Secondary Coffee Morning 27 September 2018

Last week, on 27th September was the Coffee Morning at the ARIS Secondary Campus! The Coffee Morning is organized each term to inform parents about our Mission & Vision, Achievements of the previous Academic Year and/or term, Programmes, Curriculum, Activities and our Objectives and Goals going forth.

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people together to collect wood and don’t assign them to tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery. As a community, we are characterized by our Responsibility and Respect; our Passion and Professionalism; our Collaboration and Communication; and our Reflection and Action.

We work towards each of these attributes with all of the efforts that we put in our diverse group of students as well as staff!

At ARIS, our approach is that our Curriculum, Classroom Practice, Assessment, Co-curricular Activity and Admissions is in line with our Core Purpose. “We are a Diverse Community of Learners seeking to Inspire, Empower and Transform for a Better World.”

According to ARIS, Education must allow children to make good decisions for themselves and the community. Education must inspire, empower as well as transform. It must instill the Responsibility in children to understand that they have the Power of Change. What is integral is the skill development of our students to be better prepared for the world.

Our Head of Secondary School, Madam Alpana Mukherjee, started her presentation by highlighting our Student Achievements and Participation in Co-curricular Activities over the last Academic Year. We have had our students go on a CAS Trip to Germany, an MUN Trip to Amsterdam, an Eagles Coderz Trip to Estonia; we have also had students be of service to the Local Community as they went to New Horizons School for Service Learning and also the Kanda Community. Our students have also participated at the MISE Foundation Math Olympiad and represented Ghana at the Math Olympiad in Romania. Our students have participated in other avenues such as the ISSAG Sports, School Annual Play and the Career Fair, Science Fair and Art Exhibition.

This year so far, two of our students have also taken part in the Confucius Institute Annual Trip to China, and have also organized a student-led fundraiser to donate School Bags at Madina International School Community.

This Coffee Morning took on the approach of highlighting our various Areas of Focus and finding our Way Forward. The areas of focus discussed included Student Motivation, Increased Collaboration, Assessment Data, Use of Assessment Data, Time Management, Extended Essay & Theory of Knowledge, Internal Assessments, Effective Collaborative Planning and much more. The Ways Forward were also talked about which included ongoing attention on Personalized Learning and Differentiated Instruction, a Attitudinal Satisfaction Suvery, ARISVersity, Parenting Talks, Open House, Protocols on Students’ Learning and Experience, Timely Feedbacks and Deadline Calendars, Performance Analysis , Subject Tutorials, Interactive Resources and much more.

ARIS, for this Academic Year has also looked at its Areas of Investments based on needs. These again include Digital Learning and Blended Learning, Digital Citizenship, IBMYP Authorization and IBCP, IT Pedagogy, Co-curricular Activities, Design Tech, Science Labs, Library and Media Center Bandwidth. Thus, ARIS will be investing its time and resources on Faculty Training, IT Department Training and Access to Resources, Ongoing Authorization for MYP and CP Coordinator Training, Designs and Robotics Lab and other aspects as well.

To better provide our students with the best quality of resources, instruction, strategies and overall education, ARIS Faculty has constantly undergone Staff Training and Participation. This Academic Year, a couple of trainings that our Staff have or will be taking part in include – In-school Trainings, SEN Training, AISA Educator Digital Citizenship Training, Face2Face Differentiated Learning Training, PTC Training and IB Regional Conference. We are Life-long Learners constantly seeking to improve.

As we took a big ICT leap this year with each student having a Samsung Tab, ARIS has also integrated ICT in various other domains. Along with the Tablet Programme, we have Managebac for students’ assignments and work, SeeSaw for parents to monitor and witness their children’s learning journey, ARIS Newsletters, OPEC Library Resources and a very recent Weekly Soundcloud Podcasts as well.

Our Head of School and Director emphasized that as we introduce new avenues and resources for teaching and learning, we are constantly learning and seeking feedback. Our students are the future, and thus must be in an Education system that integrates ICT as much as possible into Classrooms to learn Strategies, Concepts and Contexts. We are still in a transitioning period.

Through ICT Integration and various other resources like iSAM and a trained Support Department, the focus is on the Learner and personalized learning for every student. Thus the differentiated instruction to each student is as per the students’ way of retaining and internalizing information.

Drawing to the close, our Director and Head of School stayed to answer any other questions. They emphasized that we have set up a transparent system of communication so that parents can directly communicate to their children’s facilitators. Parents must also bridge with the school to be connected with their children’s learning.

ARIS Community, after all, is a family. Here’s to another fruitful Academic Year ahead!