A Typical Day at NIPS

A typical day at NIPS begins with a warm welcome and a cheerful smile.

As a healthy environment is a prerequisite in our pre-school, parents, children and everybody who enter our premises sanitise their hands. A temperature check at the gate ensures that a child who is unwell is sent back home to rest and recover.

Parents are requested to drop their child at the main entrance door and leave or if the parent is concerned about their child, they can wait in the waiting area, check with the teacher about their child and then leave the school premises.

Each classroom is divided into ‘learning centres’ that cater to different areas of development. Children are allowed to choose an area of interest to explore, or are gently guided by their teacher towards a learning goal. The teacher addresses children in small groups or individually to gain an insight into their thought processes.

Later, all the children sit together in a circle to discuss the day, the weather or any subject under the sun. The older children even talk about news and share observations about the world around them. All children are encouraged to be active participants in the discussion.

At NIPS, it is not the teacher but the children themselves who mark their own attendance.

They are engaged in small group activities (like singing songs and moving to the music) that develop social skills.

Group activity is then followed by the ‘Theme of Inquiry’ for the day. The topic will be the 'Unit of Inquiry' which is going on in the class, then explored through scientific experiments, field visits, active discussion or a hands-on activity that involves the use of a device.

In order to inculcate sustainable development amongst children, we make an effort to use environmentally friendly products and reuse scrap materials. The children ask questions, investigate, hypothesise, experiment, form opinions and develop ideas.

At NIPS, even snack time is an opportunity to emphasise good health and hygiene habits.

The teacher is armed with a chart that lists each child’s individual needs and allergies, if any. All the children wash their hands while singing a jolly song that encourages them to do the same regularly. While eating, the teacher and children have a light discussion about the food (its taste, smell, colour, texture, healthy versus junk, etc) or talk about plans for the weekend, an upcoming event, a new addition to a family. Some days are allotted as ‘no gas cooking days’, where the teacher and children cook up a delicious and nutritious snack.

The snack break is followed by a session of mathematical learning or language and literacy time. They indulge in literacy and numeracy activities that involve playing with letters, words and numbers, getting familiar with skills like matching, discriminating, patterning, sequencing, sorting, ordering, classifying and problem solving.

After that, they have creative activity time, after that, it is time to go home. If the parents wish to speak with the teacher, they may wait till all the children leave or decide on a later date and time. And so ends another happy, productive day at NIPS.

* Integrated Outdoor Play time depends on the weather or the curriculum, but each class gets to play outdoors at least 20 minutes of the time span children are in the school.