Welcome Letter (Academic Year 2022-23)

Dear Parents,

Greetings from Pathways World School!

I write this to welcome you to the school’s new academic year 2022 - 2023. This summer break was a much awaited one, considering travel was restricted for two years, so most of you would have availed of the opportunity of exploring destinations with your families. The children must also now be “Rested. Refreshed. And ready to run” (the 3 R’s of peak performance in Hal Higdon’s words).

While I understand that the worse of the pandemic is behind us, we must continue to remain cautious. While on campus, all students & staff are expected to always wear their face masks, the only exception being while playing sports and eating their meals.

Governments around the world have been extremely proactive in assisting citizens in completing their vaccination doses to help develop an immunity against the pandemic. Once the older members of the society got vaccinated, campaigns began to vaccinate children 12 years & above, ensuring their well-being. I urge you to ensure that your children in this age category are fully vaccinated before they join back.

School uniform defines a student’s identity, inside & outside of the school campus. It is expected of all students that they turn up in proper school uniform & non-adherence to this is non-negotiable. In support of our expectation from our students to respect the Uniform Policy, we have ensured that all items in the school uniform are available in the Uniform Shop from Monday, 18th July 2022 from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm.

I am happy to share that team PWS has grown with the addition of 19 new staff members. Most of the new members in the team bring with themselves many years of experience, while some others carry the zest for learning to gain that experience. Names & subjects or departments that our new team members are responsible for are appended below:

PYP

Aryan Jain – Music

Gurpreet Kaur – PYP1

Hase Parveen – PYP2

Shalini Dewan – Librarian

MYP

Aditi Arora – Counsellor

Bhavna Nigam – Mathematics

Daljeet Singh – Mathematics

Manas Khanna – Mathematics

Jason Robertson – Music

Mansha Grover – English

Prerna Bidalia – English

Sahejdeep Singh Mavi – Basketball

DP

Madhukar Acharya – Mathematics

Pravindra Singh – Physics

Sidhant Chaudhary – English

Shobhita Kapila – MFL – French

Administration:

Meena Singh – Residence Parent

Shikha S. Thapa – Staff Nurse

Smita Bora – Residence Parent

As regards the joining of expat teachers, because of the pandemic, there is a huge backlog rush at Visa offices across the world resulting in delay in Visa processing, but we hope to welcome our expat teachers latest by end-August 2022.

As a ready reckoner, appended below are some key dates for the first semester of the year:

• Sunday, 17th or Monday, 18th July 2022 – boarders return to campus
• Tuesday, 19th July ‘22 – school reopens for all returning students
• Wednesday, 20th July ‘22 – new students’ induction (PN – PYP5; DP1 & DP2)
• Thursday, 21st July ‘22 – new students’ induction (MYP1 – MYP4)
• Saturday, 23rd July ‘22 – non-exeat weekend for boarders
• Saturday, 22nd – Sunday, 30th October ‘22 – mid-term break for students
• Saturday, 19th November ‘22 – working Saturday (PYP2 upwards); non-exeat weekend for boarders
• Friday, 16th & Saturday, 17th December ‘22 – PWS Extravaganza (student dispersal on 17th December after dinner at 9:00 pm)
• Sunday, 19th December ‘22 – Monday, 16th January ‘23 – winter break for students

Movement of a limited number of staff every year is healthy for the school. New staff brings with them new thoughts and enthusiasm. Unlike as it happens in normal years, this year school received movement notices quite late as staff families were waiting for things to open. While school has been able to close almost all the replacements, some of the new staff would be joining in couple of months from the start of the session. I assure you that school has taken appropriate measures to ensure that student learning carries on well during this short time.

Please feel free to write to me at sonya.mehta@pathways.in for any concerns or commendations that you may have.

My team & I continue to seek your support in taking the school to scale newer heights.

Best Wishes,
Sonya Ghandy Mehta
School Director