Billabong High International School, Noida envisions to create an educational system of learning that brings out excellence in every child. We are here to support and nurture learners with abundant opportunities to develop their creativity, learning curve, reasoning skills, and scientific temperaments. We are committed to sensitizing our young learners to the needs of the community besides inculcating values like integrity, fortitude, dedication and respecting diversity so that they become compassionate and confident human beings.
Enriched Interdisciplinary Curriculum
The teaching learning transaction of the curriculum takes place keeping in mind the Bloom’s Taxonomy, the Multiple Intelligence Theory, the VARK Model, Neuroscience & Brain Research Theory, and Digital Age & Globalization & Thematic Learning.
It follows an integrated and a multi-disciplinary approach towards the curriculum. It is transacted in such a way that the learners ascend from LOTS (Lower Order Thinking Skills) to HOTS (Higher Order Thinking Skills).
Experiential Learning in the Classrooms
The mentors of Billabong are leaving no stone unturned to carry forward the vision and mission of the institution. They are adding a direct experience component to every lesson and are making sure that learners are engaged in all aspects of learning. The four components of Kolb’s learning cycle – the concrete experience, reflection observation, abstract conceptualization and active experimentation are kept in mind to facilitate the learning process.
When the topic of ‘water’ is taken up, the learners are given the chance to perform the experiments on properties of water-tasteless, colorless, odorless, shapeless, sink and float, soluble-insoluble liquids. They are also exposed to a real-life situation when they play the part of water police and keep a check on water wastage or become Archaeologists and do excavations. Grade 2 moves ahead with another interdisciplinary approach in which they understand the Geography through the integration of satellites and space labs while doing ‘Earth and Beyond’ and Maths when they learn about the Sun clock and sun shadows
Experiential learning activities for Mathematics is being conducted in an effective way to help the learners understand the real-life usefulness of what they’re learning, and most importantly, have fun while learning math. They are provided with the hands-on experience of Base Ten Blocks, Number Line, Abacus and Ganit Mala to name a few. They are also participating in Ganit Week where they experience the learning by playing math games and solving puzzles. Activities like Numbers Around Us are conducted in a way where the learners keep researching and creating collages, finding Math in Kitchen, Malls, Shapes, Machines, and ‘Me’.
Language is being taken up with the whole language approach and the interests of the learners. Conversations, Role Plays, Show and Tell, Questioning Skills are a regular feature of the language classrooms. The language is enhanced through literature to develop functional use of English. The learners enhance their imaginative skills thus becoming creative, critical and reflective thinkers.
The Billabong classrooms link theory to practice. The curriculum is progressive in nature and hence the learners from Grade 3 onwards get an optimum chance to learn in varied ways.
The activities are designed and conducted in sync with the UN goals like climate action, poverty, Good Health, etc. To exemplify, the learners of Grade 5 were given the task of researching and understanding the condition of poverty across the world and depict it in the form of a newsletter. Role-plays are being conducted wherein the learners not only understand the importance of effective reading techniques but also come up with their own scripts and breath-taking performances. Their articulation, gestures, voice- modulation and communication skills are enriched and enhanced when they take up the roles of the characters from the novels like ‘Matilda’, ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’, ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’, ‘The Alchemist’ or Shakespeare’s plays. They imbibe values like friendship, bravery, perseverance, respect for self and others, ethical behavior, etc. Some prevailing dominant issues are dealt with solutions like ‘Water Conservation’, ‘Saving Mother Earth’, ‘Say No to Plastic’, ‘Follow Traffic Rules’, through activities in the form of JAM (Just A minute), Slogan Writing, Poster Making and Book Cover Designing.
Inter School Events are conducted to focus on the peer learning approach thus leading to sharing of ideas & individual experiences. Mathematics nurtures the qualities of reasoning, creativity, abstract or spatial thinking, critical thinking, problem-solving ability and effective communication skills. Activities are conducted through place value charts and flash cards to form different numbers. Concepts of angles and triangles are taken up with the Geoboard. Activities like Challenge the capacity are conducted in which learners search for different objects of different quantity mentioned and then prepare anchor charts of conversion rules comprising of units of measurement of length, weight and capacity. The learners display various mathematical projects like a model of Clinometer created using the concept of Trigonometry and Pythagorean Tree constructed using Pythagoras Theorem.
Education has to be dynamic to prepare learners for the vicissitudes of life. Experiential learning is a means to this end. Billabong High believes that rote learning creates robots but experiential learning creates enlightened citizens.
Also read: COVID-19 Challenge: Billabong High International School, Noida online learning success
