Foundation Stage (Nursery to class II)

The first five year of the school life which comprises 3 years of preprimary and two years of primary ideally consists of Flexible, Multifaceted, Multilevel, Play-based, Activity-based and discovery-bases learning.

 

Preporatory Stage (Class III to Class V)

Enquiry, reflection and creativity expression are encouraged through the curriculum as well as through projects, field trips, nature walks, drama, story telling and writing.

 

Middle Stage (Class VI to Class VIII)

Aims at transforming the Oedagogy from the existing system to a more experiential learning in the sciences, Mathematics, arts, social sciences and humanities. Children are encouraged to participate in dialogue to understand the whole process of growing up even as they begin to mature in their social and communication skills.

Secondary Stage (Class IX to CLass XII)

This stage include a multidisciplinary study where students would be able to pick and choose any set of subjects from the available structure. the focus would be on grater critical thinking and flexibility, allowing the children to pick subjects as per the intrests - even technical and arts.

1. STRESS ON MASTERING LANGUAGES

(a)  English

Right from the lower classes up to 10th class at Aravinda, we try to impart to the student a feeling of the language. In this sense, we do not separate language from literature. Language is the core of education seen this way. If a student disable to read any kind of matter and be able to dissect it critically, then he will be able to take from it whatever worth there is in it. 

He discovers various types of literary samples – fiction, non-fiction, dramas even songs.

This is the most important skill that a child needs to do well in life. All great leaders are great readers too. We are completely opposed to the neglect of language learning in modern schooling.

On the contrary we place language at the centre of our education.

English is foreign language and also widely used. This place is a tremendous responsibility on us to impart a real appreciation and mastery of the English language.

For this we do the following.

1. Teachers are trained thoroughly by expert resource persons to gain mastery in English themselves. English learning for teachers is a continuous process. This is carried out by English improvement programs for teachers. They are given training in proper intonation, appreciation of great literatures, absorbing advanced vocabulary, writing skills and in depth knowledge in Grammar. This is carried out for all teachers so that a real English environment is created in the school.
2. Detailed lesson plans are created by teachers with the guidance of experts. This DLP contains the following…
   1. Example sentences for all new words.
   2. Role plays for all new words for easy absorptions. 
   3. Story containing all the new words.
   4. Activities to impart Grammar points.
   5. Extra reading material taken from great literature.
3. To develop writing skills in students, every week we give writing assignments.
4. A set of prescribed songs are taught right from the lower classes to the higher classes.
5. In the lower classes the phonic system is implemented perfectly for excellent reading skills.
6. Library classes in the school itself are carried out by a professional teacher.
7. We have a four prescribed books and methodology for developing spoken English skills and it is 4 year program and 2 classes every week are allotted for it. The students go through a process of thorough correction and develop fluency and a nice style.

Due to the above every Aravinda student gains a good knowledge of English no matter what background he comes from. Everybody speaks in the school which helps create the right environment for Spoken English skills.

 

(b)  Telugu & Hindi

As telugu is our Mother tongue, our school has taken a challenge in promoting this marvelous language among all the students from class I to X. Listening to good literature, Reading various books and Writing is a part of Telugu class for all Aravindans. Great Telugu literature is introduced to children. Good Dramas are being performed. Students are always encouraged to write poetry and stories. Poems, chantings the songs, story narrations and all sort of language games are part of our Telugu curriculum.

 

Reading Programme

Days are gone by where the beloved grandmas used to tell the wonderful stories at bedtime. The school felt the great need of improving the taste of reading among the students and teachers. Thousands of English and Telugu books are brought and students are encouraged to read in the school and at home.

1. The world great children classics like Alice in wonderland, Cindrella, Hansel and Gretel, Snow white, Sleeping Beauty and many more are dramatized by students.

2. Every class room is equipped with ‘Reading Bag’ from which child can read a book in his/her leisure. Students write reviews, discuss, make dialogues and enact.

 

2. FOCUS ON CORE CONCEPTS IN THE PHYSICAL & NATURAL SCIENCES

The physical & natural sciences are a real power. To understand the core concepts in the sciences is no small thing. It gives a real understanding of over modern technological world and paves the way to apply it in one’s life in a powerful way in the future.

The sciences – physics, chemistry and biology are a result of centuries of deep thinking by the great scientists and inventors. It is a rare thing to have a conceptual understanding of the core concepts in physics, chemistry and biology. This is the real problem in scientific education. 

The child is not wonderstruck, awakened and excited.

At Aravinda, we take care that the child understand each and every concept truly and thus gains a confidence with respect to the world.

This process is started early and continued throughout his life in the school. From the lower classes to the 10th class, we do not present science as a thing that they cannot understand.

On the contrary, we give him real understanding. The child is filled with questions. It is natural for him to ask deep and real question.

Why is there life only on Earth? 

How do stars form & die? 

Why do objects float in space?

How were the oceans formed? 

What is really light?

What is the secret behind the working of a motor?

What is really magnetism?

What is atomic structure? 

What were the steps by which it was discovered?

What is the theory of evolution?

How is it that millions of species have populated the earth?

How did life begin?

Countless questions come to the child’s mind…

At Aravinda, we do not compromise and give partial understanding. We reveal the secrets! And the child is grounded and fulfilled because his curiosity is satisfied and he gets the proper foundation to excel in life.

Everybody learn the concepts in our school. There is no division between the so called intelligent and dull students.

For those with a specialized interest in a technological career, we have the space programme founded by Chukka Ramaiah. (How we implement the spaes programme )

 

3. FOCUS ON CORE CONCEPTS IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

Social sciences give the child a perspective on the world. A real understanding of History, Politics, Geography and Economics leads to a Vision of the world, a holistic sweep, a deep understanding of man and his role in the world of today.

All top leaders have primarily an excellent Social, global understanding of the world. This is usually neglected but knowing its supreme importance, Aravinda places the highest importance to develop a vision of the world in the minds of students.

There are core concepts in the social sciences – in History, Geography, Politics and Economics with a real grasp of there concepts a child can make sense of the world and can develop a vision. 

In life, when he has to take leadership rules, this vision stays with him and helps and inspires him to make a difference.

What are the powerful currents and themes in history? What were the roots of the great revolution? Why is the world what it is?

What is the root cause of recession? What are the many problems that the world faces today? What is the road to the solutions?

What is the cause of creation of wealth? What were the turning points in the story of mankind that brought us to this day?

Countless questions are answered when we study the social sciences and it truly enlightens us.

At Aravinda, we take great care not to miss out on any of the core concepts.

Also, regular projects are a norm in our school. This helps in communicating our understanding to others and develops research and reading and presentation skills too.

Almost every fortnight students are busy with some project or the other.

 

4. THE TEACHING OF MATHEMATICS

(a)  Mathematics in the lower classes

Maths in the lower classes at once an easy subject and a difficult subject. It is easy because it’s operations are simple and each of the operation demands a logical understanding.

It is difficult if you teach mathematics in a mechanical way. It leads to a basic doubt, unreality, phobia w.r.t the subject of Mathematics.

What one must do is to link Maths to real life. Only giving the so called ‘word problems’ is not enough. It is a continuous process of showing the student the power and use of Mathematics in an almost infinite number of real life situations. Mathematical operations are needed every where! That is what the child needs to do.

Starting from teaching the numbers and order to the most difficult operations, the child must see an operation as a solution to something that comes in real life.

Then he sees the logic! It makes sense! The learning is simple, natural and absorbing and there is no room for doubts, phobia, difficulties.

At Aravinda, at every step and with every concept and operation, we give the student a host of real life application. We give this for home work practice and also carry out many activities in the class that makes the child think on his own and not fall in to the easy trap of doing operations mechanically.

 

(b)  Mathematics in the higher classes

The same process is continued in the higher classes but by the time he comes here, the student gets the ability to think generally, i.e., abstractly.

Here too the real life link is kept intact and Physics is used in a major way to connect Maths to real life. A lot of Physics is at root Maths.

Lots of problems are done in the class for natural absorption and high academic performance.

Mathematics

Abacus is the ancient device for the purpose of calculations. Doing all the mathematical operation from additions to devisions becomes easier with the help of this tool. Every bead of the abacus is assigned a particular value and it is relatively easy those values and keep performing calculations on the device. With the collaboration of Alama international Abacus Hyderabad based organization, all our teachers teaching Mathematics for primary are trained in Teaching Abacus to children. Every year our students secure good awards at the National level competition. 

 

5. ACADEMIC PERFORMACE

Aravinda has consistently given very good results in public examinations. This was achieved not by rote memorization or putting the children under stress.

On the contrary, we believe that two things are needed to achieve a top score.

1. Good understanding of concepts
2. Excellent writing skills

That is why you will find that at Aravinda it is not just the toppers who do well but a large section of the students do well. This is illustrated in the graph below.

We also believe that children should have the skill to excel in the examinations as this would be a common form of the evaluation in later life.

An ability to get high marks shows attention to detail, presentation skills and writing an exam under stress. These are definitely wonderful skills to have.

So we neither support rote memorization nor support neglecting public examinations.