Ms.Mallika Sen- Principal Inventure Academy

Dear Inventure Community,

It gives me great pleasure to welcome Ms. Mallika Sen as the Principal of Inventure Academy.

All of you already know her as a member of our Management Team. She brings to Inventure and the position a wealth of experience, accolades and expertise which we will all benefit from tremendously. These include:

• Independent Consultant (2008 – 2010): In this capacity, she has conducted teacher training, academic audit and whole school improvement programs for various private schools in India and the Gulf

• Head of Education, Aga Khan Education Service (2004 – 2008)
• Principal, The Valley School, Bangalore Krishnamurti Foundation (1990 – 2004)
• Trustee: The Krishnamurti Foundation India (1998)
• Education Secretary: KFI (2000 – 2004)
• Member of the Standing Committee on Examinations of the Council for Indian School Certificate Examination, New Delhi (2001- 2004)
• She has received the National Award for Teachers from the President of India in 2001

Ms Sen has a B.Ed. (English and History) and Masters in English Literature (awarded gold medal), from Calcutta University. She has also trained in Effective School Management at Xavier Labour Research Institute (XLRI), Jamshedpur.

In her role as Principal, Ms. Sen will be overall responsible for converting into reality Inventure Academy’s core purpose and vision. More specifically, she will be responsible for the entire Academic function and day to day administration of Inventure Academy, including making actionable our school development plan and policies.

In this role, she will report to me in my capacity as the CEO & Managing Trustee of Inventure Academy. In a little over five years, Inventure Academy has grown from a start up to a tremendous success as evidenced by our many achievements, be it in academics, sports or co-curricular activities:

• We are ranked in the top 25 day schools all India in the September issue of the 2010 EducationWorld C-Fore survey
• Our academic results at the Grade 10 IGCSE & ICSE exams and in the ASSET tests
• Our various achievements in the sports arena at the inter school and all India levels
• Our excellence in inter school events across life skills, art, dance, music and drama events

With the growth that we have evidenced, the school management (headed up by me as the Managing Trustee) felt the need for a different kind of leadership and organization structure, one that would consolidate our talent – both faculty and student- and propel us forward to being one of the best schools in India in almost every way possible. I am confident that Ms. Sen shares our vision, and has the wisdom, and the expertise to make this happen.

We are delighted that Ms. Sen has accepted the role as she commands tremendous respect from every member of the learning community, at Inventure and beyond. I am sure you will join me in wishing her success and extending her every support in her new role.

Thanking you & best regards
Managing Trustee & CEO
Nooraine Fazal

Inventure Academy bags at Outstanding Cambridge Learner Award

Suman Sridharan, now an AS grade student, did us proud by securing first place across India in Economics AS level examinations held by Cambridge International Examinations (CIE) in June 2010.

Suman says of the Head of School, Nooraine Fazal and his teachers. “They showed confidence and belief in my potential”.

“Economics helps me understand the world better. It helps me understand that there is a scarcity and surplus of resources. As an economist, I wish for a mutually caring environment, where everyone has enough to have the basic minimum requirement,” he added.

Acrostic written by Pranathi

This is an impromptu one word acrostic (form of poetry) written by Pranithi (2B) on CREAM.

Seasons in the Sun

Public schools have been replaced by obscenely priced, pretentious ‘international schools’ that churn out nerds or brats; where all-round development is substituted with obsessive academics

An old song from the ’70s, Seasons in the sun, talks about the fun of growing up in the hills with one’s childhood friends. Having studied in a residential public school back then, one’s mind takes a quick recap:



We grew up on a sprawling 750-acre campus. At 8,000 ft, surrounded by the Blue Mountains, we learned to love nature, value money and appreciate what we had. Pocket money was 20 bucks a month, from which we managed all our purchases. On Sundays, we explored the woods and trudged down to the tuck shop for a “pennyworth” of hamburgers and egg sweets. In the process, we learned to manage money from an early age. For fun, we hung out together, shared tuck, broke the rules, harassed teachers, laughed, cried, lived and loved — a lot. Sometimes, we just lazed on the lawns, squinting at the sun and chewing on the sweet sap that resides in a blade of grass. In the process, we didn’t just read Tom Brown’s School Days; we lived it.

When we stepped out of line, the prefects punished us — push-ups being the most popular mode. Our ‘play station’ was a field where we reported twice a day and got our butts kicked by the muscular physical instructor if we didn’t. There was no one to make a fuss over us. Our parents didn’t rush to meet the class teacher, over-protectively, each time someone stole our eraser. (The fact that they were hundreds of miles away is another matter.) If it rained, you got wet — it was as simple as that. If you caught the sniffles, you were sent to the school hospital where the nurse force fed you “cough mixture” or put you to bed. The orderlies had a strange but effective way of making sure you didn’t fool around — they took away your pyjamas temporarily, thereby confining you to bed and good behaviour!

The brass band in full regalia at the Trooping of the Colour parade of Lawrence School, Lovedale. The parade used to amaze military officers and visiting dignitaries

We developed crushes on our rosy-cheeked classmates, sometimes carrying a torch for them all our lives. As expected of growing boys in salubrious climes, we were always ravenously hungry and not beyond filching food from the stores; often exchanging the bigger, better piece from our peers’ plates. To survive, we learned some of the wicked ways of the world like baksheesh for bearers for that extra portion. As in the song, we “learned of love and A, B, C; skinned our hearts and skinned our knees”. In the midst of all this, we had the most fantastic childhood a growing lad could have and formed lifelong bonds with our mates. By 15 or 16, we were already young men, toughened mentally and physically.

For outings, we walked to town, six kilometres away — and back — sometimes hitching lifts, as per the custom in the hills. On Saturday nights, if lucky, we were shown a western on a creaking 16-mm projector with the beginning, end and parts of the middle missing, but who cared? It was fun like no swanky multiplex could match. And once a year, we put up the most incredible show during the traditional Trooping of the Colour parade that amazed military officials and visiting dignitaries alike. Best of all, our parents’ socio-economic backgrounds didn’t count. If anything, fathers were known by their sons’ accomplishments. And right till we passed out, we couldn’t identify a person’s ethnic group by his last name — quite simply because it didn’t matter.

Today, public schools have become somewhat an anachronism, replaced by obscenely priced, pretentious “international schools”. All-round development is substituted with obsessive academics under the excuse of competition. They churn out either brats or nerds who wouldn’t last a day on the streets. Memories flash back to the song one last time: “We had joy we had fun, we had seasons in the sun / But the hills that we climbed were just seasons out of time/ And the wine and the song, like the seasons have all gone.”


Dinyar T Dastoor is a freelance writer who travels, conducts workshops and writes spoofs, satires and on anything except so called issues of national interest dd.wordsworth@gmail.com

                                                                            
-Article Courtsey Ahmedabad Mirror

The Times NIE News Makers Meet

“Bangalore Metro, the most expensive project undertaken by the state and one of the most awaited ones, should be ready by December this year,” informed Vasanth Rao, the General Manager for BMRCL in a recent NIE Newsmakers meet held by Times of India, last week.

Attended by select students from across 40 schools of Bangalore, the idea for all the students representing their school was to put ourselves in the shoes of a reporter , attend a press conference organised by Times of India, quiz the official further with query that came to our mind after gathering information.

The topic for the day was ‘Namma metro and city’. Tejas Rao and I gathered a lot of interesting facts about the project and also understood that it is a Herculean task. There are many teams working parallel on national and international level to make the first metro train run in Bangalore.

Moderated by The Times of India -Resident Editor Balram Singh, the press conference gave many students a chance to ask the one question on the topic which was on to of their mind.After the press conference we had we had a presentation on nuances of journalism is and a star correspondent Quiz.

It was great exposure and the press conference was great. And i sure hope Inventure kids continues going through such interesting gatherings.

Interesting facts about Namma Metro:

-Bangalore Metro was the first modern metro rail project to be sanctioned by the government. But Delhi got going with it faster and hence became the first city to have it running.

-The metro route will be 42.8 kms long.

-Each metro train will have three coaches each, run every three minutes and transport 3,000 people at one go. (Com pare it with our BMTC buses transports 70 people in one go)

- Six to eight metro engines will be kept as spare to combat an emergency.

- The train would be fully automatic but would have a driver to guide in case of emergency

-Over 1500 trees have been cut to make space for the metro rails. Over 5000 also planted in the outskirts to compensate for the reduced green cover.

- Metro rail has generated 4000 direct employments and 10,000 direct employments.

By Manasi Rao
Grade 8B

NBA Director, Greg Stolt, at Inventure Academy

“Sports teach a lot of skills which is transformable into academics and basket ball teaches them discipline and focus,” said Director of National Basketball Association (NBA), Basketball Operations – International, Greg Stolt, when asked about the association between sports and academics.

Stolt was at Inventure Academy on Monday, 6th of September 2010, to conduct a two hour long basketball clinic for students from grade 5 upwards. Besides giving the students them tips from modern coaching techniques of the game, he also sportingly participated in a friendly game.

“My one message to the students would be to set an achievable target- which could be to improve a little more with each passing day,” he said. “But whatever be it just enjoy your school life as the clock is not going back,” he quipped.

Read what The Times of India has to say to this

THE BOND

She gazed longingly
At the coffin outside
Her grief, her sorrow
Was hard to hide

Years before the fateful day
Walking hand in hand
A sulky daughter& a worried mother
Watching waves meeting the sand

Later that night
With bags on her back
She slips through the moonlit night
Never to look back

Now reading her mother's will
With an untouched cup of tea
How strong her bond was
With he mother, she could clearly see

- Namrata Ramesh 7A

Inventure Academy Sports Day in Times of India (student edition)