FROM THE PRINCIPAL’S DESK

December 2020 Newsletter

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Greetings from Indus International School Pune!

As the academic session moves to 2nd Semester in January 2021 under the situation what

we can call as the ‘new normal’, we have had to think of creative ways to help our students

unlock their potential in a holistic manner and build in the ability to learn and re-learn

throughout their lives.

At Indus we constantly endeavour to establish a culture of innovation as we believe that

innovation is the only panacea to address the turbulence of this VUCA (volatile, uncertain,

complex and ambiguous) world. The opportunities created by the pandemic has made us

aware of our strengths and this is clearly demonstrated by the array of activities conducted

in the school.

In our endeavour to help our students unlock their potential, Indus had launched its very

own Innovation Curriculum at the start of the academic year, the first of its kind in India. An

entire day is devoted to help students develop research skills, critical thinking, collaboration,

risk taking, experimentation, resilience & entrepreneurial competencies which will prepare

them for life. Teachers have re-rolled themselves as Teacher Advisors to lead, guide and

monitor students through personalisation.

Feedback from stake holders and continuous communication is a core strategy that we

believe will help us excel in these uncertain times. To make this more efficient, we have

further streamlined our Innovation Curriculum, which is a built up for our Innovation Council

in April 2021. The Innovation Curriculum reporting from January will trace the progress

made by the student in developing an innovative mind-set. It reflects our vision of making

the student “start-up ready”. We persistently seek to bring the most transformative 21st-

century learning practices to our classrooms - predominantly those that rely on student

empowerment and self-directed learning.

Primary Years Programme (PYP):

Academics:

Guest speaker session Grade 2: Under the transdisciplinary theme, ‘Sharing the planet’, Mrs Kane spoke to the learners about human impact on animals. She spoke to them about real cases of damage done to wildlife and other endangered species who are now recovering at the Resq Centre. She also shared her insights about the impact of human actions on biodiversity.

Celebrations:

Numeracy Day: December 22nd is observed as National Mathematics Day in India in honour of the famous mathematical genius, Srinavasa Ramanujan. In view of the same, the learners in the PYP observed numeracy day in the month of December. They celebrated the same with fun, engaging and thought- provoking activities. They paid homage to all the great mathematicians who contributed greatly to the field. Our young eagles used items around the house to create interesting 2D shape objects; they put on their thinking hats and solved some quick mental math questions. Our older learners also created a fun recipe using various units of measurements.

Christmas Celebrations: Through a funny and thought provoking skit organized by Grade 2 learners, the PYP geared up to welcome the Christmas holidays! Our young students enthralled the audience with melodious carols and shared the true message of Christmas. They understood that it is all about sharing and giving! The day aptly ended with a class party in each grade and students were able to spend time socializing with their friends. They spoke of their plans for the upcoming holidays and shared fun stories and memories.

Counsellors workshop for teachers on mental robustness

Mental toughness is the ability to resist, manage and overcome doubts, worries, concerns and circumstances that prevent you from succeeding, or excelling at a task that you set out to achieve." Art therapy exercise is great for someone who wants to explore themselves - understand self, their identity, and find different aspects of themselves. Our counselor Ms Prajakta Apte led our teachers on an engaging session of making masks, prompting them to introspect on how they think others perceive them and how they see themselves. This activity also served as a jumping board to discuss deeper aspects like our strengths, fears, adaptability, resilience etc. Our teachers were rejuvenated after the workshop as it provided them the much needed time to reflect on their daily practices and prompted them to re-evaluate their approach to work and life.

Professional Development

IB Pune Network: Our specialists and second language teachers participated in the Pune network of IB educators sharing best practices in the ever-evolving online platform. Some of our teachers also facilitated a few sessions. While all our facilitators learned something new, we are also glad to note that the facilitators at IISP had much to share with educators from other IB schools and were truly appreciated by the organisers.

Workshop on Teacher Advisor: Ms Puja Grover, Head of School (PYP) lead a discussion on what it means to be a mentor, why it is critical to connect with our young learners and their parents. The session also focused on how we can engage and cultivate children’s creative thinking and emotional intelligence.

Middle Years Programme (MYP): Coffee Evenings with our Learners: It is with immense delight that MYP Team present to you our latest initiative, that of the Coffee Evenings. We realise that in the hustle-bustle of life in the COVID World, we hardly get enough time to just be and chat with our students. To this effect, we have decided to hold Coffee Evenings once a month. This is where all the learners of a Grade are invited to spend an evening with their respective Programme Coordinators and the Head of School. We had Coffee Evenings from MYP 1-5, where learners spoke about anything and everything. We played games like Hangman and discussed series like, 'The Crown'. Learners spoke of their experiences in the lockdown while we told them how much we missed them. The session had laughs and emotional moments and one important realisation, that we miss our families... the ones we saw 8 months ago. For what are teachers without their children? Half Yearly Examination: The half yearly examination were held from the 4th to the 17th of December 2020. They were conducted in a seamless manner, thanks to the support we received from the Parent Advisory Committee Grade Representatives as well as due to the collaboration between parents and teachers. All extended summative submissions for portfolio subjects were done in November 2020 to ensure that learners had sufficient time to revise. All papers were published an evening in advance and the examination team as well as Parent Advisory Committee Grade Representatives were on standby to ensure that all challenges were resolved in real time. This Parent-School partnership has ensured the half yearly examination were conducted on AssessPrep successfully.

Diploma Programme (DP):

December 2020 saw the DP 1 students persevering in their half yearly exams.

The exams are crucial for the Predicted Grades that will be calculated during Year 2. The students appeared for the exams on Teams and were supervised by their subject teachers. Students have finally settled into the online assessments well with fewer technical concerns than in the last exam.

The DP2 students worked on their Internal Assessments (IA’s) that were moderated by teachers. There was a formal Extended Essay session conducted where supervisors guided their students on the requirements of the reflection form. Departmental meetings were conducted with the Principal and Vice Principal to apprise them of the progress made with IA’s and the status as far as the quality of drafts that have been submitted.

The school bought the subscription for the popular online assessment platform Exam.net. The students were invited to join in for three training sessions during the Christmas break. This gave them ample opportunity to get used to the online platform - that will be used for the Pre-mock exams due in January.

The CAS (Creativity, Activity and Service) program got a boost with the formal introduction of the CEO’s Climate Challenge Cup - where students and teachers will be working on huge projects that will contribute to checking the process of climate change. These projects will

be selected on the basis of the social impact they will have on the community in and around the school campus.

The students enrolled in the Startup School program were part of an interactive story telling session with a published writer and entrepreneur – Mr Pradeep Soundararajan. The content and presentation of the workshop made the discussion very interesting and meaningful for all members present.

Professional Development:

The teachers worked on Half-Yearly paper moderation and department planning for the following year - namely Unit Plans and DLP’s (Daily Lesson Plan) for the new session in January.

The Curriculum planning included the important plan for intensive revision which will be more focused with special provision for implementation of the Differentiated Instruction. The teachers taking parallel classes will join their colleague’s class for a few minutes to address students in a particular group; in order to improve their skills in a particular paper component.

Dates for your Diary: January 2021

6th January 2021 Leadership Camp Grade 1

7th January 2021 Leadership Camp Grade 2

8th January 2021 Leadership Camp Grade 3

11th January 2021

Leadership Camp Grade 4

IBDP Orientation & Career Counselling

(MYP 5 Students)

12th January 2021 Leadership Camp Grade 5

14th January 2021 Makar Sankranti – Holiday

16th January 2021 Parents Induction Workshop (PYP) &

PTM DP1 and MYP 1

eAssessment Orientation for MYP 3 Parents

18th January 2021 PTM MYP 4

19th January 2021 PTM MYP 5

21th January 2021 PTM MYP 2

25th January 2021 PTM MYP 3

26th January 2021 Republic Day – Holiday

27th January 2021 100 Days Mufti Day (PYP)

30th January 2021 IBDP Orientation & Career Counselling

(MYP 5 Parents)

Thanks and warm regards Mr Sandeep Chhabra Principal Indus International School Pune principal@indusschoolpune.com sandeep.chhabra@indusschoolpune.com +91 8390905891 www.indusschoolpune.com

http://www.indusschoolpune.com/