Sunday, June 24, 2012

PP1 Phased Induction Programme


Induction program helps children and parents to get familiar with the school environment and gives parents a positive assurance of their child’s life in school.

Oakridge Newton campus had conducted Phased Induction program for PP1 on 18th, 19th and 20th of June 2012.  The phased Induction started with “Carnival time”. Various activities which interest the children were planned for every child .They enjoyed  puppet show done by teachers . Through  out the induction program both the parents and children involved themselves and participated actively.
An orientation program was conducted on the final day for the parents where they were made aware of the school culture, communication and interaction. The seminar ended with a briefing on positive parenting, personal health and hygiene.







WORLD MUSIC DAY


We all love music, don't we? Whether we are gloomy or happy, relaxed or excited, we listen to music all the time. We don't need a reason to listen to music.

But wouldn't it be great if we could have a whole day dedicated to the wonderful world of music. Yes, World Music Day is here on June 21. And it's time for all music-lovers to have an extra dose of their favourite music.

World Music Day is also known as FĂȘte de la Musique in France, the place where it originated. There is an interesting story behind the idea of having World Music Day. In 1976, an American musician named Joel Cohen came up with the suggestion of  having an all-night music celebration. He wanted this music festival to take place on the longest day of the year, ie. on the day of summer solstice. In 1982, his idea was adopted in France. With music being popular among all, this idea quickly spread to over one hundred cities around the world.

World Music Day is all about appreciating music and inspiring others to do the same. Here at Oakridge  we all recognise the ability of music to bridge differences among people and  power to promote tolerance and inspire respect for differences and thus help build global citizens.

The day was celebrated in different ways:

The day began with sweet instrumental music which could be heard in all the rooms.

Students sung their favourite songs during the assembly.

Different concepts were done in class through music , like noun using noun songs , numbers using number songs.

Kids astonished us by showcasing their creativity in writing poetic lines.

Many parents performed on this day to create an atmosphere of celebration and festivity.

Different musical instruments were displayed in the school atrium and the students were taken for a gallery walk.

We celebrated the World Music Day in different styles and enjoyed the magical powers of music.





Friday, June 22, 2012

World Music Day...Senior School

If music be the food of love play on...that was Shakespeare who believed music to be the food of love. It is true that music is a language that knows no boundaries. The World Music Day was celebrated at Oakridge and one could see all the music enthusiasts come together with beautiful presentations of songs and music played in the Assembly and after. 


Keeping in sync with Oakridge's belief that the parent community is an integral part of school, the parents were invited to be a part of the celebrations. Mrs. Janaki one of the parents rendered a beautiful number followed by a soulful rendition by Ms.Richa. The afternoon programme saw the students perform with equal excitement. There was a display of all the musical instruments in the Atrium as part of the celebrations. 











Adopt A Monument


The city of Hyderabad conjures up images of not just ‘biryani’ and ‘pearls’ but also of some of the most beautiful heritage structures in the world. In an age of commercialization where cities are being converted into concrete jungles,  the thought of bringing to life and focus a heritage structure is something commendable and that is what the Oakridgers intend to prove in Adopting a Monument as part of their CAS initiative and also in accordance with CBSE’s guidelines on an 'Educational Campaign to preserve and protect heritage monuments in the country.

The State Central Library at Afzalganj is one such heritage structure dating back to 1891. Situated on the banks of the Musi river this heritage structure is one of the oldest libraries in Hyderabad and houses books and some rare manuscripts.

Our objective in taking up this project is to sensitize students and the public in general to develop a healthy value system towards their heritage and to bring this heritage structure into focus not only for schools across Hyderabad but also the thousands of book lovers in the city.

We propose to involve students to investigate its local history, understand the challenges in its conservation and campaign for its preservation.

The students of Grade X visited the State Central Library today and as part of the preservation campaign helped in arrangement and cataloguing books in the Hindi section of the library.

This is what Nikhil, Sankeerth and Manoj  of X have to say…

An entrance designed like the spilling pages of an open book welcomed us into the ‘State Central Library’ in Afzalgunj for our first CAS activity of this year along with class teacher Mrs. Prathima and CAS Coordinator Mr. David. A grand palace made by his highness, the 7thNizam of India, now stood in front of us, but not as a palace, rather a quaint old library. We were surprised upon being seated at the main reading hall, where we only saw about 10 closets of books. Truth is, 4.5 lakh books enveloped in dust lay in the very personal library of the Nizam, now belonging to the State Government of Andhra Pradesh.

Our job was to clean and rearrange the old Hindi books at the dark lower floors of the library. Seems easy doesn’t it? Wrong, it wasn’t. It was a tough task, but all we needed was coordination and diligence. We started off by taking places amongst the smoky grey shelves, making them shine, along with the yellowing 100 year old-books. It became a room of chaos and dust as we lifted over 50,000 books from the top floor down to the lower floors. Face masks and gloves were all we had, apart from a feeling to make a change. As sweat dropped, we kept working with a will to work, until we reorganized ourselves, 25 of us students, in a chain, all the way from the book pile on the top floor till the empty shelves on the bottom floor. Passing piles of books, hand to hand, and yelling orders and encouragement all around, we finally got the job done. Dirty but with a feeling of accomplishment, and a little fatigue, we got a tour of the different sections of the peaceful library. But what really made our jaws drop during the tour was the fact that every single one of the books was scanned and saved carefully in the digital library; open to anyone who wished to find rare books seemingly lost in another era.

At last we boarded the bus with mixed thoughts, except two common ones- Teamwork and triumph.

Some more thoughts by the students…..

Amandha:  “It feels great to do our bit for the society. I wish we could’ve stayed longer.”

Swapnika:  “A fun experience with friends and we were proud to finish the job, I’d love to help out again.”

Shansa: “We don’t realize how amazing it feels to do something together as one class until we actually do it. I’m waiting to come back.”

Girish: “All sweat and dust were worth the fun and educational activity.”

Shrey: “We really liked the visit and I hope these trips motivate others to foster the beauty of old monuments with great amusement.”















Thursday, June 21, 2012

PRE PRIMARY MUSICAL CARNIVAL


Music adds life to everything we do!!!  

Having a day to celebrate music is awesome. The Pre-Primary at Oakridge Newton Campus celebrated World Music Day in the form of a “MUSICAL CARNIVAL” on Thursday 21 June 2012. Children show cased different instruments and enjoyed playing them for others. Earlier in the day few parents volunteered to play and sing songs to the kids. Children were amazed to see the rare musical instruments that were displayed in the central atrium. Children went back home humming and singing to various tunes.









OAKRIDGE, NEWTON CAMPUS, CELEBRATES WORLD MUSIC DAY


21 June 2012 was a day of musical harmony at Oakridge,  Newton Campus . The day started with assembly at the palm court conducted by the students of class VI. It was followed by the beautiful performances by the students who brought the harmony into picture by singing ‘Mile sur mera tumhara, toh sur bane humara’. The melody was echoed in the next performance with sheer confidence ‘Ain’t no mountain high.’

It was not only the students but also many enthusiastic  parents who played different musical instruments and sang songs to inspire our children. There was also a display of various musical instruments in the atrium where students came for a gallery walk. It was music all over Oakridge. The corridors, the atrium were flooded by the promising harmony of the day. The parents also went to their child’s classroom and enthralled the whole class with their musical talents.  But the end was more musical than anyone thought.

The students performances in the MPH  made everyone rock and thus the festival ended with some great musical memories at Oakridge.