MONTHLY BULLETIN OF CITY MONTESSORI SCHOOL, LUCKNOW, INDIA

Personality Development

CMS creates a better future for all children by maximising
their opportunities through quality education and initiatives for unity and development.

March 2019

Dr Jagdish Gandhi attends International African Constitutional Conference in Cairo, Egypt as Special Guest of Honour

Dr Jagdish Gandhi and Mr Sandeep Srivastava with the Chief Justices and Judges at the International Conference held at Cairo, Egypt

CMS Founder and Convenor of International Conference of Chief Justices of the World (ICCJW), Dr Jagdish Gandhi, attended the third International African Constitutional Conference of African Constitutional Courts, Councils and Supreme Courts held in Cairo, Egypt from 16 to 19 February 2019. Hon'ble Justice Dr Hanafy Aly Gebaly, Chief Justice of Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt had specially invited Dr Gandhi for this International Conference as Special Guest of Honour. This Conference was organized under the auspices of the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, His Excellency Abdel Fattah Al Sisi. Dr Jagdish Gandhi was accompanied by Mr Sandeep Srivastava, Project Leader of ICCJW. On return from Egypt, Dr Gandhi said that this tour of Egypt has set a milestone in the way of World Unity and World Peace as the voice for the safety of more than 2.5 billion children of the world got full support at the Conference. Dr Jagdish Gandhi and Mr Sandeep Srivastava were given an overwhelming welcome with flowers and garlands at Amausi airport by the CMS teachers and staff on return from Cairo, Egypt.

Dr Jagdish Gandhi with Chief Justices of various African nations

From the President's Pen...

Prof. Geeta Kingdon, President, CMS
Dear Parents,

By the time this Bulletin reaches you, children will be coming to the end of their annual examinations in which they have applied their best efforts, and they will deserve the joy of spring that March brings! There will be much to celebrate: new foliage, flowers aplenty, colourful Holi and new beginnings in children’s school life, after the result card distribution.

In early February, the Youth Empowerment and Character Education department of CMS organised a landmark international conference on Character Education and Future Impact, which drew several excellent speakers from the UK, the US and many Indian states, who have devoted a large part of their careers engaging with civic education, moral teaching and citizenship education. While character building generally receives Cinderella status in schools, in CMS we want to learn how to make this (vitally important aspect of education) more impactful and relevant. In this quest, the CMS Principals and Incharges, and our psychological counsellors and child well-being staff from across CMS campuses came together at this conference and took back ideas from the experience of character education in other states and countries.

I am pleased to report that news has started pouring in of CMS class 12 students getting admission offers in some prominent universities of USA, U.K, Germany and Japan, etc., many on scholarship. As their numbers swell in the coming weeks, we shall give you the statistics.

We are delighted to be marking CMS’s diamond jubilee in 2019. As CMS was founded on 1st July 1959, we shall be celebrating the whole of the calendar year 2019, i.e. from 6 months before to 6 months after the founding date, to remember CMS’s glorious 60 years of service to the children of the city of Lucknow!

CMS students qualify IAS and PCS examinations

Nripendra Singh
Aishwarya Nanda
Shruti Gupta
Surabhi Roy
Lovey Tripathi

Nripendra Singh, an alumnus of CMS Indira Nagar and Gomti Nagar Campuses, qualified the most coveted Indian Administrative Services conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). Apart from this, four alumni of CMS qualified the prestigious UP Public Services Commission (PCS) Examination bringing laurels to the institution. The students are: Aishwarya Nanda and Shruti Gupta of CMS Aliganj Campus I and Surabhi Roy and Lovey Tripathi of CMS Mahanagar Campus.

It may be mentioned that the maximum number of CMS students qualify the prestigious IAS examination every year. Last year too, two alumni had passed the Civil Services exam and five CMS alumni had attained success in the PCS-J (Judicial) exam.

CMS teachers excel at the national level in the CENTA Teaching Professionals’ Olympiad

Shan Ara Khan
Sneha Dwivedi
Ajay Pathak
Geeta Lalchandani
Kanika Kapoor

Five CMS teachers have scored national ranks in the prestigious CENTA Teaching Professionals’ Olympiad 2018, the results of which were declared recently. These teachers are Ms Shan Ara Khan who secured 12th rank Nationally as Junior English teacher, Ms Sneha Dwivedi who secured 15th rank Nationally as Junior Science teacher, Mr Ajay Pathak who secured 16th rank Nationally as Senior Physics teacher, Ms Geeta Lalchandani who secured 30th rank Nationally as Senior Chemistry teacher and Ms Kanika Kapoor, who secured 34th rank Nationally as Junior Maths teacher.

Shan Ara Khan and Sneha Dwivedi are teachers at the Cambridge Section at CMS Gomti Nagar Extension Campus, Ms Kanika Kapoor is a teacher at CMS Rajajipuram Campus while the other two teachers (Ajay Pathak and Geeta Lalchandani) belong to CMS Gomti Nagar Campus. Shan Ara Khan secured 44th rank across all categories, out of the more than 60,000 teachers who took the test nationally.

Founded in 2014, Centre for Teacher Accreditation (CENTA) works to empower teachers and catalyze their professional development through the annual Teaching Professionals’ Olympiad (TPO), a unique national competition in the format of an objective, multiple-choice test based on the CENTA Standards which is highly practice-oriented. More than 60,000 teaching professionals from 10,000+ schools in 2000+ cities and towns across India and UAE are part of CENTA's endeavour to connect teachers with career opportunities and professional growth. CENTA TPO benefits teachers by benchmarking their competencies against the well-accepted CENTA Standards of teacher performance and identifying strengths that can become valuable differentiators and new skill areas that can become potential for growth.

International Conference on Character Education and Future Impact held at CMS

Educationists came together for common cause of Character Building at the Conference

A 2-day International Conference on Character Education and Future Impact was organized by the Department of Character Education and Youth Empowerment of CMS on 2nd and 3rd February 2019. Educationists from Georgia, Iran, Qatar, UK, USA and various states of India gathered together to explore the need for Character education, and the ways and means of integrating it into the curriculum. The deliberations also focused on the need for promoting the discourse on redefining quality education further in the Indian sub-continent.

The Chief Guest, Mr Rajendra Kumar Tiwari, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary, Secondary and Higher Education, UP presented the inaugural speech and together with all other educationists lit the lamp of learning followed by the cultural presentation by the tiny tots of CMS. Prof. Geeta Gandhi Kingdon, President, CMS, in her welcome speech emphasized the dire need of children and adolescents to receive sound, holistic education which would empower them to take charge of their own process of intellectual, emotional, moral, spiritual development as well as contribute to the betterment of their society. She reiterated the need for all educationists in various schools to give special attention to this important matter.

Mrs Farida Vahedi, the convener of the Conference spoke on the imperative need for an evolving conceptual framework on quality education and highlighted the centrality of character and moral education to the entire process of the empowerment of children, adolescents and youth to become champions of justice, builders of unity and the establishers of divine civilization on earth.

Senior Principal Ms Manjit Batra awarded

Ms. Manjit Batra, Senior Principal, CMS Gomti Nagar Campus being felicitated

Senior Principal of CMS Gomti Nagar, Ms Manjit Batra, has been honoured with a national level “Leadership Award for Excellence in Co-Curricular Education.” She was awarded a Certificate of Honour at a grand felicitation function held at the Imperial hotel in New Delhi. Principal of CMS Gomti Nagar Campus II, Mrs Sangeeta Banerjee was also present at the honouring ceremony. Educational institution 'Scoolstars' and a research team of 'Koshient Ventures Pvt. Ltd.' selected Ms Manjit Batra for this award on the basis of one year long intensive study of over 8400 independent schools in India, based on historic data, community and parental perceptions and reviews publicly available about the schools.