– Kashmira Jaiswal, Vice Principal, Navrachana School, Sama

The ethos of Navrachana School, Sama is firmly rooted in the belief that it is extremely important to provide students opportunities for honing their leadership skills and building relationships, engaging in teamwork, defining identities, and achieving tasks effectively. The school provides ample opportunities to students to learn and showcase effective communication and interpersonal skills.

How easy is it for Gen Z? 

In this rapidly changing world, we see constant changes in communication and execution. We access, create, and share information in new ways. We as school administrators, and their future employers place consistent emphasis on 21st-century capabilities such as critical and creative thinking and problem-solving. We also realise that climate change, emerging technologies, and an ever-changing geopolitical landscape mean that the future this generation will inherit will be vastly different from our world. The future thus holds boundless possibilities for these young adults. Navigating such rapid changes requires confidence, adaptability and perseverance, and this is what our school consistently endeavours to foster. 

Boosting our Assets

Students are our greatest assets in shaping school culture and strengthening the school-community bond. As education leaders, we often think of ourselves as the definitive architects of a school’s culture, but we often underestimate the influence and impact students have on the school community. Peer influence is incredibly powerful. Peers can quickly become role models and have the capacity to influence values, attitudes and behaviour with an effectiveness school principals and leaders can only dream about. Thus, we are motivated to empower the student leaders all the more. We have a large ‘Student Council’ of 76 students from classes 5 through 12. They have clearly defined roles and responsibilities, but to top it all, the school designates some student-led events, which these students design and execute. The student leadership programme is robust and comprehensive to entrust these events in the hands of students!  

The Student Leadership Programme aims to execute the programme systematically in four steps. 

• Provide Opportunity and Platform
• Develop Relevant Skills
• Initiate Collaboration and Outreach
• Provide Scaffolding 

What does a ‘Student Led Event’ mean?

It means that it is the creation of students all the way! A team of students conceptualise the theme of the event and the competitive elements; they create the brochures, rubrics, social media posts, invitation letters, thank you letters and liaise with the vendors such as decorators, lighting/LED experts, etc. They invite participation, judges, market and publicize, execute and host the event with the help of mentor teachers. Students learn a multitude of skills in the bargain. They learn the art of formal communication, the art of negotiation, inter and intra-personal skills, collaborative skills, IT skills, financial management skills, among other 21st-century skills and leadership skills. 

Some examples of events and activities led by our student leaders

Navfest – This is a blend of a variety of cultural competitions from visual and performing arts, like dance, music, drama, instrumental music etc. Entrepreneurship, and Language Arts Competitions like Debates, Declamations and Quizzes are also included

RISE – This event is based on Design Thinking, and encourages students to identify problems around them, from community, environment, mental health, and science, and find solutions for them, execute the solutions, and modify them again, until the problems are resolved. 

Tech NavFest – This event leverages all platforms of technology like coding, robotics, gaming, Minecraft etc. and it also has a segment where students mentor the students from under-served segments of the community and bring them at par with the mainstream students. 

Connect Dil Se – Through this event, students invite specially-abled contemporaries from the city from the school for the blind, autistic, physically challenged etc. They design and execute activities like dance, art, indoor and outdoor games to build bonds, spread joy and have fun with each other.  

TEDxYouth@NavrachanaSchoolSama – This event is organized after acquiring a license from the TED Community, and thereafter, it is a plethora of activities that students learn. The setting of a relevant theme, and the curation of speakers to speak on the theme is the biggest task for this team. The technicalities of ‘event-management’ then follow, but the biggest gain from doing such an event is learning for the student community, but the entire student, teacher and parent community of the city. 

Lego and Robotics Club – This club is led by the students who have expertise in Robotics. These students lead the club systematically, following a proper plan and guidance from teacher mentors, they further innovation and design-thinking. 

Learning the art and craft of leadership

These are just a few examples how students can be encouraged to become tomorrow’s leaders, by setting them true tasks of experiential learning. Our students have collaborated with as big as 92 teams from different cities of India, and abroad, and have raised large sums of sponsorship to be self-sustaining in the funding of the event. These events not only teach them to collaborate with other schools, sponsors, vendors, service-providers etc., but they also help them to work collaboratively as a single team. 

Importance of augmenting student voice 

Young people who find their own voice in supportive school environments are more likely to develop a confident voice, a capacity to act confidently and productively in the world, and acquire willingness to lead others. By empowering students, we enhance student engagement and enrich their participation, not only in the classroom, school and local society, but on a large scale, in the national and global community as well!  

Also read: Navrachana School: Nurturing mental health ambassadors