From the Principal, Oct-Dec 2011

Introduction:

Student Activities:

‘Lessons In The Dark’ a programme conducted by Worldkidz Film Club brought many exciting national and international films for our students at BIS from 28^th Nov to 2^nd December.

This Programme was organized for all the students from standard 1 to 10. Films of various genres, languages and cultures provided an exciting and inspiring learning opportunity for our

students. Each film was followed by discussion and dialogue with experts from Worldkidz, which helped the students to reflect and introspect about the films in detail. The emotional and intellectual maturity of the students was impressive and encouraged the experts and staff to utilize the visual medium for promoting value-based learning. The next session of film screening is scheduled for Jan-Feb 2012.

Three students, Keshav Rai and Rya Jetha from STD V and Abhinav Kara from STD VI represented the school in the Pearl Padamsee Trophy for Excellence in Speech and Drama, a competition organized by Raell Padamsee's CREATE foundation. Abhinav Kara ranked 1st Runner up at the finals from amongst 39 participants from 13 schools on 10th December, 2011 at NGMA, Colaba. He was judged and appreciated by theatre enthusiasts such as Garry Richardson, Bakul Patel and Mahesh Dattani, as well as by the organizers and the audience.

The Annual Student Government Fete was held in school. It was a wonderful student effort, and the total amount raised was Rs. 1,44,680.

Educational Trips:

This year senior school had two educational trips, in October and in December. The students of Std IX and X who have opted for Art and the students   studying Visual Arts in The IBDP  programme  went on a Camp to Jaipur.

Jaipur has a rich culture of  arts and crafts. The highlights of the trip included students workshops in Blue pottery,  block printing on textiles and Lac bangle making conducted by Master Craftsmen of that region. They visited an area called Kagaz Mohalla where they witnessed Hand made Paper making on a large scale. Aamer Fort and Hawa Mahal were scenic spots for sketching and photography. They also visited an organic farm at Katrathal.  The visit to the painted havelis of Nawalgarh, Shekhawati  was enhanced with a talk on havelis by an expert on renovation work.

The students who opted for yoga visited Pondicherry and Auroville. They stayed at the Park Guest House in Pondicherry and had the opportunity to interact with various people while learning to reflect and introspect through dance, music and discussions. The highlight of the trip was visiting the Matri Mandir.

In October, the IB students went to Japalouppe Equestrian Centre in Talegaon for an introductory course in Horse riding. After two fun-filled yet productive days at the Centre they stopped at Anant Balgram in Lonavala  and spent a mutually rewarding morning with the children of the orphanage doing activities and playing games with them.

In December the students of Std. VIII and IX visited Dharamshala, Dalhousie and Amritsar as part of the Annual educational trip. Students of Std. X went to Mt. Abu, as is the tradition at BIS.

Assemblies:

Class Assemblies:

Std V did a very clever assembly on the retelling of fairy tales. They used physical theatre techniques, and incorporated ads into the script.

Std. II revived the old-fashioned circus for us and produced a very colourful assembly with “animals” and circus artistes. They also reflected on why this is now a dying tradition.

Std. IV adapted a story by Sudha Murthy and performed a play showing strength in unity.

Debates:

MS Hindi Debate:

Topic: It is better to read a book than to watch a film based on it.

Winning House: ALPHA

Best Speaker: Vyom Seth

Runner Up: Bijan Bakshay and Amber Dange 

HINDI SS Debate:

Topic: Is organ donation necessary?

Winning House: BETA

Best Speaker: Swarina Karwanyun and Natasha Merchant

Runner up: Vikramaditya Joshi

MS English Debate

Topic:Every individual should have the right to freedom of speech without any restriction.

 Winning House: GAMMA

Best Speaker: Diva Jhaveri

Runner Up: Pratyusha Dasgupta.

Sports Update:

Our chief guest was Anaita Hiloowal. It is a BIS tradition to invite alumni who are athletes.

The Junior School Sports day was held on a bright sunny morning in our very own playground. The parents were present in large numbers, and added to the good cheer!

We participated in the following inter school football events conducted by Mumbai School Sports Association

Under 12 Year Boys

Under 14 Year Girls

We also participated in Inter School Chess and Inter School Squash tournaments.

Swimming:

Inter School Y.M.C.A Aquatic Meet -2011 Muskan Tolani won the

50 mt. Free Style  Gold Medal

50 mt. Breast Stroke   Silver Medal

50 mt. Back Stroke   Bronze Medal

Our team, Muskaan Tolani, Avantika Mehra, Ariesa Mongia and Sara Mehta received the Silver Medal for the Free Style Relay Under 17 Year Girls

Muskaan Tolani, Avantika Mehra, Ariesa Mongia and Sara Mehta  also received the Bronze Medal on the 4 x  50  mt. Medley Relay Under 17 Year Girls

Inter School M.S.S.A  Aquatic Meet -2011 

Muskan Tolani won the Gold Medal for the U-12 100 mt. Breast Stroke 

and Bronze Medal for the 100 mt. Back Stroke.

Mumbai  City District Sports Football Tournament

Inter School Football Tournament Under 14  Boys played well.

Inter School Mir Kasim Football Tournament: We lost semi -final Under 15 Year Boys (BIS. v / s Cathedral School)

Inter School Bhaichung Bhutia  Champions Cup  Football Tournament  We lost Tie breaker semi final  Under 15 Year Boys

(BIS v / s  Naval Children School)

Teachers’ Workshops:

International Links:

.

On  Dec 15,2011 our school was host to Schäl Sick Brass Band--- a famous music band from Germany. We hosted two events conducted by the band : a) Children’s Theatre Performance  and  b) Instrument Workshop.

In addition to our school students, some students from other Pasch schools were invited. The event started with a Christmas carol in German sung by some of our students from class 6. Thereafter the band started with their performance and kept everyone enthralled. The highlight  of their performance was a song from Indian cinema - lakdi ki kaathi - which they happened to learn that same morning just before their event!!!!

A few selected students stayed back to participate in an Instrument Workshop. Pradyumna Sapre, our student from class 4, played a piece on the piano welcoming everyone to the workshop.

 Students were put into 4 groups:

i) Voice  ii) Trumpet  iii) Tuba 

iv) Drums.

Each group was taught how easy it is to produce music from every day items such as balloons, empty boxes, straws, buckets etc. In the end all the four groups came together and put up a wonderful performance using the information and instruments that they had gathered! The workshop ended with the students presenting an excellent musical piece!

Sunburst Youth Camp: This year once again our students of Std. IX received a unique opportunity to attend the Camp in Singapore for one week. Paritosh Kanoria, Nari Katgara, Trpti Sanghvi and Arundhati Ajayan were accompanied by Ms. Nita Shukla. It was culturally a memorable experience. They will share the performance they put up at the annual assembly.

 Link with other Schools:

We are a member school with The Global Leadership Education Foundation, TGELF, a Delhi based organisation promoting leadership skills among schools. As part of this programme we participated in The Youth Leader Competition. This is TGELF’s endeavour to identify nurture and recognize exceptional leadership skills in students of its member schools. This year, Vibhav Mariwala, Std. VIII and Karan Vombatkere, Std. XI were selected from BIS. They submitted their written applications, went to Delhi for the first round, and have both made it to the Final Round in January. We are the only school to have two finalists. Well done!

karate News:

The students enrolled in Karate at BIS appeared for their grading / exam conducted by Sensei Pervez Mistry in early December. 

4^th KYU (1 stripe on green belt)

 Abhay Singhal , Aditi Marshan, Aria Panchal, Malhar Narain,  Pavi Hundekari, Pradyumna Sapre,  Rehaan Pocha, Shihan Palkhivala, Siddhant Agarwal,  Vir Toshniwal, Zian Mistry.

7^th KYU (yellow belt)

Avanti Bakre, Anant Singhal, Mannan Rajani, Ananyaa Mehra (double promotion).

8^th KYU (2 stripe on white belt)

Aditya Narayanan, Angad Bakre, Ayaan Singh, Ishan Shah,  Raag Narain, Shanyu Hundekari, Shanaya Munot (double promotion).

9^th KYU (1 stripe on white belt)

IB Update:

 The IBDP students have been making time for many CAS activities despite their busy schedules. Apart from their weekly CAS activities such as photography, dance, yoga and volunteering at Salaam Baalak and Welfare of Stray Dogs, they have also been doing various other CAS projects.
This time, Awareness Week in October was led by the IBDP students with the help of the Social Secretary, Drishti, and her team. They wanted to collect funds for WSD and stationery and books for the students of NGOs such as Teach for India and Salaam Baalak.  They made a presentation to Middle and Senior School to raise awareness about these NGOs.  They set up a stall to sell WSD products during break and got a fantastic response from their fellow students. Many thanks, especially to Primary School, for their enthusiasm. They simultaneously collected books, toys and stationery for the other NGOs. A Bake Sale was organised to raise funds as well which was a great success.
The IBDP students have also been collecting waste paper for the British Council sponsored Grand Banyan Project which aims to provide a million notebooks made from these materials for children in need. BIS managed to contribute 1000 kgs of paper for this project.

Library Activities:

The Following activities were conducted to encourage an interest in history: Glimpses from the Past (To guess famous people from the

photographs). The book ‘ The Indus Investigators: Mohenjodaro

Mystery’ written by Aronovsky Ilona was introduced. A Time Line was created by children from the history books they borrowed.

A Book called ‘ Song of a Scarecrow’ was read aloud to children.

Volunteers of Std IX ICSE & VIII  

Alumni  Update:

The Alumni get-together is scheduled for January 14^th 2012 at the school premises. The theme is Back-to-School, and it promises to be a great evening of nostalgia. Please spread the word among all parents and other Alum friends. The passes are available at the school office, so as to avoid chaos on the actual day. Looking forward to meeting you in large numbers!

Up-coming Events:

The festive spirit is all over the school as our students prepare for the Annual Assembly to be held in the playground on Thursday, December 22^nd. We shall also have a few NGOs who have been a part of our CAS programme display some of their items at the end of the show. Please do come in large numbers, and invite friends and relatives to join in the collective spirit of BIS.

Please Save the date: The 50 year celebrations next year include a Gala Dinner on 29^th April 2012 at the Trident.

Let me end with warm wishes to you and your loved ones for the new year..

With every good wish,
Mona Seervai
Principal