Affable Avalon: The Ethos of a Loving School with a Soul
Schools are born for many reasons and with noble intentions. However, it would not be invalid to say that Avalon’s birth was serendipitous. It was born from multitudinous reasons – the dissatisfaction of a young mother with her daughter’s early education, her Master’s Degree in Human Development, a strong and supportive family, and God’s blessings. The result – the school of every mother’s dreams!
Avalon was born, in the year 2000, as a mainstream yet alternative school. Its aim was singular – to be the most Loving School. In the words of the Founder Director, Ms. Simi Sharma, “Love is our vision. Love is our foundation. Love is our path. Love is our destination. Love is our pedagogy. Love is our purpose. Love is our ideology. Love is our focus. Love is our lesson. Love is our teacher. Love is universal and our defining feature.”
“Learn to Live, Learn to Love, Learn to Learn, and Learn to leave a legacy.” This is the mission statement of the school, inspired by Steven Covey’s fundamentals of human fulfilment. It signifies that the purpose of education is not to focus solely on academic excellence but also to help students self-actualize. To help them make conscious and conscientious choices in life; life skill and value education are imperative. Last but most importantly, spiritual education is critical to find a sense of meaning, purpose, and personal unity and contribution.
Growing from strength to strength in the last 23 years, Avalon Heights International School is a private unaided Day School in the flamingo city of Navi Mumbai. It is affiliated with CISCE (Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations) and prepares students for ICSE Year 10 and ISC for years 11& 12. With a strength of 1200 students and 120 teachers, it maintains a teacher-student ratio of 1:10. Each classroom has a maximum of 30 students, ensuring individualized attention and quality classroom interactions.
Its philosophy, warmth, child-centricity, and latest and most innovative pedagogical practices make it stand apart. The school ISC coordinator, Ms. Saloni Lonial, who has been with the institution for the last 16 years, reported, “Whenever we ask students from our present or past batches to articulate Avalon in one word, they invariably say “the teachers.” It comes undoubtedly from the exceptional warmth they experience and the relationship they enjoy with the teachers in school.”
Teacher-student connection and relationship starts every morning at the school gates. Hugs, pats, and Namaste transform the reluctant, sleepy, and moody student into an enthused and loved learner. Homeroom conversations, community circle exercises, and scheduled student-teacher conferences allow teachers and students to find time to chat and bond as a group and individually, developing insight, connections, and empathy for one another. These conversations are always cherished and looked forward to by students and teachers equally.
Daily meditation for ten minutes sets the tone for the day. This is nothing less than a kung-fu battle in their mind initially, as children struggle to keep still or stay focused and not fall asleep.
Child centricity:
Student agency is at the heart of the school culture. Students have a say in most school operations, from choosing the bell music to planning their exam date sheet, writing their report cards, and scoring their peer’s learning at the end of every theme. In addition, they are a part of the teacher recruitment panel and organize student-led open days, events, and assemblies. Students lead not just as Student Council representatives but also as individuals who realize the merit and responsibility in their voice and use it wisely.
Innovative pedagogical practices:
With the announcement of NEP in 2020, Avalon was the first to reinvent its entire curriculum and initiate an integrated approach to learning. It knocked down the walls of different subject areas and clustered the content to tie them into thematic units that students explore as extended project-based lessons. Learning begins with an essential or a driving question and ends as a real-world product, a culminating task, or a conclusive report in case of an inquiry. The learning is consolidated through a reflective essay that answers the essential question and enhances the article with their personal opinions, experiences, and learning journeys. Collaboration, choice and voice, facilitation, transfer of power, and reflection were built into its classroom practices even before the launch of the integrated curriculum. PBL gave it added strength.
One of the most novel teaching methods that Avalon innovated in 2010 was the “Silent teaching” method. A paper on the same was published in the International Journal of innovative research and development in the year 2016. The idea is that learning can take place without using spoken words. Both students and teachers learn new concepts without speech for one hour a week. This practice fosters perceptive skills other than listening, and improves the learners’ focus on all other faculties, along with the tutors’ ability to innovate.
Ms. Sharma believes that “Schools are places where Children’s hearts feel safe, heard, and loved. Schools must attempt to retain God’s masterpiece that lies hidden and unseen within each child, often covered with dirt and grime. We, as guardians, must be careful not to damage their uniqueness in an attempt to create our artwork. We must not raise children to win some imaginary race in life; we must teach them to hold their ground even if the whole world is scurrying past in haste.”
With these beliefs, Avalon holds a partnership with parents that is pivotal to its success. “We never forget that it is the side of the story which parents hold that completes the narrative of education. Avalon’s choice and power is a very active and engaged PTA and involved parent community that shapes the school with its regular feedback once or twice a year.” So says the mother, who became an educator for the last quarter of a century.
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