Curriculum
CURRICULUM – THE INNOVATIVE APPROACH
Samskara International School has always had a different approach towards learning. Here learning is based on the view that each individual comes into life with an evolutionary purpose and corresponding potentialities, educating means drawing out this potential.
The school has a vibrant group of very creative, warm, passionate and specially trained educators’ trainers & coaches with different expertise and with the interest & enthusiasm to work with children and contribute towards spearheading educational innovation and development.
Emphasis on quality rather than quantity: We are dealing with children and their lives & not churning out any commodities. So for us the care and concern comes first & therefore we chose to be a ‘QUALITY CENTRE OF LEARNING’ to create all-rounded, caring, empathetic and well grounded personalities and not a ‘FACTORY’ that churns out turn-outs year after year. Following this child-centered instinct, we have kept our class size deliberately small based on a preference for quality which is imperative in order to give individualized attention to children so that the emotional and development needs of each child may be understood and catered to in the best possible way. With the staff-student ratio of about 1:20, the overall school size has been decisively kept limited to maximum four sections with about 1 teacher in each section for not more than 20-25 students,
EACH CHILD IS SPECIAL: Each Child is different in her/his own special way: The curricular design ensures that every child’s individuality is retained and acknowledged which helps children to grow up as responsible and self-reliant individuals. While designing the methods and processes for all kinds of academic and co-curricular activities, the equal opportunity for all is the basic guiding mantra.
INNER DISCIPLINE INSTEAD OF IMPOSED DISCIPLINE: As the language is better caught than taught, we believe that values of life including discipline unknowingly sink-in rather than imposed. We, by all means, work towards giving our children such conducive and self-enabling atmosphere where they may find opportunities to own responsibility and take ownership which in turn gives them ample chances to exercise self-restraint and sense of discriminating between wrong and right & unlike the ‘herd-mentality’, the courage to speak their mind & think and act following their own instinct.
Respect for the individual, harmony in diversity and a freedom which asks for an inner discipline are components of the school culture. At the end of the day, self-restraint is the best restraint and the only restraint that is going to stay as a part of our children’s personalities.
PARENTS AS PARTNERS IN THEIR CHILD’s EDUCATION: Parents are invited to participate in regular open houses, conduct story sessions and craft classes, interact with children in our ‘Guest-Speak program’, try their hands on our experiential teaching-learning methods for children in our ‘confluence programme’, enjoy a collaborative outing of parents, teachers & children together in our DAY-OUT program’ & try hands on nutritious recipes in our all ‘FOOD-FESTIVAL’ program, all with the aim of encouraging deeper family interaction and participation of parents in school curriculum.
Democratic Approach towards teaching responsibility to children: We believe that children become responsible when they are made to participate in the designing or planning of processes like defining the role and contribution of student council to support the administrative and curricular processes in the school, curricular activities and their transaction & collaborative projects/ topics for learning are initiatives that help them develop a sense of ownership.
Versatile Interdisciplinary approach for teaching as well as teachers: Very much in consonance with the overlapping holistic approach towards learning disciplines, the roles of teachers too are not restricted or confined to their specific domains. All our educators, trainers, coaches and even administrative team are given opportunities to participate in the entire breadth and length of the school curriculum and collaboratively contribute in a more complete way, using all their talents and abilities- for example, a social-science, language or mathematics teacher, if proficient, is encouraged to direct a few projects in the performing arts.
Research & Evaluation : The keys to innovation: When new ways are explored and new activities developed, research and evaluation are a must. It provides the necessary inputs for further development of skills in the teachers as well as in the school resource center. As a group of people who have come together with the common purpose of improving the education process for our children, each of our activities and processes are an outcome of collaborative brain-storming, deliberation and sharing of ideas with team-spirit of a group of dynamic educators who are also learners at the same time, learning from each other, children, everyone and everything around and from self-introspection and the analysis of their own experiences.