Dear Parents,

The countdown for the summer break is on and the moment we mention it to children across segments, they cannot help but grin from ear to ear. Our dear children will be in your complete custody from 26th May to 24th July for grades one and above and up to 31st July for Early years. Admin team will of course be working doubly hard to plan and prepare for the new academic year. And about the upcoming academic year, there are a whole lot of things I need to share with you.

Apart from the annual big events like the immensely famous Oakridge interschool Junior Model United Nations, junior and senior Codefest, junior and senior inter house Sports days, Global campus competitions, MIT challenges and UNICEF participation, we are adding more opportunities of experiential learning for the students.

On the 2nd of September, we will be hosting the first-ever Cultural fest along with the Investiture ceremony for grades 6 and above. Parents, let us come together and celebrate the musical talent of our children and wish them luck as they commence their leadership journey. The auditions for the same are starting next week so that the participants have ample time to prepare and get set for the big day on 2nd September. Mr. Vineeth Winfred, the performing arts HoD will be sharing the details about the auditions and the segment coordinators will share the selection process for the student council via email with all parents and students.

In early August we will also start preparation for the March 2024, MUN conference in Nord Anglia, Cambodia IB continuum school. Details will be relayed as soon as we receive them from the host school. Please encourage your child to join the MUN club to train for such events.

Due to the ongoing IPL fever, we started the tradition of friendly cricket matches between students and teachers, we look forward to hosting one more match before the summer break and we also look forward to hosting interschool Sports day in December for basketball, soccer and swimming. Mr. Joseph Collen, the PE Head of department will be sharing details of the same.

At Oakridge we make a conscious effort to give the best opportunities for music, sports and academics to our children. I am pleased to share with you that we have completed the academic and talent scholarship interviews and the results will be conveyed by this weekend. I am very proud of the poise and confidence with which the students conducted themselves during these interviews. Apart from the financial benefit, the scholarships are a badge of honour for university applications and an exclusive experience that prepares them for the future. Many congratulations to the applicants.

We are also pleased to share that after the recent professional development trip to Doha, Qatar, Ms. Indrani is being sent by the school to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), US, where she will directly interact and learn from the scientists and professors there and transfer that knowledge back to our students at Oakridge. Many congratulations to her!

Indeed, we have been keeping razor sharp focus on the professional development of our teachers. Besides having 2 hours of dedicated collaboration time every Friday after school, our teachers spend altogether 3 weeks before and after the summer break to upskill through the various in-house, NAU and IB PD workshops.

This is my final update for this academic year, so I want to remind you that we have been constantly reinforcing the clean speech campaign we initiated this year. I am happy that this initiative has made the positive impact that we intended, even though I am aware that we may not be able to eradicate bad words completely. I urge your support and cooperation to carry on this culture of clean language into the next academic year because as soon as we ignore poor social behavior, we essentially legitimize it. Therefore, let us continue to present positive examples to our children.

I am always eager to meet you and take your ideas on how to keep our school on the upward incline. Please do stop over for a quick chit-chat post the year end-school events. The timing and venues for the different grades will be communicated via the respective class teachers. I am also excited to personally hand over a small, but a memorable year-end gift of the class photos.

Many thanks and kind regards,
Pallavi Mishra.