Dear prospective parents
Over the last twenty-five years, I have had the good fortune to work with extraordinary personalities and thousands of exceptional students and their parents in different schools. In the last two years at Klorofeel School, I lead the creation of a learning environment filled with joy – for children and teachers alike. Children have fun while they learn – and look forward to school. Teachers learn as they teach.
While there are many similarities among these schools, there are a few striking differences about the essential business of teaching, learning and parenting.
Many ways to learn
Learning is delivered through multiple channels – and not just the classroom. In our school, teachers often take their classes outside – in open and attractive spaces in our campus. Students are constantly watching and absorbing and learning – they are naturally most influenced by the world they see around them every day.
Our teachers engage the students with our Drama teacher so that the learning outcomes can be imbibed through theatre – and the children
love it too. Teachers generate innovative and thought-provoking activities, when they plan their lessons. Teachers need to nurture students who love to learn, and the way to do this is to raise children who are curious and conscientious.
Games has been an incessant favourite of our teachers while imparting their lessons.
We have tied up with Walnut Knowledge Systems at Bangalore, India’s leading team on academic quizzing to teach Social Science and Science through quizzing. Senior students learn a lot during the educational trips, field visits and take part in various competitions in and around school.
Regularly evaluating learning outcomes, willingness to tune our methods
There are schools with lofty ideals and we too have – we take the pride that our Klorofeel School meticulously looks at learning outcomes as well. This leads to re-looking at our learning principles and pedagogy, specially at critical moments.
- When some student shows unacceptable behaviour towards their classmates, teachers or the school, educating the student with firmness is prioritized.
- Not giving homework was one of our goals, we believe the child must not be tied down with studies while at home – instead can usefully spend the time playing, or conversing with family members and reading books. However, when the child spends time with mobile, we have to re-look at our principle of not giving homework.
- On parents’ suggestion, we reduced the extra hour at the school, while we continue the process of explore how to enrich our engagement with students.
- We began last summer, and continued right through the academic year with special enrichment classes to meet the distinct needs of students, e.g. we had Advanced Mathematics classes for students to motivate students towards mathematics, special Odia classes for non-Odia students, in tune with our objective of providing relevant support for children’s learning needs. We have noticed that regular attendance at the special classes has definite correlation with their academic improvement.
We had frequent discussions with parents on the excessive use of Mobile by the young minds and it is one of the challenges testing our children’s learning motivation. We have been trying to supplement it with reading and working on assigned projects at home. We believe putting pen on paper crystallizes thinking and cements learning. Writing, an act of reflection, is a way to organize our thoughts. Students are given regular writing exercises by our teachers.
Engagement with Parents
I have served in many schools – and I believe Klorofeel School is a school of its kind that has regular engagement with parents. Conversations with parents help us
understand their anxieties, also the child’s interests and their learning needs. We honour the parent’s viewpoint and have been open in changing our school uniform, too. We explain to parents regarding the payment of fees on time, regular conversations on their day in the school, demonstrate their commitment to their child’s future. We counsel the parents about their ward’s undesired behaviour with teachers or use of bad language and invite the parents for a discussion when necessary. When you as a parent set a good example, the work of the school becomes easier. It is home rather than school that has the greatest effect on student’s learning and success.
Learning with Klorofeel School
At Klorofeel School, your child will learn to think, analyze, question, reason for themselves. They will learn to learn, rather than memorize. We do not want our children to be limited to textbooks and active encouragement to read is one of the defining attributes of our school.
Anxieties over the short term
Since we encourage the student to think on their own, ask questions, explore and learn – we value open ended questions that encourage building such capabilities. We do not limit ourselves to known questions in the exams, nor do we provide known answers. Students are encouraged to think and write their own answers. This indeed is more difficult than memorizing the right answers and translate to lesser marks in the answer sheet.
Life’s tests do not have a fixed syllabus – memorizing answers from the textbook will not help them survive in the world of 2050 – let alone excel.
We understand the need for scoring well in Board Exams, and it will be a focus from Class 9 onwards. That should not be difficult as the students are learning to navigate through more difficult terrain prior to it.
CBSE compliant and rules compliant
We want to assure you that Klorofeel School is compliant with all the laws of the land, and also CBSE. We have the achievement of getting accreditation till Class 12 from the CBSE in the very first year of physical schooling. This is no commonplace achievement, and such endorsement from formal quarters should assure you that we are tuned with market realities, even as we are nurturing a joyful learning that promotes thinking, questioning and exploring.
Parents and Teachers as one Community
We see parents as natural teachers of the child, and we parents and teachers must come together for the benefit of the child. Klorofeel School invites you to participate, together with us, in carving the future of our child.
Sangeeta Rani Jammula
Principal