Dear Parents,

Thanks for your cooperation by sharing your time, food and thoughts on UN day. We the teachers and children enjoyed your presence and it was also a great time to know each other.

With us approaching NE monsoon season, cyclones and depressions are common features during this season. Cyclones in particular are really unpredictable and at times it can lead to close of school depending on the vulnerability. Due NE monsoon there may be slight changes in the menu regarding sea food depending on the availability.

But at the same time Chennai is largely dependent on NE monsoon, since 65% of rains are received in this season. So we look forward to this season.

With Christmas approaching let’s get ready for festivity, we at school will be celebrating Nicholas day on 5 Dec at 5.00 pm, followed by a Christmas dinner. We would like to invite your family to participate in this festivity.

Wishing you a nice and safe Diwali break.Sincerely yours

Melba Solomon

Risk TakeRs*

The IB Learner Profile aims to develop students who are risk-takers. This means guiding students to explore new ideas and innovative strategies, challenging their ways of thinking and encouraging them to be confident in those decisions. This lifelong skill requires students to step out of their comfort zone and become courageous in their choices and actions. But, there is a hint of uncertainty and failure attached to the idea. How can teachers & parents successfully encourage students to take risks and be resilient in the face of challenges?

Encouraging students to participate in risk-taking activities or behaviour is not always easy, both from the perspective of

Volume 2, Issue 4 November 2015

PYPMaking

Happen

Dates to remember9 & 10 November

Diwali holidays

13 November

Children’s day celebration @ 9.00 am

20 November

Visit to Cholamandal Artist village

a student encouraging themselves and their peers, or a teacher encouraging their pupils or a parent encouraging their children.

Brian Kerekes, IB mathematics HL teacher at Celebration High School in Florida, US, believes risk-taking is crucial to academic success and development. He says: “We need to encourage students to be exposed to ideas and concepts they might never have known about. Risk-taking can expose a student to different ideas or different cultures; it develops their problem solving abilities.”

“For many children there is almost an inherent fear of failure,” Kerekes explains. “As educators, we have a duty to challenge our students as much as possible, and give them the required support and feedback if they fail.”

Risk-taking is challenging yourself to do hard things. It’s admitting that you just  might  fail, but you try it anyway and you work harder to succeed. Failure is an intimidating idea and, unfortunately, the fear of failure prevents many people from challenging themselves to do difficult things. But in order to be truly successful, there must be a possibility of failure. This fear can motivate people to work harder

Back in Florida, Kerekes discusses the idea that risk-taking can enhance creativity too, “In my opinion, the greatest risk-takers are the students who select the most unique topics, or candidates whose topics may require more background research in order to fully understand what they are analysing,” he says.

Risk-taking may go further than subject-specific study or academic fields. The IB programmes may by their very nature be a good example of risk-taking within education, as Kerekes explains: “It’s is an integral part of the IB Learner Profile. I believe some students take a risk by choosing the IB. But it’s a risk I promote and encourage in all my classes because I believe the IB incorporates risk-taking in order to develop well-rounded students.”

For both teacher and student, the role of risk-taker and the nurturing of these skills is important to continued success. Risk-taking is something that students can take away with them, far beyond passing exams; it gives students something far more valuable and long lasting.

Kerekes says: “If our students can learn to take risks without fear of consequence they would be more inclined to take risks in the future, which would undoubtedly expose them to more of the world around them.”

*Source : IB World Magazine.

Nothing to prove

Nothing to hide

Positive Self-worth

Confident

Nothing to lose SecureRisk Taker

Curiosity

Every child is born with a natural curiosity. Babies and children explore their surroundings and learn from their good and bad experiences.

We want our children to be curious about everything that is around them. We live in an ever-changing world and even we as adults often wonder why and how things happen (and wondering is the first step to curiosity).

Being an international school we have children and teachers from different countries and it is interesting to see how each of them is unique and acts in a different way. We encourage each child to be interested in the others’ lives and hence find ways to overcome cultural differences or language barriers – it does work very well.

How do people in other countries live? What do they eat? What is their language?

Curiosity is a huge field and includes every aspect of life and not just the world around us or the lessons in a classroom. It is also the people, the culture, the country, the food – (Where does it come from? Why shouldn’t we waste it? and so on. Simply giving an answer to a question does not encourage curiosity. Hence we lead the children with breadcrumbs to their goal. That way their curiosity gets fed and has a chance to grow and step by step – without being overstrained – will hopefully spread to other areas of life as well.

I have no special talent, I am only passionately curious.

—Albert Einstein

I WANT TO KNOW

EVERYTHINGABOUT YOUT

THAT’S NICE

I WANT TO KNOW

EVERYTHINGABOUT YOUT

THAT’S NICE

There are no seven wonders of the world in the eyes of a child.

There are seven million. —Walt Streightiff