The Mann School Brief

The Mann School is a premium boarding school (Boys & Girls) in Delhi with national & international students community. The school was established in 1989, with the objective of bringing world-class education to its students making them into a bright, intelligent and physically sound gentlemen & ladies.

The School is member of the elite body of boarding schools in India - Indian Public Schools’ Conference (IPSC) estd.1939 & National Progressive Schools Conference (NPSC). Affiliated to Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) it is certified ISO-9001:2008 and ISO-14001:2004 school.

MS is also an authorized centre for University of Cambridge, ESOL Examinations and an awardee of the International Schools Award (ISA) by the British Council.

Member of Pracheen Kala Kendra (Chandigarh) & Equestrian Federation of India (EFI).

MS is awarded with "Standalone School of the Year" award by the Indian Education Awards 2016.

From a sprawling estate of 20 acres pollution free green campus to spacious E-classrooms to specialized labs for different subjects of science, computer science, linguistic, & languages, modernistic Library, Wi-Fi Campus, up-to-the-minute School ERP system, in-house developed Science Park and comfortable air conditioned hostels for both boys and girls, MS has it all. Open Air Theatre, mini auditorium, one of the largest playgrounds for outdoor games & sports like athletics, swimming, football, basketball, tennis, cricket, etc. The school has state-of-the-art floodlit synthetic tennis and basketball courts and skating rink. For all round physical fitness there is an obstacle course and a gymnasium. The school takes pride in having one of the finest & biggest horse riding facilities amongst schools in India.

The School also offers its students a range of extra-curricular activities to choose from. From adventure sports to music, billiards to mini golf and from gymnastics to yoga, clubs & hobbies of celestial club, eco club, culinary arts, robotics & gaming, photography, classical dances, arts & crafts, personality development programmes, tours & treks, etc., students are given ample opportunities to indulge their creative energies. The school maintains one of the finest orchestra and musical bands for boys & girls. To develop character, comradeship, discipline, secular outlook, spirit of adventure and the ideals of selfless service amongst the students the school has Army and Air force wings of N.C.C.

MS has state-of-the-art dining facility catering to Indian, Chinese & Continental cuisines. Provides RO drinking water and maintains a 10 bedded Infirmary with Doctor and nursing staff 24x7. 

A full time counsellor is available on campus for the students and parents. The School has round the clock security & is under CCTV camera surveillance.

One can have a look at school’s website, www.themannschool.com for a virtual tour of The Mann School.

STRENGTHENING ROOTS AND SPREADING WINGS

“There are two everlasting bequests, we as torchbearers, playing the role of a teacher or a parent can give to our children. They are strengthening roots and spreading wings.” When I talk of the roots, I actually think and believe in giving our children more than the surviving skills. I mean providing them a deep and strong foundation of security and stability to excel in various spheres of life ahead.  While the depth would decide their stability in life, the height to which they can soar in this limitless sky, depends significantly on their wings; wings connoting here the appreciation, laughter,  freedom and their ignited creative minds.

As a tree with strong deep roots laughs at storms, similarly when a child nurtured with the sense of self and with a strong value system, his roots will also go deep down and firmly entwine with his traditions and culture, making him face any challenge and hardship in life with a smile on his face and courage in his deeds.

It is well said that we must give our loved ones wings to fly and the roots to come back. Here wings intercede for the recognition of the need for autonomy. The gift of wings to a child can be given by giving them opportunities to become capable and feel valued. It can also be rendered to them by alluring them liberty to take decisions for their life. But, liberty and freedom is not just about being able to do what they want when they want, it is also about being able to think, act and feel without being plagued by negative self-talk, doubts and uncertainty.

As wings give the children a vision to their aim in life, roots remind them to be grounded. Being a teacher our role is limitless. We are an incomparable support to the children in making them acquainted to their potential, by inculcating in them the sense of being committed, loyal, honest, dedicated, generous, kind and humble and above all,  a human. We are those radars which can track and surveil their fly time to time. We are the guiding force who should not only bless them with the wings, but also usher them into the direction as well.

We as teachers, must understand that our role is paramount. We are the professional gatekeepers and we have to face challenges immensely. We must test the students not only on the parameters of technology but also on the effective value system so that they can wisely comprehend difference between the terms ‘not to be used and ‘to be utilised’ in respect of advancement in science and technology.

We must make our children competent enough so that they can analyse and introspect themselves critically and can choose the best for themselves, thereby living up to their potential in numerous capacities and not being misguided. We should not forget that by making their roots deep strong and by allowing them to spread their wings, we are actually preparing them for the roads they have to step on in future.

For this, we must remember that we need to interact with them time to time, because every interaction with them provides an opportunity to strengthen our bond with them ,making their roots strong and their wings widespread.

Ms Kamini S Haldhar

The Mann School

Changing Role of Parents & Teachers with Technology

Parents and teachers are the two closest and best factors in a child’s ultimate growth, who are mutually bound by a purely unselfish common thread of an earnest desire to see the young child/pupil go ahead of them in life, to prosper and flourish better than they have done.

Such thinking, it goes without saying, is only natural for the parents, because it is based on their shared love with the child due to emotional, traditional and biological  reasons. In the case of a teacher, the same intense concern for the child is based on profession as a mission, which establishes that teaching, by its very nature, is a process of enabling and empowering a child into a fine human being and better citizen of tomorrow. In this sense, teaching is purely a service, a missionary act, rather than an occupation which is always mercenary. That is why a teacher is called a gardener who nurtures his saplings with all the loving care he can afford.

It needs, however, to be borne in mind, that the analogy of parents and teachers on an identical attitude towards their wards cannot be stretched too far. It’s a fact that for parents, their ward is the best and, therefore, he must claim all the 100% of his teacher. But, for the teacher, it is always a set of students being treated as wards and which changes every year, who have to be taken care of and, therefore, every child of a particular year simply takes 100% attention of his. He has to treat every student in analytical and comparative terms in relation to his classmates, since all of them are born with different talents and interests and capacities, and they have to be attended to and served as per their needs, resulting in their assessment on a scale of comparative ratings.

Parents need to understand and realize such practical problems being faced by teachers and refrain themselves from blaming teachers for not giving their best to their ward. Parents and teachers need to develop strong mutual faith and trust in each other for the best monitoring of the children. Constant interaction between the two is the only best method to develop such trust as it used to be some 50 years ago.  What has happened to the age-old valuable bond of mutual respect and trust between parents and teachers after all? It can be put down to two major changes in today’s society  (a) impact of computer based rapidly growing technology and (b) ever increasing need of parents to go out to work. Both these factors have widened the generation gap between parents and children on the one hand, between the children and their teachers on the other, thereby progressively thinning down of interaction between parents and teachers.

Technology has so powerfully impacted the raw young generation that they love to spend their time more and more with cell phones and internet which provides them all sorts of information on all subjects, that they do not feel the need to consult their parents regarding their problems and prefer to listen to their like-minded peer groups instead of their teachers/parents. They also take advantage of the fact that parents and teachers belong to an old world and are not well-versed in today’s technology as they are. Naturally, the image of the parents and teachers and their regard for them, have gone down in the eyes of the young generation,  leading to a blame-game among all three stake-holders of education of children, viz, students, parents and teachers. Dissatisfaction is writ large on everybody’s face that children are not learning well or are not being taught well.

The only panacea available to us to bridge the generation gap and bring about an equilibrium in school sphere lies in adoption of the latest technology by parents and teachers who should use it habitually like the young ones do. In other words both must change with change of time. It will restore elders’ image in their eyes and elders will be able to monitor students better and faster. On the parallel lines, parents will be able to frequently interact with teachers through mail, Facebook and other channels to update themselves about the progress of their wards at convenience. After all, parents and teachers owe a great responsibility to enrich the society by contributing exemplary citizens to it.

Commander VK Banga

Chairman IPSC &

Principal

The Mann School, Delhi -110082

NEED OF GOOD COMMUNICATION SKILLS

Communication skills are crucial for the successful career of a student or an individual. Today in the competitive world, an educated person without good communication skill is considered uncivilized.

• For want of good communication no one is able to explain his ideas or the subjects though he may have good knowledge.

• Good communication always helps in overcoming the problems at all level in the life.

• Communication skills are not possible without doing good practice in reading, listening and speaking. The best endeavour in this area is CAMBRIDGE CLASSES in The Mann School for enhancing communication skills.

• Students here are motivated to develop reading habits through books, newspapers and magazines to improve knowledge and communication effectively.

• Effective communication not only leaves a good impression on others, it also enhances one’s success, understanding, trust, respect and teamwork.

• Communication skills enhance confidence in decision making and professional relationships.

• Students improve themselves through role play, group discussions and other group activities. Good conversation among students helps to develop respect for each other.

• Man craves to create a good impression upon others and one’s art of skilful communication that can greatly help to convey his ideas, feelings and intentions to people.  

           Mrs Sarita Mishra

           The Mann School

       

The role and responsibility of students towards society.

A student today will be a citizen tomorrow and hence will have to shoulder a heavy responsibility to lead his or her nation in the right direction. Therefore the schools train the students with a holistic approach, to get better citizens in future; and thus it is the responsibility of students to make full use of education imparted to them. Students must respond to what they are prepared and trained for, i.e., they must demonstrate academic integrity and honesty. A sensible student will become a responsible citizen one day, he or she will need to shoulder the responsibility to handle his or her family, society and nation as a whole. They are expected to end the menaces like child labour, dowry system, pollution, global warming etc., through an integral approach and a cool head on their shoulders. The new generation is expected to be more diligent in all respects. They must know how to make the best use of available resources and how to go for sustainable development without risking the environment and the ecosystem. To conclude, we can say that today’s students are going to be responsible for the betterment of life in the offing since they are a smarter community with a huge and positive generation gap than ever before.


Mr. Dheeraj Kumar
The Mann School

HELPING STUDENTS TO MOTIVATE THEMSELVES

Motivation is a driving force which leads one to success. It is often easier to get the students to do what we, as teachers, want them to do by rewarding them for their good performance or by telling of a negative consequence. But, it generally works for a shorter term. So, we must create such conditions by which students get motivated themselves, i.e., and develop intrinsic motivation. One way of achieving this is by praising the efforts put in by the students to solve a problem or to do an activity. This will not only energise the student, but also make him feel knowledgeable. We, the teachers, must take a genuine interest in our students. We must learn about their interests, dreams, problems etc. and also tell them about our own. Let the students feel related to us. Strictness cannot build a good rapport with the students. Sometimes smile, a joke or a pat on the student’s shoulder is sufficient enough to instill in him positive energy.

It is really what the teacher is doing or allowing to be done in the classrooms ( behaviour, teaching style, humanity ) which motivates the students.

Mrs Bela Shanker

The Mann School

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE TEACHER AND THE TAUGHT

It has often been observed that students tend to score high in their favorite teacher’s subject. Although there is a funny proverbial note, “The best teacher is that, who doesn’t teach”, I am not, at all, indicating to be that one. The ultimate recognition, by the students, is achieved through dedication, reaching the child’s mind, sincere care and selfless teaching. Teacher’s main motive should be to understand the peculiarity of students and act accordingly.

My friends often tell me that I, being a teacher, might be enjoying my work more than others as they are always slogging their heads in the heaps of files kept on their tables and keep on arranging them back from one cabinet to another. I simply say to them that no doubt I do enjoy but imagine what would happen to you all when you don’t find your files at the place you had kept or find all the texts of your file changing on its own from time to time. Here lies the difference that you all deal with files and I deal with LIVING FILES. The students are my files who are never found where left them last time. Their responses are unexpected. They may smile at scolding and frown at your polite suggestions. Above all I, being a teacher, cannot afford to carry my irritation for long, because of one student, as the other students are waiting to be taught. I have observed that after revealing this fact my friends look at their files with great affection and relief.

Students spend 5-6 hours with their teachers and we ought to make it qualitative and fruitful. This task will be just next to impossible if the relationship between the teachers and the taught is not congenial. Working as a boarding teacher makes the task even more challenging when the duration spent with the students goes to 15-16 hours and our responsibilities get multi-fold. Here I would like to add that the day schools, where the teacher is interacting with the students only in class rooms, under ideal conditions, have less idea of what all challenges boarding teachers face in grooming the students on different occasions. A boarding teacher’s job starts from lining up the students for PT/Yoga early in the morning at 6 am, inspecting their turnout, at 7.20 am, before breakfast, monitoring their meal intakes and table manners during all the meals, supervising their study hours and ensuring their timely sleep. Now maintaining a congenial and friendly relationship with the students become a pre-requisite to make them participate and learn all these throughout the day. Here keen observation plays a key role in understanding child’s psychology, his confusions, fears and attitude so that his problems can be combated properly. We, teachers, need to build strong bond and faith with the students so that they may approach us for the solution of any kind of complications or problems.

It has been often seen that yelling at the students is the most convenient way that teachers find to drag students’ attention towards studies but the fact is that even the students need to be handled and molded towards studies with lot of care and that should be acted upon only after understanding their psyche. Students come from different cultures and family backgrounds and they deserve to be respected as an individual. Their needs have to be understood and such a relation should be developed with them that they may confide in you all their problems and confusions, not only academic but related to the life skills as well, so that they may get a mature and sensible guidance. A congenial relationship between teacher and students has a positive impact on not only students’ academic results but throughout their life as well. It enhances their personality and prepares them not only to achieve the goals but help them in reaching the acme of success and maintain that position for a longer period of time. I have many students who address me as “Papa “and “Big Bro”. The girl students often get scolding from me for not keeping and tying their hair properly and it was so amusing to see my class 12^th girl students tying their hair in two plaits on the examination days of geography to make me feel good. 

They consider me as their guide and mentor which gives me a strange feeling of responsibility towards them. It has been experienced by me that the students whom you have pampered for one or the other reasons during his or her school tenure may not remember you much but the students who have got maximum scolding would always remember you on various occasions and keep you updated about their whereabouts through social networking or phone calls. It is rightly said that people never forget how you have made them feel so the scolding should never cross the limits to make the students feel dejected and remorseful. Even a slap can be respected if it is done for a right cause and in a right way.

Almost everyone has a favorite teacher and one who is liked less but the thread of respect remains common in both the cases. To build a positive relation between a teacher and students is not an easy task and is a little complex too, which can be forged by developing a pleasant learning environment where the students learn lessons from the teacher and the teacher also learns and enhances his teaching ability. The present exposure to media has equipped our students with intelligent queries which should neither be shrugged off nor taken as a blow. Rather, that particular student should be appreciated for asking such question which had made you to re brush and explore your knowledge. Its, actually the qualities of students which keep us updated so we should never discourage their queries. 

We, being teachers, should create an open environment where each student is respected and not ridiculed, either by the teacher or by the peer group. Students should always feel free to ask any question and they should be assured that they will neither be taunted nor ridiculed on their queries. We all know that taunting and being ridiculed hurt more than scoldings.

Finally, teachers may not get a strong bank balance at the end of their careers but they do treasure their students who remember you and acknowledge your sacrifice and dedication.

Mr Madhukar Priya

The Mann School