Vasant Valley School

Vasant Valley School is a co-educational private high school in Vasant Kunj, Delhi, India. It accepted students in July 1990, a time when students were admitted till grade 4. Thereafter, the school added a new grade each year as the classes graduated to the next level. It currently operations from a M-F 7:25am - 3:15pm schedule. The first graduating class of Vasant Valley successfully completed 12 grades under the paradigm of CBSE in May 1999. The Director of the school is Mr. Arun Kapur, a former housemaster at The Doon School and an alumnus of St. Stephen's College, Delhi, the Headmistress of the Junior School is Mrs. Rekha Bakshi, and the Headmistress of the Senior School is Ms. Rekha Krishnan.

Overview

Begun by the India Today group as an attempt to invigorate the process of education, the school provides its students with opportunities often unavailable in most other schools, an endeavour that earned it a reference in the July 2005 edition of "Fortune" magazine as one of the key educational institutions that prepared a new generation of Indians... innovators and leader. The school boasts of significant extra curriculum activities that attempt to groom students into complete human beings. Such activities include Environmental Awareness (pioneered by Mr. Madhu Ramanathan and Mr. Aashish Shah in the founding years of the school) and an after hours peer teaching program where students volunteer to teach students from neighboring underprivileged schools. This school has also had interactions with Sunita Williams and other members of NASA. Overall, this is one of the best schools in Delhi.

Motto

The school motto is 'Shreshtratamaya Karmane' or 'Excellence in Deed'.

chool Building

The School building was designed and built keeping in mind the children, the philosophy, and the future growth of the school. There is a planned space for every activity that takes part in the school. The academic, non-academic and assembly areas and the sports fields are integrated harmoniously in and around the beige and red sandstone building.As you enter, the junior school building is to your right and the senior school building is to your left - at the entrance to each you will see a constantly changing display of artwork by the children.The school's central assembly area is an open-air stage and links the two main buildings together. This where the school meets on the first and last day of every term and on other major occasions. The Founders' Day play is staged here. Most of the time the stage is a basketball court and this is where various Physical Education exercises take place.Both the buildings also have their own smaller open-air stage, where the weekly class activities take place. Each building has its own large and airy class rooms, science, art, dance and music labs, library, staff room, and offices arranged in a hexagonal pattern around a central courtyard. The daily assembly is held separately for the senior and junior school in their respective quadrangles. The senior school quadrangle doubles up as the badminton court and the senior school stage.The junior school has both indoor and outdoor play areas for the little ones, while the senior school has its own indoor gym - and these are apart from the extensive sports fields behind the school.

ports Facilities

The school stresses majorly on the importance of sports, and provides world-class facilities for the students. The school has a large field which can be used as two soccer fields, a cricket field and two hockey pitches. There is another small field for the Junior School. There are two tennis courts, three basketball courts, a squash court and all forms of athletics are undertaken in the school. The school soccer and basketball teams have won the Zonal Championships on numerous occasions and students have won numerous medals at various athletic meets.

Prefect System

Like most schools following the UK system, Vasant Valley School too, has a Prefect System. Prefects are chosen by the teachers in Class 5, which is the final year of Junior School, and Class 12, which is the final year of school as a whole. In the Junior School, the most basic prefects are chosen, i.e. Head Boy, Head Girl, Sports Captain, Vice-Sports Captain, and the Captains of the various houses (Red, Blue, Yellow, Green). In the Senior School however, there are more than 20 prefect posts to encompass all aspects of student life so as to rest these responsibilities in the students hands. These include Head Boy, Head Girl, Sports Captain, Vice-Sports Captain, the four House Captains as well as four House Prefects (considered Vice-Captains). Additionally, there is the Editor of the school newsletter, Editor of the Web Page and the heads of the various councils (Students Council, Essentials Council, Academic Council etc.) who also hold powers of prefects.

pecial Days & Trophies

Apart from regular holidays, the school also has its own Founder's Day which is celebrated on the 18th of November. The students celebrate it by showcasing various dances or performances for the parents, after which the Excellence Awards are given, which is a general proficiency award for students who have excelled in all facets of student life. The school also has an Inter-House Athletic Meet, where the four houses compete in various forms of athletics including sprinting, long distance running, jumping, throwing etc. for which they receive medals for merit. There is a Moksh Dang Memorial Award for Athlete of the Year for the student who achieves most points for their respective house. The Akshay Chibber Memorial Award for All-Rounder of the Year is given to a student or as the case may be, two students of class 12, who have displayed excellence in the field of Academics as well as being able to balance excellence in sports. The Subject Awards are also given to students from Classes III to XII who have excelled in a particular subject, be it academic or co-curricular such as Visual or Performing Arts, PE etc. The Grade Card Distinction Award is for those students who manage an 85% overall throughout the year.

Co-Curriculars

The school, apart from sports, encourages co-curricular activities including Debating, Quizzing, Model United Nations, Robotics (the VVS team won the Indian Robotics Olympiad in 2007 and 2008 and went to China to participate in the International Robotics Olympiad) etc. 2 ex-students of the school also participated at the Intel Science Talent and Discovery Fair(ISTDF) twice. They were category winners in ISTDF held at IIT Delhi in 2007 and represented India at the International Technology Fair at Pragati Maidan in the same year. 4 students from the school have also represented Delhi at the Red Rover Goes to Mars Competition organized by NASA. The School has a history of good debaters, participating in some of India's most prestigious debates including the Chukerbutty Debate in The Doon School, Revd. Dr. Samuel Slater Memorial Invitational Inter-School Debate at The Bishop Cotton School, Shimla, The East India Debates at The Assam Valley School, as well as holding their own prestigious debating competition, The India Today Cup, which is sponsored by the India Today Group.

Colleges

Alumni of Vasant Valley School have been placed at many world-class Universities and colleges in the world. These include St. Stephen's College, Shri Ram College of Commerce, Hindu College among others in Delhi University; Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi; National Law School, Bangalore; National University of Jurisdictional Sciences, Kolkata; All India Institute of Medical Sciences etc.; University of Cambridge, Royal Academy of Drama, University of Warwick, etc. in the UK;
Stanford University, Princeton University, Yale University, Carnegie Mellon University, Rutgers, University of Pennsylvania, University of Purdue etc. in the US and colleges in Singapore, Australia and Canada as well.

Further reading

* [http://www.vasantvalley.org/ Vasant Valley School website]
* [http://www.isec2000.org.uk/abstracts/papers_r/ranjan_1.htm Changing Roles - Evolving Professional Roles For Sustainable Inclusive Education, Abha Ranjan (2000)]