Newsletter for January and February 2011

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Dear Parent,

Namaste!

A warm and very happy new year!

“In their voice, we hear the blended note of a million cuckoos…
In their words, we find the message of eternity…
In their thought, we feel the pulse of the progressive world…”

They are our children – our most valuable assets. Childhood is the reminisce of the best of the times and in our school, it is our constant endeavor to make this forming stage a wonderful period in their lives.

Atmiya Vidya Mandir is guided by the vision of H.D.H. P.P. Hariprasad Swamiji to make a profound difference in the lives of children by empowering them to attain their full potential through pursuit of knowledge, acquisition of skills, development of character and self esteem, and recognition of their rights and responsibilities.

Developing Language Skills
In Atmiya Vidya Mandir learning happens in a fun and enjoyable way. Activity based teaching creates interest in subjects which promotes better and broader understanding of the topic especially in practical terms. In order to make English language learning a rewarding and delightful experience, Class VIII students were trained and guided through a Role Play Interview Activity in which they assumed roles of world renowned successful personalities. They participated in an interview round playing the role of an interviewer and interviewee. Learning to write a Persuasive Text became an amusing experience for these students through yet another activity ‘Take Them With You’ where they discussed, shared their point of view, prepared visual promptings and slogans, and sequenced their ideas through an interactive approach to be proficient in writing skills with communicative language use.

Math Week
Maths Department of Atmiya Vidya Mandir had organized Maths Competition and even celebrated the Math Week arranging many activities in the form of puzzles, quizzes, wall of Maths, question a day etc. These activities were all about “figures and numbers” concerned with the knowledge of measurement, properties, relations and quantities. These included theoretical or applied studies of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, statistics, and calculus. Students of I to XI were driven by the Math Mania during Math Week. Lack in calculation speed and accuracy were meticulously targeted and tampered by all math teachers during Math week. Now no student of Atmiya Vidya Mandir dreads math class, or finds it boring.

Celebration of Heritage Day
CBSE declared Heritage Day was celebrated to offer an opportunity to raise students’ awareness concerning the diversity of the world’s heritage and the efforts that are required to protect and conserve it, as well as to draw attention to its vulnerability. Students prepared posters and slogans on a number of monuments and Indian heritage to protect, preserve and propagate them. They also took an oath to protect the monuments in and around their community. It was an added part of their general awareness in becoming a responsible citizen.

Students’ excursion
The humdrum of Atmiya Vidya Mandir is jam-packed with study and co-curricular activities, the study schedules and rigorous discipline relayed by lots of jollity merriment. Students of Std VI and VII had a gala time having a trip to Vasna farm and Kankaria. They were charmed by this pleasure trip and enjoyed the time by roving around, singing, eating and being together. It proved to be a pleasing excursion with a lot of fun and frolic refilling enthusiasm and zeal in them.

Value integration
Education at Atmiya Vidya Mandir is not just about the knowledge of books and syllabi, but it extends its connotations to more than all these. The house wise assemblies continued to inculcate and upholding the cultural and ethical ideals, demonstrating the tenets of values and morals to the children.

This time Satyam House members, through thoughts of the day and speeches inspired the students to acquire courage to speak the truth, to accept mistakes, to wear the natural self, to dream big and to face the failure positively.
Shivam house’s seven habit campaign turned to be transforming and striking as students imbibed these habits of being proactive, goal oriented, positive, synergized, understanding and progressive.
Sundaram house made efforts to inspire the students to serve others according to their individual capacities which in turn give a sense of fulfillment and meaningful life.
Suharadam House explained different ways of offering devotion to the God and various forms of reunion with the almighty. It was an attempt to inspire them to acquire devotional attitude towards every work, every time. Thus, the morning and evening assemblies continued to serving the very purpose of developing a strong mind and character.

Republic day celebration
In order to churn patriotic fervor and raise responsible citizens who can become the pride of the nation, we celebrated Republic day with much grandeur and zeal. It was a remarkable occasion, where celebrational mosaic was studded with lots of activities. Though the flag hoisting and parade were the main ceremonies, various activities spill over the football ground and the children saluted the national flag and renewed their pledge to be loyal to their country and family and contribute to make India a developed nation.

A giant stride
Examination stress and anxiety was brushed aside with long hours of studies and 24×7 tutorials by teachers, in and around the school campus as students of Std XI appeared for final exams. In the month of February, the school has added another feather in its cap with commencing regular classes for new academic session of STD XII with Science and Commerce streams.

Closing ceremony
The valedictory cum felicitation programme was organized for the student council and winners of creative assemblies and soft board display materials. 12th February was a very special day in the AVM calendar. The closing ceremony was held for the co-curricular activities for the academic year 2010-11. Throughout the year, the various associations namely the Literary, Science, Math, Social Studies, Art, Sports and Music rendered numerous competitions that raised the bar for the students to accomplish beyond academics. Suharadam House was judged to be the winner house at the association competitions with Sundaram House walking away with the honors in creative assemblies and Display Boards. Satyam House remained par excellence in Sports. It marked the whole session as progressive and being magnificently facilitating the children to flourish with their inherent talent in every sphere within a short span of time.

AVM Family grows
AVM crown has recently been adorned with some precious jewels to enhance the glitter. The induction of three academicians and eminent members in Atmiya Vidya Mandir family who crossed the length and breadth of the world to be instrumental in the realization of Swamishree’s vision for the school.

The first eminent member is Dr. Vijay Patel, the new Principal of the school, who has an unparalleled academic and professional qualification and profile. Dr Vijay Patel is an Alumni of IIT Mumbai and a topper in MSc Physics (1994) from the same institute. He has a Ph.D. in Physics from Stony Brook University, NY, USA where he subsequently held both research and academic positions over the past 10 years. As a research professor of physics he has been teaching introductory physics and labs to undergraduate students at Stony Brook University, for over 10 years. As a senior research scientist he was the Director of the nano-fabrication facilities at Stony Brook University. His research has spanned in superconducting electronics, quantum computation, and hybrid CMOS nano-electronic structures.

Another significant member who joined the AVM family is Dr. Ashish Patel, the new Vice-Principal of the school, who is yet another scholar with unmatchable academic history and professional qualification. He is MS and PhD in Computer Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology, New Jersey, U.S.A. His research work is broadly in the areas of covert channels, steganography, steganalysis and detecting hidden messages in the digital media over the internet. He has been teaching data structures and algorithms and multimedia security courses to undergraduate students since 2003.
Another added member in AVM family is Mrugesh Patel who has a degree in Bio-Technology.

A welcome ceremony was organized to greet them with a warm reception. The very presence of these new members will definitely foster a sense of unanimity and accordance to envision Swamishree’s motive behind this school. With these added flares in the torch, we stay committed and inspired to take very meaningful strides towards the fulfillment of sublime and noble objectives of Swamishree’s Vision.

Preparation for World Math and Spelling Day
Shaking off the winter sloth, Atmiya Vidya Mandir geared up for a high-voltage weekly schedule, as students and teachers were on their toes striking the key boards to make a rhythm to beat and hit. Along with the paper-pen revision in the classrooms, the computer labs are usurped to arm the students for the upcoming world-wide-war of numbers, calculation, speed, accuracy and spellings. Students and teachers of English and Math departments are engrossed to break their own records of last year.

Thus, a new awakening in the year 2011 made His vision clearer when preceding 2010 has been an eminently remarkable year in many ways filled with fun, frolic and moments that deserve to be cherished.

New Year is the time to unfold new horizons and realize His vision more clearly, to rediscover the strength and faith within us and our children yet to rejoice in simple pleasures and gear up for new challenges.

With many more such events and happenings to come, we strive to update you through http://blog.avm.edu.in. Wish you the heartiest and best wishes for the New Year.

With Warm Regards

Atmiya Family

Spell bee stings AVM students

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By a hair’s breadth of the prestigious victory of World Maths Day, AVM students are all once again set to triumph with word power during yet another world wide event of World Spelling Day. The anxiety; the excitement; the preparation; the determination and the Spelling Bee! This year, Atmiya Vidya Mandir holds this intriguing event for students of different age groups to participate in the World Spelling Day.

The English Department of Atmiya Vidya Mandir have put their heart and soul to equip the students well enough to battle accurately with a speedy competitive spirit for the spell bee competition. This all began in classrooms as all English teachers posed word after word to their students in order to determine the nine students from each class who are declared official participants.

Aspiring bee winners are encouraged to study everything from etymology to definitions and pronunciation to be top in the winner’s list.

Participating in this World Spelling Day, students are challenged by a series of words, with the spelling difficulty adapted to their skill level. The more words they get right, the higher their score will go, on a scale from hundred to many thousand. They are competing with many other spellers worldwide, and keep track of high scores.

With streaks of correct answers serving as tiebreakers, students are well tuned in a rhythm with their swift movement on the key board as soon as they listen the word through headphones.

Further the competition builds self confidence and helps them to reach their full potential. The game and activity based nature of the competition ensures the students rapt attention and neutralizes their aspirations for winning games.

The Spell quizzer are fortunate enough to have Swamiji’s blessings with His divine presence which is the real origin of enthusiasm for drumming up (spell) bee spirit which is that of real participants and real winners. Here comes the list of participants and the sweetening tang of winning the (spell) bee.

The present updates are as follow:

Age Group: 4-7 years
Team: Robert Frost Rank: 32nd

Age Group: 8-10 years
Team: T.S Eliot Rank: 2nd
Team: Wordsworth Rank: 22nd
Team: Shakespeare Rank: 44th

Age Group: 11-13 years
Team: John Milton Rank: 5th
Team: Robert Browning Rank: 9th
Team: Tagore Rank: 24th
Team: Sarvanaman Vidya Mandir Rank: 26

Age Group: 14-18 years
Team: Dickson Rank: 2nd
Team: Oscar Wilde Rank: 22nd

Being at the top of numbers & 2 hours 50 minutes more to go!

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Amazing feat and an even amazing challenge of competing against the best in the world!

Age Group 11-13
Newton at the TOP
Pythagoras on 6th
Euclid on 17th
Sarvanaman Vidya Mandir Team on 18th

Vishesh Mistry of Team Newton is on 89th position worldwide at the moment!

Age Group 14-18
Archimedes 6th
Fibonacci 13th
Fermat 26th

Age Group 8-10
Ramanujan 5th
Bhaskaracharya 26th

Age Group 4-7
Aryabhatta 6th


Its an extremely thrilling experience for all at Atmiya Vidya Mandir, you could debate who are more excited – students or teachers.


And almost 3 LONG hours to go…

The Speeding Math-O-Meter At Atmiya Vidya Mandir

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The final countdown began and the students dived into the whirlpool of numbers and calculations to mark a victory at World Math’s Day. Having gingerly started, it set out to first build concepts thoroughly before moving on to the essential drill and practice accentuating to this world-wide number race.

The competition, opened to students, 5 to 18 years of age, covers all four facets of math – addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. The age-appropriate problems are set up as one-minute games with a 20-second break in between.

(For more videos of World Maths Day 2011 at Atmiya Vidya Mandir, visit avmchannel)

The spirit is buoyant and the mood is upbeat, the sparkling flashing eyes are glued to the monitors and fingers racing amongst themselves landing at the right keys. Their swiftness on the key boards, rapid-reckoning and exactness in answering is just amazing. The Math Department of Atmiya Vidya Mandir are no less than robots conquering fatigue and pacing with time, hats off to Prabhumagna Sir and his team. All Maths teachers are being along with the participants to boost up their spirit. Praiseworthy is their teaching and commendable is the learning from student’s side.

The zeal and enthusiasm soared manifold as the arena is sanctified with the divine presence of P. P Swamiji as if the seraphic design is offering the victory to these young mathematicians.

With such extraordinary combination of Swamiji’s presence and virulent fervor of Mathematics the students of Atmiya Vidya Mandir are all set to reach at the top.

In flashback, in 2010, for the very first time in the history of Atmiya Vidya Mandir, among 56,000 schools and about 2.4 million students participated from 236 countries, Class 8 Team secured 11th position worldwide and 1st in India, Class 5 Team secured 42nd position worldwide and 4th in India and Class 6 Team secured 50th position worldwide and 5th in India. Last year, individually, Suraj Patel (Class 8) secured 59th position in the world and 5th in India in the age group 9-13.

But this year’s updates so far are stunningly amazing and prestigious:
The success journey has been already started as the present scores of different age groups are as follow:

This year’s updates…
About 32500 schools are registered worldwide, with over five million learners from 238 different countries participating.

Worldwide position of the students’ teams of AVM at the time of writing this blog:
Age group: 4-7
Team          Rank
Aryabhatta    9


Age group: 8-10
Team              Rank
Ramanujan         2
Bhaskaracharya  9


Age group: 11-13
Team          Rank
Newton         3
Pythagoras    5


Age group: 14-18
Team            Rank
Archimedes   10
Fibonacci      14
Fermat          20

Overall, worldwide, so far there have been more than 280 million total correct answers and its still counting… About 18 hours more to go.

Stay tuned!

Parents-Teachers Meet for Students’ Progress

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Dear Parents,
Namaste and Jay Swaminarayan,
A learning and progressive academic year for all of us is about to end soon. It has been a wonderful year so far and the children of Atmiya Vidya Mandir have learnt in leaps and bounds from all areas of life. Since the next two months are academically important for the children we would like to invite parent’s to come and discuss in person the progress of our child and together with teachers motivate them to perform even better. 
Kindly note the date and time of the schedule below:
 
These meetings will provide general updates and there may be an opportunity to discuss specific queries too, so your presence is highly sought on these days.
We look forward to meeting with you and discussing with you about our child’s progress.
With thanks and best regards,
Lata Shah
Principal

AVM’s Sparklers made the day brighter……

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He loves…, He cares…, He guides…, He inspires…

The divine grace of the president founder of our school H.D.H P.P Hariprasad Swamiji has indeed blessed us with a feeling of honour and adoration to be at the helm of affairs of unending celebration in Atmiya Vidya Mandir. With His grace and guidance, the school has shown a quantum leap since it began its journey. The philosophy of the school is in sync with its motto “Dedicated To The Divinity In Every Child” propounding to respect their unique individual entity adorned with matchless worth and integrity.

In order to promote and prune the inherent talent of each child, all the members of Atmiya Vidya Mandir assembled to commemorate the maiden stride of student-Houses through various activities. This thought-thread runs across the students, academicians and staff community bringing them together and constantly motivating them to acquire a cutting edge. In order to further promote and flicker the glittering blaze, the closing ceremony of this academic session was held on 12th of Feb 2011. 

Dazzling dance

The curtain was raised as the stage bathed in rich tones of white and blues. The piece titled teamwork, commitment, loyalty and ….. ‘The endeavor continues…..’– phrases penned specially for the occasion and creatively designed.

The welcome dance was an electrifying performance by the following vibrant and vivacious students from Std VI to X.
Umang Mistry (Std 6)
Manhil Borana (Std 7)
Prashant Gupta (Std 7)
Krutarth Rangunwala (Std 7)
Sumit Chaudhari (Std 7)
Jill Patel (Std 7)
Harshill Soni (Std 8)
Bhavik Parekh (Std 8)
Yash Dandawala (Std 8)
Vishesh Mistry (Std 8)
Tanmay Patel (Std 8)
Sonak Patel (Std 8)
Raj G Patel (Std 8)
Sunny Patel (Std 9)
Mishal Kansara (Std 9)
Smeet Bhatt (Std 9)
Vinay Rathi (Std 9)
Akshay Patel (Std 9)
Bhavik Patel (Std 10)
Raj V Patel (Std 10)
Aditya Patel (Std 10)

The dancers translated the moments into dance format divulging the core value ‘sportsmanship’. Starting with a beautiful duet, marked with sweeping lifts to flow into a pulsating piece as more dancers pour in to fill up the stage. A fast paced high-octane dance ensued large dynamic percussive movements, gravity defying lifts, turns, jumps and tumbles were the signature of this piece – symbolic of the core value – commitment.

The final climb performance kept everybody on the edge of his seats. Dancers garbed in pristine white open the piece to finally usher in with resistance…A large metal ring suspended from the top, spins and swings around the stage, creating an ethereal effect. As the dancers performed in this spinning contraption, their bodies folded, unfolded, contorted to take on new and beautiful forms. A breath taking, dare devil performance that says “I can, I will”.
Each act was an aesthetic delight, high in skill, with supporting props, hats off to Suharadam (Montu Sir) and these swiftly, highly energetic boys of AVM.

The distinguished guests of the evening were Mrs Smita Patkar, an educationist from Mumbai and her husband along with respected Harish Sir and respected Trustee Natu Da. The guests lit the holy lamp and offered flowers onto the Lord’s feet on behalf of AVM family for the smooth flow of the event.

It was followed by Pranshu Savani (Std 9) and Sahishnu Patel (Std 10) carrying the audience with their scintillating anchoring and occasional remarks bursting with ultimate wit and humour. The duo raised the pulse of the event and kept the audience spell bound. Throughout the program, they brought in their best, displaying flair and grace.

Principal’s address

The program began with Principal Swayam Mam’s address. She applauded the untiring efforts of conveners and teachers of different Student Houses. She also congratulated the students for flourishing with their inherent talent through various house activities throughout the year.

Academic Winner House

Above all, the inter house competition and creative assemblies rendered development of a strong bonding of mutual love and respect among the teachers and the students which in turn creates magic in the class room: and the one who bagged the winner trophy for Academic Excellence with such magic wand is Suhradam House.

A Sweeping Account of the learning Extravaganza
The school vice head boy Yash Pachhigar and Suhradam House Captain Abhishek Panchal took us down the memory lane on how AVM fared competed and won in the world of Academics, Culture and Sports. The backdrop screen on the projector displayed the reminiscence in digital form. They talked about different activities, enumerated briefly the events and the outcomes of the year.

Once again Pranshu and Sahishnu, the hosts of the show amused the audience with their hilarious style yet sensible comments. It was the time to pinch the pang on physical ground, Satyam house with its invincible sportsmanship and physical agility took away the trophy of winning house for sports events. Satyam House convener Paras Sir was greeted with thousand smiles for this amazing prize.

The exciting proceedings started with conveners of all four student house arriving on the stage to share their experiences with their house members. They gave a boost to the event when each one of them took over as the main anchor of the event. Paras Sir humbled at the contribution of each of Satyam House members whereas Saumya Mam considered the members of Shivam House as a team of competent workers. Tarun Sir spoke about how Sundaram house lives its slogan ‘United Hearts And Unbeatable Spirit’. The Suhradam House Convener Prabhudarshan Sir stated his house motto ‘One For All and All For One.’ as his house members showed amazing joy to be in a house ‘Where Diversity Is A Celebration’.“We are the world”
It was time for an eccentric bunch of budding singers to take over stage, the school choir group flocked to ‘We are the children, we are the world’, as Meherzan Turel (Std 8), Deval Patel (Std 10), Samyak Varia (Std 10) set in acoustic vibes, a musical performance that focused on softer music, seemed keenly jubilant and melodious. The ambience of the location, the stunning stage gave the event an added attraction. Thanks to all Didis and Samarthya Mam. The magical melodious voice of Meherzan took everyone in trance. Soon the music teacher, Somnath Sir joined, performing close-harmony arrangements with razored precision and swapping the leads between singers with nicely contrasting vocal sounds, from impassioned falsetto (arranger Ronak Mistry of Std 8) to soulful bass (Sawai Rathi of Std 9). An unironic cover with funky groove supplied by Somnath Sir and his students. Everyone was just carried away by them!

Display Board Winner House

In order to develop and encourage the skills of visualization, investigation and representation of concepts, the display board secures a major part. The display board activities were aimed at strengthening the atmosphere of cohesiveness & free-flow expression and to have fun at the same time. This prize was bagged by Sundaram House.

Best Creative Assembly

Here came the time to hold on the breath! Everybody was eager to find to be at the top for making the most spectacular shows! Values, music, dialogues, concept, script, costume, backdrop, theme and so on…. the category that intrigued and fascinated everybody. The best creative assembly award was taken by Sundaram House.

Certificate distribution

It was then, the time to appreciate and applaud the contribution, coordination and cooperation of the members of the Students’ Council. All the members of the students’ council were given certificates of appreciation for being the interface between the students and the administration as they shouldered their assigned responsibility superbly. This group of members represented the interests of the students and participated in all meetings discussing to identify and address concerns that affect the students directly and indirectly. Following list shows the names of the students received the certificates:

School Head Boy:  Sarthak Jariwala
Vice Head Boy:  Yash Pachchigar
Sports Captain:  Vikas Patel
Satyam House Captain:  Abhishek Patel
Satyam House Vice Captain:  Harsh Sarda
Shivam House Captain:  Darshit Patel
Shivam House Vice Captain:  Vishesh Mistry
Sundaram House Captain:  Sunny Patel
Sundaram House Vice Captain:  Ravi Patel
Suhradam House Captain:  Abhishek Panchal
Suhradam House Vice Captain:  Nishit Banka

Over all Winner House

With the start of every session, the busy and hectic schedule, classes, activities, exams and functions each have their own charms, anxiety and frolic. But still there is something that every house looked forward to…The Winner House of The Session. The beam of laughter, the splash of speculation, the high talks of hard work and appreciation and criticisms and then the final countdown began for the most awaited announcement of the d-day. The phonemes SSSS… and MMMMM….. seemed to rumble and resonated the hall, some anticipated and some just presume the another ……

Suhradam House perks up
It was noticeable that there was a fierce competition with the other houses that motivated “Team Suhradam” to perform extremely well both on and off the field. With their competitive spirit unleashed, they were really a team to reckon with as they went on to win competition after competition, and ended the academic year with a flourish by winning the coveted “Trophy” for the best house for overall performance for the year.

Talking about the win moments, after the event, would seem unbelievable to Abhishek Panchal, the Suharadam House captain as, he had a look of disbelief on his face as the triumph settled in and he took his time to describe the win.

In her speech, the chief guest Smt. Smitaben regarded the AVM family members the most fortunate for living in scenic and serene surroundings of pious vibrations in the school premises. She also revealed the fact that AVM is in the front page of Swamiji’s diary.

The excitement and enthusiasm seemed to defuse with the racing needles of the watch as it shrunk the belly craving for lunch. Soon, the programme came to an end with the acknowledgement and applause by Rupashree Mam for the untiring efforts of teachers, students and staff who have contributed significantly to portray the essence of being able to soar new heights, scale new skies and participate in various activities. Though the fervor was over and the tempo was doused with the end of the programme yet the celebration and joy continues……..