Principal’s Letter – March 2022

  • 2 March 2022

It’s the dawn of another month and time to reflect on our achievements and challenges that will aid in sailing across the ensuing months seamlessly. Our school brimming with the sounds of laughter and discussions by our students is a welcome moment for all of us. We feel that connection is returning in full swing and our hearts and minds affirm that we will do the best to see that our students adapt to the transition very soon. 

 

We would like to see all our students back in school from March 2nd, 2022 positively. It will be a great joy and privilege to have them back with us and we are glad that most of our students are already back in school. The recovery from the pandemic is broadening its horizon and still, at OISB the protocol for COVID is being followed meticulously. We are working out the transition from online to offline so that students will not feel the change, but experience the new one with a smile.

 

Here is how the school will manage transition:

Book Cart:

We are happy to inform you that we can start Book Cart sales for the new academic year 2022-23 starting from 7th March 2022 for Uniforms, Shoes, Text Books & Stationery. Please find the book kart dates for all the grades

 

In lieu of this, book cart operations are stopped for a week from 1st March to 6th March 2022 to update new stock and map the students’ data for getting the book cart portal ready. 

Lunch: It will start from Mon March 14 and the total of Rs 4000 needs to be paid for the month of March & April.

Transport: The total amount of Rs 11000 for two months (March & April) needs to be paid for students who are joining us from March 2nd, 2022.

Request parents to pay the tuition fees for the academic year 21-22 on or before 5 March’22 and support the school for its smooth functioning and transition. Thanks to all those parents who have done yearly payments and to those who have been paying us timely every month.

 

Milestones of the Month

No education is complete without ample opportunities for students to prove their learning, using novel competitions ideated to develop our students holistically. Here are a few events organized across the school.

PYP Exhibition: An event where students are allowed to share their understanding of a real-life issue or topic they’ve covered. It’s a great way to help pupils reflect on all their learning while developing skills of presentation and assessment.

The exhibition is one of the experiences of the IB Primary Years Programme, conducted at the end of the final year. As part of the exhibition, students will be encouraged to explore and document their understanding of important topics in collaboration.

The Primary Years Programme (PYP)Exhibition is the opportunity for students to share the knowledge they have acquired during the PYP years. It draws on the learning, attitude, and behavior they have developed, as well as the skills developed over their entire schooling experience. This year we are proud to announce that our children researched, developed, and presented on five different themes. The confidence with which they presented made us proud and took our school to new standards of learning.

Here is a reflection from one of our parents:

“PYP Exhibition being the first experience for us has been exciting and we appreciate the efforts put in by all the Students and Teachers together. This is a great learning experience not only from the subject know-how point of view but more in terms of working as a team, leading a team, and managing, providing opportunities to all around you. I am sure Siddanth had a great learning experience and has helped in grooming his personality to step up further in his journey of growth as an individual. Kudos to the School for their work.”

Our passionate young Oakridgers of Grades 1-3, Cambridge Primary, presented the prominence of International Mother Language Day. Children created an awareness of language diversity and to protect all the languages of the world.

Group 4 Project IBDP: It is an interdisciplinary activity in which all IBDP students participate. The objective is to analyze a common scientific topic or problem. The students from the different group 4 subjects, i.e. the experimental sciences, work together. 

The group 4 project allows students to appreciate the environmental, social, and ethical implications of science and technology. It also allows them to understand the limitations of scientific study. The emphasis is on interdisciplinary cooperation, International mindedness, and the processes involved in scientific investigation, rather than the products of such investigation. Students are given a theme and put into groups comprising students taking Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and computer sciences. All the groups were given 10 hours for the three stages of the Group 4 Project: planning, action, and evaluation. Some students have taken these subjects at Higher Level as well as Standard Level in each group, hence the complexities of integrating these subjects could differ, making it more interesting. 

Education is the key to fostering a culture of safety and health which will heighten awareness and keep young people safe and healthy in the home, school, community, and workplace. Oakridge Bachupally has a tie-up with Rainbow Hospital in Hyderabad for handling all emergencies in the campus as well as extending their facilities to all our stakeholders as well. We will keep you informed about the progress made in days to come.

 

Parent Enunciation

Annual Parent Survey: We would like to sincerely thank every parent who participated in our annual parent satisfaction survey held in December. Having a wide range of parents, completing the survey is very useful in getting an accurate picture of the school.

The results of the survey showed that parents are extremely satisfied and kids love coming to school. Among the six school areas examined in the survey, Communication and Academics received the highest rating. Parents seemed particularly satisfied with: the curriculum, clarity of the curriculum, timely communication, and Issue Resolution. Parents were particularly satisfied with the level of commitment shown by class teachers during the pandemic. The areas of individual attention, recognition, and appreciation received the backing of the parents. However holistic development, extracurricular activities, and customized attention during the hybrid classes needed more emphasis.

Thank you once again for giving your valuable feedback which helps us make improvements to the existing programmes in the whole school and make plans for new program initiatives if needed. We have received overwhelming appreciation from many Oakridge parents who already share our vision to create a holistic and wonderful learning experience for our students. As a gesture of our appreciation, we are happy to introduce our parent referral programme, whereby existing parents can refer other parents for admissions.  

 

 

The re-Enrollment form has been circulated among the parents. The form is intended to anticipate student strength and enrolment for the upcoming Academic year 2022-2023. Our gratitude to all our parents who could take their time to give us this information. I request the other parents too, to kindly fill in the form at the earliest to support us in making arrangements for the next academic year. 

 

As we move to the close of this academic year, we need to test our students’ abilities and proficiency and pave the way for them to move to the next stage in their lives. We are geared up to conduct the final assessments physically and it will be great to see our students back in school for the assessments. We wish them all the best and hope to see them perform much better than the earlier ones. 

As informed earlier, we are going ahead with board exams of CBSE grade 10, grade 12, IGCSE grade 10, and Lower Secondary Checkpoint examinations of Grade 8.

  

Owing to the repercussions of the pandemic we have made certain amendments in our assessments of  Grade 5 based on the suggestions shared by the parent community. We are not going ahead with external Cambridge Primary Checkpoint exams for Grade 5 but will have internal exams

We always aim for the best for our students and create countless challenges and opportunities for our students to analyze and come up with strategies that bring about a change in the mindset of the generations and community at large. Another time and era of attending school physically and creating an environment of holistic learning and collaboration reaching heights. We dream of our students exploring the unexplored, reaching the unreached with their initiatives, keeping up the standards of Oakridge. The future is a treasure of much more to conquer. 

Hope to see our students soar higher and higher. My best wishes to all. 

 

Baljeet Oberoi
Principal

Oakridge International School, Bachupally
Bowrampet, Near Bachupally,
Hyderabad – 500 043, Telangana, India
www.oakridge.in