Personality Development

SAMPOORN VYAKTITV
The holistic Personality Development Programme


OUR VISION BEHIND ‘SAMPOORN VYAKTITV’
At JMIS we believe that along with academics, co-curricular activities contribute equally to the overall growth and development of a child. A child’s creative expression, self-confidence, social, mental, spatial, and sensory skills, social interaction, and self-confidence mature with a healthy balance of academic and co-curricular. The various activities offered at the school are:

SHUBH-PRABHAT
The morning assembly
Assemblies are an integral part of our school curriculum. They provide a unique format for the community to come together around shared values, to celebrate or to mark important occasions or milestones, or appreciate performances and presentations. They also create opportunities to share concerns or to present information related to the school curriculum, or the students' general social and aesthetic development. Assemblies provide forums for reinforcing appropriate audience behavior. In addition, assemblies provide an appropriate showcase for our students and faculty to perform and display their talent in performing arts and public speaking. The Morning assembly is a perfect start to an action-packed day. The shloka, prayers, songs, promise, and thought all add up to the spiritual quotient of each child. All the classes get an opportunity to conduct the morning assembly on a rotation basis. The uniqueness lies in the 100% participation of all the children of the respective class. The most special features are the daily morning quiz, the whole class presentations, and the open-house sessions. Morning assembly fosters a sense of belonging to the institution. Important announcements are made and children are felicitated for their achievements. The assembly is often used as a vehicle to spread awareness about current social, national, and international issues. 

RHYTHMIC AEROBICS, YOGA & MEDITATION ROUTINE
For a short 10 odd minutes, children are helped to calm down and prepare for learning. The morning assembly starts with aerobics. An invigorating session of freehand rhythmic aerobics exercises is conducted to enable children to "loosen" up.

The engaging morning assembly ends with some yogic asana especially instrumental in the harmonic physical and mental growth in children. A whole school meditation session before Ist and 5th period help children turn inwards after and concentrate better. This is truly an oasis of peace between the frantic rush to ready for school and the start of the academic routine at school.

PERFORMING ARTS & VISUAL ARTS
'Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life'

This quotation finds its manifestation in the joyful faces and engaged minds of our children as they lose themselves in the diverse arts in school, be it performing arts, the visual arts, or even the skillful coming together of body and mind in the sports arena. At JMIS, a curriculum detailed to the finest points is in place for performing and visual arts. Seamless integration of the curriculum with the academic subjects ensures that concepts are reinforced in newer and different ways. Performing and visual arts are key elements of a nation’s cultural heritage and are a core curriculum area in education enabling students to express ideas, emotions, and experiences through means other than language.

VISUAL ARTS
The visual arts curriculum is creative and stimulating seeking to empower students to explore their own creative prowess as they experiment with different media and go through a varied range of art, art appreciation, craft and clay modeling, origami, handicrafts, folk art, textile designing, commercial art and applied art activities.

At JMIS, we believe each child is blessed with their own unique talent and it is our endeavor to encourage and inspire our budding artists. Across the school students have art as an essential discipline for the Kindergarten, Primary, Middle, and Senior school students. Fluid spaces link areas for painting, textiles, ceramic pottery, weaving, carpentry, and crafts with a dedicated area for exhibitions!

POTTERY
The Visual Arts program is a carefully planned arts curriculum that promotes intellectual, aesthetic, and emotional growth. It is designed for all students as well as specifically those seniors who have an artistic interest, dedication, and enthusiasm they wish to pursue in a structured course of study. The basic objective of teaching Pottery is self-expression through clay and understanding the medium of the earth (kneading- firing -glazing), tactile awareness and design, and art appreciation.

PERFORMING ARTS
The Performing Arts curriculum encompassing Indian and Western dance and music as well as theatre has been shaped with a vision of enabling and encouraging our students to engage in the creative, expressive, and responsive processes of the arts throughout their lives. It aims at giving the students a strong foundation in the cultural history, knowledge, and technical skills of dance/ music/ theatre so that our students sustain a meaningful, lifelong relationship with performing arts – as artists or as enthusiasts. At the heart of a performing Arts curriculum are knowledge and skills that foster creativity, while respecting individual differences in appreciation and expression. It involves Indian classical and modern music & dance forms and drama techniques for improving the child’s coordination, movement, expression, and kinetic skills. The following activities are taken up in the school for the students: -

  • Classical Dance
  • Folk Dance
  • Western, contemporary, fusion, and freestyle dance
  • Semi-Classical Vocal Music
  • Light Music
  • Folk and fusion music
  • Western Music
  • Instrumental music
  • Dramatics (Theatre)


DANCE

The Performing Arts Faculty comes together with Dance, Drama, and Music forming an integral part of our curriculum. The dance curriculum embraces movement, choreography as well as an understanding and appreciation of folk, classical and contemporary dance. Dance rooms at junior and senior schools provide creative spaces that resound with strains of folk, jazz, and the bols of Kathak and Bharatanatyam. Senior students have a dance ensemble that delights everyone with their amazing performances. Students also share their performances at Special Assemblies as well as special events which ensure that every child in the school participates.

MUSIC
If our students leave school with a love of music that stays with them for the rest of their lives we would have been successful as educators! Music nourishes the soul and you will believe that we hear our students in prayer. Music education is an integral part of our curriculum. Students look forward to a place in the coveted school orchestra and train in different instruments through their journey at JMIS. We enjoy community singing and instrumentation – the tabla, keyboard, guitar and drums. The School Choir inspires us, whether it is Classical, Sufi, Folk, Fusion, Popular, or Rock! Every morning and afternoon the internal public address system plays music as children enter and leave school and music teachers ensure that they learn to understand and appreciate a range of artists and traditions.

THEATRE/DRAMA
All students enjoy the drama from action songs in primary to developing skills in Junior and moving on to improvisation and devising drama in senior school. All Grades up to the primary, have drama once /twice a week and at the Senior School level, students offer it as a choice as part of the Performing Arts Curriculum as well as Work Experience. The theatre room, as well as performing spaces, affirms our commitment to the Performing Arts.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION CURRICULUM
Physical Education at JMIS is designed to encourage the natural interest of most children in developing their own various physical skills. We seek to provide enjoyment through participation in a physical sport and activity and experience the stimulation of competition. Every effort is made to ensure that children understand and are aware of the essential part that exercise plays in maintaining a healthy body and to develop in children a determination to overcome the difficulties of mastering specific skills and movements. Children are given the opportunity to experience a variety of games, sports & other PE activities

Our children are encouraged to participate in activities as individuals, with partners, or as members of a group, and to appreciate the importance of fair play, and of working to a set of rules in order to gain the most benefit and enjoyment from the activity. In this way, we seek to teach children to cope responsibly with both success and failure, and to value the contribution of others. We allow children to compete and collaborate with children from other schools whenever possible, and we attempt to lay sound foundations for developing interests and skills after leaving the school.

In keeping with the philosophy of the school, Physical Education is an integral part of every day@JMIS. The Physical Education program is structured to develop skills, stamina, and sportsmanship and fit the needs of particular age groups.

From Grade Ankur to II, the stress is on the building up of individual skills, physical stamina, and better motor activities. The children of this age group participate in recreational sports, skill-building exercises, group games, adventure sports, yoga, aerobics, and other muscle strengthening exercises. In Grades III to XII, the children are trained in the more formal individual as well as team sports like soccer, volleyball, Throw-ball, Basket Ball, Badminton, Table Tennis, cricket, swimming, athletics, skating, karate, Adventure sports, Chess &  Carrom. In Grades VI-XII, the children play a number of sports. School exposes the students to a host of sports but students specialize and compete in only a select few. Competing only in selected sports helps children to concentrate and excel in their specialized sport.

The inter-house competitions for each of the team sports are major events in the school. All these lead up to the Athletic Meet which is held at the end of the year - the whole school participates in this event, and this is when inter-house competitiveness reaches its peak! The two major sporting events of the school are:

  • JMIS-PRAYAS - Recreational fun races and a day of adventure sports for the Elementary Grades Ankur, Pallav, I & II
  • JMIS-SPARDHA -The Sports Day for grades III to XII.

The school has tie-ups with professional sports coaches, organizations, complexes, and stadiums to give a wholesome and quality sports experience to children... These professional organizations give higher quality training and improved inputs. They also lead to more competitions outside school and thus greater exposure and interaction with outside schools.

NAVRANG
Festivals And Celebrations
Celebrations form an integral part of any culture. However, these have now become synonymous with pomp and ostentation rather than being a reflection of our traditions. Celebrations should provide opportunities to experience and explore the diversity that exists in our society.

Every region, every community has its own festivals spread across the year. It is very important to educate our future generation about this diversity and give the message that we are united in our humanity despite all differences. The spirit of love, happiness, and goodwill that characterizes festivals brings people together from all walks of life. Celebrating festivals together brings communities closer.

There are many major annual events to add to look forward to –UMANG (Children’s Theatre Festival), SRIJAN (The Annual Project day), PRAYAS (Jr school’s sports carnival), SPARDHA (Sports Day), INQUEST( Science and maths exhibition), AURA(Annual day), Founders' Day celebrations GURU-COOL (the Teachers Day), JASHN-E-BACHPAN (the Children’s Day celebration),  UTSAV(Dusshera and Navratri celebration), DEEPANJALI( Diwali Celebration), SWATANTRA (Independence Day celebration),  the Drama Festival, the Interschool debate and multimedia competitions, the Inter-house competitions and matches, the Athletic Meet, etc.

FORUM
Inter-School Events ...winning laurels outside the school
JMIS provides several forums for children to overcome shyness and confidently take center stage. From the start, class discussions (at all levels), Home Room debates on crucial issues, C.A's, and class programs provide ample opportunity for even the shyest child to stand up and speak. The faculty spends hours at practices and rehearsals, often staying back after school hours to help children polish up their act. Participating in Inter-School events gives the children a chance to leave the safety net of the School and experience the challenges of the outside world. It is both an exhilarating and sobering experience. Exhilarating because winning brings confidence and it is sobering to find that there are others from other schools who are just as good, if not more talented. The winners are felicitated at the assembly time when the trophy is displayed and a brief summary of the event is shared with everyone. As a means of encouragement for others to test their skills, this appearance at the assembly is invaluable for nurturing talent, discovering skills.

Support from the home, the teachers, and one's peers help prepare the contestant. Whether it is competing in public speaking, astronomy, theatre, general knowledge, computer usage, sports, and athletics meet, Quiz, photography, spell-vocab or national Olympiads for Maths, Science and English, the JMIS children have brought home trophies and prizes.

ENRICH Workshops
for-multidimensional-exposure
Along with being a great place to learn about educational research and strategies, workshops are a great opportunity to trade information, acquire knowledge and insight. JMIS offers ample opportunities to be a part of various educative and informative workshops for students as well as teachers.

Workshop themes have a diverse range for multi-dimensional exposure. The various themes are - Life Skills, Peer Pressure, Introduction to Adolescent Issues, Student-Teacher Rapport, Career Counseling, Goal Setting, Mapping For Success, Personality Plus, Body Language, Leadership, Public Speaking, Stress Management, Time Management, Spell-o-fun, Current Affairs, Newspaper Usage,   Confident You, Communication Skills, Self Awareness, Nutrition, Creative Writing, Magic, Theatre, Aerobics, Contemporary Dance, Yoga, Meditation, Pottery, Madhubani Painting, Candle Making, Collage Making, Poster Making, Jute Bags, Pen Stand, Candle Stand, Tile Painting, Wool Craft, Vegetable Printing, Clay Modeling, Papier Mache, Kite Making We place great emphasis on the professional development of our staff as well as student development and offer workshops for parents on a range of subjects and areas that concern them. Every year we plan an annual Professional Development Calendar that supports the needs of the entire school community.

Infrastructural support is offered in the form of IT-enabled training suites, Conference Hall, discussion rooms, video conferencing facilities, and a library for educators. Weekly training programs offer teachers the opportunity to upgrade and retrain. We are confident that in time JMIS will become an educational ‘hub’ for sharing good practices across schools and that will benefit students everywhere.

KHOJ
Field Trips & Mandatory Excursions Off-Campus
JMIS is an Experiential Learning School. Outdoor education is a significant component of our school curriculum which connects learning to real-life experiences. The challenge, adventure, and spirit of service fostered by outdoor education are not merely as ends in themselves, but as a method of inculcating such qualities as skill-building, teamwork, leadership, compassion, and responsibility into students. At JMIS, we call these expeditions “KHOJ” and we offer this experience to students in all grades from ANKUR to XII and it includes field trips, excursions, nature walks, itihaas-walks, activity camp, leadership camp, and adventure-camp and outstation tours.

From time to time, students go outside of the campus on educational field trips that extend learning to the real world and bring authentic learning into the classroom experience as well. Like KHOJ, these trips are considered essential components of our educational program, incorporating skills and content from core subjects. These trips are pre-taught as extensions of the curriculum and are also assessed based on learning targets and enduring understandings, just like the rest of our curriculum.

Adventure Camps offer outdoor activities that help at two levels. They teach the children basic survival skills amidst a lot of fun and they also lead to a greater degree of bonding between the children and the staff.

KHOJ outdoor study is not merely an opportunity to encounter the wonders of nature in its entire varied splendor locally and across India—though that is certainly one significant aspect. KHOJ is an integral part of our overall learning program, where we integrate academic disciplines from core subjects as well as important life skills. We, therefore, consider that these trips are as essential as any other academic program we offer and count them as mandatory both for staff and for students. They also provide opportunities for teachers to assess students in the areas of character development and co-curricular participation. We are confident that parents will offer full support for the program by encouraging their children to participate actively in KHOJ each year.

VIVIDH
Activity Clubs
At JMIS, there are a number of societies and clubs to help the students explore their interests and develop their latent talents and leadership promise under expert guidance. Many of these are student initiatives, where students take charge and teachers are only facilitators.  Clubs for the Primary and Middle School and Work Experience for the Senior School is our way to help children learn new skills. In Primary and middle school, children have a weekly session where children very often discover their latent talents. Often they find an enduring interest in something outside the curriculum. Teachers having special skills in each of these areas plan the activity-filled courses. Occasionally some resource persons are also invited to conduct the activity club sessions.

The High School students also attend a weekly session for Work Experience. In addition to the courses offered in the middle school, the senior students have added choices of meal planning, teaching practice & office procedures. At year's end, student performance is graded. The grades for students of X & XII are sent to the CBSE. An interesting fall out of having Clubs and Work Experience is that very often our own ex-students come back to conduct workshops on a skill they had learned at school.

EDU-DRAMA
Theatre in Education
Through theatre-in-education, which is non-threatening and enjoyable, children develop a greater awareness of their bodies, their minds, and their capabilities. They learn self-help skills and feel empowered. The movement activities are used as an enabling technique to improve their creativity, academic and social skills, physical and mental alertness, and for the overall development of the personality.

INTERACT
Public speaking
The children regularly participate in public speaking activities – elocution, debate, extempore, recitation, group discussion even storytelling - in English, Hindi & French.
Round one - every student of each class participates in their respective sections.
Round two - 8/10 short-listed children deliver elocution and recite - in their own classes.
Final round - The selection of the students for the final round is made in a very democratic way in keeping with the principle of maximum participation. 2 finalists and 1 reserve are chosen. This round takes place in the auditorium in the full presence of everyone and Judges. Anyone who crosses a certain pre-determined score wins a merit card.

SABHYATA
Life Skills & Value Education
We seek to seamlessly blend life’s lessons into learning emerging from each one of our endeavors at school, ranging from a simple discussion to a mega event. The main objective of life skills education at JMIS is to enable the student to develop an awareness of oneself as a person of worth and dignity.
Life skills training is an essential part of the learning process for children, ranging from simple skills like tying laces, doing up buttons, laying the table going up to skills that will help students understand themselves and contribute to growth in personal responsibility as well as empower them in challenging situations.

We believe that education in life skills and human values is better caught than taught & therefore these lessons for life must be interwoven in the entire climate of the school and across the school curriculum. JMIS has envisioned some path-breaking programs in the curriculum as PROMISE life skill workshops, SCHOOL-CINEMA for life skills, and VEK activities around value education.

SCIENCE HOUR
Science-in-everyday-life
It is our belief that science is all around us and there can be no better way of learning science than understanding and experiencing it in a real-life context. The idea of linking science with everyday items and materials of common use is the basic principle underlining the work done in EUREKA also included are the activities which develop skills like listening, following instructions (written/oral), and learning to work in cooperative groups. The idea is to have “fun” while doing science. In SCIENCE HOUR –practical science program, we try to provide opportunities for the children: -

  • To work with their own hands and acquire confidence in handling tools and materials.
  • To carry out simple, improvised experiments in order to illustrate the facts/laws of science which they study in their theory classes.
  • To observe some demonstrations, carried out by their teachers, of experiments which they cannot carry out safely by themselves.
  • To develop their skills of careful observation.
  • To develop skills of systematic and precise recording.
  • To develop other skills like measurement, estimation, classification, inquiry – obtaining and using information from a variety of sources, communicating and applying the knowledge learned to other situations.

SRIJAN & INQUEST
Project Day, Class Activity Showcase, and Science & Maths Exhibition
SRIJAN, the annual project, and class activity showcase day, and INQUEST, the Annual science & maths exhibition day are the forums for displaying what has been learned through activities, research & exploration in various subjects. These are the days when the children display their ideas and creativity to the rest of the school, parents, and other visitors. These performances are held in classrooms as well as in common & open spaces of the school campus. In sync with our 100% participation policy, all the students get opportunities to perform in front of an audience.

VASUDHA
Environment Initiatives
The J M International School has brought about a change in the attitude and mindset of students, the community, and the city at large. The schools have equipped the students to make well-informed choices, and recognize the links between degrading environment, poverty, and unsustainable development.

We lead the students through the FOUR C's - CURIOSITY, CREATIVITY, COMPETENCE & COMPASSION. Whatever the age, our attempt is to encourage active learning and direct participation.

Some of the many initiatives of the environmental initiative at JMIS have been: -

  • Anti Cracker Campaign
  • Roof Top Water Harvesting
  • Hosting Environment and Wildlife Film Festivals
  • Wildlife conservation
  • Kids For Tigers
  • Plantation Drives


JMIS-SEVA (Community Service)
JMIS has a long history of working collaboratively with community-based organizations and people on comprehensive improvement initiatives and programmes to address critical issues in health, education, and social-behavioral interventions.

We believe that the school is the one place in the children’s lives, besides their homes, where seeds of sensitivity to the needs of the community are sown and nurtured. It is here that they learn the significance of ‘taking action’ stemming from the school’s core value of ‘Sensitivity’ and follow up on their empathy towards people and situations. JMIS has a very active community outreach programme that enables students to reach out and contribute to the society that has given them so much.

SHIKSHA (SELF TEACHING)
Self-Teaching Day
The self-teaching day is one of the most interesting projects undertaken by JMIS. One full day during the year is reserved for the occasion. Besides teaching on the day, the students-leaders manage the entire school. All the teachers are “off duty” for a day. Students take up their work. The following are the objectives of this programme: -

  • To create a sense of responsibility among students;
  • To help students understand the organizational structure of their school and its functions;
  • To develop among students an aptitude for teaching as a profession;
  • To let the students understand and appreciate the difficulties of a regular teacher, support, or administrative staff.
  • To develop confidence in themselves.
  • To realize that a position of power has to be held with utmost competence, responsibility, and sensitivity.

HOW IS IT ORGANISED?
The Students’ Executive invites applications from students to become teachers a fortnight in advance. They use their discretion and with the help of regular subject-teachers select the most suitable pupils. After confirming appointments, assignment sheets are issued, duly signed by the ‘pupil-principal’ who is conventionally the General Secretary of the Students’ Union. The pupil-teachers are expected to prepare the unit or lesson they have to teach on the self-teaching day. This is done with the help of the regular subject teachers. All the assignment forms are submitted to the pupil-principal who, being in charge of administration, takes the entire responsibility of preparing the timetable for the day. At last, comes the day for which they have waited with great excitement. It is very interesting to watch students on this day. The confidence with which they walk, talk and teach cannot be described easily. The project really has proved very valuable in inculcating in our students an understanding of the JMIS policies, philosophy, and practices.

NETRATVA
Leadership Training
JMIS attaches great importance to the inculcation of leadership skills in children and has devised many programmes for imparting leadership training, chief among them being our students’ Executive Body. From Grade III onwards, pupils in each section elect two CRs (Class Representatives) and four House Prefects (once again guided by the policy of maximum participation rather than minority elitism), each in charge of six different areas such as discipline, cleanliness, etc. The final selection is through a secret ballot, which is like our Assembly Elections at the state level.

All elected leaders become active members of the student council. Children are helped to arrive at a definition of the role and responsibilities of leaders, traits that they must possess and how to grow into such a role.

Those elected from their classes then vote for the Head Boy and Head Girl. Those who are CRs of Grades X & XI can stand for this position. Candidates for this position present their manifestoes at the school assembly. They are then allowed to campaign abiding strictly by the rules laid down by the school. Once elected she/he chooses her/his cabinet comprising of the following area-representatives: -

  • Discipline
  • Sports
  • Science
  • Literary Affairs
  • Art & Culture
  • Programme Implementation
  • External Affairs
  • Current Affairs
  • School Facilities
  • Coordination of Class Representatives
  • Bulletin Boards

The Executive meets regularly for two hours after school on Saturdays. It helps the school community in a number of ways such as maintaining discipline and regularization of traffic, checking late comers and uniforms, organization of cultural activities, and Activity Week. Young leaders learn to set goals, plan and work accordingly, foresee problems and take care of them, develop resourcefulness and courage to tackle unforeseen situations, acquire communication skills, understand people and learn to get along with them, learn to be sensitive to other’ opinions and respect them.

A mini Student-Executive is established in the Junior School. Leaders of Grade V constitute this and are headed by Junior Head Boy and Junior Head Girl from Grade V.

The student leadership programme includes: -

The-Student-Council:

The Student Council takes shape in the month of April, with students of Grades V, X, XI & XII exhibiting leadership, sportsmanship, responsibility, sensitivity, integrity among other traits in a greater measure than their peers becoming proud members of this student leadership body. The Student Council consists of the School head boy, head girl, vice head boy, vice head girl, cultural secretary, sports captain & Vice-captain, House Captains, and Vice Captains of all four houses

  • The Editorial Board, again with members drawn from grade V, X & XI works towards school magazine and the students’ newsletters.
  • Classroom Programmes that encourage the development of leadership skills:
  • Grades Ankur & Pallav have
  • Line Monitors and Rear Guards
  • House In charge of the day
  • Helpers of the day
  • Buddy System
  • In addition to the above, grades I & II have the Young brigade comprising Monitors of the Day, White board-in-charge, lunch monitor, etc.
  • All grades from Grades III to XII have Class Representatives and house prefects.