Life Skills

“Our infrastructure, curriculum and teacher training programmes are aimed at imparting life skills along with academic excellence.”

Life Skills Education in our school involves all the 4 basic components of Participatory learning :

1. Practical Activities

Round the year Inter House Competitions like elocutions, debates , plays , group discussions, song and dance competitions augment the creative, critical decision making and interpersonal skills of students.
Student council is formed which looks into matters like maintaining discipline, checks the late comers, uniforms, organize the cultural activities and Monthly Activities.
The students of classes IX and X campaigned with NDTV for the odd-even formula adopted by the Delhi government to raise their concern about the environment. Our association with TERI, RAJ RIFF , GOONJ , POSCO SESSIONS , BLIND SCHOOL and other organizations teach the Young leaders learn to set goals, plan and work accordingly, foresee problems and take care of them, develop resourcefulness and courage to tackle unforeseen situations, acquire communication skills, understand people and learn to get along with them, learn to be sensitive to other’ opinions and respect them.
Students of all classes initiate assemblies and examine various issues related to Interpersonal relations, personal issues, time management, dealing with stress etc. and voice their concerns and come up with suggestions.
Learning from outdoor experiences, interactions, exposure to various cultural, geographical ecosystems, appreciating the wonders of the earth are some of the prime objectives of the various field trips and excursions that children undertake during the year. The Junior School trips are often theme based, connecting to what they have in their curriculum . The visit to places like Gandhi Museum, Aero Club, MORE Hypermart , Pratapgarh Farms etc. build in a sense of community life and a feeling of belongingness to the place is inculcated in every child .
In order to assume responsibilities in various areas and activities to care for the place and the people, at the same time acquiring life skills, a sense of commitment and developing tremendous confidence in meeting with life situations the students of middle school are taken to off site visits (Shimla) for educational cum leadership building qualities.
The Editorial Board, with its members drawn from middle and Senior classes work with teachers and support on collection and editing of events and articles for the school e-newsletter building on the skills like creative thinking and decision making.
Creating opportunities for participation in a wide range of co-curricular activities, care is taken to ensure that students get equal and fair chances all through the year, by showcasing individual talents through performance days ,inter-class competitions. Various Formative Assessment exercises designed in school curriculum allow students to interact, collaborate, think out of the box and express uninhibitedly, thus contributing towards their holistic growth.
The School conducted various Life-skills Workshops, with group of students participating in each. These included the topics which affect them daily like the workshop on Good Touch and Bad Touch, Road Safety rules , Health and Hygiene and Cyber crime, Setting Boundaries, SET workshops.
From Class I onwards, monitors are selected (once again guided by the policy of maximum participation rather than minority elitism), each child is made incharge of different areas such as discipline, cleanliness, newspaper distribution etc
Organizing events like Book carnival, Annual Days, planning for events and creating draft for the activities which are the part of inter school or intra school competitions etc.

2. Feedback and Reflections

The students are provided with worksheets and activity sheets to ponder on and review their life skills.
Students maintain their portfolios and they learn to recognise their own strengths and weaknesses, to work successfully with others and become increasingly responsible for their own learning and decision making.
Pupils’ progress in Life Skills is assessed through questioning, observation and occasional marked work. Further evidence are obtained by observation of the child across the curriculum and a comment relating to a child’s attainment is made in the annual report to parents within the Pupil Profile.
Students who participate in class and inter house activities are marked as per the parameters based on life skills and their performance is acknowledged.

3. Consolidation and reinforcement

Core life skills competencies are included and key stakeholders are well addressed through the curriculum
Life skills and SUPW activities are part of time table schedule for the whole year.
Under the Health program individual data of each child is collected and updated regularly.
Mindspark, a computer based self-learning programme, is taken up for classes 6 onwards connect the power of new technologies to reinforce learning and helps the child improve his/her skills in Maths in order to enhance his problem-solving aptitude and logical reasoning.
The library is equipped with books which deal in the development of various life skills, both for teachers and students.
Lesson planning includes at least three life skills. Each lesson is associated with one or the other life skill and the activities are conducted in class.
Use of smart boards wherein videos and resources are provided to students for extending their life skills.

4. Practical application to day-to-day life challenges

Our school counsellors are trained in delivering Life Skills Education in classrooms apart from their regular counselling schedules which has helped not only in identifying students with psycho-social problems but also dealing with them through classroom interventions.
The school has a separate Counsellor’s Room for helping students discuss any issues they have. The school counsellor guides and, motivates them in the right positive direction. The Counsellor not only provides the students with career guidance but also takes care of their personal and social development.
A Committee of teachers is formed to look into matters of bullying and its redressal.