QUEST for British Council International School Award
“Persevere in thy quest and thou shalt find what thou seekest.
Pursue thy aim unswervingly and thou shalt gain victory. Struggle earnestly and
thou shalt triumph.” – Gautam Buddha
The British Council International School Award programme, is
not a simple journey, it is a Quest. A Quest for knowledge, a Quest for
experience, a Quest for friends and peers, a Quest for personality development,
in short a Quest for all things good and beautiful that education can give.
This Quest is not a one man Quest but a team one. The urge
for it came from our Principal Madam Mrs Prem Lata Garg, whose motivation and
inspiration spurred the ISA team and the entire school staff to move ahead
relentlessly in achieving the Quest.
From our earlier experience, we have a clear understanding
that the path is neither simple nor easy. Right from planning activities for
the Action Plan till the submission of the dossier, our focus should be on the
target. This is what we had gained from the first ISA experience.
This time too the whole school was involved in planning and
of course implementation of the Action Plan. The ISA team got unflagging
support from all the stakeholders without which the Quest would have faced
great turbulence. There was turbulence, but everything was manageable.
The school has come a long way, as teaching-learning is
beyond the concrete wall and the printed text books. Our students are guided to
be on the Pegasus, and enjoy the whole wide universe of which they are the
citizens. International Projects make us one with our transatlantic peers in
thought and action. The ISA and the Projects have given the school a vibrant
and evolving international Policy and ethos. These have been harmoniously
blended into the school systems.
Teachers and students upgraded their 21st century
skills especially collaborative skills through technology. The technological
skills of students are par excellent, but the need for thorough and proper
guidance is needed. That is what the teachers did. With their navigation, the
students were able to successfully improve their online skills.
Our Quest was not devoid of turbulence. There were many
which were overcome with strong and focused leadership, togetherness and team
work. As Henry Ford had said “coming together is a beginning. Keeping together
is progress and working together is success.”
When the team works like a well oiled machine work is no longer a task
but a joyous enterprise. The entire ISA Quest was a joy for each teacher and
student as we supported each other. Team members for each assignment were
chosen with great care so that they complemented each other. Finding the right
person for the right task was the toughest job. But as each one was eager to
learn, they adapted wonderfully to the job at hand, helping each other,
smoothing out frayed nerves and moving ahead.
Getting the ISA Kite mark doesn’t end our Quest. As the
school has applied for re-accreditation, we understand that the Quest never
ends but it is a constant movement ahead. Our partnership with one of the
schools in the UK is its successful 4th year. We have another school
from the UK as a new partner. We plan to work on sustaining these partnerships
as well as look for and sustain more such partners from other countries. We
also propose to have interesting collaborative activities with our international
peers.
We began the Quest with the aim to achieve re-accreditation
of the British Council International School Award. The school will not stop
here. The Quest will continue as it is the Quest for knowledge, the Quest for
experience, the Quest for friends and peers, the Quest for personality
development, in short the Quest for all things good and beautiful that
education can give. The ISA Programme has given us this unquenchable thirst for
more and more rewarding experiences such as what ISA has given all of us.
