The reopening of the school campus has been planned and curated in a deeply considered and measured way. For all grades,we have first begun with the Sports Program. To experience the campus, enjoy the vastness and openness especially when thechildren have been in a 'locked in' mode, has helped them a great deal to reorient, recalibrate, returnto campus, with the new safety protocols in place.
Sharing a glimpse.
The Joy of Sharing week marks the birthday of our founder, Mr Shiv Nadar, and brings alive his vision of sharing joy, compassion and the philanthropic spirit with the community of our school. The essence of ‘Joy of sharing’ was imparted to the children through various activities. The celebrations began with a discussion on the meaning of the word –’Sharing’, understanding “Who is Mr. Shiv Nadar?” and “Why do we celebrate Joy of sharing week at Shiv Nadar School?” Sharing is one of the most important virtues which bring happiness in life.
Grade 1
Students conducted various art and craft activities like spray painting, origami, card –making, pencil pop-ups and drawing. Intriguing science experiments on surface-tension, turning primary colours into secondary colours, pop-rocket were also led by our little learners.
Parents also came forth to celebrate the joy of sharing by conducting various activities like art and craft (book holder from waste material, landscape painting, snake craft, pencil pop-ups), fire-free cooking (club sandwich, Nutella fruit sandwich) and storytelling session (Giraffes can’t dance).
The joy of sharing was continued as teachers engaged learners in interesting activities like elephant mask making linked to the English story ‘Gajjapati – Kullapati’, science experiment (balloon activity), storytelling sessions and other games.
Grade 2
The Joy of sharing week commenced with the narration of an insightful story ‘The Giving Tree’ by the HRT’s during the Circle Time. This was followed by an engaging discussion on the meaning and the reason behind celebrating the Joy of Sharing at Shiv Nadar School.
The children enjoyed various craft activities like raised salt art, origami composition, hand puppets etc. conducted during the week. They were very excited to share their birthday messages for Mr. Nadar on his 76th birthday and made beautiful handmade cards for him.
Celebrating the spirit of sharing, 4 children from each section collaborated with the teacher for a storytelling session for the kindergarten children. The story ‘Nobody Laughs at a lion’ was appreciated and liked by all. On 16 th July the week culminated with a special morning assembly. The highlights of the assembly were a melodious song- Gift to you by Music Teacher Mr. Dennis and a Hindi play - ‘Ekki Dokki’ by the grade 1 teachers which shared the message that the ‘real joy in life is not in what we get but in what we give’.
Grade 3
Grade 3 conducted several activities as part of the Joy of Sharing Week. We discussed the importance of communities, of standing by each other and how we are grateful for connecting virtually despite our distance. The class led several activities – Joy of Eating together, Joy of Making together, Joy of Compliments etc. Students taught each other different recipes, gave each other compliments, made crafts to decorate and celebrate.
Grade 4
Grade 4 celebrated the ‘Joy of sharing’ week with so many different activities. Focusing on inculcating the values of giving, sharing and social responsibility in our children and experiencing the joy in doing that, we had various sessions throughout the week during our circle time like Fire-free cooking sessions and knowledge sharing led by children, creating useful items using materials available at home (craft activities), sharing a compliment, exercises for eyes, making eye soothers etc.
We unfolded the plan for the following day a day prior to keep the excitement going and the children well prepared before the sessions. Our children participated with all their hearts and brought forward certain skills that were hidden from each other.
Grade 5
Grade 5 celebrated 'Joy of Sharing' enthusiastically with a multitude of activities. Students engaged in fire-free cooking exploring delicious delicacies like coconut laddoos, sandwiches, Dora cakes, oreo balls, etc, purely student-led. Their circle time was filled with joy as students discussed their pets and how they care for them. Art and craft activities were also student-led along with some presentations, it was an amalgamation of sharing and exploring.
Middle and Senior School
The week’s line up featured guest speakers from various fields in sessions led by the students, for the students and parents of the grades 6-11.
12 July 2021:
Mr. Shivang Mehta, an internationally acclaimed wildlife photographer and Canon India ambassador joined Aryan Veer Goenka (Habitat Conservationist, Senior school) and Ria Singh (Environment and photography enthusiast, Grade 11) for a conversation on the power of photography and its role in conservation in India.
A former journalist and PR professional and now an author and one of India’s leading wildlife photographers – Mr. Shivang Mehta has worn many professional hats. His love for the forests of Kumaon pushed him to choose Corbett as his main area of work and he left the cozy comforts of corporate offices to work on the field with his organisation Nature Wanderers which he started in 2007.
The conversation candidly covered stories from his adventures and students’ questions around photography as a career, conservation and the need of sensitivity towards the rich wildlife of our country.
13 July 2021:
The senior school counsellor Ms. Manisha Massey facilitated a panel discussion with student panelists Sadhya Gaur (Grade 10), Suhani Sharma (Grade 11) and Madhuanisha Katoch (Grade 11) and child psychology expert Ms. Sarika Kumar, who is also a parent of the school.
The discussion addressed student survey questions raised anonymously on adolescence, keeping a healthy mindset while coping with the pandemic, generation gap and other sensitive student issues.
The panel touched upon perspectives from the experts and how students perceive and work their way through the various challenges that come up in online learning, including homework and assessment anxiety.
14 July 2021:
Disputandum 1.0 , a two-round parliamentary debate was held on the 14th of July., Disputandum was led by the MUN secretary Yagna Gupta (Grade 11) and Mannat Kaur (grade 11).
A neck-to-neck competition was held between participating student teams and eventually the audience voted through mentimeter to pick the team Golden Jackals as the winner of Disputandum 1.0. The parameters of voting included matter, manner and the most creative name.
An expert panel of students Aarav Balyan, Yashvi Midha and Krishiv Khatri, who have been trained under the Behes program, were the jury members who were called upon for a decision when there was a tie between two teams.
15 July 2021:
On Thursday, Cultural secretary (senior) Avni Thapliyal and House Captain (Tiger House) Tia Jain led a conversation with Ms. Dhwani Vij. Dhwani is one of the founding members of theatre group ‘The Third Space Collective’ in Delhi and is an actor, director and educator of Theatre.
The conversation was studded beautifully with excerpts from her previous work, and explored the depths of production, lighting design, casting and community involvement with Theatre along with addressing the student audience’s queries about the field.
16 July 2021:
The culmination of Joy of Sharing week was marked by Siyaahi 2.0, a poetry slam event started in the year 2020, where parents, students and teachers alike, all came together to share their self-composed poetry and recite other beautiful works by famous poets. With a line-up of more than 20 participants, the evening culminated into a beautiful shared space for the love of language and explored themes from comedy, satire to the depth of blues.
We believe that this celebration and its tradition speaks volumes of the culture at SNS, a culture that students, teachers, management and parents build together. We would like to thank our parent community for being equal partners in this journey.
These extraordinary times compel us to think differently and therefore our aspirations for JOS unfolded with a unique flavour and nuance.
Shiv Nadar School Faridabad is surging forward to successfully close Term 1 of this Academic Session. While the Middle school Students have concluded their Feedback Cycle 2 last week and the Senior School started today, I am happy to share with you that we had 96% attendance of students from grades 9 to 11 to write their mid term exams, on campus.
The reopening of the school campus has been planned and curated in a deeply considered and measured way. For all grades, we have first begun with the Sports Program. To experience the campus, enjoy the vastness and openness especially when the children have been in a 'locked in' mode, has helped them a great deal to reorient, recalibrate, return to campus, with the new safety protocols in place.
For the last few weeks, the footfall of grades 4 to 8 on campus for structured games and team sport activities has been a delight to witness. We start with Sports Classes for Grades 1 to 3 as well from today.
Encouraged by the success of our upended safety provisions and teacher turn out ratio on the campus.
We are keen to open in a staggered and balanced way, without haste, keeping safety of all stakeholders in sharp focus.
If one were to ask what is it that unites people of all ages or contexts, the answer would undoubtedly be literature. To develop a sense of appreciation for the literature available in different languages and create some learning experiences centred around stories we celebrated literary week for grades one and two from 15.11.21-18.11.21.
The literary week includes celebration of the literature available in English and Hindi. With the theme of the literary week being fables and folktales around the world we organized various workshops and sessions for the learners to engage with so that they could learn as they experienced the various forms of storytelling.
Each day of the literary week started with discussions around aspects of literature and storytelling during the Circle Time. The first session on day one of the literary week began with a discussion around the concept of fables, fairy tales and folk tales. The learners were presented with various examples of stories that helped them get familiar with the three genres. In grade two, the learners were introduced to the concept of the ‘theme’ in the stories. The learners were acquainted with the fact that all the stories revolve around some central idea that the author wants to convey. The significance of culture in the folktales was discussed. The learners also understood the importance of masks in storytelling as they engaged in mask making activity during the Circle Time. Through the story ‘The Monkey and the Cap Seller’, a discussion was carried out to help the learners realise the synchrony between the text and illustrations in the stories.
Our Primary educator, Ms. Sananda Nandi conducted storytelling sessions in Hindi for the learners where she used hand - made puppets to narrate the famous stories ‘Budhiya ki roti’ and ‘Rishi Munni aur Chuha’. One could see the learners completely hooked to the storytelling session as they sang, enacted, predicted the story, answered the questions and reflected during the session.
‘The Tail of Kake De Munni’, another storytelling session was conducted by our educators Ms. Neha Gandhi, Ms. Elizabeth, Ms. Priyanka Chhabra. Famous folktale from Punjab was brought to life through the enactment by our educators during the session. The learners not just experienced the story but also answered some of the questions about the characters put forth by the facilitators.
Emphasising the importance of illustrations, story board session was conducted by our arts educator Ms. Maryam Ansari and music educator Ms. Aishwarya Thapliyal. The learners sang the story ‘Paudhe ki Kahani’ with Ms. Aishwarya as they watched the illustrations made by Ms. Maryam. The learners also made their own story boards and showcased them as the story proceeded.
This session was an amalgamation of music, theatre and literature where the learners created soundscape for the famous fables. The session was conducted by our theatre facilitator Ms. Himani Pant and music facilitator Mr. Dennis Babu.
‘Aao Kahani Bunein’ and ‘A Pet and A Superhero’ were the writing sessions conducted in Hindi and English respectively by our primary grades educators. These sessions aimed to give our learners competencies and skills to write their own stories. The session provided the learners with some essential elements of story writing. Using these elements, they tried to create their own story out of the pictures provided to them during the session. A padlet link was shared with the learners for them to share their reflections and stories post the session.
Dating back to the era of Munshi Premchand, Kissa Goi is a unique art of storytelling which came alive during the literary week. Our learners from grade five (Vandita Arora, Rishabh Burman, Atharv, Jeenal Tanwar and Risha Mangla) conducted a Kissa Goi session where they narrated a story of Bheeku making it a delightful session for all.
The beautiful week of literature was culminated by an author’s session. Ms. Adithi Rao author of the book ‘Boy, Bear’ led an enriching session for our young learners where they explored the story from various perspectives. The story was read out to the learners by the author herself post which they participated in a discussion.
Celebration of International Day of People With Disabilities/different abilities happened across the school. The International Day of Persons with Disability is observed annually all across the world on the 3rd of December. Shiv Nadar School, Faridabad, dedicated the 29th to 3rd of December to mark the event. We focused on learning more about how not all disabilities are visible, and how we can hear everyone's abilities speak louder than their disabilities. There were activities like- poster making, logo designing, flash mobs, silent National Anthem, presentations, storytelling and discussions around the topic. On 3rd of December, we had an enriching panel discussion with Ms.Manjushree Patil (speaker and expert with 3 decades of experience in the area of special needs, Mr. and Mrs. Singh and their son Kabeer Singh which shared about their journey with their older son and Kabeer sibling, Sehej who is very bright and on the spectrum. There were a lot of take aways from the session. The date for this observance was decided by the United Nations in 1992. Each year, the United Nation. With students and teachers from across the school conducted various activities and talents were showcased.
Few Activities planned during the Week:
In continuation to the week where we marked 'International day of Persons with Disabilities, the Counselling Team has planned a program for Grades 4-11 titled 'The Safe School Space Project' to address themes of bullying and teasing so we can encourage children to create more conducive spaces for one another. It will be implemented throughout this week through various modes- CIrcle time, SEE Learning classes and co-scholastic collaboration. Cross-curricular collaboration was also aimed at, since classes have been the breeding ground for reflective discussions. The counselling team created a holistic plan for the program for the Week 6th -10th December. The lessons come under Provisions of Child Protection and Safe School Policy.
Congratulates to our students on theirProvisionaldiscoveries ofasteroidsduring the April 2021 STEM & SpaceAsteroidSearch Campaign!
The meritorious student discoverers from your school are the following who were in 4 teams:
This is a remarkable achievement for our students, which they have achieved with their diligence and hard work.
STEM & Space conducted a highly specialized monthlong project in May-June 2020, in collaboration with the international group International Astronomy Search Collaboration (IASC), affiliated with NASA.
Under this project, students were trained and guided by STEM & Space to look through real images from the Pan Starrs telescope in Hawaii, and search forasteroids. Many of the students foundasteroidswhich were listed as preliminary discoveries, and we are proud to share that 30 such discoveries by various schools under our campaign of these have now been confirmed as provisionalasteroiddiscoveries by the Minor Planet Catalog (MPC), and will be formally recorded.
Asteroiddiscoveries with provisional status are maintained in the MPC database for many years, until there have been a sufficient number of observations to fully determine the orbit. That process typically takes 6-10 years, at which point theasteroidis numbered and cataloged by the International Astronomical Union. Numberedasteroidscan be named by their citizen scientist discoverers.
A famous mathematician once said, “Mathematics is the most beautiful and most powerful creation of the human spirit.” To celebrate the spirit of mathematical learning and to commemorate the Birthday of Srinivasan Ramanujan, the Middle & Senior School of Shiv Nadar School, Faridabad celebrated the Mathematics Day – “Math-o-Magic '' on 22nd December 2021. The students excitedly participated in various games and activities and experienced a day immersed in Mathematics.
To begin the day, a presentation was showcased by the teachers to share the significance of the Mathematics day and discourse on the life and achievements of the Mathematician Srinivasan Ramanujan. A special assembly was organised by the students of Grades 7 and 8 to throw light on the importance of mathematics in day to day life. The assembly recognised the contributions of Indian mathematicians in the field of mathematics. A student-led classical dance performance showcased various patterns of symmetry and asymmetry. The skit - “Life of Pie” portrayed mathematicians from Archimedes to Euler to Lindeman derive different values of pie and come to a conclusion that, the numberπis amathematical constant, isapproximately equal to 3.14159. Various rounds of Math quizzes kept students engaged and excited. A student composed and performed ‘Math Rap’ which was appreciated by the audience.
Grade 9 students hosted ‘Math Tambola’ for Middle-school students. Students had to solve mathematical questions to play the game. Middle school students showcased their creativity through ‘Scenery with Tangrams’ Activity, ‘Rangometry’ Activity and ‘Logo Making & Designing’ Activity.
The purpose of the Maths Day was to illuminate the importance of mathematics in an enriching and joyful manner
To mark the 151st birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, students of grades 1to 5 virtually celebrated Gandhi Jayanti through a variety of activities such as powerpointpresentations, role-plays, video on biography of Gandhiji and played Truth-o-mania. Students were also taken through a virtual tour of the Gandhi Ashram situated in Sabarmati, Gujarat. As a part of the role-play, students personified various possessions of Gandhiji like his spectacles, dhoti, stick/laathi and shared their experiences of being with Bapu. Students also answered a few introspective questions on a padlet wall such as 'What is that one change you would like to see in the world?' and 'If there would have been a forth Gandhian monkey, what would it depict?'
For the second year in a row, 12 of our students of Grade 9-11 participated in the Space Settlement Design competition, where high-school students are put in the shoes of aerospace engineers, and are expected to design a space settlement in the bid to win a contract. With Mars being on the outlook and visitors coming in from Earth the idiom "grass is always greener on the other side" has stopped making sense forour students. This time in INSSDC, ourstudents were challenged to make a settlement on planet Mercury in a Lava tube. They proposed a settlement for manufacturing and researching the materials found there while housing 300 occupants. Studentsdepicted operations for all the basic yet crucial components of atmosphere regulation, electrical power, food production and waste/water management for the settlement. As working on a contract set for 2087 they were expected to automate all operations which made human intervention minimal. For the 300 individuals, our students designed plans for the workplaces, hubs, residential areas, communities and recreational activities to keep all onboard engaged and make it a priority to ensure that they live up to their expectations. Responsible for designing and providing robotics services essential for the various functions, theAutomations department was solely in charge of the safety systems, emergency systems, contingency systems and even backup systems to ensure that residents would be prepared at all times!
Students for a chance to interact with and learn from engineers from the aerospace industry who were mentors and judges in the competition. Along with building on their knowledge of space science, our students learnt communication, resilience, perseverance, and most importantly, that there is no 'I' in a team.