Hiranandani Upscale School, Chennai

Renowned nationwide for ideating and establishing high-quality townships, office complexes and residential buildings, House of Hiranandani has invested its considerable expertise in constructing the school’s scenic campus overlooking Muttukadu Lake

Shivani Chaturvedi

The Hiranandani Upscale School (HUS, estb.2011) is sited on a three-acre campus in the House of Hiranandani’s integrated township in the southern metropolis of Chennai (pop.12 million). This K-12 co-ed day school offering the PYP (primary years programme), MYP (middle years programme) and IBDP (diploma) programmes of IB, Geneva, was promoted by Mr. Surendra Hiranandani, Chairman and Managing Director of House of Hiranandani which has interests in real estate countrywide.

Over the past 13 years since it was established, HUS has steadily acquired a good reputation for providing student-centric, holistic primary-secondary education to its 402 students mentored by 88 well-qualified teachers. Ranked among Chennai’s Top 15 co-ed day schools in the EducationWorld India School Rankings 2023-24, HUS was conferred the SDG Hero award in 2023 and the ARC EdTech award for incorporating UN Sustainable Development Goals into its curriculum.

“In HUS, we provide our students with an inclusive learning environment after identifying their needs to enable them to reach their potential under our renowned IB continuum programmes. Our goal is to nurture well-rounded, ethical, empathetic, culturally aware, physically fit and academically bright global citizens ready to confront the challenges of the future,” says Sivakumar Srinivasan, director of HUS. An alum of Madras and Bharathidasan universities with leadership certification from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Srinivasan imported over two decades of teaching and admin experience in top-ranked international schools (The International School, Bangalore, Indus International School, Pune) when he was appointed director of HUS in 2022.

Renowned nationwide for ideating and establishing high quality townships, office complexes and residential buildings in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai, House of Hiranandani has invested its considerable expertise in construction, landscaping and equipping HUS’ three-acre scenic campus overlooking Muttukadu Lake. The school’s academic building houses 55 spacious and well-ventilated Smart classrooms equipped with LCD projectors. Students have access to two state-of-the-art ICT (information communication technologies) laboratories supplemented with discrete physics, chemistry and biology labs. Moreover the school has two separate libraries for primary and middle years students with an aggregate 10,000 print volumes and 40 journal subscriptions, and access to a wide range of e-learning resources. A Special Education Needs (SEN) department staffed with special educators provides personalised support to students with learning disabilities.

Equally impressive is the school’s sports infrastructure which includes a large cricket ground, dedicated football field, and synthetic courts for basketball and volleyball. The spirit of competitive sportsmanship is encouraged with children motivated to compete in inter and intra-school competitions.

The HUS management prides itself for having readily adopted and integrated latest technology advances into its teaching-learning and management operations. “Integration of advanced technologies into institutional operations enriches children’s educational experiences at HUS. Remedial education, psychological counseling and medical care are accorded high importance to ensure the mental and emotional well-being of students. We are also very aware that a school is as good as its teachers. Therefore, teacher training workshops are mandatory and supplemented with globally renowned IB training to ensure our teachers are abreast with the very best technology-infused pedagogies,” says Srinivasan, a recipient of the American Classroom Teaching Excellence Award 2008 and the Best Principal Award of the Indian Principals Network, 2022.

Globally benchmarked academic and sports education is supplemented by a rich menu of co-curricular activities with children encouraged to choose from fine arts, design, music, dance and theatre. Moreover, children are taught the importance of implementing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and embracing environment-friendly best practices in their daily lives.

HUS’ commitment to balanced education has paid off by way of excellent board exam results. The batch of 24 students who wrote IB’s MYP exams in 2022 averaged 37 (against a maximum possible 56). In 2023, the 13 students who wrote the school-leaving IBDP exam averaged 31 (against the maximum possible 45 points) with two students awarded more than 40. As a result, HUS school-leavers are routinely admitted by the world’s top-ranked universities including Cambridge (UK), Yale and Bristol.

With the 13-year-old school having got off to a good start, the top management has drawn up a master plan to continuously upgrade infrastructure and administrative systems and processes. “This year we have developed a methodology to monitor and mentor students by using data analytics to enhance learning outcomes. In addition, we are in the process of constructing facilities to host inter-school sports and extracurricular competitions on a much larger scale,” says Srinivasan.

Admission and fees

Hiranandani Upscale School, Chennai is an IB-affiliated K-12 co-ed day school. Applications for kindergarten-grade XI admissions are invited round-the-year. An interview followed by a written test is mandatory for applicants applying for admission from class VI onwards.