Aravali International School

PEOPLE AND CULTURE

About the Principal

Educated at Loreto Convent School and a Masters in English, the Principal Mrs Gurvinder Sohi is an accomplished educationist with decades of enriching experience. She has been the principal of prestigious schools like GD Goenka Public School, Paschim Vihar, New Delhi and two senior secondary Army Public Schools before taking over the reins of Aravali International School, Panchkula as its Founder Principal in 2018. She is a CBSE Resource Person and regularly conducts trainings for teachers; she also contributes articles in print media like newspapers. She commands an inspiring personality with excellent communication skills. A proficient academician and administrator, she infuses fresh enthusiasm and energy in everyone around. She has always endeared herself to students, parents and staff alike, building valuable interpersonal relationships.

Message from the Principal

The highly competitive times that we live in, make it incumbent upon a school to engage in constant introspection and retrospection designed to keep pace with global educational trends; only then can an institution befittingly equip its students to face challenges in life. Aravali has long been a predominant and distinguished name in the field of education in Delhi NCR, upholding a progressive ideology that emanates from a strong tradition of delivering excellence in education. At AIS Panchkula, to this glorious ethos we stand committed.

At AIS, we believe that every child has immense potential; institution and curriculum should be so designed as to enable students with diverse abilities, interests and aptitudes to realize their full potential. We nurture our students to be creative thinkers and lifelong learners. Hence, our unique learning environment is all encompassing of a specialized curriculum and innovative pedagogy, supported by state-of-the-art infrastructure and dedicated trained faculty, all aimed at empowering our children to lead extremely fulfilling lives.

In juxtaposition with this, we also perceive, it is our responsibility as a premier institution, to make a notable contribution to uplifting the social and moral environment of our nation. Quality institutions, such as ours, must work concertedly towards enhancing the prevalent value systems and ensuring that life around us is reflective of desirable standards of moral and ethical values. Therefore, we at AIS intend to strive tirelessly to instill in our students a strong sense of personal discipline, integrity of character, probity and respect for diversity that ingrains in them an unflinching moral and civic sense and qualifies them to be upright global citizens. Aravali International School students, are bound to have an indomitable edge over their peers in a fast changing and futuristic world that will make all the difference to the course their lives take.

Ms. Gurvinder Sohi

Principal

FACILITATOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT & MENTORING

While we measure the effectiveness of our facilitator development programs by analysing its impact on student learning and success, we do believe in keeping the facilitator at the centre of the change. Appreciating their needs and challenges and walking with them in the journey of change is critical.

Trainings and Workshops

S.No.

Date

Trainings Conducted

Language and Literacy trainings

1

 

Jolly Phonics training for Pre-primary teachers by Ritu Bawa

2

 

Raz session for teachers

3

 

Effective strategies for building Vocabulary – by Raz Plus

4

 

Pedagogical tools to improve literacy – RAZ Plus

Mathematics Training

5

 

Math workshops for teachers from Nursery to Grade 10 – Jharna De

Self-Development Sessions

6

 

Chakra Healing and Self-Healing – Dr. Parti

7

 

Emotional Intelligence by Dr. Parti

8

 

Strive or Thrive – Unleash the greatness within you – Dr. Madhuri Parti

ICT sessions

9

 

Microsoft tools by Chandeep Marwah

10

 

ERP Training

Assessment Practices

10

 

Assessment Practices for Constructing Learning – Meera Balachandran

Pedagogical Sessions

11

 

Experiential learning during online classes – Deepti Menon

12

 

Revisiting Core Deep Design Thinking – Dr. Parti

13

 

Teacher reflections and action plans for the year ahead (Integration of workshop learnings in teaching practices)

14

 

Project Based Learning by Mind Mingle

Training on National Education Policy

15

 

National Education Policy – Ashlesha Thakur

Other sessions

16

 

Symbiosis workshop on Psychological First Aid organized by FICCI

17

 

MUN workshop for teachers by Manisha Vashisht

Parent Workshops

18

 

Raz Orientation for parents of all 3 schools

19

 

Jolly Phonics workshop for parents

 

CULTURE

Aravali school culture aims at students’ holistic and all-round development. For that we believe the walls of the school should reflect a secure future possibility. The halls should honor their achievements and dreams and the rooms to help prepare them for life as diligent, sincere and committed global citizens.

Some of the areas that we focus on are:

  •  Facilitator self-awareness and reflection – Facilitators are encouraged to reflect on the implementation of their lessons and their effectiveness, through regular classroom observations and post observation reflection – facilitators discuss their best practices and challenges, with their peers as well as the Curriculum team.
  • Promoting growth mindset – We aim at promoting growth mindset both among our students and facilitators. We encourage and regularly coach our facilitators to move from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset. Fixed mindset often leads to limiting beliefs about self as well as student abilities.
  • Strengthening pedagogical and subject skills – Facilitators attend a variety of professional development programs aligned to both CBSE and Cambridge requirements. The key domains that are part of our induction training and regular training are – Strengthening content knowledge, Setting Instructional outcomes, designing student assessments, data-based decision making for the classroom, improving classroom emotional and physical environment, effective communication with students, effective questioning skills, maintaining effective records.
  •  We also engage in quarterly conversations titled “Samvaad” with the school staff in order to engage more deeply, understand best practices and concerns and identify talent within the school.
  • Students, likewise, are engaged in “Ruburu.’ Ruburu is teacher and student interaction on various day to day challenges and concerns. Teachers as foster parents guide and counsel students thereby.
  •  Micro teaching is conducted every fortnight in subject departments.
  •  Yoga and meditation sessions and outbound excursions are also regularly organized.

 Inclusion of special children at Aravali Schools

At Aravali we have been continuously working on providing effective ways for including special children. We understand that inclusion is a process of finding better ways of respecting student diversity. Shared below are some steps that we take for providing an inclusive space for special children

  • Appropriate infrastructure – In order to provide our students a comfortable and safe
    environment, we have taken care to ensure that we have barrier free facilities, ramps, Wheel
    chair access, proper lighting etc.
  • Our counsellors also provide orientation to students in the classroom so as to ensure a positive
    attitude towards special needs students
  • The school behavior policies stresses on anti-bullying measures.
  • Our facilitators and staff are regularly trained on the needs of special education students
    and we support them in developing the skills and competencies to meet the needs of these students