HARVEST INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL—A Brief Overview of our institution, our philosophy and our future

Harvest International School 18

HARVEST INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL—A Brief Overview of our institution, our philosophy and our future

-Dr. Ramprasad Gaddipati

 

The core ideology behind the inception of Harvest International School was to disrupt the current education system from the conventional path of rote based learning and to provide students with a more innovative curriculum. A curriculum that ensures a student’s journey in school is not only focused on academic knowledge that is bound by a syllabus but also a practical understanding of their subjects in context with the real world. Our curriculum is designed to create an unparalleled learning atmosphere for our students by using the latest advancements in teaching methodology. At Harvest, we strongly believe in experiential learning and therefore, we update our lesson plans to accommodate a more mentally stimulating learning experience. Our model of experiential learning provides an element of subjective learning for our students, coupled with their teacher’s mentorship. Such a methodology allows our students to learn and unlearn concepts and to explore the subject through mistakes and thus, they are provided a more holistic understanding to any given topic.

 

Harvest International School is a strong believer of the stakeholder model of governance. We are a tool of community engagement as we learn and grow together.  Every member of the student body and their parents, all our faculty members along with their families, all our vendors and their families, together comprise the Harvest Family. We are all bound by a duty of care to each other as we all hold an interest in this institution. In this interest, Harvest offers 100% Scholarship to multiple students who come from financially insecure backgrounds within our community. As our community grows, we intend to make more impactful contributions to the society at large as well as become more socially responsible. We also wish to impart our community beliefs in our students as they leave our campus into the real world. Society is made up of different bubbles of people and we all live in a delicate ecosystem where our actions might negatively impact someone else. Therefore, we must learn to hold ourselves accountable for our actions. This is a lesson that every Harvest student is familiar with after graduating.

 

Growing on our beliefs, Harvest International School has grown from a single institution to five separate campuses. In our vison to provide advanced experiential learning, we expanded into Montessori Schools and an IB/PYP school. In order to ensure that our students experience in school is not limited to the classroom, we have upgraded our sports infrastructure. Students have the pleasure of developing their sporting skills in the indoor basketball / badminton court and  outdoor football fields. Further, art and culture block with its music room, dance studio and art and craft space  facilitates the growth of talent.

 

With regard to our educational infrastructure:

  • The Harvest Curriculum Core team has invested their time and energy into researching and developing new lesson plans that make the classroom more alive with activities. We have collaborated with leading educational researches and completely upgraded the study material for grades 1-5.
  • We have initiated a new phased approach to integrate laboratories into the classroom for smaller activities and to upgrade our teaching methodologies with the use of technology.
  • Harvest has recently secured a Government grant to develop an advanced science laboratory. The ATL Tinkering Laboratory has taken shape at Harvest. ATLis an approach of Central government of India to create an environment of scientific temperament, innovation, creativity amongst Indian Students. ATL lab would teach students essential 21st-century skills which will help them in developing their professional and personal skills. This facility is now available at Harvest International and can herald in a new phase in the scientific temperament of students.
  • Our Research team also developed a Life Skills Handbook, a course taught over all the grades, comprising of modules of the various skills we must be familiar with in order to be a good member of society and to have a competitive edge. This curriculum comprises all aspects of 21st century skills.

 

In the coming years, we aim to continue this healthy disruption and development in our educational curriculum as we are collaborating with leading educational research firms and with tech startups that aim to provide students with access to advanced hardware and equipment for a practical learning experience. All our developments are in alignment with the new National Education Policy (NEP) and overlap with the ideologies of the IB curriculum as well. Harvest is also determined to expand our sports facilities and are currently collaborating with members of various sports communities so that students have opportunities to take part in casual or competitive sports.

Harvest International School is simultaneously working to launch a Social Responsibility Guild, which will be led by our students and supervised by the teaching staff. An annual fund will be designated to the organization and they will be tasked to carry out social awareness campaigns and philanthropic activities.