Philosophy
Our Core Beliefs
We believe that children are born capable, competent and eager to learn.They actively reach out to interact with other people, and the world around them. Their development depends on each unique child having opportunities to interact in positive relationships and enabling environments. When given an environment full of love, joy, and responsibility, children blossom like flowers in the spring.
We envision a nurturing and fun-filled learning atmosphere, where children are respected for their individual minds and are cared for by competent and informed adults. Our school works actively to develop critical thinking, creativity, curiosity, and collaboration, skills that our students will need to navigate our rapidly changing world as ethical global citizens. Our understanding of the diverse ways in which the human brain engages in learning is the foundation of our philosophy. we are committed to the belief that each child can and must experience success.
The teacher’s role, therefore, is to be a collaborator and facilitator in the learning journey of children while being committed to their own life-long learning. Parents are our partners in their child’s learning journey.
Arth tries to foster independence, intrinsic motivation and kindness towards all through mindful words and actions, in order to create a safe and trusting community where self-esteem and a healthy sense of self can flourish.
Rights of children
We believe children are born with certain fundamental unalienable rights and that it is our responsibility as adults to honour and celebrate these rights. Children have a right:
to nature
to play
to get dirty
to scrape their knees
to make mistakes
and so many more….
We believe that children have a right to be children. Arth is founded on the ideal of honouring these rights of children and celebrating their childhood.
Role of Teachers
A guide by the side, not a sage on the stage.
The heart of any high quality learning space are its educators. At Arth, our educators are multifaceted. Their highest calling is listening intently to children and forming genuine friendships with them. They keenly observe children to document their progress and determine appropriate moments to intervene in the child’s learning process. They are highly passionate, educated, experienced and reflective practitioners, continually working towards bettering themselves through workshops and training.
They are not just teachers, but facilitators, researchers, designers, collaborators, curators and above all curious learners themselves. Our teachers are people who feel they truly belong to a community that celebrates childhood and utterly love working with children.
Environment: The third Teacher
A school is a living organism, a place of shared relationships among the children, the teachers, and the parents that creates a feeling of belonging in a world that is alive, welcoming and authentic
Environment empowers children to explore, tinker, collaborate, and to make sense of the world around them. Therefore to enable children, our classrooms are divided into learning spaces for arts and expression, pretend-play, construction, outdoor messy play with sand and water, math, writing, storytelling, music, STEM, and structured free play. These varied learning spaces provide children with a broad range of learning experiences and help maximise discovery and problem-solving.
Furthermore, ours is the only school in Kolkata that has a massive outdoor play structure and takes kids to play outdoors everyday, helping them be free and truly connect to nature.
PARENT PARTNERSHIPS
It takes a village to raise a child.
Parents are an integral part of the child’s learning journey, their first teachers and their most trusted friends. Parent involvement is indispensable for a child’s growth and is a corner stone of our philosophy.
From the beginning teachers work closely with parents to understand their child. They work hard to gain the parents trust and respect, so that children can start looking at teachers with the same trust and respect. Parents are always welcome inside the class, be it to read children a book, cook with them or sing and dance with them.
Parent communication is a key element of our program with teachers sending out weekly emails, monthly newsletters and multiple Parent teacher conferences throughout the year.
Through student led conferences, exhibitions, and our back to school night, parents are provided a window into the learning methodology at Arth. By involving them in the workings of the curriculum and program, parents better appreciate the value of play-based learning and the school’s vision.