Nurture International
By Dr. Stella Pandhare, Principal
"Look, your cousin got 90 percent in the Maths. See, our neighbor's daughter stood first in the singing competition. Oh dear, you must learn something from them." These are the favorite 'motivation lines' for many parents and teachers. However, unknowingly these verbal statements do more harm than good. Dr. Stella Pandhare, Principal of Nurture International School (NIS), opines, "Young children, and in fact, no child or even adult, must ever be compared. Comparison with others lowers a child's self-esteem or feeds her ego. Both are undesirable."
At NIS, which is located in North Bangalore, kids are never compared with each other. Dr. Pandhare adds,"All children are capable of mastery, but children at a young age grow at different pace and should never be compared. Nurture schools are extremely clear on this objective. We urge our parents also to understand this important principle, as this will help their children grow up to be stronger, more confident individuals." NIS promises to render a self-learning environment to its students. The school is successfully run under the banner of Sunrise Educational trust with Mr. Narasimhan as Chairman, Mrs. Veena Shiva kumar as Secretary and Mr. Vivek as the Trustee.
"We comprehend that education's role is to help each child maximize its potential in a balanced setting that addresses the development of a child's inner and outer powers of body, mind, heart, and spirit. NIS was initiated with a clear vision of enabling each child to identify its own strength and blossom out with individualistic qualities," pinpoints Dr. Pandhare. NIS promotes a wonderful concept of 'Compete with yourself'.
This makes the students celebrate their individuality, creates an intrinsic motivation instead of producing frustration of matching with other's competencies. They are further enhanced with self-knowledge, self-reflection, and self-analysis through on-going personal diagnostic reports and daily reflection. The school makes it a point to personalize the education system, ensuring they understand everything that has been aimed to teach them. The curriculum is designed very minutely by a team of experts, which keeps a watch on imbibing current advancement of the education.
The growth of the future of the country is parallel to the quality of the present education system and the capabilities of the adult citizens of tomorrow will possess. And, the lives of this next-generation leader are shaped by the teachers in the school, as children today spend more time with their teacher than parents. "A school without a teacher is just like a body without the soul. Given this, we take the responsibility of selecting the best teachers for which we administer a rigorous process before recruiting them," says Dr. Pandhare. First, the shortlisted candidates are asked to attempt a written test followed by a demo class and group discussion before getting into the Nurture family.
Dr. Pandhare elaborates, "After recruiting them, we arrange an orientation training programme that assists them to mold their teaching methodology to suit individual child. All of them are Montessori trained by qualification and jeweled with gems such as caring, loving, patience, understanding, comforting besides a deep passion to nurture." While large classes lack the intimacy and amount of interaction with teachers, the school has adopted the small class size policy by maintaining a student-teacher ratio of 8:1. The teachers are encouraged to use approaches like flip classroom sessions, webinars, and PPTs to deliver knowledge.
NIS is scattered over 4000 sq. ft. amidst lush green land encompassing avant-grade facilities and safety measures. Well-equipped computer labs, science labs, Math lab, Language lab, Library, Basketball and Tennis court, Skating rink, Indoor sports room, Performing art and Visual art rooms are some of the facilities the school offers. "In next couple of years, we are planning to come up with a sports complex, which will house a swimming pool and indoor badminton court. We are also initiating IGCSE CIPP (Cambridge international Primary programme) in the academic year 2018-19 with a plan to grow to A-levels progressively," concludes Dr. Pandhare.
On the flipside, the role of the parents in this process is also undeniable. Considering this fact, NIS decided upon generating a space where all the stakeholders of the school including parents, teacher, and students could connect with each other. After thorough contemplation, the school came up with a new innovative social communication platform called LivingTree. Built on the latest web and mobile technologies and backed by a highly scalable cloud deployment, LivingTree's feature-rich Web 2.0 platform displaces all the other outdated tools. Dr. Pandhare proudly says, "The project has been able to bring all the members under one roof, engaged to foster a vibrant community with a true sense of togetherness."
Completed her graduation from Mount Carmel college, Dr. Stella Pandhare, the present principal at Nurture International School has attained MA in English literature from Manasagangothri and did her B.Ed in English and Social Science. She also holds Ph.D. degree along with a diploma in counseling from Banjara and a short course on life skills from NIMHANS. In 2014, she received an award at World Education Summit for being instrumental in creating a safe platform to bring the community closer.
"While large classes lack the intimacy and amount of interaction with teachers, NIS has adopted the small class size policy by maintaining a student-teacher ratio of 8:1"
At NIS, which is located in North Bangalore, kids are never compared with each other. Dr. Pandhare adds,"All children are capable of mastery, but children at a young age grow at different pace and should never be compared. Nurture schools are extremely clear on this objective. We urge our parents also to understand this important principle, as this will help their children grow up to be stronger, more confident individuals." NIS promises to render a self-learning environment to its students. The school is successfully run under the banner of Sunrise Educational trust with Mr. Narasimhan as Chairman, Mrs. Veena Shiva kumar as Secretary and Mr. Vivek as the Trustee.
"We comprehend that education's role is to help each child maximize its potential in a balanced setting that addresses the development of a child's inner and outer powers of body, mind, heart, and spirit. NIS was initiated with a clear vision of enabling each child to identify its own strength and blossom out with individualistic qualities," pinpoints Dr. Pandhare. NIS promotes a wonderful concept of 'Compete with yourself'.
This makes the students celebrate their individuality, creates an intrinsic motivation instead of producing frustration of matching with other's competencies. They are further enhanced with self-knowledge, self-reflection, and self-analysis through on-going personal diagnostic reports and daily reflection. The school makes it a point to personalize the education system, ensuring they understand everything that has been aimed to teach them. The curriculum is designed very minutely by a team of experts, which keeps a watch on imbibing current advancement of the education.
Addressing Parents Involvement
The growth of the future of the country is parallel to the quality of the present education system and the capabilities of the adult citizens of tomorrow will possess. And, the lives of this next-generation leader are shaped by the teachers in the school, as children today spend more time with their teacher than parents. "A school without a teacher is just like a body without the soul. Given this, we take the responsibility of selecting the best teachers for which we administer a rigorous process before recruiting them," says Dr. Pandhare. First, the shortlisted candidates are asked to attempt a written test followed by a demo class and group discussion before getting into the Nurture family.
Dr. Pandhare elaborates, "After recruiting them, we arrange an orientation training programme that assists them to mold their teaching methodology to suit individual child. All of them are Montessori trained by qualification and jeweled with gems such as caring, loving, patience, understanding, comforting besides a deep passion to nurture." While large classes lack the intimacy and amount of interaction with teachers, the school has adopted the small class size policy by maintaining a student-teacher ratio of 8:1. The teachers are encouraged to use approaches like flip classroom sessions, webinars, and PPTs to deliver knowledge.
NIS is scattered over 4000 sq. ft. amidst lush green land encompassing avant-grade facilities and safety measures. Well-equipped computer labs, science labs, Math lab, Language lab, Library, Basketball and Tennis court, Skating rink, Indoor sports room, Performing art and Visual art rooms are some of the facilities the school offers. "In next couple of years, we are planning to come up with a sports complex, which will house a swimming pool and indoor badminton court. We are also initiating IGCSE CIPP (Cambridge international Primary programme) in the academic year 2018-19 with a plan to grow to A-levels progressively," concludes Dr. Pandhare.
On the flipside, the role of the parents in this process is also undeniable. Considering this fact, NIS decided upon generating a space where all the stakeholders of the school including parents, teacher, and students could connect with each other. After thorough contemplation, the school came up with a new innovative social communication platform called LivingTree. Built on the latest web and mobile technologies and backed by a highly scalable cloud deployment, LivingTree's feature-rich Web 2.0 platform displaces all the other outdated tools. Dr. Pandhare proudly says, "The project has been able to bring all the members under one roof, engaged to foster a vibrant community with a true sense of togetherness."
Dr. Stella Pandhare, Principal
Completed her graduation from Mount Carmel college, Dr. Stella Pandhare, the present principal at Nurture International School has attained MA in English literature from Manasagangothri and did her B.Ed in English and Social Science. She also holds Ph.D. degree along with a diploma in counseling from Banjara and a short course on life skills from NIMHANS. In 2014, she received an award at World Education Summit for being instrumental in creating a safe platform to bring the community closer.