Programmes - RiverDale International School Pune

STUDENT MENTORING

The Mentoring Program at RiverDale seeks to establish and maintain warm relationships between students and designated staff who serve as their mentors. A mentor is assigned a small number of students and offers them support, guidance, and assistance in decision making. All new students are assigned mentors who help them settle down quickly at school. Additionally, children who need support during times of personal, emotional and social stress or want to rectify earlier problems are assigned one. Mentors embrace the part of a friend, guide and role model; and not an authoritarian figure or a replacement for a parent. Parents are encouraged to maintain direct contact with mentors for a deeper understanding of their children.

SOFT SKILLS

Since the focus at RiverDale is the holistic and all-round development of your child, a formal classroom education is just the beginning. Qualities such as confidence, self esteem and awareness have always been important facets needed for success in adult life. We seek to provide your child with a combination of skill sets which will help them evolve into well rounded individuals. RIS believes that there is leader in each one of their students and our Soft Skills program seeks to empower students with valuable skills such as public speaking, dining etiquette, ethical behaviour, power dressing and interpersonal etiquette that will set them apart in any competitive scenario.

CAREER COUNSELLING

The school offers its expertise and counselling services to parents on the basis of students’ past performance, interests, aptitudes and prospects when faced with the decision whether to pursue Science or Commerce streams as students enter grades 9 and 11. Special career counselling is offered to students of grades 10 and 12 and their parents, providing them with feedback on possible career choices for the future. The school, in association with reputed external agencies, conducts for its students an array of psychometric tests that help determine their aptitudes for and natural tendencies towards preferred subjects and careers.

FITNESS PROGRAMME

Owing to our commitment of ensuring our students remain in good shape, the Fitness and Wellness programme was initiated by our founder Mr Azar, and is taken up very seriously at RiverDale. Obese students, right from grade 4, upwards to grade 12 are selected with the purpose of keeping a strict check on their weight and ensuring they remain fit. Through a combination of specially formulated short duration but high intensity workouts, low calorie meal plans and regular motivation, results are all but guaranteed. To ensure progress, BMI (Body Mass Index) is calculated on a fortnightly basis and the results are communicated with parents by the Principal.

EDUCATIONAL TOURS

RiverDale School organizes a variety of outings and trips for students throughout the year. These include camping trips, field trips, educational tours and city outings. The overnight camps are organized soon after the school starts its new academic year. A few months later, the staff and students embark on an annual week-long educational tour which is mandatory for all students. These trips are very effective in establishing strong bonds among students and provide them opportunities for insightful learning related to course content as well as life experiences. Short-duration field-trips are routinely planned and carried out as well to complement classroom learning. Children unwind in city-outings, which comprise of a movie and lunch or dinner.

BOOK REVIEW

The RIS Book Review Programme ensures that every student reads at least four age appropriate books in the year and submits well written book reviews that are graded. The program helps students become well read and knowledgeable on many topics apart from academics. Our extensively stocked library has a wide variety of reading materials from the great classics, comics, Indian and International novels, both fiction and nonfiction which the students are encouraged to access. The Riverdale International School’s ‘Expressions Magazine’ which is a must read, is a brilliant collective endeavour of student essays, poems and travelogues that were born of the creative sessions in the book review programme.

PARTICIPATION OF PARENTS

We at RiverDale believe that close participation of parents is very beneficial for children. To this end, Parent-Teacher Meetings are conducted often at the school where parents interact with teachers and apprise themselves of their children’s progress. Parents are welcome to correspond with the school Principal whenever they need an update on the progress of their children. Every such request is responded to promptly by providing a comprehensive feedback related to the student’s performance and application in the classroom, dormitory, dining hall and play grounds. A positive and transparent relationship between the school and parents is largely responsible for RiverDale’s success over the years.

STAFF DEVELOPMENT

The members of RiverDale staff are periodically involved in programs of professional development. These include in-house sessions facilitated by existing staff and external sessions conducted by expert agencies. These staff development training interventions focus on teaching skills, improve classroom management, attitude of service in the work of teachers, aims and objective of education, and others. At a different level, teachers routinely participate in subject-specific training sessions organized by and on behalf of the CISCE at its various regional and national centers helping them to constantly improve their subject specific teaching skills.