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CENTURY BECKONS ST THE A NEW SCHOOL OF THOUGHT
CENTURY BECKONS
STTHE
A NEW SCHOOL OF THOUGHT
REIMAGINING OUR CLASSROOMSTO MAKE LEARNERS FUTURE READY
The world is at the cusp of the fourth industrial revolution which is going to expand on the tremendous platform built during the third industrial revolution since the advent of computers almost 50 years ago. The stage is now set for the physical, the digital and the biological to come together which will have a profound impact on our lives. The revolution will bring with it a renaissance of new and exciting possibilities that have the potential to improve our lives. Artificial Intelligence, robots, 3D printing, Internet of Things and the sharing economy will transform the way we work and live. With all these incredible advancements, we will also find many jobs becoming redundant.
At The Heritage School, we have been very carefully looking at the changes around us. These changes will have a deep impact on our children. Hence, through our project-based curriculum, we are ensuring that each child is inspired and empowered to live a life of virtue and value, ethics and erudition, love and compassion, insight and aesthetic while simultaneously building skills that are
essential for the 21st century, such as critical and systemic thinking, ideation, reasoning and questioning, and caring/emotional intelligence to aid in realising
his/her potential.With a vibrant teaching community representing various cultures across the
country, and its leadership team with over 425 years of cumulative experience, the school continues to strive to equip its
students with real-life skills that look beyond the classroom and prepare them for the future.
© Enlearn Education 2017
Role of the School
2016-17HIGHLIGHTS
ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
Although there was a general dip in CBSE
scores across the country, post re-evaluation, we
continue to remain one of the top schools in the
country and maintain our top position in
Gurugram:
• Our first full batch of 96 students earned a
five-subject mean average of 88.5% and
five-subject median average of 90.2%.
• Our mean average for best of four subjects
is 90.3%.
• While we do not have formal exams till Class 8,
we rank consistently among top schools in the
country in third party assessments (DRA, Asset)
across subjects and grades.
• Our assessment scores include the performance
of our di�erently abled students, four of whom
successfully completed Class 12.
University Admissions
“It’s not done, till it’s done.” To ensure that our
students get admission into some of the best
colleges and universities in India and abroad, we
took the following initiatives:
• Mr. Marc Zawell, alumni of Cornell University,
was invited to hold a workshop on college
admissions, covering a range of critical aspects.
• Four international and Indian college admission
fairs were held with over 45 leading universities
from India and abroad presenting their academic
options to our students.
• Our Curriculum Partners, Enlearn, represented
Heritage Schools in over 15 universities in the US
and presented Heritage credentials and student
profiles. Some of the universities include
University of California colleges, Purdue
University, Loyola Marymount, etc. It does seem
to us that our methods are paying o� and our
students are reaping the benefits with admissions
into some of the best colleges in the world.
• Three students gained admissions to IIT,
many to NITs and medical schools.
• Several students are going to top Delhi
University colleges including: St Stephens,
LSR, SRCC, etc.
• Students from our IBDP batch of 2017 received
o�ers from some of the most well-regarded
universities and colleges in the USA and Europe:
Purdue University, Florida Institute of
Technology, Indiana University, King’s
College London, University of
Massachusetts, Amherst, Warwick
University, Emory University, New York
University, University of Illinois,
University of Manchester, Claremont
McKenna College, University of Exeter
and University of Nottingham.
© Enlearn Education 2017
Preparing students for the 21st century has
been our guiding principle whether in
curriculum framework, instructional methods or
assessments, for which we have been constantly
assessing and benchmarking our curriculum to
make it more authentic and real.
Our curriculum is way beyond that prescribed
by CBSE. For years now, a dedicated team has
been working on the English curriculum from
grades nursery to XII to:
• Identify a set of standards and benchmarks
(Common Core) that are also aligned with
Expeditionary Learning outcomes and map the
curriculum according to these standards.
• Identify assessment tools (DRA 2 in Junior
Programme (JP) and Litpro in the Middle
Programme (MP) and Senior Programme (SP),
plus the PSAT and Asset) to measure critical
reading and writing skills.
• Introduce multiple traits of writing across
grade levels.
• Introduce and establish thesis writing in
Class 8 through 11 plus research/citation skills
in earlier years.
• Map the literature texts (full length and shorter
works) across the school.
• Identify and teach full length novels and plays
at every grade level from Class 4 through 11 plus
theme-based stories in JP.
• Work to flip classes from teacher-led to
student-facilitated for discussions and projects
and presentations.
• Work to integrate language arts strategies and
outcomes across English and Hindi.
Similarly, a dedicated team of Math experts has
been meeting to:
• Identify standards and benchmarks and map
the curriculum.
ASSESSMENT & BENCHMARKINGOF CURRICULA
• Work out how to bridge Jodo Gyan and
demands of the high school syllabus.
• Look at pedagogy and map the strategies that
work best at every stage of the teaching of a
concept.
• Solicit Jodo Gyan experts to continue to support
both JP and MP.
• Conduct classroom visits as a team across
multiple grade levels and debrief observations
In addition, coordinators and teachers in JP, MP
and SP take regular learning walks, share and
map observations for follow up. Programme
leaders, coordinators and the Principal do regular
classroom observations according to an adapted
version of the strategies introduced by the team
from Boston Teacher Residency:
• Pre-observation conference to look at plans and
lesson objectives, to identify accommodation for
di�erent learning needs, and for the teacher to
solicit feedback on particular aspects of the
lessons that are new or challenging.
• Observation (full period) with scripting as well
as the Marzano protocol filled out.
• Debrief to identify critical take-aways and
trends.
• Whenever possible, fishbowl style follow up
debrief with coordinators.
In JP, we incorporated a daily play time, which is
undoubtedly an essential part of their
development. We have successfully continued an
intensive literacy programme by ensuring a daily
reading time and tracked children's progress
using Developmental Reading Assessment 2.
Over 80% children are meeting or exceeding
grade level expectations in reading. Similarly,
86% children are meeting or exceeding grade
level expectations in Math.
© Enlearn Education 2017
Our endeavour to develop our sta� and take
their skills and understanding to the next level
is a continuous process. There are continuous
Professional Development opportunities all
through the year. Education World, in its
nation-wide ranking, has ranked us number
one in Professional Development.
Some of the e�orts included:
• 77 JP teachers attended workshops on laugh,
play, dance, music apart from a rich experience
of organic farming at Auroville. These skills
form an integral part of the early years
programme.
• Upahaara, an alliance for preserving
childhood, was held where 60 eminent
educationists and principals/heads of
pre-primary and primary schools came together
to discuss early literacy practices.
• In SP, the Heritage French team hosted a
day-long workshop in collaboration with the
Indian Association of French Teachers (IATF)
and TVS Monde for French teachers in Delhi
and NCR.
• SP partnered with Consilience to organize a
three-day workshop for teachers, to take them
through design thinking principles and
facilitated a ‘Maker’s Space’ to talk about the
tools for sustained innovation for relevant
learning in schools.
TEACHER EMPOWERMENT
• In MP, our educators have been working closely
with Rayna Dineen, a consultant and lead school
designer for Expeditionary Learning (EL), to review
and strengthen on-going expeditions. She has
conducted engaging sessions on students-centred
lessons, growth mind-set, crew work protocols, and
critical thinking.
• Our SEN department teachers participated in
several programmes to up-skill and re-skill such as
Handwriting Without Tears protocol training; SEN
Forum and the British School, New Delhi; a visit to
V-Excel, Chennai; a course in Learning Disability,
Chandigarh; a workshop on sensitising mainstream
teachers by Dr. Satinder Walia; and another
workshop on reading programme training by
Inderpreet Kaur.
• The school hosted Indian’s first and only
Experiential Education Conference which had over
40 speakers from India, USA and Canada. Over
300 educators from around the country
participated in this learning conference.
Teacher TrainingOverview 2016-17
194
4,552
493
7,833
47,048
No. of Attendees
No. of Training Days
Total Man Days
Total Training Hours
No. of Trainings
© Enlearn Education 2017
The Heritage Performing and Visual Arts
programme has been going from strength to
strength since inception. Our programmes are
inclusive by nature and our vision is not just to
create one winning band, but to create a
culture of music and arts across the school. We
have 30 di�erent bands. Every student gets to
express her/his art in a medium of her/his
choice. We do not have an annual day where
only 200 students get to show their
talents.Instead we have an art festival where
the entire school showcases its art work.
Kala Parv: Kala Parv2016 was designed as
an annual expedition of four months, which
culminated in an exhibition of all forms of
visual arts. During the expedition, students
learnt decision making, problem solving,
creative thinking, critical thinking, e�ective
communication, interpersonal relationship
skills, self-awareness, empathy, and coping with
emotion and stress.
Wired: Our annual rock band competition,
organised by student clubs, not only sees the
creative musical energies of bands from across
the NCR competing in a high octane
environment but also the showcasing of some
original talent. The judges include a panel of
well-known musicians. The bands are judged on
THE ART PROGRAMME
© Enlearn Education 2017
individual professionalism, choice of song, band synchronisation and chemistry, presentation and stage
presence, and technical presence. In the 2016 edition of Wired, we had 180 students from 16 schools
across the NCR competing.
Abhivyakti Theatre Club: The second edition, organised by SP, featured a play that captured
the aftermath of the Mahabharata. Students brought alive the pain and agony of the characters
involved in the conflict in this a 15-day long programme.
Junior School Vertical Meet: We have been seeing an improved level of quality in the vertical
meets held every year at the Junior school level. Once again, we had eight di�erent theatre
performances that provided a grand platform to each and every child from Classes 1-3. The theatre
work moved to yet another level of serious creative expression in Class 7. This year, the students
presented Episodes from an Investigation into Language, The Fab Fabrics Half Hour Special,
Glimpses of the Future and The Merchant of Venice.
Middle Program Theatre: Unlike other theatrical processes, theatre at The Heritage School is
treated as a process to discover di�erent genres of literature in an experiential manner - a
self-discovery process that allows a continuous collective spontaneity which brings the class together.
The element of vulnerability that is so well established, in its subtle ways beautifully allows for the
students to feel and express openly rather than experiencing it as a purely skill based task. The theatre
work moved to yet another level of serious creative expression in Class 7. This year, the students
presented Episodes from an Investigation into Language, The Fab Fabrics Half Hour Special,
Glimpses of the Future and The Merchant of Venice.
Physical Education at The Heritage School focuses on learning life skills and the curriculum is based completely on National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE, USA) standards. In the last year:
• Over 800 students joined after-school clubs.
• 1,200 students (2/3rd of the eligible) filled team trial forms.
• 390 students participated in 10 di�erent sports (approximately 45 di�erent categories).
• 71 medals in (DOE) District Competitions.
• 49 medals at CBSE Zonals.
• 1 medal at CBSE Nationals.
• 1 medal at SGFI Nationals.
• 27 medals in (DOE) State Competitions.
Adaptive Athletic Championship
Our children with special needs also performed well, with the SEN Department putting up a grand show in association with the Physical Education Department in the second edition of the Championship. Ten di�erent events were held and seven schools from Delhi-NCR participated with around 170 children in di�erent categories.
PHYSICAL EDUCATION/SPORTS
Student Clubs and Societies: These active forums where student voices hold primacy
help the students to develop and hone their skills and interests in di�erent subjects in a
non-competitive atmosphere in synergy with the academic programme. A collateral benefit of
this is also the application building for college admissions where proven leadership ability through
involvement in school clubs is a must. In the 2016, over 14 clubs with a membership of over
400 students were active.
CO-CURRICULAR PROGRAMME
Model United Nations (MUN): The sixth
edition, held in November 2016, was one of the
largest in Delhi NCR with over 400 delegates. The
agendas were framed specifically to set new
standards of discussion and resolution making in
committee.
Students’ Council: Though this
representative structure elected by the students, of
the students, for the students, students participate
in the a�airs of the school, working in partnership
with the school management and sta� for the
benefit of the school and students. The highlight
of the elections in 2016 was that they were
paperless with students being engaged in designing
modules and figuring out the technology that
would be able to drive this initiative.
At The Heritage School, we also believe providing
our students with wide exposure to learning related
events and locations, national and international, to
help them expand their horizons.
Visit to Cern, Switzerland: Nine students
of Class 11 got the opportunity to visit CERN
(European organization of nuclear research). They
met various eminent scientists and attended
lectures on particle physics, Higg’s Boson, physics
and its medical applications, and so on. The
highlight of this trip was their meeting with the
current Director General, Fabiola Gianotti, who
also happens to be the First Lady Director General
of CERN and Peter Jenni, who is one of the
founding fathers of the most famous ATLAS
experiment at CERN.
© Enlearn Education 2017
Ed Tech Summit 2016: A team of six
students from SP participated and our team
bagged the first price for the ‘Most Innovative
Project’ as well as the ‘Audience Choice Project’.
The students partnered with Bharat Blind
Technical Society in Delhi and identified that they
needed a smart walking stick with ultrasonic
sensors, a basic website where scribes can
volunteer and audio books for their curriculum.
Singapore International Science Camp: Our International Programme (IP)
students participated in this science programme
that provides opportunities to students to work in
genetic engineering, virtual reality, driverless cars
and advances in surgery. This programme is
created and certified by the National University of
Singapore (NUS) and held on its campus. Our
students had the opportunity to stay on the campus
and interact with the faculty.
Jaipur Lit Fest 2017: Our IP students
immersed themselves in a series of sessions
covering a gamut of areas from literature to
economics to politics.
Khoj 2016: Khoj, an integral part of the MP
curriculum is a six day outward bound learning
experience in the real world context. Grade 4
visited Kaldeo National Park to study the wetland
eco-system to understand interdependence. Grade
5 studied the monument of Fatehpur Sikri to
experience how a Historian works. Grade 6
worked in a Natural Farm at Fazilka to learn about
organic farming. Grade 7 students partnered with
an NGO in a Rajasthan village to campaign for
Child Rights.
TEDx 2016: TEDx is a programme of local,
self-organised events that bring people together to
share a TED-like experience. The TED
Conference provides general guidance for the
TEDx programme but individual TEDx events,
including ours, are self-organised. ‘TEDx The
Heritage School’ aims to hold deep and
thought-provoking discussions which will make
people question the lives they lead. These
discussions compel them to reach for something
more exciting than traditional careers or
experiences. We want people to be inspired and
think out of the box. In the spirit of innovation,
the theme for ‘TEDx The Heritage School’ in
2016 was “Ctrl F5- Hit the Refresh Button. For
Ideas. Attitude. Experiences.” Here, eight speakers
from di�erent fields came together to share their
stories and experiences:
Mallavath Poorna (Youngest girl to scale
Mount Everest)
Raman Roy (Chairman & MD, Quatrro Father
of the Indian BPO industry)
Piyush Manush (Salem‘s green warrior and
environmental activist)
Rohit Bansal (Co-Founder, Snapdeal, One of
India’s largest online marketplace)
Sahil Sharma (Youngest music producer to have
played at Tomorrowland)
Sandhya Puchalappali (Founder and President,
Aarti Home that works to curb foeticide and
empower women, and recipient of Leader of
Impact Award in 2012)
Vandana Kohli (Award-winning filmmaker,
musician, columnist and commentator on issues of
social relevance and gender)
Vinita Singh (Founder and Trustee, We The
People that builds people’s capacities from
aconstitutional standpoint)
INFRASTRUCTURE
The Heritage School, Gurgaon, has one of the
best equipped school campuses in Delhi NCR.
The building is over 13 years old and thus needs
some serious renovations every year. In our
endeavour to ensure that our students gain from
excellent school facilities, we continuously make
improvements to our infrastructure. Over the
last year, we invested substantially in:
• The first turf in a school in Gurugram with a
running track.
• Interiors in the entire junior school and middle
school classrooms.
• New more small-group work-friendly furniture
for most of the Junior and all of the Middle
school classrooms.
• Corridors completely redesigned and redone
in both Junior and Middle school blocks.
• False ceilings in several areas.
• Flooring in all Junior school classrooms.
• New wall finishes, boards, curtains in several
classrooms.
• New air-conditioning plant in the entire Junior
school building.
• Augmenting of air-conditioning capacity for
the Middle school building.
• Air filtration.
• Newly fitted professional sound system in the
auditoria.
• Replacement of some of the old buses, overall
health of the fleet is improving.
• Several improvements in the IT infrastructure
inside and outside the classroom.
• Road work to ease tra�c congestion in and
around the school.
© Enlearn Education 2017
SOCIAL IMPACT
At The Heritage School, we believe in building the capacities of students – attitudes, skills, knowledge and frameworks of action and advocacy – needed to be engaged, active and informed citizens in the 21st century.
The Heritage Centre for Active
Citizenship: This year, students from Class 8 onwards selected two projects: 'Making Gurgaon safe for women' and 'Giving way to ambulances' as part of the centre's initiatives. The students did primary and secondary research and also approached authorities – the District Commissioner, Police Commissioner, RTA and so on. The students have been using awareness, education and enforcement as a means to bring about immediate impact.
District Library Upgradation: Nine of our students, after reading a news report on the poor state of the district library, decided to do something to save it. They formed a girls’ group and took up the matter with the district administration. Within a year, with the District Commissioner’s support, INR 1.76 crore was sanctioned for a new library block close to the original building near Sadar Bazaar in old Gurgaon. The new library will house 3,000 books on di�erent subjects.
Air Pollution Awareness Campaign:
Our campaign on the ill-e�ects of firecrackers on ecology before Diwali was well appreciated. We were the first school in Delhi NCR to close down when air pollution in the city reached unprecedented levels and became unsafe, especially for
© Enlearn Education 2017
children and the elderly. Other schools in Delhi NCR followed suit.
Vocational Training: We collaborated with AIMS Media and Vedatya Institute of Hotel Management to provide vocational training to our students with special needs. In the last two years, the students have shown remarkable achievement and the first batch of 15 students in both programmes will pass out this year. Our special needs students can now also look forward to taking advantage of our forthcoming collaboration with the Lemon Tree group of hotels. Through this initiative, the students can gain professional experience in the hospitality trade.
The Muskan Programme: The Heritage School has also been working with the state government to improve the quality of education in Haryana. Under the pilot project of Muskan, we adopted a government primary school in Rosewood City. We have been sharing our best practices in learning, innovative ideas and creativity with the school since adoption in September 2016 and our students have been interacting constructively with students from the adopted school.
Partnering with Municipal Schools:
In collaboration with I Am A Teacher (our partner not-for-profit organisation which aims to build an alternate and practice-based model for teacher education), we are partnering with the Police Colony Hauz Khas South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) school. The goal is to improve enrolment, infrastructure and quality of education in the SDMC school.
Sveda: The JP’s community initiative culminated in every child and teacher contributing a patch of wool to create a class blanket; 45 blankets were donated to an NGO in Delhi.
AWARDS & RECOGNITION
We are humbled and gratified to be counted among the top schools in the nation. We are recognised not just for academic quality but also sta� welfare and development, individual attention towards students, infrastructure and leadership quality:
Educomp and NDTV joined hands to recognize and felicitate e�orts made by schools, educators and administrators to impart quality education under multiple categories, from across the country. We were recognised as the top school in North India for academics and for pedagogy.
The Heritage School, Gurgaon is ranked at No. 6 in Co-Ed Schools nationally as per the Education World Top 100 Ranking (September 2016), having consistently climbed up from the seventh position (2015) and ninth position (2014). We are the No. 1 school in the city and No. 4 in the NCR.
Education WorldIndia School Rankings 2016
AQS ranks and evaluates the school on close to 162 parameters ranging from infrastructure and resources to leadership and management and from the child to the teaching and learning. It is an in-depth, intensive and rigorous study that takes place over a period of 12 days, and we are one of only two International Gold rated schools in the entire country. The honour of the International Gold is a testament to our democratic practices, our carefully nourished culture of inquiry, of review, of authenticity, of empowerment and of ownership. It is also a validation of the vast infrastructure we have built over the years.
About 3,000 Ashoka Fellows have been named in 70 countries, of which 350 are from India. Being named AshokaChangemaker School is a recognition of our cultivation of empathy, teamwork, leadership, and change making in students. We were one amongst a group of only 180 schools from around the globe and one amongst only seven from North India at the time of the accreditation.
Adhyayan Quality AuditAshoka Changemaker School
NDTV Awards
Our JP has been ranked second in the country by the Education Survey held by Hindustan Times.
HT Education Survey
© Enlearn Education 2017
Your school would continue to strengthen its academic processes and educational practices to make our students ready for a futuristic society. In line with our strategic vision document, we would also be focusing on some strategic initiatives this year. Some of these initiatives include:
Revamping Curriculum: We have embarked on a curriculum redesign programme to make our curriculum deeper, student led, focused on skill and integrated with design thinking and technology skills. Along with our curriculum partners, Enlearn Education, we are putting together a dedicated team of subject and pedagogy experts from abroad and across the country
International Recruitment Global Talent: We have embarked on an international recruitment strategy to source the best talent for your school from the US, Europe and East Asia. The quality of teachers and teacher leaders has the single biggest impact on student learning. Given the shortage of good talent, it is important to diversify one’s recruitment strategy. Your school is now part of some of the world’s top recruitment fairs and events and it continues to attract attention from potential talent.
Maker's Space Labs: Your school is also working on establishing a ‘Maker’s Space’ lab with state-of-the-art tools such as 3D printers, interactive boards, programmable microchips, circuit boards, soldering machines, etc. This physical ‘hang out’ space would help students
FUTUREROAD MAP
work on product development and complement some of the changes we are making to our curriculum.
Technology: With the intent to augment our technology capabilities, we recently visited the BETT London conference – the world’s best educational technology fair. Talks are on with some of the best technology partners to implement solutions in learning management systems, flipped classrooms, one-on-one devices, assessment trackers, etc.
New Course Options: In line with introducing IBDP and IGCSE to provide more course options for students, your school is also exploring more autonomous, goal based and self-directed course options for some of our independent and gifted students.
Air Quality: Today, one of the biggest issues on hand is the increased level of pollution (read PM-2.5) and its e�ect on our health. After in-depth deliberation with some industry experts and under the supervision of consultants who have implemented solutions for The American Embassy and British Schools, Delhi, we are in the process of upgrading our air-conditioning system and working towards the ISHRAE (The Indian Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers) standard 10001:2016 (ISHRAE standard for Indoor Environmental Quality). This has meant serious upgrades in our air-conditioning and fresh air systems.
© Enlearn Education 2017
