The start of the academic year marked the launch of a new school information system, Veracross. Veracross is a leading Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) service provider from the USA, and is used by some of the best private schools in the US and worldwide. They were selected by us as they offered a mature and well supported school platform that covers admissions, academics, billing, development etc. This is a huge step towards modernisation of the School’s systems and processes providing support for the teaching-learning process. The launch was accompanied by several rounds of orientation and training for all stakeholders. The learning continues and so does the promise of a richer school experience for our students.
As promised by Mrs. Purie during Founder’s Day in November 2021, we are excited about having launched the Cambridge International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) for classes 9 and 10 beginning with the academic session 2022-23. Ms. Shoma Lahiri joined us as the Head of International Curriculum in February this year to lead the IGCSE and other international programmes. Teachers have gone through extensive training in the last few months and will continue their learning over the Summer Break. It was reassuring to see that after many months of research, collaboration, discussions and deliberations, the hard work put in by the team, saw fruition in the launch of the Programme. Currently we have a cohort of 30 students enrolled for the IGCSE pursuing a combination from the 17 subjects being offered by the School.
The Government of Delhi has established the Delhi Board of School Education with the goal of providing the best learning experience and elevated techniques of learning to the students of Government Schools of Delhi. In parallel, the Government has also established the Schools of Specialized Excellence (SoSE) which are selective schools for classes 9 to 12 that aim to provide education to students in different specialized domains such as STEM, Performance and Visual Arts and Humanities.
Recognising the excellence of Vasant Valley School, the Delhi Government has selected us as the only school Knowledge Partner for the SoSE project.
Other world class Knowledge Partners include TISS and IIT among many others, all working under the management of the Boston Consulting Group. It is truly an outstanding group of the best educational organisations, and Vasant Valley School is honoured and proud to be a partner in this project.
Vasant Valley School is helping design and develop an integrated Humanities curriculum for classes 9 and 10 for the SoSE’s. This curriculum will focus on activity-based learning and include concepts which will widen the knowledge and awareness of the students beyond the foundational curriculum. We are developing session plans and study material that focus on building skills such as critical thinking, research, logical reasoning and presentation along with providing rigorous domain expertise in History, Geography, Political Science and Economics.
Teachers of the Social Science Department of Vasant Valley School are also involved in building capacity with the government school teachers and helping them adopt latest pedagogical practices. This also gives our teachers an opportunity to continue learning as they get an exposure to cutting edge educational thinking from other Knowledge Partners.
College placements for the class of 2022 are beginning to trickle in and we are very happy with the trends so far. In a cohort of 87 students, so far 63 students have got offers from various colleges, with some students having multiple offers.
Please click here to see some highlights of the placements received.
In April 2022, we formalised the Alumni Association of School. Today we have more than 2000 alumni spread all over the world doing amazing things. The Alumni project is aimed at bringing them together both to connect with each other and also renew their connections back to School.
The working group of the Alumni Association consists of one representative each from 1999 - 2021 under the leadership of Dr. Digvijay Singh (2002) and Ms. Unnati Pawar (2010) for this year.
The role of this group is to ideate and execute alumni related activities to drive the alumni engagement project ahead.
In the first quarter of 2022, we completed Online Batch Connects for our alumni from 1999 to 2014. Going forward the alumni representatives for each year group will conduct inter-batch connects. We have also launched a special line of merchandise for the alumni. We have been conducting College and Career Fairs led by the alumni for the current students. The next Career Fair is scheduled for the 20th of May 2022.
To ease the entry and exit of children from school we built a new Gate in school and a new walking path in front of the school
The older school buses were replaced with two brand new air conditioned School buses
We have also air conditioned many more spaces in the school building – the libraries, the Life Science Lab in the Junior School, the AV room in the Junior School and the Play Room.
The new air conditioned Integrated Science Laboratory is being used by all students. The laboratory equipment and the simulations possible there is further enriching the learning experience of our children.
Work has begun for a fully integrated Technology Hub in the Senior School
As a part of our endeavour to encourage children to use the school bus, we are now running air conditioned buses on eight different routes in Delhi and Gurugram for the students. We are also contemplating on the feasibility of extending the transport services to additional areas.
In this Learning Cycle a significant number of our faculty members retired. Each one of them have had a long tenure in School and have contributed to the school’s culture and strength in many significant ways. As these stalwarts move on, we have had a number of highly qualified and talented new teachers join various departments who will be introduced as soon as they become permanent staff in school.
Amitabh Chakravarty
Mr. Chakravarty joined the school in 1995 and taught Engineering Graphics to students of classes 11 and 12. An avid cyclist, he also taught Kite making, Mathematics and Physics at different times in school.
Neelam Srivastav
Ms. Srivastava joined school in 2001 and taught Psychology to students of classes 11 and 12, she was also a counsellor, headed the Social Science Department from 2020 to 2022 and spearheaded the Health Education Programme in school. She is an avid traveller and brought back so many stories from her travels to her classes.
Neeta Agarwal
Neeta Joined School in 2001 and apart from being a Science teacher for Middle School, Home Science teacher for classes 11 and 12, she was a coordinator for Middle School. She was one of the first five teachers to be entrusted with spearheading the programme on the Five Areas of Development and the school’s nutrition
Rama Krishnan
Ms. Krishnan joined school in 2002 she taught Science and later Life Science in the Junior School and was also a coordinator for all External Examinations that our children wrote such as the ASSET examination.
Rochna Ghosh
Ms. Ghosh Joined School in 2002 she worked as a Special Educator and also received the Fulbright Fellowship while working in school and travelled to the USA.
Sabu Joseph
Mr. Joseph joined school in 1998, apart from being a Sculpture teacher, he is an avid gardener and a cat lover who took care of the plants and gardens in school.
Sadhana Shukla
Ms. Shukla joined school in 2001 and has taught Social Science to Middle Schoolers for more than twenty years. She is the Time Table expert and the unofficial counsellor for all the teachers of school. Her lessons have provided the much needed food for thought for students and her scrumptious food has always been a source of happiness for all the members of staff.
Sonia Uppal
Ms. Uppal joined school in 1998 and has shaped many young minds in their formative years from Foundation to class 1. She along with her team was also responsible for producing the fantastic Founder’s Day Programmes.
Sukumar Kolley
Mr. Kolley joined school in 1997 and taught Indian Music (Tabla) to the students of Senior School. He also helped in initiating and training the School orchestra for so many years.
Sunena Malhotra
Ms. Malhotra joined the school in 2001 and worked in the Visual Art Department. She also worked closely on the Visual Effects of the Founder’s Day production, and helped elevate the design aesthetic of the school.
Sushmita Mitra
Ms. Mitra joined the school in 2001 as a Special Educator and soon became the Head of Special Section. It would be a gross underrepresentation of her contribution to school if we restrict her role to the Special Section. Ms. Mitra has touched every aspect of the School’s life and every member of the School’s family – Students, teachers, parents and the support staff. She is a mentor, a counsellor, a healer, a writer, a friend and of course a first class Special Educator.
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