Principal’s Letter – August 2022

  • 6 August 2022

The month of July made an imprint in the minds of people that showers and stormy showers are possible in a world where Global warming is the reason for the heat. People took solace in the beginning but as time passed it turned out to be difficult for living beings to survive. Oakridge made it possible for students to be in the safety of the school, continuing its efforts to lead the students academically and holistically. Oakridgers stood the test of time and always came out victors.

Organizational Announcement

As part of the reorganization, the India region will become a part of Southeast Asia and the Middle East Region whose Regional Managing Director is Mr. Shaun Williams. Owing to the medical condition of the Regional Managing Director in Europe, Mr. Brian the Managing director of India has been requested to take up the new position in Europe from August 1st, 2022.

The new Managing Director for India will be Mr. Christopher Short, a highly experienced Principal and senior colleague of NAE. Mr. Chris has taken up his new position from 1st August, however, he will be working remotely until a visa is secured. I am pleased to announce that Academic and Administration have been restructured, to better position our talented team, and to meet the needs of all the stakeholders of Oakridge Bachupally. We have introduced a few positions and  I am pleased to welcome the two new members to the Oakridge Bachupally Senior Leadership Team (SLT) Head of Primary, and Head of Operations

Our SLT team now comprises of Head of EY (Ms. Nandini Mathur), Head of Primary (Ms. Harsha Gandhi), Head of CBSE (Ms. Navneet Bedi), Head of IGCSE (Ms. Prasanti Manda), Head of IBDP ( Mr. Saikrishna Pammi), Head of Operations (Mr. Azmathullah Mohammed), Director of Admissions & Marketing (Ms. Priyadarshini Ballavarams) and Finance Manager (Ms. Lavanya Chittampally). We all need your relentless support and constructive feedback to take Oakridge Bachupally to the next level of excellence shortly.  

Also, Ms. Aarti Mongia, our Early year coordinator has decided to relocate to the Middle East and we wish her all the best in our future endeavors.  Ms. Rajeshwari Ganeshan has stepped up as the Early Years coordinator and is presently working as IBPYP Grade 1 HRT. We wish her all the best in her new role! 

Please be informed that Mr. Sravanreddy, School transport manager has decided to pursue his career elsewhere. We wish him all the very best in his future endeavors. Going forward, kindly contact our new Transport PRE, Ms. Rijuta Chaudhury(rijuta.chaudhury@oakridge.in) for any Transport-related queries.

Mr. Chary Babu Tekumala, assistant Manager – Of safety and security has attained the age of superannuation and we owe our sincere gratitude to him for serving the organization since its inception. Mr. Shrikant Narvate has been appointed for this position and we wish him all the best in his new role.

Parent Partnership

Parent Partnership is to encourage sustainable and effective partnerships between all members of the school community, including teachers, families, and students. Please go through the details of the Oakridge parent partners for the academic year 2022-2023. We will have official meetings scheduled with them starting this month.

Accolades

A sequel of all the perseverance and zeal during the assessments bloomed into tremendous excitement as the CBSE grade 10 & CBSE grade 12 results at Oakridge International Bachupally were announced. It is rewarding to observe the tremendous growth demonstrated by students who exceeded their own wildest dreams, even in the face of challenges they had to overcome. I extend my heartiest congratulations to the students, their families, and teachers, all of whom have contributed to this achievement.

Ed-Tech @Bachupally

  • Grades 2-10 will continue to benefit from the Artificial Intelligence program delivered by a company called Century Tech. The material of Century tech is mapped exclusively with the curricular expectations of the Primary Years Program, Cambridge program, and National syllabus. The work is geared to the ability of each child and sets suitably challenging tasks to extend their learning with detailed personal feedback. It also provides detailed information for teachers so that any gaps can be identified and help provided.

  • The GL assessment called CAT 4 will also be given to certain year groups so that targets can be set individually. The acronym stands for Cognitive Ability Testing and these online visual tests are designed to measure verbal, number, problem-solving, and spatial abilities. Older students, help to indicate potential exam grades. The report you will receive will give you a detailed indication of your child’s abilities and preferred learning style and inform teachers of the most effective teaching style for each child.

  • Callido learning is a structured, measured and intentional approach to critical thinking, research, problem-solving, and writing skills. Our students will continue to participate and work out the tasks judiciously this year as well.

Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI)

EDI as a new initiative has become a part of our walk and talk on campus. Our student-led initiatives on the various themes across the year have helped our learners, facilitators, parents and other stakeholders realize and put in a conscious effort to practice the same. Inclusion is in practice. Awareness through various activities successfully changes the mindset and carries the same message back home and into society. Parents have gotten back to us with some wonderful feedback about the kind of sharing and belief they have witnessed among the learners.

Some actions are taken:

  • We no longer name our Prefect council as head boy/head girl. They are referred to as one group – prefect council members.

  • Our little ones believe that color is not gendered biased which they have conveyed through little incidents.

  • Learners have been involved in doing some philanthropic activities involving the domestic staff of the school to spread joy and happiness.

  • Understanding strengths and weaknesses based on the theme – of gender equality helped us in achieving a healthy environment in the classroom.

 Our upcoming themes for the academic year 2022-23 are :

  • Challenges to understanding cultural diversity and sharing to strike equality.

  • Understanding Neurodiversity -Everyone is unique.

  • Economic Equality- Learners will be involved in projects to be vocal for locals.

I would like to appreciate the entire team of Bachupally for their support and participation in paving our way through this journey to mold our learners into valuable human resources.

July Sweep-stakes

French students of Grades 3-5 of the Primary Year program enjoyed watching French movies on the big screen in MPH. They had a fun time watching movies with their friends and listening to French conversations. Students tried relating and identifying the vocabulary they learned in their sessions. Also, to inculcate the habit of reading our young PYP learners enjoyed – A blind date with a book. Students exchanged their favorite books with each other based on a clue exclusively mentioned on the cover page.

Cambridge Primary hosted a guest lecture by Ms. Arpita Mallick, GOONJ, a Community Service Organisation Representative. She joined our little environmentalists to share and encourage them to think about how their little ideas can serve society for a better future as a part of Community Service and EDI. Our kids went to GOONJ Centre to give away the stationery collected from the event “Khushiyon Ka Recycle”. Weekly assemblies advocated various themes to ignite young minds into positive actions.  

IBDP Theory of Knowledge is a challenging critical thinking course centered around the question How do we know what we claim to know? As part of the course, DP students have to conduct an exhibition based on the selected IA prompt/Knowledge question like “What role do experts play in influencing our consumption or acquisition of knowledge?” Our learners have selected various knowledge questions and linked them to real-world/virtual objects. They have developed thinking and research skills and open-mindedness.  

An exciting, exclusive Sports quiz organized by the Sports department, OISB called ‘Khel Gyan’ brought novel thinking to the minds of our students. What they would have implemented on the field in a physical setting is brought about as an oral knowledge manifestation off ground. Students participated enthusiastically and enjoyed the rewards. It also provided an opportunity for students to explore their games and sports knowledge and compete at different levels to achieve success. The quiz questions were spread across 20-25 games, sporting competitions, and awards related to sports. Students across grades 6-12 participated in the exciting and challenging rounds. Passing through stiff competitions only twelve students emerged as winners. This kind of competition not only adds curiosity but helps students explore and expand their knowledge of various sports and games.

Service As Action (SAA)

‘Clean Oakridge campaign’  by CAIE grade 10 At the start of the academic year, grade 10 students developed a creative campaign to encourage students in the CAIE segment (grades 6 through 10) to keep their classrooms clean and hygienic. Students focus on SDG-Goal 3, and the program is pushed by friendly rivalry for cleanliness across sections within each grade.

UNICEF High-Level Political Forum-Ms.Neha Kalagudi and Isha Matta, our UNICEF student ambassadors took part in this year’s NAE-UNICEF Student Summit – a vital part of our collaboration with UNICEF – student ambassadors from our family of schools joined a virtual event from 11th to 15th July where they worked together to further the Sustainable Development Goals through the concept of “Activism”, joined discussions at the High-level Political Forum, and took part in high-impact workshops led by notable experts.

Van Mahotsava Cambridge Primary and CBSE-Life is full of change, but things only change for the better if you do. We are required to swear an oath to change the earth for the sake of the generations to come. In light of this, Van Mahotsava was enthusiastically observed across the school. Our youngest students from grades 1 and 2 at Cambridge Primary took part in the creation of posters to promote the preservation of trees. They also recycled old bottles by planting saplings. They vowed to act as proactive ambassadors who take the initiative to practice sustainable living through SDGs. On July 29, our environmental activists from CBSE Grade 7 traveled to Sakhi Cheruvu, Patancheru, to scatter and sow seed balls they made on the campus and planted saplings to create a greener area as many species of wildlife depend on trees for habitat.

Zero waste challenge “Food for Friends, Friends for Food” IB PYP Grade 2-5-The voices of a fresh wave of change were raised by our fifth-grade students. They actively promoted the idea of decreasing food waste throughout the segment, spoke with the Sodexo manager about the process and management of food waste, and actively promoted the idea by displaying posters in the lunch hall. 

August Buzz

The most awaited student council ‘Investiture Ceremony’ is scheduled for August 12, 2022, where our young office bearers will take charge of their responsibilities. A talent hunt competition Radiant Rhapsody is also scheduled on 23 August 2022. It’s a platform where students get an opportunity to showcase their creativity & innate talent in Performing Arts also and witness the fabulous performances of their competitors from different schools. 

The IC3 (International Career & College Counseling) Movement is a global effort to establish career and college counseling in every school so that young people can make informed decisions on higher education and lead happy productive lives. As an IC3 Host School, Oakridge International School Bachupally is delighted to conduct the IC3 Fair & Symposium event, organized by the IC3 Movement, on 26 August 2022 from 1:00 pm-3:30 pm IST.  Distinguished universities from across the world will attend IC3 Fair and Symposium. Held in person, it will enable you to have 1:1 interactions with representatives, learn about university programs and admission requirements, and get an insight into the university campus, infrastructure, and culture. We invite parents to be part of it as well.

As we embark on August, our minds move to the Red Fort where the tricolor was first hoisted on our first Independence Day. After 75 years of experiencing Independent India, the culture, tradition, and heritage is our pride. As we celebrate the 76th Independence Day, let’s take an oath that we will not only build our children as educated individuals but also soldiers for the country who will keep the flag of our country, India flying high.

It’s an ongoing achievement trend and it will never end. Our children will keep adding more and more feathers to their caps. We assure you of our constant mentoring and monitoring and the creation of opportunities for students to reach greater heights. Have a great month and will be back with many more achievements in time to come!!

 

Regards 

Ms. Baljeet Oberoi 

Principal