The Yoga and Mindfulness workshop conducted by Ms. Shibani Sahni on 18th Nov 2020 was attended by almost 30 teachers of Study Hall. It was a rejuvenating and refreshing session that focused on ‘mindfulness’, or a conscious effort at synergising our thought, action, energy all in one direction for attaining optimism results in all our physical and mental endeavours.
It was a beginner’s guide to deep breathing exercises or ‘pranayama’ and some basic yoga exercises meant to strengthen the body and improve our immunity and resilience.
From getting to know our bodies better, to learning the positive impact of mindfulness and yoga in our day to day lives, it a was an hour and a half well spent.
The teachers were left completely mesmerized by the students’ impassioned performance on 5th of September, so on 14th of November, they decided to turn the tide and make the students feel special. The teachers of Study Hall Senior school had diligently put up a virtual show for the students on the occasion of Children’s Day. It was a fun-filled day for all. Even the adults relived their childhood. The celebrations began with the usual morning prayer and then the mic was passed to the ‘live on location’ comperes of the day- Mr Himanshu and Mr Kamlesh. They took the children down memory lane, showing how children’s day was celebrated in the pre pandemic years. Coming to this year, all the teachers performed in small groups. Few danced with grace, others sang tunefully, and some acted out little episodes, giving insights into the hilarious moments of student life like, ‘types of friends during exams’ and ‘the secret formula to top exams’, ‘the virtual school’, ‘locked in with grandma during lockdown’ and how ‘the children dearly want to go to school’. The highlight of the day was the melodious performance by everyone’s beloved, the school founder- Dr Urvashi Sahni, the school principal -Mrs Meenakshi Bahadur and the vice principal of the school- Mrs Meenakshi Shah who regaled their audience to the hilt.
Behind this 2-hour program, was the teachers’ week(s) long effort, managing classes and practices every day, all to bring a smile on the faces of their children. The students were beaming with joy throughout and couldn’t thank their gurus enough for making the day memorable albeit virtually!
Children’s day came with lots of excitement. This year as everything is going virtual the Children’s Day celebration was also organized online to entertain the students and make them feel special. A novel idea of making teachers enact the role of historical figures was conceived. Two teachers took the main role of Badshah Akbar and Birbal.
Badshah Akbar and Birbal were welcomed by junior school headmistress Mrs. Bani Malhotra. The curtain raiser was in the form of blessings by the school founder Dr. Urvashi Sahni, Principal Mrs. Meenakshi Bahadur and Vice Principal Mrs. Meenakshi Shah.
Then the headmistress took these two guests Badshah Akbar and Birbal for a school tour to showcase the teaching style of Study Hall School. Teachers of different subjects were shown teaching in a witty manner in their respective classes. Children enjoyed this mimicry by the junior school teachers and this truly made children’s day a memorable event for the students of Study Hall junior School.
International Day of the girl child celebrated on 11th October 2020. Study Hall students and teachers celebrated it in their own beautiful way, with poetry artwork and write ups.
Study Hall CHRYSALIS presented ‘Art in Action’, an online Inter-House Art Competition for students right from grade 6 to 12, allowing them to take a breather from the current stressful situations and provided them a platform to unlock their creativity flamboyantly. Sizeable number of students self nominated themselves to be a part of the event. The categories under the event were- Junior (6th to 8th) and senior (9th to 12th), 6 students per house were shortlisted in the preliminary round by their art teachers based on their previous art work which they had sent on their house Whatsapp .
The shortlisted artists in the consequent days had several workshops with the art teachers regarding how to use-mix-create colors that suit the mood of the creation; they rapidly produced ideas on how to portray meaningful issues through brushes and pastels following the rules and procedures of the event. To exercise the mind and hands prior to the central event, several themes were given in these sessions, in sync with social issues and the ongoing pandemic. The final topics were allotted on the eve of 29th august and final creations were to be handed on 30th, the junior Vincent van Goughs expressed their picture of solidarity during the pandemic and the senior Picassos equated rights for women to Human Rights! The judging parameters were creativity and originality, drawing and layout, color scheme and quality of work. No entries were to be accepted after the given deadline. All the artworks were eye-opening and touching but the few victors who managed to ace the task were–
Children of class 1, 2 and 3 of Study Hall School raised the bar of critical thinking this year by engaging in a virtual panel discussion on Discrimination, Gender and the current Pandemic. The panel discussion saw a very good turnout from junior school parents as well as students. The panelists from all the three grades were very eager and enthusiastic to participate in the discussion actively. The discussion started with the Head Mistress Mrs. Bani Malhotra welcoming Dr. Urvashi Sahni, the founder of the school and the parents, assuring them that they would find the discussion really interesting.
Mrs. Gunjan Singh, who was moderating the session along with Mrs. Shalini Sangal and Mrs. Neelam Singh, initiated the panel discussion by requesting the panelists to introduce themselves one by one before diving into the discussion. Dr. Sahni and the parents were delighted and also wonderstruck seeing the inquisitive and bright minds of the students who shared their points of views confidently. The panel discussion saw varied opinions being shared by the panelists with agreements as well as respectful disagreements during the course of it. Dr. Urvashi Sahni also engaged with the student panelists by asking them extremely relevant questions at various points during the discussion. The views of the children were thought provoking and sensitive towards the under-privileged. It was laudable to see how the teachers had guided the students to become introspective and aware individuals who were willing to take the mantle of fighting against discrimination prevalent in our society. It was good to see how comfortable and confident the children were in using all the technology tools in this virtual panel discussion. The parents were full of praise for the school authorities for organizing and conducting this edifying panel discussion. The program was closed with a Vote of thanks delivered by Mrs. Meenakshi Bahadur, the Principal of Study Hall School.
Welcoming all to the celebrations of 5th September’20, Teachers’ Day. The students utilized the day to express their heartfelt gratitude and thankfulness towards their teachers through a virtual presentation. As is the ritual of Study Hall, the head girl of school Deepanshi Verma, adorned as the principal Meenakshi Bahadur aunty and the vice head girl Gaurisha Prakash, as vice principal Meenakshi Shah Aunty started the morning assembly with usual meditation and the vice head boy Aryaman Shukla, that day transformed into Rajesh sir, the yoga teacher @Study Hall headed the yoga session. The head boy Kushagra Trivedi entitled the teachers as the unsung heroes, and it’s worth it, all those moments they asking the students to switch on the cameras, permission for PDF in drives, responding to the questions, while the students sometimes choose to stay silent; thanked them for adapting to the virtual medium so well and making the teams classes as any other reality class. Thereafter Sherlock Holmes and James Watson, the comparers for the day (detective theme) opened the show, which was mostly pre-recorded and displayed through screen share on zoom, and invited the students of standard 6th and 7th to present their dance on peppy and fun numbers. It was enchanting to see the little ones hop and rock on the screen and how the teachers wished they were relishing the event physically in the school campus. Nevertheless there was no compromise from the student body in putting up a great show. The pair of detective friends handed over the microphone to batman and robin, who sadly drew the former’s vehicle into an accident and so the conversation moved on to listening and respecting elders and specifically teachers. Why? Due to 3 reasons- firstly if students are smart, teachers are double smart, next for the amount of hard work they put in and manage their job and homes both, and last teachers have since ancient times been the superior figures even where god stands in comparison, all of these creatively visualized and presented by the students of 8th and 9th in a skit. Next the celebration had Dana Scully and Fox Mulder from FBI opened the floor for riddles where the teachers were required to move the detective minds in them and ace the games. Then again the legends Feluda and Byomkesh, the celebrated detectives came on screen and introduced the music video prepared by the musicians of 10th and 11th. The audience was swaying and tip toeing to their tune, mesmerized, praised by Nancy Drew and the Hardy boys as well. And last but not the least, standard 12th put up yet another comical dance-drama to make their last teachers’ day in school memorable for their teachers. They took the reality of their virtual classes to the skit, mixed with additional comedy, intertwined with dance to portray the situation, garnished with emotions! And with a thank you note from all the students and Meenakshi aunty herself for making the celebration possible on virtual platform, the day came to an end. With all due respect and love, HAPPY TEACHERS’ DAY.
Another event culminated under Chrysalis 2020 with explicit planning and full gusto bringing out the hidden writer in each student. The Inter-House Creative Writing Competition in English was held in two stages. Initially the students of every section had to go through an elimination round from which 4 students, one per house, were selected from each section.
16 students from each class moved on to the final round wherein 1st,2nd,3rd and 4th positions were announced with points being added to the overall tally of their respective houses.
The first round was held by the English teachers in their respective classes on Microsoft Teams. The students had one hour to ponder over and write about the various thought provoking and fun topics provided to them. Class 6-8 were both given light-hearted topics — ‘The School of My Dreams’, ‘My Experiments in the Kitchen’, ‘Does Magic Exist?’ — as well as serious ones like, ‘The Things I take for Granted’, ‘The Role of Social Media’ amongst several others. Classes 9 to 12 had to go several notches up and integrate both moods. ‘An Offer I could not refuse’, ‘Paper has More Patience than Man’, ‘Man is the Most Dangerous Animal on Earth’ were some of the topics given to the seniors.
The final round was held on 31st July (6-8) and 4th August (9-12) . This time class 6 wrote from the point of view of pets whose owners were getting separated, classes 7 and 8 had to bring out their inner ‘William Wordsworth’ while classes 9 and 10 were given topical prompts like, ‘The Thoughts of a Person in the Year 2020’ and ‘The Sky was Pink Last Evening’. Classes 11 and 12 had to face their inner conflicts as the prompts covered areas such as taking up non -traditional occupations and stopping self -sacrificial acts.
All in all, it was a very enriching experience for both teachers and students alike.
The children of Class 4 and 5 of Study Hall Junior School and Prerna School engaged in a Panel Discussion on Tuesday, 18th August, 2020. The topic for the discussion was ‘Every Life Matters…No Matter What…’ Due to the Lockdown, the session was conducted online through Zoom. It was well attended by a large number of parents. The Head Mistress, Mrs. Bani Malhotra welcomed the parents very warmly and assured them that they would have a great time listening to the enthusiastic participants who eager to share their views with everyone.
Mrs. Uttara Saran and Mrs. Ruchi Bhateja were the moderators for this event. The C.E.O. of the school, Dr. Urvashi Sahni was truly delighted to see the young ones putting forth their points with bubbling enthusiasm. During the course of the discussion, sometimes they agreed with one another, whereas several times they also displayed their disagreement. The hard work put in by the children and the teachers was clearly evident as the children replied to each question with immense confidence. Their views showed their sensitivity towards the less privileged and they had ready solutions for most of the problems. Their inputs were thought provoking, leaving the audience mesmerized and asking for more. It was indeed heartening to see them handling technology with great ease. It was heart warming to hear the views of the girls from Prerna, a school for the underprivileged girls as they shared their own life experiences. The parents were full of praises for the school authorities for conducting the Panel Discussion in a well organized manner.
The Programme came to an end with the Vote of Thanks delivered by Mrs. Meenakshi Bahadur, the Principal of Study Hall.
Study Hall marked the 74th Independence Day by a virtual meet. The principal, vice principal and CEO of Study Hall, along with a small group of teachers visited the school, maintaining social distancing, to hoist the Indian flag which the students and remaining faculty witnessed on their screens, followed by the national anthem and the pledge. The CEO, Urvashi aunty utilised the occasion to speak about the real freedom from fear, being loving countrymen, recent education policy and scope for democratic citizenship education. Principal, Meenakshi aunty devotedly spoke about the fight for freedom back in 1940s and today, freedom from the pandemic, COVID-19. The junior school too celebrated the occasion in the same fashion along with teachers, students and their parents as well. Thereafter, everyone geared up for the panel discussion. The panel had 2 students each from all the units of SHEF and everyone witnessed an enriching discussion on the entrenched inequalities in our society that were pushed into the light due to the pandemic. Various perspectives poured in as the panelists explored caste, gender and class discrimination. The discussion was opened to the audience and beautiful statements were given like, “if you want to make a change in the world look at the man in the mirror” amongst several others. Urvashi Aunty gave the closing speech as she urged the students to adopt a solution oriented approach and set an example by sharing the foundation’s recent achievement of providing hundreds of phones and laptops to the underprivileged students. The proceedings ended on a patriotic high leaving everyone with thoughts on how to create the India our forefathers envisioned. The event brought back a lot of memories and it was indeed a wonderful idea to hold the Independence Day function despite the physical limitations. Happy Independence Day!!
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