Prioritising mental health led to success of Bangalore International School
Many organizations and schools recognized that mental health was a growing issue, one such school was the Bangalore International School who went the extra mile to nip this problem in the bud and the outcome speaks for itself. BIS children brought home the highest average IB score in all of Bangalore!
While sitting in front of a laptop for hours is something that we as adults are used to, children around the world prefer to run around in parks, school corridors, and have a touch and feel environment every day of their lives thanks to the schooling system. Come 2020 and 2021 and everything changed, what kids knew as normal now became undoable and a new normal presented itself.
Parents were faced with working from home and caring for their children day in and day out, and children were faced with having no peers or role models but their parents. The issues that presented themselves during this time impacted children mentally, all the energy they garnered could not be used up in the playground or by socializing, leading them to get frustrated and overwhelmed by the continuous home environment they were locked into.
Many organizations and schools recognized that mental health was a growing issue, one such school was the Bangalore International School who went the extra mile to nip this problem in the bud and the outcome speaks for itself. BIS children brought home the highest average IB score in all of Bangalore!
This achievement was a combination of academic, mental, and physical efforts that the management, staff, and children took up; basically, they just picked up the Lemons and made Lemonade!
Academic Efforts
Ensuring to keep the day as close to a normal day at school really helped the children stick to a routine albeit in a different setting.
This meant their day would begin at 7:45 am as it would on a normal school day. The first two hours of the school focused on literature and numeracy, while the third lesson stuck to subjects that involved activities. This broke the daily monotony, giving the students a chance to relax and get their creative gears running.
The 4th lesson of a normal day would focus on a non-core subject, like art or music, depending on the grade. A schedule similar to this was implemented on the elementary-going students, too. In contrast, the middle and high school students were given a comparatively more rigorous schedule, after which the school would close at 2:45 pm.
Mental Health Efforts
Looking at what the school has done to focus on the children’s need for mental wellbeing makes us wonder if this should be introduced across all schools and boards as well as corporate houses and government institutions. Mental health has been overlooked in our country and the need of the hour isn’t churning out more engineers or doctors but individuals who are overall well-built to fit into society and add value to it. Bangalore International School has understood this and has been nurturing its students through the pandemic and continues to do so even now when school has begun.
One of the steps taken by the management to ensure better mental health was organising several workshops that focused on understanding how to deal with the pandemic situation. These workshops were conducted under the guidance of in-house counsellors while also bringing in external speakers who would motivate the students and be there for the entire community.
One of the major topics discussed during these sessions was stress and anxiety, which seemed to concern most students. BIS made sure to hold these sessions for the students and conduct them with students and parents. These would allow for all their mental health requirements to be catered to. To make this process smoother, BIS opened lines between the counsellors and students, and parents. Simple wellness classes for the lower grades ensured open communication on what they were feeling, thinking or also eating during the time spent at home.
Physical Efforts
In addition to the above, the school recognised the need for interaction among the students, so they entertained the high school batches back on campus. This also helped them prepare for the examination, as communication between the teachers and students flowed better when they weren't separated by a screen. BIS maintained the right protocol and guidelines set to accommodate the pandemic to make the entire ordeal safe for students while they were on campus.
BIS also organised picnics on campus for the younger students, which functioned as a much-needed retreat for those who had been away from campus for too long. At the picnic, the staff arranged some exciting activities that included encouraging art, music, games for the students. They also made sure to serve them the much-beloved food that is always available on the BIS campus. Receiving these much-needed social interactions boosted the students' mood, as it was an aspect that they all had missed out on.
While setting up their regular schedule, BIS accounted for the students' sitting tolerance while also ensuring less time in front of the computer screen, which, otherwise, would have been a health risk. Therefore introducing dance, physical activity, and movement involved lessons. The perfect amalgamation of academic-based lessons and activity-based learning allowed for better cognitive development of the students.
The Result
Prioritising the students' health brought in excellent academic results at the Cambridge IGCSE and AS/A level examination, earning a 100% pass result. IGSCE was topped with 8A*s secured by Gautam Krishna Belur & Kunyang Kim, while the AS levels were topped with 5As, which is incidentally the highest grade they can score secured, by Geonyeong Kim. With respect to the A-Levels, 53% of the score achieved were As and A*s and Shoshanna Sunil Attavar & Dhanush Katam Reddy topped with 4A*s and 1A each. 89% of the grades awarded to the students at AS and A levels were C and above.
The students' brilliance shone at the IB level, where they managed to score the highest average score in the entire city!! 40% of Grade 11 & 12 managed to score 40 or more points in the finals examination, while the highest scores received were 45 out of 45, which was secured by topper Karan Vellor Jayakumar. The IBDP class of 2021 currently boasts an average of 39.13 points, which is a flawless achievement, exceeding the previously held average.
“Problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines.” Robert Schuller
This is exactly what Bangalore International School has done through these two difficult years. Building on the overall development of every student is an aspect that the team at BIS has mastered and continues to do so while welcoming its children back to school.
Disclaimer: This is a press release. No HT journalist is involved in creation of this content.