Student-led Interest Centers

It is important to encourage children to explore and exercise all of their intelligences. Creating a rich, nurturing, and stimulating environment filled with interesting materials lays the foundation for empowered, curious children. With our 'Student Led Interest Centers' we build on this premise to help students identify strengths that they use to design and lead sessions that build their competencies as empowered learners.

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Sports Program

Sports Days are often about competition and a 'winner takes all' mentality. The fastest, the most skilled athletes often take centre-stage and others are relegated to mere 'spectators' or 'cheer leaders' at best. The Riverside 'Sports Day' is unique in its design because skills other than just sporting prowess are given the same importance. Each squad is made up of myriad talents and skills - design, performances, speech writing, people managers and more. Suddenly, a day that is often dreaded by 'non athletes' becomes the most 'looked forward' day for all children.

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Provocation and Installation

Curiosity is the first step of the learning process. It may be sparked by chance or constructed intentionally in a learning environment. Although children are naturally curious about many things, learning will only take place once their curiosity is deepened into interest. The 'Provocation' process for our early years, is one such intentionally designed ‘happenstance ’ that uses the spark of curiosity from children's dialogues to create the conditions for them to delve deeper. This takes the form of an 'installation' that offers children an opportunity to slow down, explore and learn about themselves as well as the area of their interest.

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Client Projects

Learning is not only about 'relevance' but about 'real world' opportunities. The 'Client Projects' are projects designed to help learners see that learning is interconnected and not separated by subject matter. These are real 'clients' that offer design briefs to the students who then embark on process to design the most appropriate solution. By meeting the client requirements, managing time and honoring deadlines, they not only hone the skills but also develop the attitudes desired for the 21st Century learner.

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Buddy Interactions

The 'Buddy Interaction' process is built on the premise that learning is about respect - and not about hierarchy! When respect fuels the interaction, both the buddies learn from and about each other. No longer is it about the older teaching the younger, but everyone leaving the moment richer because of the interaction. A community of sharing, caring and growing is cultivated when all learners feel valued and safe.

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First Day First Week

To set the tone for each new academic year, it is very important to make visible the values of the school and help all stakeholders feel a sense of alignment and anticipation for the learning journey. The 'First Day, First Week' process is a time for intentionally setting the tone by inviting the children into the design of the learning journey and therefore, having them feel a sense of ownership and empowerment from the very first day! No anxiety, only anticipation!

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Program of Inquiry

The 'Program of Inquiry', as the name suggests, is a process designed to help children delve deeper into an area of learning. The process has a clear methodology that offers simultaneously, structure and open explorations, that enables each child to uncover, make connections, work collaboratively and finally demonstrate understanding in multiple ways.

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INSANE

'InSanE' is an acronym for 'Inner Sanitation Experience'. Every graduating batch has one final moment of self discovery and personal transformation through the Insane experience – a 2 day immersion into the community – a time for reflection, meditation and perspective! It is also called INSANE because of its timing - 2 weeks before the graduates sit for their final exam - this time offers them perspective on what role this 'insane' race for 'marks' and 'grades' makes in the overall journey of life. The lesson they graduate with is - we are not here to compete with each other, but to complete each other.

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Inclusive Campus

• NIOS
• Student Counselling
• RTE

Calender

The 'Calendar' process is designed to work on multiple levels - but all with the same agenda - to have all members of a given team on the same page. For grade teachers, it's a great way to maintain reminders and intentionally plan the month, both for content and character, with the students - be it for events, experts that might be visiting, trips that need to be planned or parent partnerships. For a Key Stage team, it helps to build a sense of community, to be informed about the rest of their colleagues and students. And finally for the leadership, it helps to keep the team accountable to turn intention into impact.

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Conglom

'Conglom' is a process The Riverside School - an intentional practice to timetable for 'relationships'. It's an opportunity for students and teachers of each class to come together first thing in the morning to start the day on a positive note. This is a time for learners to share feelings, opinions and ideas. The teacher and students facilitate the interaction so that each student feels respected and valued. The atmosphere that is created is one of trust and community. Starting with the 'heart' sets the stage to learn with the mind!

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Making Teaching Visible

The 'Making Teaching Visible' ( MTV ) process is a workshop that the teachers conduct for the parent community to share the research and pedagogical rationale behind the practice, thereby helping parents build an appreciation of 'the what and how' behind the teaching experiences. MTVs result in greater trust between parents and teachers and parents looking at teachers as professionals deserving their respected.

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Board Protocol

The 'Board Protocol' is a powerful, yet simple process which guides the teacher to intentionally foster Relevance, Rigor and Relationships in every session that is designed. The classroom blackboard acts as a visible representation of teacher's learning goals for that teaching-session and offers shared expectations for learning with the learner. Not only does the board server as a 'conscience' for the planning, it also helps teachers build a sense of accountability and integrity in their practice.

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Congenial Meets

A key determinant of creativity and growth in a school is the relationship shared between the members of the teaching community as well as the support team - for the strength and trust in the team has a direct impact on the decisions made for the children. The 'Congenial Process' at Riverside has been designed to intentionally foster a sense of community and collegiality amongst the team. Research has shown that colleagues who respect and trust each other are more likely to work from a space of ownership and accountability towards their work and this means they are more willing to innovate and create opportunities for their children.

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Teacher Driven Observation

The 'Teacher Driven Observation' process is a twist on the regular 'teacher observation' practice. Here, the onus in on the teacher to invite colleagues to observe their practice with the explicit focus on obtaining data on a 'specific' concern that the teacher might want to improve on. This way, there is no judgement - what a teacher receives is 'data' without being flavoured with opinion - and this helps the strategies for growth to be more focused on improvement of teacher practice.

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Zero Period

The 'Zero Period' is an intentional pause every month to review and reflect on the learning journey so far. It offers the teachers an opportunity to get feedback on the concepts, skills, and strategies used to teach the month before; and see if the intended outcome was achieved. It is also a time to find out if some concepts need to be retaught or not. It gives children an opportunity to look at the journey so far and see where they are confident or might need more help. Both learners and teachers are more aligned when setting goals, thereby becoming co-travellers and codesigners in this journey.

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Agenda Setting and Closing the Loop

'Agenda Setting' is a powerful process that uses the pedagogy of co-creation to invite the voice of the child in the design of a school day – be it with the learning expectations or experiences that are suggested by students. When the agenda is made visible and co-created, it builds a sense of ownership and well-being. The process allows for collaboration as the teachers and students plan together; and students have a choice and voice in designing the day. 'Closing the Loop' occurs at the end of every session / day / month / year. It celebrates a sense of accomplishment of all that has been done, and reflection on how and what was learned- and how to refine the experiences for the future, if needed.

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Month End Celebration (MEC)

A culture of congeniality is built when members of a community have warm and social interactions amongst each other. But a culture of collegiality is cultivated when all team members feel safe to share both - their achievements and their 'failures' in a safe and non judgemental space. The Month End Presentation is a time for the community to gather and celebrate and be inspired by their colleagues as they travel this journey of growth and purpose.

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Home Visit

The process of 'Home Visits' is a time to meet and greet all new and exisitng parents at the start of each year and a time to forge a bond of comfort and trust between the home and school. The Home Visit offers teachers an opportunity to understand the context of each child and to use the insights from the meeting to enable the child at school. `

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Parent Orientation

At the beginning of each year, the 'Parent Orientation' is an opportunity for all new and existing parents to align to the values and expectations of the school and meet the members of the community. It is a time where parents participate in a thoughtful, joyful and intentionally designed learning experience which helps them move from any anxiety that they might have to a feeling of anticipation for the years of schooling ahead for their children!

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Bright Hearts & Minds Shine (BHMS)

The 'Bright Hearts and Minds' process is a time where parents witness an exhibition of learning across the subjects and grades- and witness children using 'strategies' to demonstrate not only 'what' they have learned, but also 'how' they learn.

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Making Learning Visible

The overall goal of 'Making Learning Visible' is to create and sustain powerful cultures of learning in and across classrooms and schools- that nurture and make visible individual and group learning. The multiple ways in which children demonstrate understanding through the Making Learning Visible process offers all participants - children, parents and teachers, an opportunity to build confidence and competencies.

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Student Led Conference (SLC)

As the name suggests, the 'Student Led Conference' in Key Stage 1 and 2, is a portfolio of work that a student compiles to make visible their personal journey of growth. It consists of work that shows evidence of what they might have enjoyed, been challenged with, can teach someone and are personally proud of. The children spend time each month to curate the work that will finally make it in the portfolio, and are supported in this process by their buddies and teachers. They then have a peer scrutiny and use the feedback to refine their final presentation, which is then shared with their parents. All of this is towards building confidence and self awareness in children on strategies that they have used for their personal growth.

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Funderstanding

As the name suggests, 'FUNderstanding' is a powerful process that is designed to offer all children an opportunity to share with their parents and peers the 'how' of 'what' they have learned. It is a personal decision that a child makes on choosing the subject, process or skill that they are most confident about and also choosing the 'strategy' by which they will demonstrate this to the public. Reflection and feedback are the ingredients that make this process complete so that all children have the time to hone and refine their presentation for maximum impact.

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Celebrate the Child (CTC)

Celebrate the Child' - as the name suggest ,is a process that is designed to celebrate a more wholistic story of a child. It is a meeting with parents and the child where anecdotes, stories, data and strategies are shared to make visible a more plural identity of the child - thus moving parents from being 'concerned' or 'worried' to feeling a sense of 'confidence' and 'comfort' that their child is noticed, respected and celebrated.

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Support Staff Well-being

The administration staff and support team are often overlooked when one thinks of the main stakeholders in a school community even though they are the ones who enter first and leave the last on any given day. Therefore, the 'Support Team Wellbeing' process is designed to intentionally timetable for the care and inclusion of the team as a valued member of a school ecosystem.

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DFC

The power of Design Thinking allows both children and adults to transform the world into how they envision it - the power to create a more compassionate, empathetic world. Design for Change ( conceptualised and launched by Riverside in 2009 ) offers a simple, powerful framework to empower children to believe they are not helpless, change is possible and they can drive it - very simple - the power of 'I CAN. Today, DFC is the largest global movement of change - of and by children.

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APROCH

'aProCh', a community based initiative was born to fulfill the vision of making public spaces child friendly through various initiatives. Happy childhood experiences are a lifetime treasure for any individual, since they lay a foundation for the future action; and stay captured as refreshing and joyous memories. It inevitably becomes the responsibility of the society to ensure that a friendly and supportive ecosystem is provided for growing children, especially in the burgeoning urban areas. aProCh accomplishes this through its programs, such as Parents of the Park, Street Smart, City on Cycles, etc. When the city cares for it's child, the child will grow up to care for the city!

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Persistence

‘Persistence' is a process at Riverside that all our Key Stage learners ( our adolescent ages - 13 to 18 ) go through. It was born of a realisation that while adolescents are quick to change their likes and interests - they understand that for any change to happen - it will take time. Therefore, the process is named 'Persistence'. This process is designed to 'slow down' the need for change and to really spend time in listening, in iteration and in building relationships with the people who are in need. Each student spends an average of 2 hours per week spending time with grandparents at old age homes, cooking and taking tiffins for families in the community or teaching children in care homes. Through this process, the students realise that 'being the change, changes the being'.

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Citizenship

Through the 15 years, the powerful process of 'Citizenship' takes different forms in each Key Stage - but the goal is the same : Move from 'entitlement' to taking 'responsibility'- towards yourself and whom you share this world with. This mindset needs to be intentionally timetabled and nurtured during school years - not only as a 'once a week moral science lesson' but as an immersive, experiential programme. At Riverside, there is an expectation for all stakeholders ( students, teachers and parents ) to build an understanding of rights and then perform the duties towards enjoying those rights.

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