Philosophy

Deccan International School

Vision Statement:

To provide an empowering learning environment
that nurtures empathy and inquiry in students,
enabling them to excel in an ever-changing world.

Our more specific goals are:

to nurture the desire for life-long learning and augment the innate curiosity in each child.
to curate the passions of each child, helping them flourish in their unique and creative ways.
to enable the child to face academic challenges and excel without pressure.
to inspire in children a love for nature, art, sports and culture.
to offer a diverse and agile curriculum that will enable children to meaningfully contribute to society.

Philosophy of Education

True learning is a unique, on-going and lifelong experience for each child which begins even before he/she enters school. Our most important job as educators is to always keep this in sight as we teach our children ‘how to learn’ and cultivate in them a continuing enthusiasm for inquiry.

We believe that each child is an individual with an inborn drive to learn. In addition, they have very individual styles in which they best learn. We work hard to identify and nurture individual learning styles and apply a creative combination of the most appropriate methods in order to engage every student in the classroom.

We recognize that asking the right questions is the key to learning and a skill that takes time to develop. So we strive to provide a safe environment where fear is eliminated and children are free to ask any question.

We see merit in the process of peer-to-peer learning, in an informal environment that enables learning and teaching to work reciprocally amongst students. Among other things, it has greater impact on the students in terms of energizing the classroom, encouraging self-direction and developing interpersonal skills. Here the teacher takes on the role of a guide or facilitator, which allows for a more active learning from the students through collaborative effort or group work. It can be a valuable tool for comprehending the same subject in different ways, and developing a broader perspective.

We seek to develop a culture of child affirmation in our school, as we believe that this alone can substantially affect a child and his or her level of performance. Our focus is on providing all our students with positive learning experiences in an environment that is encouraging, active, unbiased and inclusive.

In our school, we seek to remove the dichotomy that exists between ‘core’ subjects – science and math, and the arts, which are too often considered peripheral. We believe that this has led to just a section of students excelling in mostly mainstream areas, while others, who can be equally successful, are side lined. We seek to identify and validate individual areas of passion and talent in our students, as this could help them develop a lifelong skill and gain wider opportunities for success.

Alongside the academic curriculum, we consider the gaining of life skills to be essential for young people to positively develop and flourish in an ever-changing world. Exercises in taking instruction, communication skills, confidence building and teamwork, are not only woven into the regular classroom experience but are also focused on in special classes. Additionally, our students will have opportunities to interact with a network of consultants from various fields, who can guide them in life skills such as ethics, social and environmental responsibility and conflict resolution; all within contexts the students can relate to.

At Deccan International School, we offer a dynamic curriculum that is forward-looking, creative and relevant; that we believe will equip our students with the essential skills and knowledge to flourish in a global community.