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TAGORE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL, VASANT VIHAR

ANNUAL REPORT (SESSION 2015 – 2016)

OUR ACHIEVEMENTS The school, along with its commitment towards academics and co - curricular activities, also makes relentless efforts to

raise conscientious and worthy citizens.Our initiatives have been applauded over the years and brought us prestigious

awards. These awards, along with praises and words of appreciation, from important personalities and organisations

motivate us to do even better consistently.

School Excellence Award for making it to the top twenty CBSE schools of Delhi at the IIIrd National Conference

organised by Brainfeed magazine on 04 February 2016

Hogwarts’ School Award and the Capsule Award by Parakh Foundation on 09 January 2016

The school's overall excellent performance won it the Hogwarts’ School Award (Silver) and the Capsule Award for

the Best Curriculum Plan, instituted by Parakh Foundation on 09 January 2016.

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International Exchange Peace Prize for 2015 TIS was felicitated for its participation every year, in the Cultural Youth Exchange Program hosted annually by The Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries in Beijing.

Education World (September 2015 issue) ranked Tagore International School , Vasant Vihar 52nd among top

Co-ed Day Schools in India

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THE INTERNATIONAL DIMENSION

Siddhi Pal of class XII-D represented Breaking Barriers at The Just Peace Summit in New York in March ’15

Siddhi Pal had the unique opportunity of attending the Just Peace Summit held in New York from 21 March to 29th March 2015. Representing Breaking Barriers, the school’s LGBTQI Sensitivity and Awareness Campaign which was initiated in 2013, Siddhi Pal was joined by 30 other Global Teen Leaders from 13 countries across the globe, who have been actively working on projects that promote a more peaceful society, addressing issues related to basic human needs. Most of the projects were on Education, Health or Environment, but the initiative taken by the school with Breaking Barriers was applauded by everyone. Spurred by her interactions with eminent personalities there, Siddhi and her team then launched THRIVE – the only emagazine for the LGBTQI community.

Four students accompanied by Ms. Geeta Gosain, TGT Science represented India at the International Jet Toy Car competition organized by SAE International at Detroit, after having won the National round.

Professors and students from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China visited the school on 3 August,2015

A group of 20 students and 4 professors from Tsinghua University, China arrived in India on 03 August on a visit to the IIT’s. They were here to understand the working of higher educational institutions in India, but they ”could not have gone back without visiting the school that had become so famous in China.” The visiting students were all presidents or vice presidents of student councils at their university and they interacted with our Student Council. They were impressed by the maturity of our students and said that they would be honoured if any Tagorean decided to study at the Tsinghua University in the future.

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Fifteen students accompanied by Ms. Niela Hariharan & Ms. Maitreyi Bhattacharya represented India at the International Cultural Exchange Program-Joy Dancing Children's Meet at Beijing, China from 03 Aug.'15 – 09 Aug.'15

Students and teachers from our partner school- Jinyuan Senior High School, Shanghai, China visited our school

from 24 Aug.- 30 Aug.'15

Three student and three teachers led by Vice Principal Mr Wang Hua from Jinyuan Senior High School, our sister school in Shanghai, visited us from 23 August to 30 August ’15. They participated in various activities of the school and attended classes with the host students. The hospitality of the Indian hosts left the guests in awe and there was a very strong bond built between them and members of the host families.

Teachers from our the Japanese School, New Delhi visited our school in September to observe the teaching learning pedagogies employed in our school

194th year of Independence of Costa Rica celebrated in school on 11th Sept.'15

The Embassy of Costa Rica, New Delhi hosted a reception on the occasion of the 194th Independence Day of their country, in our school on Friday 11 Sept 2015. The reception was attended by Heads of Mission of many countries.

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Tagoreans invited to introduce and teach Kathak on the occasion of 'Namaste India' at Japanese School, Delhi on 13 October 2015

Our dance teacher, Ms Malovika Saha and two senior students taught Kathak to students of the Japanese School, Vasant Kunj on the occasion of Namaste India Day celebrated by the school.

Performance by the Peace Band from Pakistan during their visit from 14-20 October 2015

The Peace Band, a group of young musicians and singers from Lahore, Pakistan visited our school in October 2015. Their performances in our school and in four other schools of Delhi had the students everywhere, joining in and swaying to their music. They were honoured by the Punjabi Promotion Council and PTC Channel.

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WE CARE

Breaking Barriers

Tagoreans participated in Pride Parade in support of equal rights for the LGBTQI Community at Jantar Mantar

on 29 November 2015

Tagoreans creating buzz about Breaking Barriers

Tagoreans launched The Thrive Magazine, the first International e-magazine for LGBTQI youth on 15 September

2015

On 15th September, 2015, Tagore International School, Vasant Vihar saw the launch of The Thrive Magazine, the first international e-magazine for LGBT+ youth around the world, initiated by Siddhi Pal (XII-D), Sohini Chakrabarti (XI-B), Anshul Bhardwaj (XI-B) and Jaya Rao (XII-B), senior members of Breaking Barriers, The official website of the campaign, a culmination of all the work we’ve been doing for the last couple of years, was also unravelled at the event. Naina, an 11th grader, one of the youngest transgendered individuals in the country, also shared her inspiring journey of self-discovery with the students.

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Flawless Flaws This year we launched a campaign called 'Flawless Flaws' in support of acid attack survivors. Through this campaign,

we envision to make school students sensitive and empathetic towards acid attack survivors. The students of class IX-XI

have been working on this project and have been guided by Acid Attack Survivors Foundation India.

Photo Booth set up at Winterlude 2015--school fete on 19 December 2015

Handing over the donation money raised for acid attack survivors to the National Head of ASFI, Mr. Rahul

Verma on 24 November 2015

Mr. Rahul Verma, National Head (ASFI), visited our school on 24 November 2015 to interact with the student-members of Flawless Flaws. He appreciated and encouraged our students for taking the first and such bold steps towards a sensitive issue. The donation cheques for the treatment of the acid survivors were presented by Ms. Madhulika Sen to the survivors.

NINAAD-- a cultural presentation in support of acid attack survivors was staged by Tagoreans on 31 October 2015. Nukkad Nataks were staged at different places in Delhi. Parents signed pledges to help avoid such gruesome crimes.

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Awareness about North East Students from the North East, studying at Tagore International School, Vasant Vihar, are taking various steps to create awareness about the culture and heritage of the north eastern states, amongst the student fraternity. The students’ almanac for the session 2015-16 had the Seven Sisters as its theme, with information on each of these states. The class display boards and the theme boards in the foyer showcased the uniqueness of the culture and people of India’s North East. All the inter house and inter class activities were based on the North East.

Photo Booth

Presentations

The Tagore Awareness Society has taken a small initiative to bring to light the vibrant colours of the north east through presentations in the classes. Dr Arshiya Sethi also introduced the students to the myriad facets of these states

Cultural Performances

Students from classes VI-IX presented Bihu and North Eastern music on PTM’s.

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TAGOREAN AWARENESS SOCIETY

Cleanliness: TAS has instated the ‘Cleanest Classroom Award’ for the middle school. The winner is announced monthly and the cleanest class is awarded a trophy.

Samarpan School: TAS works closely with the Samarpan School in Vasant Kunj. They visit the school once a month, conduct activities for the children, help them with their homework and donate books and eatables. Our students have interactive sessions with the children, play small games, antakshari, and conduct drawing and craft lessons with the children. The students then distribute storybooks and eatables.

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Dharohar

SOCH - Society for the Conservation of our Heritage’

‘Dharohar’, the Heritage club of the school created a group of the senior school students who would conduct walks for the younger children and guide them at various heritage sites. The group is called ‘SOCH- The Society for the Conservation of our Heritage’ . Through this initiative, these students were given a platform to become guides for their juniors, the students of class V and conduct heritage walks for them. The first walk was for class V in February 2016 at Safdarjung’s Tomb. The group was successful in generating a great degree of excitement and learning among the students.

'Dr Neeru Misra, a Tagore Research scholar, working as an Art Historian & Cultural Heritage Consultant conducted an interactive and enriching session with the members of ‘Dharohar’.

Our Annual Project - A day long adoption of 'The Qutub Minar'

As a part of school initiative to protect the archaeological heritage of our city, the students of class VII participated in the program "Adopt a Monument" Under this program they manned the Qutab Complex for a day. It included selling tickets at the ticketing counter, serving as guides to the visitors, distributing information brochures to the visitors, cleaning the complex and collecting feedback forms from the visitors. The theatre group of our school also performed a musical play in the lawns of the Qutab Complex, and was highly appreciated by the public.

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Road Safety Programme

Our School was featured on Times Now for its participation in the Happy Roads Campaign

" Steer To Safety Project" A road safety workshop by Mr. Muktesh Chandra, head of Delhi Traffic Police Department on 08 October 2015

A workshop for the students at College of Traffic Management, near Suraj Kund, Faridabad about the need and how to reduce risks on road on 17 August 2015

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NATIONAL SERVICE SCHEME

Muskaan

Our students visit MUSKAAN regularly and actively participate in various activities with the students there.

Face to Faith

Face to Faith is a programme under Tony Blair Foundation. In this the students hold video conferences and write blogs to exchange their ideas with schools in different countries and on various topics.

Project Citizen

Students of class IX won Excellent Presentation award for the project 'Road Rage' held at Ramjas School on 16 October 2015

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Project Search

In collaboration with TERI, the Green Teen team work towards collecting tetra packs from the school on a regular basis. Under the RCE collaboration, we have regularly been conducting videoconferences with a high school in Netherlands.

Project Saarthi

In the year 2014-15, TERI selected our school as a mentor school under the Project SAARTHI. Our school was allotted two schools in Gurgaon where children from underprovided section of society study. The students of classes XI and XII visited them once a month and conducted activities to familiarize them with life outside their immediate surroundings. For the year 2015-16, TERI allotted us MUSKAAN and TAMANNA as our mentee schools

School Enterprise Challenge

School Enterprise challenge is sorted by British Council under which students of middle school and high school are being trained to become young entrepreneurs. Under this, our Green Teens recycled paper in the school and used it to make articles like letter pads, diary, folders, jewelry etc. These were sold during school PTM’s. The amount collected was given to Acid Survivors Foundation India (ASFI).

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Interact Club

The Rotary Club International helps young people to develop leadership skills and serve their communities through hands-on projects and making connections.

On 01 September 2015, the newly elected members of the school’s Interact Club were invested with their portfolios by the District Officials of the South West District Rotary Club. The Interact Club will now bring all the following initiatives under one umbrella.

Breaking Barriers – the LGBTQI Awareness and Sensitivity Program Flawless Flaws – the Acid Attack Survivors Support program Outlive Yourself – the Organ Donation Awareness Program Tagorean Awareness Society – an initiative to inculcate civic awareness in students

Design for Change

Our schools’ entry for the Design For Change School Challenge was selected as one of the Top 100 winning stories amongst over 2512 DFC stories received from 27 states. Our story ‘Paper Rules-Plastic is Old School’ received high praise for “nurturing empathy, cultivating optimism and for building the collaborative spirit amongst our super heroes!”

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Kick Start Equality

‘Kick Start Equality’ a campaign to spread awareness about violence against women is yet another social awareness campaign started by the school. Through this campaign the students aim to spread awareness about the monstrosities that women have to suffer. The school has partnered with CEQUIN (Centre for equity and Inclusion) an NGO working on women empowerment with a rights based perspective.

Event organised by CEQUIN to showcase Kick Start Equality campaign at the Australian High Commission on 10 December 2015

Flash Mob in support of ‘Kick Start Equality’ at DLF Saket on 29 November 2015

Special screening of ‘Half the Sky’ held on 20 October 2015

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GREEN INTIATIVES

Solar Panels This year we have added more solar panels that will bring us an extra 50 KVA of electricity.

OTHER ACCOLADES SAE India organized 8th AWIM National Olympics at Mahindra Research Valley Chennai on 22 January 2016. Our School won trophy in ‘Best Presentation’ in Jet Toy Car category and the participants were Ananya Gupta, Shaurya Choithani, Pratyush Singh and Harshaditya Chaudhary of VI C. Ms. Geeta Gosain, TGT Science received the ‘Best Teacher Award’.

Vanshika Sejwal of XI A won a silver medal in the Heptathlon with 3790 points in Youth National Athletics competition held in Goa from 16th – 18th April 2015. She also bagged the Gold medal in Senior Girls High Jump at the 61st National Schools Athletics Championship from 29 January -02 February 2016 at Kozhikode, Kerala and she set a new meet record of 1.69 m.

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Soumya Chaudhary of class X A won two gold medals at the 6th International Martial Art Games 2015 & one gold and two bronze medals at 30th National ITF Taekwondo Championship held at Thyagraj Stadium, New Delhi from 02 – 06 December 2015.

Sagnik Bhattacharya won laurels at World Schools Debate competition.

State level Science Debate was organized by Millenium India foundation in DAV School, Shrestha Vihar on 30 November 2015 . Six teams from Delhi and Noida qualified out of 200 teams. Aaradhya Kukreja and Aamod Mehrish of class X A secured third position and were awarded a trophy and a cash prize of `1000.

They earlier won second position in the Intra District or Zonal level Science Debate for South Delhi District organised in our school on 28th August 2015.

The National Finals of Harmony 2015: Co-Creating Tomorrow organized by tGELF was held at Scottish High

International School, Gurgaon on 28-29 November 2015.Nehal Vijay of class IX A won National Finals for the Magic with Colour’s-The Creative Arts event. The topic for the competition was ‘My School In The Future’.

Kushagra Rastogi, Arunesh Singh of class XI C and Anshul Bhardwaj of class XI A won Best Story Award for their short film titled ‘Bystanders’ in the event Reel to Real.

Jaskaran Singh Wahi of class X A won Gold Medal at 8th Delhi State THANG TA Championship held at

Najafgarh Stadium on 21 & 22 November 2015. He also participated as the youngest referee in the championship and was also awarded the second Best Referee Award.

At the Malaysian International Young Inventors Olympiad (MYIO) 2015 organized by Tun Syed Sheh Shahbudin Science Secondary School, University of Sains, Malaysia and Ministry of Education, Malaysia, three students Radhika Upadhyay, Alma Vikram, and Kusharga Rastogi of class X, along with Dr. Remy Kaul, PGT Science were awarded the Gold medal for their project on the early detection of diabetes using plantar’s pressure.

Intach Filmit Festival organized felicitation event on 02 February 2016 at India International Centre, for the session 2015-16. Our students made many movies on various topics related to Indian Heritage. Movie made by Saanya Anand of VI C won award for ‘Best Message’.

Our students participated in the 5th IYFMF (International Young Film Makers Festival) held at Moolchand Medcity, Lajpat Nagar on 17 December 2015. They won the Outstanding Award for their movie ‘Flying in different directions’ on ‘Gender Sensitization’.

Kushagra Rastogi of class XI C & Sarnali Chatterjee of class XI D qualified for the State Level Science Exhibition on the theme Health and Nutrition organized by the Directorate of Education from 03-05 November 2015.

U. Sai Samhita of IX A won second prize in Sanskrit Shlok Sangeet Solo competition organised by the Department of Education in Languages, NCERT at NIE Campus during Sanskrit Week Celebration from 31 August to 01 September 2015.

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EVENTS OF THE YEAR

LEAD ON

“It is said that a good leader has determination, commitment and dedication. They also, however, have a vision to see beyond convention. A vision to achieve the impossible.”

Mr. Raghav Chadha, the national spokesperson and treasurer of Aam Aadmi Party’s Delhi unit, Papa CJ, one of India’s leading stand-up comedians, and motivational speakers, Mr. Waiel Awwad, an international political journalist, and Mr. Mohammed F. Al-Ghazawwi, first counsellor of the Syrian embassy to India addressed the students council from elite school of Delhi at LEAD ON! On 30 October 2015.

TISMUN

The Chief Guest on the occasion was Mr. Mirzosharif Jalolov, the Ambassador of the Republic of Tajikistan to India. The conference brought together over 300 students from over 25 prestigious schools of Delhi and the NCR region, Chandigarh, Kolkata. TISMUN 2015 saw delegates deliberating and negotiating on issues varying from Criminal Justice Reform in Post Conflict states, Review of the Policy of Conscription with regards to human rights, the nuclear programmes of Iran, Syria and North Korea to Building Prosperity through intra-African trade, along with the Niti Aayog committee deliberating on the current issue of Review of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013.

Origami

The 14th Interschool Origami Competition , on Thursday 15 October’15 , was a flurry of activity and color as nearly 300 students from 31 schools enthusiastically folded paper to compose scenes that showcased their imagination and creativity . The theme for this year was ‘Evolution ’ and was quite challenging , but the students came up with varied perspective that left the judges spell bound.

Inter School Science Debate

The Millennium India Education Foundation (MIEF), a Delhi based organization working actively with the Ministry of Science and Technology to popularize Science among students, organized a Delhi State Inter school Debate Competition. We, as the nodal school for the South Delhi District conducted the Intra District or Zonal level debate on 28 August ’15, which saw 28 schools debate for and against the motion , on the topic ‘Science is for Scientists. Do not confuse others!’

LiFe 2015

Tagore International School, Vasant Vihar hosted its tenth One - Day Literary Festival- LiFe, an Inter- School event, on 6th August ’15. Pioneered by Ms. Rumna Mitra Lala, HOD (English), the event this year had an overwhelming participation of students from classes XI and XII from over 36 reputed schools of Delhi and the NCR region. Theming the event ‘The

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Common Man- An Uncommon Story’ the event comprised of three categories viz. Toonart, wherein characters from the Panchatantra, Jataka Tales or Aesop’s fables had to be reinvented or reinterpreted in an apt form, related to the theme, Vers-e-style or poetry out loud and Spotlite or group enactment wherein participants had to present an enactment of an extract from any genre or period. Oxford University Press India, a department of the University Of Oxford announced Oxford Publication House as the official sponsors for the event.

Ordin@trix 15.0

Themed ‘Visualise the Invisible’, the event this year had a wide range of innovative events, meticulously planned by the faculty of Computer Science. Beginning from Anim@trixor Flash animation for classes VIII-X, to Movie@trix for Classes IX--XII, to Wiz@trix or Crossword for classes VI-VIII, to Bot@trix or Robotics for Classes VI-XII,to Present@trix for Classes III-V, to Script@trix or website designing, to Visual@trix or AV editing, to Snap@trix or movie making, each event targeted a specific age group. The purpose of each event was to hone talent and to help each participant explore as well as learn through the experience.

World Dance Day

This day was celebrated in school with a fusion of dance, art and music on 29 April 2015. The students planned and executed the whole event. A plethora of talent was exhibited on stage, and gave the students a platform to showcase their talent.

Human Rights Day

10 December is celebrated as Human Rights Day all over the world as on this day the General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The students of classes Vi – XI demonstrated their commitment to upholding and protecting Human Rights through various activities like slogan writing, composing student pledges, poster making and more.

Constitution Day

Constitution Day was observed on 26 November 2015 to celebrate the 125th Birth Anniversary of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar in school.

It was commemorated with children of various classes participating in various activities. Children of classes VI, VII and VIII created interesting and unusual ‘Constitution Kits’ comprising various items to highlight the essence of the Indian Constitution, a Preamble of their own and a list of Rights and Duties. Students of Classes IX and X participated in a Quiz on various interesting features of the Constitution, with both written and oral rounds. The Quiz was both researched and conducted by the students themselves. A survey on how much people actually know about their Constitution was undertaken by students of Class XI, who also tabulated and presented their findings. Some of the Class XI students created a Graffiti Wall on India 2025, asking for opinions on how the Constitution should be amended. Children were also made to read and reflect on the true meaning of the Preamble and whether we have been able to put these principles into practice.

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Internship Programs

Students of classes X-XII participated in Internship programs this summer.

Internship at Taj Palace by Vridhi Wadhawan of class X-A

Internship at S.Chand Publishing House with the Editorial Department by Sakshi Agarwal of class XI-B

Internship at CNN- IBN (Network 18) by Sohini Chakrabarti of class XI-B

Internsip at Pearl Academy by Sehaj Kaur of class X-C and Sukriti Grover of class XI-B