School Director

Welcome Letter (Academic Year 2024-25)

Dear Parents,

Greetings from Pathways School Noida!

I hope this message finds you and your families well and refreshed after the summer break. As we prepare to embark on a new academic year 2024-2025, my faculty and I are thrilled to welcome both our returning families and those who are new to the community.

Key Dates and Information:

• First Day of School - 18th July 2024
• School Calendar

"It takes a village to raise a child" – an African proverb that always inspires me. Your role in this 'village' is crucial, and we deeply value and appreciate your contribution to your child's education. Educating other people’s children is a rare privilege, and we recognise that parents play a vital role in this journey. Your partnership with us is invaluable, bringing a shared responsibility to provide the best all-around education possible.

This summer holiday, the school has been bustling with activities, including the Rediscovering Minds Summer Camp, the Elite Swimming Camp, the student basketball and football trip to Kuala Lumpur, the student educational trip to Malaysia and Thailand, the Cricket Tour of England, and the World Scholars Cup tournament in KL. All our WSC Global Teams have qualified for the Tournament of Champions at Yale

As we step into the new academic year, we anticipate several significant events. However, we have made some adjustments. For instance, the dates for Founders' Day have moved to the second semester. Additionally, the Classroom Without Walls programme has shifted as we convert our amphitheatre into an indoor performance space. This year, we prioritise our CIS and NEASC visits, scheduled for September 2024 and March 2025. These changes aim to enhance our students' overall experience and enrich our school's practices.

I want to emphasise the importance of student attendance, especially from MYP 4 (Grade 9) to DP 2 (Grade 12). There is a significant difference between coaching centres and schools, and dependency on coaching centres can be counterproductive, particularly in an IB school. Universities have been requesting student attendance details on report cards, and we will be implementing this requirement starting this year.

The Diploma Programme results were released on July 5th, and we are thrilled to share our students' outstanding achievements. The average score for those who passed the Diploma was 33.75 points. Impressively, 21% of our students scored 40 points or higher, and 42% scored 35 points or higher.

Our students have received offers from prestigious universities in India and abroad and received a total of 3 million USD in financial assistance. Additionally, we are proud to announce three of our students have received offers from The New Ivies – Universities recognized by Forbes as the new Ivy League. I want to thank you all for your continued support in this important endeavour, which we have been engaged in as a community since primary school. Truly the power of the continuum!

At Pathways School Noida, we believe that school should be fun and that happy children are more likely to be successful. I want to share a quote from Jonathan Haidt's book "The Anxious Generation": "Overprotection in the real world and under protection in the virtual world are the major reasons why children born after 1995 became the anxious generation." Haidt argues that the "Great Rewiring" of childhood, characterised by the rapid adoption of digital technology, has led to significant mental health challenges for Generation Z. He highlights the contrasting effects of overprotection in the real world and the lack of protection in the digital world, contributing to the rise in anxiety and depression among young people. Educators and communities need to be mindful of this concern as we tread into the new academic year.

We have collaborated with the University of Oxford and IB research to understand the well-being of our community. We are reassured and grateful that we have addressed all its needs for well-being. Our pursuit and commitment are to provide a balanced and comprehensive education for our students, preparing them for the future. This balance sets us apart and should reassure you that your child's education is in good hands.

Together, we can ensure a successful and memorable school year for all. I look forward to seeing you in the new session.

Sincerely,
Aaron Jacob
School Director

Learn. Work. Play. Think. LIVE

 

From the Director’s Desk

Education has a natural flow that continually brings the excitement of ‘the new’ to all involved. It could be a parent sending their five-year-old off for Day One, a Grade 6 student about to make the journey to the Senior School, or a teacher walking into the first class of a new academic year. Nothing stands still!

What is that makes our school different, because different they most certainly are? It is the people: students and staff; it is the blend of convention and innovation. It is how we feed the fire without dying in its flames; it is where we emphasise the curriculum and the expectations we pass on to the students. More than anything else, the essence is in the quality of the relationships between all members of our community.

Teaching is a relational craft, and schools are a relational place. If we get it right, we enable young minds to gain flexibility, curiosity, and diversity in their interactions. We create intimacy and trust that enables them to question, initiate and lead. We show them values and allow them to grow in self-awareness as they start to unravel their beliefs and values.

The focus on the micro and macro relationship has interested me for many years—the effect of small changes on the big picture. While many thoughts pass through a mind almost concealed, others trigger specific vibrations that grow to resonate throughout a lifetime. All are interconnected and subtle changes of what might seem a minor variable can, as with the Butterfly Effect, bring about the vastly different outcomes on the broad canvas. In education, we need to work with detail to bring out the best in each of our students. This need to blend long-term goals and the details with individual needs is at the heart of my belief in education as the critical building blocks of our societies.

Former School Directors