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FROM THE PRINCIPAL’S DESK November 2018 Newsletter

“Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at

all”- Aristotle

Dear Parents and Guardians,

The month of November was a short one when students and staff returned to

school on November 12th post the autumn break. Some of us worked through

the break since the retake for the IBDP examinations were scheduled during

this time and equally important was that we had 23 boarders remain with us

during the holidays. A comprehensive and action filled schedule was drawn up

for the students which they thoroughly enjoyed.

The highlight of the month across the school was Children’s Day celebrations.

Whilst the PYP saw the students participate in a variety of fun games organised

by our Grade 2 facilitators, the teachers too did their bit to add to the fun and

entertainment by performing an impromptu flash dance. The MYP, IGCSE and

DP students took part in a variety of inter-house competitions. These were

designed keeping in mind our belief in the importance of whole education. The

competitions included Photography, Collage Making, Canvas Art, Battle of the

Bands, Street Play, Quiz, Cooking (fire and non-fire), Rubik’s Cube, Debate,

App Development, Coding, Business Pitch and Graffiti. Since we had an inter-

house dance competition in the month of August, we did not include this on

November 14th. The students and teachers did not simply participate but were

completely involved and did their very best to ensure the day went well and

was a grand success.

The team and I were amazed at the talent we have within the student body

and I am extremely proud that the children grabbed these opportunities to

showcase their talent and skills. It was heart-warming to also see kids across all

Programmes collaborate and the older ones being there to guide and cheer on

the younger lot and vice versa. Further, the beautifully choreographed Fashion

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Show and dance by the teachers to end the day had our students thoroughly

entertained. Some of the pictures of the day are included below and also in

Appendix A of this newsletter.

Canvas & Collage Competition

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Battle of the Bands

Students of Grades 3 to 8 appeared for the ACER-IBT Science, Math, English

and Reasoning Assessments on November 15th and 16th. The International

Benchmark Testing is a skill-based assessment not linked to the national

curriculum. This assessment is a great platform for the students to evaluate

their research, reasoning and critical thinking skills.

The Primary Years Programme: Apart from the above, the PYP saw our Grade

5 students whose transdisciplinary theme; “How the world works” participate

in a rocketry workshop which was part of the inquiry cycle. Here, they explored

telescope making, the engineering behind a rocket and life in a space station.

We thank the team from Adventure Mantra who conducted this workshop

which our students found to be a great mix of fun and learning.

The Grade 3 students whose UOI was a transdisciplinary theme; “Where we

are in place and time”, had a fun filled interactive and informative end of unit

celebration. Apart from serving up some yummy food, the students dressed up

as their favourite explorer and created a wax statue in a museum called “The

Explorer’s Realm.” The statues only moved at the touch of a button and then

went on to give a vivid account of the explorer’s life, voyages and discoveries.

Our Grade 2 Eaglets visited a farm in the Angrewadi village to learn more about

how the farmer (community helper) contributed to society and were

introduced to different kinds of tools used and also witnessed the harvesting of

the rice crop. Out learners who were pursuing the theme; “How we organise

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ourselves” returned to school with a rich experience and boundless

excitement.

The Middle Years Programme and IGCSE: Our Grade 9 students successfully

completed their leadership camp at the Indus School of Leadership, which is

now located in Kanakapura in the outskirts of Bangalore. This camp provides

experiential learning in various facets of leadership and pushes students

outside their comfort zones.

We would like to thank Mr. Abel Cabos who came in as guest lecturer on the

30th of November and took our Grade 6 and 9 Spanish students through the

process of enhancing their speaking and listening skills.

The second round of the Innoventure Challenge was successfully completed in

our school. We are happy to report that we have 15 MYP students who have

qualified and will now progress to the next round.

The Grade 9 students who part of their service in action process have taken up

the Green Project which saw them planting saplings as part of a whole school

CAS project where the objective is to create green classroom corners. Over the

course of the next few months, they will learn how to take care of these indoor

plants and ensure they are well looked after and add to the much needed

greenery in their immediate surroundings.

The One Nation Reading Together Programme was conducted on the 30th of

November in school during the zero period. All students and teachers dropped

everything and picked up a book to read during the last half of school.

Our Grade 10 students began their half yearly examinations on November 26th

with their Modern Languages speaking examinations.

The Diploma Programme: The Grade 12 returned post their autumn break and

a significant number of students appeared for a second round of

(improvement) examinations that would help boost their current predicted

scores. These exams were conducted between the 15th and 23rd of November.

The Grade 11 students were introduced to the concept of Clustering which is a

pedagogical strategy as part of a 4 year plan which will focus on personalised

learning and self-directed learning. This has been introduced in most subjects

across the grade except in History, Computer Science, Visual Arts and Second

Language. The Head of School, Ms Swati Surabhi conducted a workshop on

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persuasive communication for the Grade 11 students and took them through

various ways that may be used to successfully communicate and also shared

with the students the plan on how we will go about this over the course of the

next few months.

The Diploma Programme Coordinator, Ms Shilpa Khadse, conducted a CAS

orientation for all Grade 11 students. The focus was to reiterate the

importance of CAS in the Diploma Programme and took the students through

its requirements as well as provided ideas on how the students can go about

planning their CAS schedule over the next few months.

Placement and Career Guidance Cell: The month of November saw a

significant number of our Grade 12 students apply to universities through the

early decision/early action route. Close to 100 applications were sent out

which was preceded by the placement cell working closely with the students,

their families as well as teachers. Teachers were taken through a session on

writing effective letters of recommendation and the counsellors met with the

students mapped to them to help strengthen the counsellor’s

recommendation which many universities ask for. They also reviewed student

essays and provided feedback where necessary. Further, there were university

visits from colleges and universities from the US, India, UK, France and

Switzerland. The department also ran a workshop for our Grade 11 parents

and took them through the various steps in their children gaining admission in

a university of their choice and more so which would be a good fit to their

requirements. Part of this session also focussed on the predicted policy and

how the final predicted grade for each student will be arrived at ahead of their

university application process.

Boarding: As mentioned earlier, we had 23 students who stayed back in school

during the autumn break. To ensure the students were well engaged, a

comprehensive plan was drawn up and effectively implemented. This included

a two and a half day camp and hiking trip at Mulshi. The students were

encouraged to try new things, had limited gadget time and collaborated on

various tasks/games organised. During this break, they also had a couple of

mall outings, a pizza night at school as well as watched a movie outside

school. Further, our students thoroughly enjoyed celebrating Diwali with their

peers and the staff that remained on campus.

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Once school reopened, I ran a reading and vocabulary session for the

boarders of PYP to Grade 7. This session focussed on of course the importance

of books and reading. But more so, on how to extract the main idea/concept

from the book and apply it in our own lives. We also touched upon reflection

during this session.

We also had our students understand the importance of gratitude in each of

our lives. Many a time, it is easy to lose focus and allow for a sense of

entitlement to come in. In view of this, each boarding house saw its residents

work on a wall of gratitude which will be consistently updated.

Pegasus House, part of their fund raising activity also organised a movie night

for our boarders where the PYP to Grade 7 students watched Hotel

Transylvania-2 and Grades 8 and above watched Million Dollar Baby.

Sports: The highlight of the month in this department was a very successful

Sports Day for Grades 6-12. House and team spirit were on display and this

was in honour of our school’s core values of love, empathy, respect and

discipline. Our chief guest for the day was Wing Commander Pooja Thakur,

who has led the Guard of Honour during many foreign dignitaries’ visit,

including former US President Barack Obama when he visited India. During her

address to the students, she spoke about the importance of pursuing passion

and clearly stood out as a role model to our students and made them believe

that with a single minded focus and a plan, they can achieve their goals. Apart

from the track and field events, there was an equestrian club display and a drill

display. Our young athletes gave it their all and demonstrated determination,

grit and resilience.

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Senior School Sports Day [2018-2019]

This year, we had a relay which included teams comprising of the staff

representing the four houses, parents and the Administration team. We also

had a tug of war between the parents and staff which had the latter team win.

The Grade 11 students also put up food stalls and this was part of their fund

raising activity for the major projects they are all working on for their CAS. The

day was indeed enjoyed by all and which saw Orion House declared overall

winners. Appendix B has some more glimpses of Sports Day.

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SENIOR SCHOOL SPORTS DAY [2018-2019]

OVERALL HOUSE POSITIONS

Position House Points 1 Orion 566

2 Phoenix 550

3 Pegasus 526 4 Hercules 468

We are happy to share with you that Azfar Madhani of Grade 11 stood second

at The International Board School Sports Organisation [IBSO] Inter-School

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National Tennis [Under 19] competition. We congratulate Azfar on his success

and are confident that with the passion and conscientious effort he

consistently puts in during his practice sessions will see him winning more

competition in the coming months.

Rohan Singh of Grade 12 has been selected to be a part of the 64th National

Games for Under 19 football.

Karan Patel of Grade 9, an avid squash enthusiast won the runners-up trophy

at the Pune Closed Squash Tournament 2018 in the boys under 15 category.

We congratulate Karan on this achievement!

We also organised a Special Assembly to felicitate the students who did us

proud at the various IBSO National competitions as well as at the Eagle Cup.

Professional Development: As we move closer towards gaining MYP

Authorisation (the final visit is scheduled at the end of January 2019), the

school organised a workshop in Personal Project on November 24th and 25th

respectively. We thank Mr David Burton from the IB Office for providing more

clarity on the process involved in ensuring our students are effectively guided

and supervised when they pursue their Personal Project.

While we work on introducing the 4 year academic strategy for Grades 9-12;

an important component of this will be self-directed learning [SDL]. Ms

Harsimran Kapany, Head of Academics, ran a workshop for all teachers in

small groups. We realise that it is essential for our teachers to be effective

practitioners of the SDL so that the students in their care successfully become

independent learners with a clear understanding of their learning objectives.

I would like to conclude by thanking each of you for your support and feedback

which helps us ensure we adopt Kaizen- the Japanese form of continuous

improvement.

Change is the only thing constant in life and it is left to us on how quickly and

the manner in which we adopt to this constant change so as to ensure we

prepare our students to not just survive but succeed in the VUCA world that

awaits them. To quote Malcolm X; “Education is the passport to the future for

tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.”

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Thanks and warm regards

Preeti G. Prabhu Principal Indus International School Pune principal@indusschoolpune.com preeti.prabhu@indusschoolpune.com +91 8390905891

Appendix A: Children’s Day Celebrations

VISUAL ART: CANVAS, COLLAGE & GRAFFITI

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CULINARY COMPETITION

STREET PLAY

BATTLE OF THE BAND AND STAFF PERFORMANCE

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STAFF FASHION SHOW AND DANCE

Appendix B: More Glimpses from Sports Day

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