholastic Teachers from Pre-Primary to the Senior School, on the topic titled LASER- Learning Styles Assessment and Social Emotional Resilience for Teachers on Monday, 13th January,2020. The facilitator for this session is Dr. Sakshi Mehrotra.
Dr. Mehrotra has worked on a short training for teachers and mentors for building emotional intelligence and linguistic capabilities to understand learning styles in children. Dr. Mehrotra is a professor of psychology, a counselling psychologist, a Certified NLP Practitioner, and a member of the American Psychological Association, and conducts various workshops with schools and universities, corporate organizations, and professional psychologists.
Given our annual theme of building resilience and our focus on SEE learning across the school, this training seminar session was extremely beneficial for us as educators, and for our school.
Funkaar - Pre-Primary
At Shiv Nadar School, we firmly believe in ‘Learning by Doing’. Experiences play an important role in a child's life by enhancing their social skills, intellectual skills, personality progress, and character appeal. With an envision of holistic development, the Pre-primary children thoroughly enjoyed their parts in Funkaar held at Shiv Nadar School on 23rd November 2019. The presentation was a colourful display in the WCH showcasing the rich and divergent acts through art, music, dance forms, theatre and their integration with the scholastic domains of Language, Math and My World. Each child was a ‘STAR’ and captivated the audience with their stellar performance. It was an event that made everyone nostalgic.
Images of Truth: Satya Ke Pratiroop
Shiv Nadar School Faridabad, organized a show for students and parents by the acclaimed puppeteer, Dadi D Pudumjee as part of Funkaar Week on 28th November, 2019.
DADI D. PUDUMJEE is one of India’s foremost and innovative puppeteers. He has helped contemporary puppetry gain legitimacy as an art form in India. In 1986, he established the Ishara Puppet Theatre Trust, which is now one of the leading platforms for innovative puppet theatre across India and the world.
He the winner of the prestigious Padmashri and Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards.
Synopsis of the Show: IMAGES OF TRUTH- SATYA KE PRATIROOP
Commissioned by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts in 1993; on its debut, Images of Truth broke the boundaries of conformed puppetry in India and inspired generations of puppeteers & performers with its performances. Ishara’s groundbreaking and inspiring. Choreographed to music from across the world, it’s a mesmerising, nonverbal, musical adaption on one of mankind’s most iconic figures - Mahatma Gandhi. Gain insight on his early life to his spiritual discovery of the universal message of Satyagraha & nonviolent protest. Images of history and contemporary India mesh together over twelve scenarios as the performers create powerful, moving images with which both the young and old alike can relate.
It was a beautiful experience for our children as it helped them to be more creative and different way to express opinions.
Mr. Pudumjee and his team of artistes interacted freely with students and answered questions which were directed upon their interests and the difficulties faced in this particular field.
OLE to Sursinghdhar - Grade 5
On 21st October students of grade 5 went for an outbound learning trip to Sursinghdhar, Uttrakhand. The peaceful environs of the campsite was a perfect location to explore the beauty of nature. The trip started with the acclimatization trek followed by an array of activities including monkey crawling, double trouble, mowli walking, zip line, rappling and sky ladder. There were many challenging team activities where students were required to go through many obstacles and work as a team. Students learnt the art of survival cooking and first aid. Social games like treasure hunt and bonfire provided enough opportunities for camaraderie. It was an engaging and enriching experience that will forever be etched in the impressionable minds of our students.
Book Launch - ‘Being Gandhi’ by Paro Anand
Harper Collins in collaboration with Shiv Nadar School, Faridabad launched eminent children’s author, Paro Anand’s book ‘Being Gandhi’ on 22nd October 2019.
‘Being Gandhi’ is extra relevant in today’s times, when the entire world is celebrating 150th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, the father of nation.
It was a riot of colours to see students dressed in different uniforms of DPS Greater Faridabad, Manaskriti, Aravali and DAV Public School.Shiv Nadar School,and Vidsan Chatterhouse.
The book launch was launched in the presence of the Author, Ms. Paro Anand and Shiv Nadar School, Faridabad Principal, Ms. Anju Wal.
Our principal,Anju ma'am presented her a painting made by one of our students, as a token of appreciation.
The author's introduction was given by Avni Thapliyal and Krish Jain, after which the author had an interactive session with the students.
Ms. Anand’s reading of the first chapter made the launch extremely interactive and it filled the hall with laughter.The students were very impressed with the relevance of Gandhi in today’s world.
The interactive session become further interactive with the question answers session with the author. The students’ questions ranged from asking the author questions about her reasons for switching from fiction to real history to asking about why she chose to be an author. The plethora of questions kept the students and the author thoroughly engaged.
The author then gave copies of signed books to the students who were interested to buy the book.
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Education for Life- Technology & You
We initiated our 3rd Topic of Education for Life-& Technology & You on 11th October 2019, Friday.
The session talked about the fact that It's never about the technology but what can we do with it - As technology gets into the DNA of everything we do, it is really important for us to
understand that we, as human beings are up in the value chain and it is imperative for us to understand that we need to use technology wisely and not get consumed by it.
The session was curated and conducted by Mr Kumar Gaurav, who is a parent of our school and also works as Director of Technology & Digital, Publicis Sapient.
Sharing a glimpse.
Literary Week Grades 2 to 5
Shiv Nadar School, Faridabad observed Literary Week with an array of activites through the week from 16th September to 20th September, 2019. Literary Week is observed each year to ignite and fuel interest in reading, creative writing, etc.
Grade 2
Grade 2, this year, explored a world of fairy tales, fables and folk tales. Besides being entertained, the children were exposed to a variety of different characters. Shattering the conventions, these little ones also wrote their own creative stories and poems and illustrated them beautifully.
The Literary Week was culminated with a ‘Cosplay’, where our little ones came in dressed as their favourite character. The performance was grand and lively with few handmade props for some vivacious characters. The corridor was filled with smiling faces and laughter, and, saw many characters come to life!
Grade 3
Celebrating Comics
Grade 3 celebrated the Literary Week by exploring a new yet familiar genre of literary writing: Comics. Tied with the chapter Florence Nightingale, the students explored the form of comics beyond the text. A discussion on the relevance of comics in today's age sparked the conversation among peers - the responses ranged from comic as an easy to read medium of taking in information to its versatility as visual art. The children made their own comics illustrating stories about their pet, the latest supervillain Thanos and some even explored Panchtantra-esque themes. Well-illustrated and drafted, the comics were presented on the day of culmination in a learning walk among grades. Peer-learning was evidenced as children spoke to each other about panels, gutters, speech bubbles. The excitement in the air was palpable as our little authors and illustrators proudly presented their work.
Grade 4
"The principles of true art is not to portray, but to evoke”
The crescendo was reached of the truly inspirational literary week where grade 4 exhibited the art of storytelling and grade 5 presented their poems. Throughout these 7 days, our children delved deep into the literary masterpieces- Kaabuliwala by Rabindranath Tagore (Grade 4) and The Chimney Sweepers by William Blake (Grade 5).
The culmination started with an exhilarating storytelling session by the students of grade 4. It was a matter of joy to witness our 10-year-old children perform! They spoke fluently, with appropriate tone, intonation and voice modulation! All the characters came alive...the hunter, the grandma, Red Riding Hood, the wizard!
Right after the performance, the poem gallery was inaugurated where the students presented the drafts through which the final bound book of poetry was brought together, piece by piece, after several drafts. After all, the journey was as important as the destination! The bound book of poems written by Grade 5 was presented to Ms. Wal. It will be available in the library soon.
Grade 5
Literary week was celebrated with great fervor and enthusiasm from 16 th to 20 th September. Grade 5 chose the theme of ‘poetry’ to kindle the love of poetry in young minds. The journey began with the understanding of ‘Chimney sweeper’, a poem by William Blake. Thereafter they composed poems on social issues. After a couple of drafts, the final poems were compiled into a poem book. Principal, ShivNadar School Faridabad, Ms. Anju Wal, inaugurated the poem book in the ‘poem café’ organized to culminate the literary week.
EVS Culmination of Grade 5 - Government Systems
Students of grade 5 as a part of their current EVS theme of Government Systems studied about various forms of government and their advantages and disadvantages. As a part of their culmination, a debate competition was held to share their take on the motion - India adopts a Presidential form of government or continue with the Parliamentary form of governance. This also helped them build a global connect and helped them understand the various forms of governance across the world.
Our judging panel included a student, Neeyati Saini of Grade 7 Corbett, Teacher Ms. Yamini and Parent Ms. Nupur Amarnath.
"Warriors are not born, they are made in INDIAN ARMY."
Captain Manoj Kumar Pandey lost his life while fighting in Kargil. He said:” If death strikes before I prove my blood, I swear I’ll kill death”. Our students had researched about those brave soldiers who fought valiantly and lost their lives. They presented an informational skit which left the audience nostalgic.
The objective was to reinforce the importance of 26th July 1999 and understand it’s relevance in our History. We showcased a video where children of Shiv Nadar School were asked to recognize some important dates like 14th Nov, 26th January and 5th September etc. and then finally they were asked to recognize 26th July 1999 which left them speechless!
Building on the same note, we showcased a video which brought the Kargil War Alive. Why and where it happened, how many brave soldiers we lost and when did it come to an end explaining the whole event in chronological manner. Finally seeding in the importance of this day in our lives and Indian History.
Then we had a poem recitation by Mansi Grade 9 student where she recited a poem on Kargil War by Late Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Followed by though of the day by Suhani grade 9 student - As George Patton said, “The soldier is the Army. No army is better than its soldiers. The Soldier is also a citizen. In fact, the highest obligation and privilege of citizenship is that of bearing arms for one’s country.”
We concluded the assembly with 2mins silence in the remembrance of our martyrs and National Anthem.
