There is no denying the fact that in today’s day and age, education is much beyond books and encompasses a wide range of co-curricular activities. It is the holistic development of a child that is the aim and purpose of our school.
At KMS, students are exposed to different kinds of co-curricular activities all year round that help in bringing out their inherent talent. In pursuit of an enriching experience and one that will hone the creativity of the students, we organize competitions like Sketching, Collage Making, Story Telling, Recitation, Quiz, Rangoli, Spelling Bee etc. These competitions also help to inculcate in the students a spirit of healthy competition and camaraderie.
“Back to roots” is the philosophy behind celebrating the different kinds of festivals at KMS. The students are also acquainted with our rich cultural heritage and know more about India, ‘the land of festivals’ during these celebrations. Each festival, be it Ganesh Chaturthi, Id- ul Zuha, Dusshera, Diwali, Gandhi Jayanti or Christmas is celebrated with a great deal of zest and fervour. The festivals bring with them a festive flavour that embraces one and all in its fold. Students share their thoughts about the festivals in the assembly. They participate enthusiastically in cultural events like mythological plays, skits, folk songs, dances, portraying the importance of the various festivals.
The cultural events and co-curricular activities thus bring forth the innate potential of every child and assist in his/her holistic development.
Kalpavruksha Model School renders top priority to the health care of students. The school has a well-equipped infirmary to address medical problem of all students especially boarders.
Round-the-clock emergency medical facility is a feature of the infirmary which fosters safety and care. A qualified doctor visits the school for comprehensive medical check-up and expert advice on any serious communicable disease. A complete medical check up is essential for all the students twice a year.
Healthy and nutritious pure vegetarian food is provided to all the students. The menu is based on the recommendations of a dietitian. Teachers and House Masters also have meals with the students in the dining hall, thus bringing in an atmosphere of a ‘home away from home’. Soft skills such as table manners and etiquette are also honed in this process.
You are special !!!
In today’s educational scenario, especially with all the stress and competition involved in it, mentoring is a dire necessity. In the age of survival of the fittest, we often come across headlines in newspapers of students unable to take the stress and succumbing to defeat by putting an end to their lives. Realising this major lacunae in our educational system, we at KMS strongly feel that the need of the hour is to be a friend and guide to the students at all times, to enable them to cope through life. The mentoring system is a means to an end- an end towards building self- confidence; confronting and transforming negative behaviour and attitude in a positive direction and channelising this towards achieving high performance.
The desire to ‘do it my way’ is critical to a mentee’s sense of self, for it respects that person’s individuality. Sound mentoring respects the uniqueness of the mentee and strives to enhance the special strengths of that person. All mentees have some general needs that they share with others from a similar background or situation. The mentor’s challenge is to recognise the needs of a person adapting to change and to respond appropriately. A mentor can provide ideas for remedy when asked. Like a famous quote on mentoring goes, “Mentoring is a brain to pick, an ear to listen, and a push in the right direction.”
We have inculcated these principles in our Mentoring System, which we have named, “You are Special”. Each student is allotted a mentor. Mentor meetings are held on a regular basis which gives an opportunity to the ‘mentee’ to open his heart out to the mentor. This process also assists in developing a bond within the ‘mentees’ in a particular group.
At KMS, we believe that effective teachers are life-long learners and professional development should be an on-going process of refining skills, inquiring into practice and developing new methods.
In our Continuous Professional Development (CPD) programme we emphasise upon the professional strengths and accomplishments of the teachers that works to complement the learning needs and requirements of the students. It also complements both the needs of the teacher and the goals and objectives of the school. Through these activities, we also focus on the conditions which affect student learning in order for teachers to develop the knowledge and expertise needed to enable students to function as independent thinkers and creative learners both in the school community and in the larger environment of society as a whole.
The CPD is being conducted by the Teaching Learning Committee (TLC) of the school. It revolves around certain stages, namely identifying and analysing needs, designing and implementing the necessary professional development programmes, monitoring it and evaluating its impact. We realise that the ‘glow’ of teaching is there in all of us, however dimly lit and intermittent it may be and it just needs to be fanned and nurtured and that is where the role of CPD comes into play.
The in-house training programmes are incorporated on a day-to-day basis after the scheduled teaching hours. To keep the teachers in tandem with the revolutions in the teaching-learning process, workshops on learning and teaching styles, yoga in education, formative assessment, concept mapping, bloom’s taxonomy, importance of communication and presentation skills, concept teaching and grading system have been organised from time to time, under the CPD programme. This programme also gets external support and guidance from the Academy for Creative Teaching, Bangalore.
A famous Chinese proverb says and I quote, ‘Learning is like rowing upstream; not to advance is to drop back’. Keeping this philosophy in mind, we, at KMS realise that teacher development is the cornerstone of the school’s success.