Principal Speak: Preparing students to be torchbearers of resurgent India
Education involves a right balance of academic and co-curricular activities. How is your institution providing this balance to students?
A well-rounded education involves creating a balance between academic learning and co-curricular activities. Our school typically achieves this balance in several ways. The school offers a comprehensive curriculum that focuses on core subjects while also providing specialised classes that align with students’ interests. To complement academics, our school offers a variety of co-curricular activities such as sports, music, drama, art, debate and clubs. These activities help students develop soft skills like teamwork, leadership, time management, and creativity. The school creates schedules that allocate dedicated time for both academic learning and extracurricular activities. This helps students manage their time effectively, ensuring they excel in both areas. Our school encourages students to participate in co-curricular activities by integrating them into the school culture and even linking them to academic growth, such as through leadership roles, projects or competitions. By maintaining a balance between academics and co-curricular pursuits, the school supports students in becoming well-rounded individuals ready for success in all.
What are the assessment practices used in your school?
Our school uses a combination of methods to evaluate students’ progress and understanding. Some common assessment practices that are used in our school are formative assessments, summative assessments, project-based assessments, peer and self-assessment, practical and performance-based assessments, portfolio-based assessment, diagnostic assessments, and continuous feedback. These assessment practices help provide a well-rounded picture of each student’s learning progress, identifying strengths and areas for growth.
Sports and co-curricular activities for students.
Sports and co-curricular activities play a vital role in the holistic development of the students. They complement academic learning by helping students develop physical, mental and social skills that contribute to their overall growth. Our school focuses on various activities that include sports, music, dance, drama, visual arts, clubs and societies, cultural activities, competitions, community service, etc, which in turn provide physical fitness, teamwork and collaboration, discipline and time management, mental toughness and resilience, leadership skills as well as stress relief.
NEP-2020 has laid special emphasis on vocational skills and entrepreneurships. How is your school providing these two through curriculum?
The National Education Policy (NEP)-2020 emphasises the development of vocational skills and entrepreneurship to better equip students for the future. Our school integrates these aspects into its curriculum to help students develop practical skills, by an independent and an entrepreneurial minds-et. Here’s how these two areas are implemented in our school’s curriculum through skill development workshops, certification programmes, guest lectures and mentorship, collaborative projects, real-world exposure, hands-on learning and career counselling. Aiming at providing strong foundation for lifelong learning, Balvatika in our school emphasises on cognitive, social, emotional and physical development among pre-primary children.
What is the motto of your school and how are students being trained to follow it?
Our main emphasis is to develop the students in such a way so as to make them morally upright, intellectually well-informed, socially concerned, emotionally balanced and physically developed. AKSIPS-45 Smart School prepares the students for the 21st century, to be the torchbearers of the resurgent India. Conducive conditions are provided at the school to facilitate all-round development in children and to channelise their energies for excellence in every field. Manners maketh a man — this dictum finds its place within the walls of AKSIPS-45 Smart School. The curriculum is developed to help the children in expressing their thoughts and feelings in a confident manner and to also arouse the spirit of curiosity in them.
What measures has the school taken to help students cope with stress and to develop their EQ?
Our school focuses on mental health and emotional intelligence (EQ) to help students manage stress and develop resilience. Common measures that our school takes to support students include counselling services, mindfulness programmes, stress management workshops, peer support programmes, creating a positive school environment, regular health check-ups, and work-life balance education.
As the head of this institution, what is your vision and how are you making it a reality?
At AKSIPS-45 Smart School, our vision is to create a holistic and joyful learning environment that is enriched with a thoughtful and pragmatic experience to extract the best. Our motive is to define the new standards and redefine the conventional ones to bridge the gap between the old systems and the new ones to perform flawlessly. Keeping abreast with the pace of the 21st century, the emerging role of the school, to help the students become global citizens, makes our motive, “Changing lives’’, even more significant. To make this vision a reality, we are focusing on several key initiatives — curriculum innovation, student support and well-being, faculty development, community and partnerships, and sustainability and diversity. Through these efforts, I am confident that we can build a thriving, vibrant institution that not only excels in academics but also contributes positively to society.
