A Home Away From Home

My stay at Fig Tree Cottage was nothing less than being at home with copious amounts of hospitality. The staff here made the stay beautiful, comfortable and inviting. Every morning, Mithlesh ji arrived with a fresh cup of coffee. These big windows offer a lush green and a small pond with lotuses about to bloom. Just a few steps away from the pond are Guava-laden trees. 

This is a privilege one receives when at Fig Tree Cottage - hospitality. The staff works harmoniously. Each morning, they prepared a homely and healthy breakfast, which is something one rarely finds when away from home. 

There are small details to the Cottage that are not to be missed - copper bottles and glasses, cleanliness in every corner, a beautiful bookshelf, and greenery in the space. It didn't feel like a work trip at all; more like a holiday with some work thrown in, all made easy by the presence of these people who ensured your stay was smooth and full of warmth. 

The staff meet you every morning with a smile! The Cottage is surrounded by some sweet little cafes, where one can always get more coffee for a change. 

Enjoy your stay at the Fig Tree Cottage in Dehradun; they are only on Instagram: www.instagram.com/fig.tree_cottage

Wamly,

Neelashi Mangal
Guest at the Fig Tree Cottage
September 2025

A School Called Home: Masterclass Saturday 18th January 2025

Chapter 11: A School Called Home: Shomie Das The Man Who Saw Tomorrow by Naga Tummala 

Q1. The mother in the chapter plays a vital role in shaping the child's learning experience by reading stories and ensuring a nurturing environment. How can schools engage parents more actively in their child’s learning journey? How can teachers collaborate with families to extend learning beyond the classroom?

Q2. Like the one in the chapter, a child learns to read, write, and do arithmetic in a home-based setting for a few hours daily. The routine includes storytelling, exploration, and breaks for creativity. There is a strong emphasis on balancing academics with free play. As a teacher, what strategies (e.g., differentiated learning, project-based learning) can you adopt in your classroom to replicate the flexibility and individual focus of a homeschooling environment?

Q3. Drawing from the idea of a "home-like" atmosphere, what elements (e.g., comfort, emotional security, a sense of belonging) can you bring into your teaching space to support your students' growth and well-being?

Q4. What are the key advantages and challenges of homeschooling compared to traditional schooling, especially regarding academic growth, social skills, and emotional well-being? How can traditional schools incorporate elements of homeschooling to address these areas?"

Gurdeep Kaur
The Teacher's Academy
GK@LearningForward.org.in

Responsibility and Cooperation - Preeti Mahajan

Responsibility

Taking responsibility is a commitment to your own life, self-leadership, growth and freedom.

Being responsible is an indispensable trait. Each step we take towards being responsible helps to raise our self-esteem and relationships with everyone around us. Being responsible pays enormous dividends. Responsibility is an ethical concept that refers to every individual's obligations and duties to society. As educators, we are responsible for instilling this virtue in our children.

Responsibility at school

 • Completion of class work and homework

 • time management

 • participation in learning activities.

 • attending classes and the school regularly

 • preparation for the exam.

Responsibility at home

 • Helping parents with household chores.

 • making their beds. 

 • making their small meals. 

 • laying the table.

 • cleaning the room or house.

 • saving money.

 • save water /electricity.

Being an awakened citizen, one must have a responsibility toward society also.

 • Saving natural resources

save electricity, fuel, water 

 • extending help to the poor and needy

 • protection of women, education of children

 • Helping elders and senior citizens.

Cooperation

Cooperation is always more potent than the competition. Great discoveries and improvements involve the cooperation of many minds. Cooperation is the ability to work effectively and respectfully with diverse people or teams and value the opinions and contributions of every individual.

Cooperation makes a group, organisation or country attain their goals in a better way.

The following activities can be done in the classes to instil the virtue of cooperation among the children.

 • Jig saw puzzles 

 • class board decoration

 • weaving a story 

 • role play

Ms Preeti Mahajan
Ahlcon Public School
Happy Teachers JOL Cohort 2022

My Teachers' Role In Preparing Me For The Future - Laavanyaa Joshi

When I first started out in Welham in the year 2015, I was a naive 12-year-old girl. To suddenly leave my parents, my house and to shift and acclimatize to a totally different environment seemed almost impossible. I was by nature, a shy and timid girl. To be surrounded by strangers, 24/7 was not an easy task. The only sense of comfort was to realise I was not alone. Seventy other little girls, who had absolutely no idea as to what they were doing, were right beside me. 

Slowly I started to break out of my shell. I attempted things which I never had done before. I started climbing up the ladder of my personal growth. My teachers acknowledged my strong points and also my weak points. They opened up opportunities to boost up my social and personal development. Staying next to my friends and teachers thorough out my teenage years made them feel like family. The people who felt like strangers, I now recognise as family. The faculty at Welham made me realise my worth. They inspired me every day. They taught me how to be confident but did not ignore my wrongdoings. 

My teachers have helped me mould my character and have always emphasized on the morals of honesty. Every time I cribbed or whined about doing my own work in school, I became responsible and independent. Every time I got scolded in school, I learnt to accept criticism. Every time I was punished for turning up late for a class or an event, I learnt to respect and value time. My teachers made me realise that excellent academic scores were not everything. They taught me integrity. They helped me evolve into an empathetic and humane person. They taught me the value of commitment. Over the years, I have come to realise that I am no more than a shy girl. 

Welham and my teachers have helped me evolve into a young confident girl. I have come to realise my privileges and learnt to make the most out of every opportunity. I think after the help and encouragement I have received over the years, I am ready to face the world by myself. Though there is no age when a person stops learning from mistakes and experiences, I think I am ready to see for myself as to where I stand in society. I have learnt to acknowledge my personal power. I see myself trying to contribute and give back to society more than I have received from it. I have not only learnt to trust myself and my intuition but also learnt to accept criticism, whether it be positive or negative. 

Staying away from home for the last 5 years, I have realised that sometimes to achieve something, we have to walk out of our comfort zone and tread on an unknown path. Not always would every path guarantee me success but will surely contribute to my experiences which will prepare me to face the world.

- Laavanyaa Joshi, Intern for Learning Forward India at the John Martyn Memorial School, she is currently studying at Welham Girls' School Dehradun, India <laavanyaa.614@gmail.com>

Happiness and Tolerance - Joy Of Learning

Joy Of Learning (JOL) explores twenty-two values that can be taught through schools. In this episode, Sandeep Dutt and Kalyani Chaudhuri share the joy of learning with a focus on Happiness and Tolerance. This program will inspire you by using examples of where the values are already being used by children and adults in schools and share practical tools to stimulate discussion and philosophical debate. It will also help people to take stock of their values and how they wish to lead their life. #HappyTeachers

https://www.brewingknowledge.com/JoyOfLearning

Arpan Rai: Challenging times demand challenging measures

A message from a Teacher/Parent/Citizen

As the country enters into the 2nd day of the nationwide lockdown, one cannot help but wonder, 'What on earth are the children going to do?'

Then one realises that the digital platform has provided everyone with an interface to proceed with classroom learning.

Actually 'these days' that children can stay at home will indeed be a blessing because they have access to not just the digital world but also to their families, 'their own institution'. Probably every child who lives in a residential school couldn't have dreamt of a better opportunity than this 'lockdown'.

Yes, they might not be able to 'hang out' with their friends 'physically' but they do 'hang out' with their peers online, so much fuss about 'social distancing'.

For the parents who are wondering, ' How will we keep our children engaged at home?', I believe the best answer can be found in Roald Dahl's famous poem, 'The Television' which encourages parents to replace the Television with a bookshelf, but we all can do better than that.

Parents could use these 21 days or whatever number of days that might be necessary to combat this 'pandemic', to 'listen' to children, plan 'a future together'. 

We all could use this enforced lockdown to 'listen' to our children, encourage them to meditate, teach them basic survival skills, teach them about money that is very important.

We could talk to them about age-related issues, such as infatuation, hormonal changes in the body, aggressiveness, drug-related matters, dangers of physical intimacy, or all those things that we have always wanted to talk about, but haven't or didn't have the time to do so.

We all know that children in classes 9-12, already know their syllabi. They could proceed with their content.

Children could mark out the difficult concepts, try and identify chapters they would need help from their teachers. So that when they do return to their schools, the lesson plan could be arranged to accommodate difficulties first, prioritise the challenges.

Thereafter, children could ask the school to help them to get through to their respective teachers who in return could help with those chapters, either online or offline.

Children in class 8-12 could use this time to 'iron out' the difficulties that they had in their lower- classes. They could try to revise those lessons/ chapters that were challenging, confusing or difficult. Since they all have access to different digital platforms.

Children in the primary half of schooling could focus on foundational principles, such as: 
For maths-addition, subtraction, multiplication, for eng-parts of speech, tenses, one word for many, HCG- maps of the world, timelines in history, identification and differentiation in science, etc.
Children should draw, dance, sing, make a craft.

But most importantly, children should learn and be taught manners, courtesy, discipline. 

Please ask children to help with household chores, teach our daughters to ride a bicycle or drive while teaching our sons to cook, wash dishes, clothes etc.

Children should be handheld through religious discourses,  but ensure they can differentiate between 'a truth' and 'a lie'.

Kindly encourage children to stay fit, eat right. Read a book before they go to sleep. Encourage them to sleep early and wake up early.

Assign duties to children, such as fixing their bed, giving medicines to their grandparents, feeding the pet, watering the plants, etc.

Additionally, encourage them to maintain personal hygiene.

We all understand that children will fray our nerves but be patient, treat them with kindness. Be forgiving. Be encouraging, make them feel loved, appreciated and wanted

As teachers, we all want to return to schools, children too, but this pandemic is life-threatening, so hold on.

We have heard stories of how resilience works, this might be our great flood.

I am sharing what was shared by a cousin, hope it won't violate any copyright issues:

1- When the flood came, where were Noah and his family?
At home

2- When the three angels visited Abraham, where was he?
At home.

3- When the two Angels went to Sodom and Gomorrah, where was Lot?
At home

4- When the Angel killed the firstborn of Egypt, where were the Israelites?
At home.

5- Where were the apostles of Jesus when they received the Holy Spirit?
At home

6- Where are we because of the coronavirus?
At home.

Pray, Believe, Repeat.

- Arpan Rai <mozaisarp@gmail.com>

Pause and think what schools need to do - RP Devgan

As we step into a new decade we need to pause and think what Schools need to do for the Students and Educators. Having been in touch with Students and Educators for over 50 years, in India and abroad, I feel it is time to change our approach to learning.

With the knowledge available on the Internet and educational portals, Schools need to change. Schools must pay attention to the growing up of children and help in building their character. Students need to be guided to have the right values and hone their talents in Music, Art, Science and Sports.

Unfortunately most Schools today are more concerned about their Rankings and results. It's no longer about the Students it's about the Management and the Principal. Extra classes and tuitions are the banes of education today. We are depriving children of their childhood. Students seem to be the last things on the mind of most Managements. No one seems to be concerned about the average and weak students.

Instead of grooming students into becoming versatile, kind humans Schools make them bookish and discourage them from taking part in what the love doing whether it be Music Art or Sports. It disheartens me to see that some Schools encourage students not to read for pleasure, play or pursue activities which will bring them joy and solace later in life. We need children who can empathize, are compassionate, considerate, kind, tolerant and care for others.

If Schools do not give value for money and not live up to the expectations of the parents I feel in years to come there may be a major change. Home Schooling gradually becoming popular in America and Europe can become an alternative in India. Schooling at home not complete, but for certain numbers of years until the children have a sound value system and have developed their talents. The International School I was Head of in Bali, Indonesia would get homeschooled children in their early teens. These kids fitted in well and went on to excel. One of the reasons for home Schooling abroad is an expensive education.

I feel it's about time our Schools come back to what they stood for that is to help children nurture their talents and inculcate the right values. Children at the time of graduating from School should be confident, versatile and should be able to distinguish very clearly between what is right and what is wrong.

RP Devgan
Chairman Learning Forward India
With near five decades of experience as an Educationist and having served as a School Leader for schools in India and overseas, Mr Devgan brings in rich experience as an administrator, sports person and champion for teachers.