INTRODUCTION
Good Evening ladies and gentlemen. It’s my pleasure to extend a cheerful welcome to you all, on Springdays School’s first Annual day. I also welcome the Chief Guest of the day Dr. Venkatesh, Professor Spinal Disorders Surgery, Department of Orthopaedics CMC, for sparing time to be here with us on this special day of our students. Here is the Annual Report of the first academic year 2017-18 of Springdays.
OPENING OF THE SCHOOL AND ITS INFRA STRUCTURE
While the Spring was unfolding its wings, encompassing the bright colours of nature, the Springdays School was launched with a vision to educate and shape the minds of the young generation of Indians, matching to the International standards.
The location of the school, away from the city and industrial areas is the first advantage the school has, of an un-polluted environment.
The school building has been carefully designed, taking care of space, ventilation and natural flow of air & sunlight into the classrooms. Roof gardening has been planned to keep the rooms on the top floor cool and pleasant even in peak summer times. An auditorium to accommodate 400 audience has been constructed.
The school houses well-laid-out play fields for football, cricket, basketball, tennis courts and a 200 mt running track.
Blooming flowers round the year is a haven for the little Vellorians, who otherwise miss such a sight, while growing up. The colourful atmosphere attracts the colourful butterflies into our school.
A fleet of buses takes care of the transport of the children. To my delight and to the delight of students, travelling to and fro to school is a matter of joy and sight seeing every morning and evening. Through Smart Bus Tracker facility the speed of the buses are efficiently controlled for the safe travel of the children.
Healthy, balanced and nutritious snack and meals are made available to the students & staff and other members of Springdays. Filtered drinking water is available to all in the campus.
Springdays school began the journey of education by invoking the blessings of the lord, performing a Homam for the sanctity of the place with near and dear ones as a part of the occasion on 30th May.
On 31st May, an orientation programme, with Mr.Brian Caso as the resource person was organised for the teachers of the Springdays School and also they got to know each other before the academic year 2017-18 began.
The school opened its first academic session on June 8th for the first batch of 6th, 7th and 8th graders. After a short interaction with parents and students, the students were lead to their classes and had interaction with teachers and with each other.
On 14th of June, Std. 1 to 5 the Junior School children were welcomed to be a part of bigger Springdays family. Teachers and students assumed their duties respectively with complete focus and dedication.
On 16th of June our Kindergarten, Gandhinagar branch was commenced with a festive mood. Toddlers accompanying their parents walked into their classrooms.
19th June – Kindergarten, Main branch had the pleasure of its toddlers joining school, from their loving mothers care to our loving teachers care.
School started functioning full fledged with full strength of 512 students and with complete determination to achieve its set goals.
Days, weeks and months have passed and we have come to the end of this academic year 2017-18. The year has been eventful with various and varied activities.
ACTIVITIES OF THE SCHOOL
Ramzan celebration was the first activity of the academic year in which the students and teachers took equal initiative to make it a befitting event to be called the first celebration of the Springdays school. This was followed by Investiture ceremony in a small formal way, giving the students an opportunity to develop team spirit and leadership qualities. The other celebrations of the year were Diwali, Chirstmas and Pongal celebrations. Each celebration was well participated and done in a grand way. These activities bring out the hidden talents of the children, as well as an openness to know and understand other religions, other than, they come from.
On Pongal celebration, children had the pleasure of a skit, dance and songs on Pongal festival. For the first time all the children from LKG to 8th graders occupied the gallery section of the school. It was a perfect festive mood Sun God was welcomed and Pongal was prepared on stage. Pongal lunch was served to a few near the stage to mark the occasion.
Picnic trips for all the classes were organised in the month of July and August. A time for fun, and to learn, while out of regular classroom environment. Classes 1 to 3 visited the Virinchipuram temple while classes 4 to 8 made a trip to Green thunder.
On 4th of August an educational programme on Fire awareness, was conducted by Tamil Nadu, Fire and Rescue services of Vellore.
The month of November was very eventful for we had Children’s day as well as Sports day celebrations. Sports day was held on 03.11.17. The Chief guest of the day was Dr.Vinayak Shukla, Professor and Head UNIT II, of Cardio Thoracic Surgery, CMC, Vellore. It was in no way as if the school was performing for the first time. All the demonstrations and the athletic meet was an extravagance show of talent and spirit, performed with great gusto. The efforts by the teachers, students and the management is praise worthy.
On 14th of November Children’s day, the teachers had a mesmerizing performance lined up for their dear children with dance, drama and foot tapping music.
The most exciting and colourful event of the year was Jamboree 2018 held on 2nd of February. The bashful presentation by toddlers and older children was mind boggling and of course you all have been a witness to it.
On 16th February, Students of Std VIII visited an archaeological exhibition in Town Hall Vellore, Organised by Department of Archaeology, Govt of Tamil Nadu. They had an opportunity to see and know the coins, Indian & ancient antique pieces stamps, currency notes of bygone era. The coin collection, on British era displayed, were from personal coin collections of our Correspondent Mr. Rajendran.
Our Students attended two Luminary Lecture Series, organized by Christian Medical College, Vellore, on the occasion of their Centenary Medical Education.
The first luminary lecture was held on 28th February at the Scudder Auditorium. The invited guest was Shri Bezwada and convener, Safai Karam Chari Andolan.
The second Luminary Lecture was on the 4th of April and the invited guests were Padma Shre M. Romulus Whitakar popularly known as Snake Man of India, who is also the Founder of Madras Snake Park and Ms. Janaki Lenin, writer and wild life film maker and conservator.
Both lectures were attended by our students, who took part eagerly in the question hour of the lectures. The questions were thought provoking and well appreciated by the speakers and the audience for having raised by them. The students were happy for the exposure they received.
Springdays Spree initially planned to be organized on Children’s Day had to be postponed to 17th of February due to space constraints. But it was worth the wait, for the children enjoyed themselves eating, dancing and being among their friends, moving up and down around the school with ease. The day had come to a close with raffle ticket draw, which the children were looking forward to. Lots of prizes were given away, with LKG A student Vihan Prajeet M Reddy winning the 1st prize – The Refrigerator.
On April 11th we had the Annual day for the Kindergarteners.
Springdays Summer Bustle was the other exciting activity organized for the students after the Annual exam. Whole number of new activities ranging from-Journalism, Zumba class, Fashion designing, Movie shows, Art and craft, Fun games, poetry writing, Lego, Computer Science, hands on snack making are few to name. To beat the heat, the School was the right place to be in and enjoy the scenic school atmosphere and get an experience of various activities. Journalism was the hot spot where the children, interacted and interviewed the professionals, called in, to give special coaching in various activities. Well parents, you could have a glimpse of our prodigy journalist at our website and face book page.
IHA – INTER HOUSE ACTIVITIES
The most wanted and most competitive activity of the school is IHA. A platform to showcase the inherited talent and the talent acquired. Be it Junior or Senior school, each weeks event is carefully planned and executed by Teachers, House Mothers and students alike, the only choice left is to participate and win. Winning and losing, teaches one to accept defeat and victory with the same grace and fervor. Development of this character is very essential to match the needs of the life.
MASTERJEE
Masterjee our associate institute & the coaching center for IIT-JEE, NEET and all other competitive exams started classes for the students of class 7 & 8 on August 9th with an objective to acquaint the students with the in-depth knowledge of the science subjects, so necessary for the competitive exams that students have to face to mould their careers.
LEGO AND ROBOTICS LAB & VIRTUAL REALITY PROGRAM
As we know, the technological advances in the world are changing every industry. The challenges and jobs for our children in future are going to be drastically different from the challenges and jobs that we have today. Understanding this and to prepare children for the future, we constantly look at implementing new ideas that can enhance the child’s learning to prepare them for the future. In that endeavour, our co curriculum director Mrs. Ramya Shivakumar has introduced 2 new co curricular activities this year, which is going on successfully. They are the Lego & Robotics Lab and the Virtual Reality Immersive Program.
Our Lego and Robotics Innovation Lab is one of the first in a school to have a complete range of Lego products not only for robotics but also for basics of building critical thinking. Lego and robotics LAB is a group based and group paced learning program that helps children to learn science in a hands on way and also helps to develop problem solving and creativism that are the corner stones for any career of the future. Children thoroughly enjoy the Lego and robotics LAB!
Virtual Reality is one of the latest technological advances that we are using in Springdays. We are in fact one of the few schools in India using Virtual Reality for educating children. It gives a child a very immersive experience that a smart class room or videos cannot give. It kindles the curiosity in the child opening then for more learning. This program also has very good response from the children.
We are happy to announce that we are also starting to teach our children Design thinking and Creativity as a part of the curriculum from next academic year. This will be done by experts from the field. As automation takes over the jobs of the future, skills likes design thinking and creativity will differentiate our children from the rest of the schools.
From next year we are also starting to look at more performing and visual arts to be conducted at Springdays as part of extra curricular activities. Specifically, for next year, we are looking to do theatre training for children and develop their story telling and acting skills.
COMPETITIONS AND ACHIEVEMENTS – OUT SIDE SCHOOL
In the very first year of inception, Springdays students had the opportunity to participate in a number events conducted by other institutes. Our students participated in Maths Bee, Spell Bee and Painting bee of the VIT Cultural Festival held on 10th and 11th February.
Riya V of 5B secured the first position in paint bee while Jayshree.J of 5A secured the third place.
Shrishti Venkataraman of 5B stood first in Spell Bee competition.
Kowshik of V-A got second prize in the district level painting Competition Varnajalam held by suryan FM 93.9., in which around 700 students participated.
To assess the higher order-thinking and problem-solving skills of our students we conducted ICAS an International Olympiad by Macmillan in English, Maths, Science and Digital technology. We are proud to announce that Vishal of Std II got a high distinction in English & Pranuj Bhavtik , Manisha, Jennica Felicia Antola, Hana Maryam, Divya Shri, Aarushi, Reshika & Sanjay Krishna of Std II got distinctions in English. Aadhavan kannadasan of Std III got distinction in Science & digital technology & Divya Sharad Balaji got distinction in English & digital technology.
In the International Spell bee competition 5 students are the medal winners in the State level competition. They are Siddharth V. Kumawat of Std III, Shrishti Venkatraman of Std V, Aditi. S of Std VII, Nitya Anu Shree & Sai Sanjana of Std VIII. Together with these children 31, children have been selected to the International level competition.
Nalin. K of class 5B passed the Keyboard initial exam held by Trinity College of London on 5th December, with distinction.
Masterjee conducted a district level talent search exam in which around 1000 students participated from each standard from different schools of Vellore District in which Shrishti Venkatram of Std V, Elam Barathi of Std VI & Heshma of Std VIII got within the first 5 Ranks.
SPORTS
Students participated in various sports events organized by D.P Sports Academy, and won a number of prizes.
Students of class 7 & 8 participated in Basket ball championship for U12 and scored third position.
In Table Tennis – under-12 V.Manan of class 6 B was the runner up.
In under 8 category – Kadam of class II B was the winner in Kumfu championship.
In the game of chess V.Manan of 6 B and G.Kadam of 2 B secured 8th and 6th place respectively.
In Badminton, under – 13 category – Jonathan.G of class 8 A was the winner in singles championship.
TEACHER’S PROGRAMME
Continuous effort is made by the management to help the teachers broaden their sphere by organising orientation programmes. So far the school has organised 5 orientation programmes within school and teachers attended 4 orientation programmes conducted by other schools. On 19th and 20th of August Kanishik and Anasuya of STILLWATERS, from Bombay had conducted a programme on “KNOW YOURSELF”, which was highly appreciated by the teachers.
24th August was celebrated as Teacher’s Day. It was a grand success for the show put up by the middle school children was an astounding one. Later teachers were given a Royal treat at Rangalaya Royal absolutely managed and organised by co-curriculum director- Mrs. Ramya. Ramya made sure every teacher felt special. She had flowers and a photo shoot for all.
ACADEMICS
The academic performance of the school is well established by the achievements of the students in their respective classes. They shall receive their proficiency certificates and honoured for their outstanding performance today.
TO SUM UP I am sure you will agree with me, that by being part of our school, you will see, a sea change in your child.
With a new block coming up for class 9 to 12, in the following academic year, with equally good & planned facilities, be assured the budding Springdays school of today shall be a leading school in the coming years. The trust that you have laid on us, shall be upheld and respected. The school management is making all efforts to ensure that the standard of education imparted to students is of international level, leading to their bright future. Looking forward to you parents, for your continuous support in our endeavours.
Thank you.