Delhi school events: SMS, Meera Bagh, plays major role in collaboration event

Anjali Aggarwal, principal of St. Mark’s School (SMS), Meera Bagh, was the lead coordinator of the collaboration programme titled A New Education Scenario: Wellbeing of Teachers, Students and Parents. Aggarwal along with Geeta Rajan, Head International Affairs and Svea Kučinić, Administrative School Zagreb, Croatia, brought together around 67 educators, 300 students and 25 parents from Asia, Europe and Australia.

Until year 2019, SMS used to undertake almost 10-12 visits to foreign shores to take part in exchange programmes, conferences and friendship weeks. Year 2020 changed the scenario. Travelling could not happen physically but the school continued to give its staff and students opportunities to virtually connect with their counterparts from overseas schools.

The three-month-long collaboration programme witnessed the students visiting their peers, parents and teachers working together to ensure holistic development of the students and, most importantly, taking care of the well-being of the teachers.

The school’s initiative of handling such an appropriate theme was very well supported by Singapore-based Asia Europe Foundation (ASEF). Webinars on important issues such as like burnout syndrome, importance of vulnerability, strategies for coping with work-related stress when working in schools and importance of social and emotional security along with academic engagement for students were highly appreciated by all the participants.

The finale was a big moment with Aggarwal being complimented by the ASEF team that included three senior ASEF executives -- ambassador H.E. Morikawa Toru (Japan), executive director, ambassador H.E. Léon Faber (Luxembourg), deputy executive, and director (education) Leonie Nagarajan.

DAVPS, Vasant Kunj, shines in AIM-Sirius programme

It was a proud moment for DAV Public School (DAVPS), Vasant Kunj, when its Class 11 student Tanay Srivastava and ATL incharge Vandana Deepak were selected to represent India in the 14-day virtual AIM-Sirius Innovation Programme 3.0 .

Vandana, who has also been selected as a regional teacher of change by the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), and Tanay were part of the Indian delegation for that international-level programme. AIM is the government of India’s flagship initiative under the aegis of NITI Aayog. Educational Foundation Talent and Success (Sirius, Russia) and AIM organised that educational, innovation programme for the selected students from India and Russia.

This year, the entire programme was focused on developing technological solutions (web-based and mobile applications) for the key grassroots problems linked with the big challenges of both nations.

Eight teachers (one from every focus area) and 24 students (three from every focus area) were shortlisted. Vandana was one of the eight selected teachers and the only one for the focus area -- “Assessing the quality of machine translation for the languages of Russia and India.” Tanay was one of the three selected students for his chosen focus area “Leveraging artificial intelligence: customisable news feed aligned to user interests.” Both successfully completed the course and contributed in developing the projects.

GEMS Modern Academy, Gurugram, inaugurates virtual art gallery

GEMS Modern Academy, Gurugram, inaugurated the first-ever virtual art gallery titled ArtShaala. It was an honour for the school to host art stalwarts Goldy Malhotra, an eminent educationist and artist, and Yuvraj Sharma, an expert of theatre in education. Malhotra, the chief guest, inaugurated the virtual event.

It was a platform to showcase the journeys of the school’s children, parents and staff as they embarked on a journey to hone the latent creative abilities. Their (Malhotra and Sharma’s) artistic prowess of visual and performing arts was evident as they addressed the gathering. They urged the parents to allow their children to hone their creative pursuits.

The theme of the event was envisioned in such a manner that it conveyed the message that in every person an artist lives and thrives. The children not only emulated the works of other artists but also created their own artworks.

Moreover, the children displayed their talents and potential in the field of performing arts as well. The day started with a welcome address by the officiating principal, Deepika Chaudhary, followed by the address by Gems Education vice president Nargish Khambatta.

The young minds got an opportunity to transcend the boundaries of their inherent aesthetic potential. They presented various performances like Fusion Nritya (an amalgamation of modern and classical dances), Dharaa: The Story of Mother Earth, a Bharatanatyam dance presentation and a mime rendition of the Water Anthem composed by musician AR Rahman and writer and lyricist Prasoon Joshi.

The event culminated with a vote of thanks proposed by Early Years’ coordinator Retika Kapur.