Some parent questions answered.....

Primary Coffee Morning Questions

Dear Parents and Families,

Many thanks for your questions before and after Mr Steve’s recent Parent session.

Just to let you know we are planning Parent sessions/webinars/workshops in the near future to cover a range of topics.  Our first session will be for new families to understand the Primary Years Programme, this will be led by our PYP Coordinator; Archana Gera.

  Please find responses to some of your questions below.  The questions are in green and responses are in blue, please note I have not edited parent questions:
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Can we have two levels of Hindi for differentiated learning, advanced and beginners? I suppose at least half of the kids are pretty proficient in Hindi.
As we are a PYP school, streaming of languages is not accepted by the IB.  However, we are looking at ways of possible different grouping for the larger classes.
Why don't we use Zoom for classes at JVLR? Google Meet is not a very good user-interface. Zoom allows so much more flexibility for teachers.  When do you expect the transition to Zoom happen?
All single subject teachers are switching to Zoom and once teachers have received training they too will work towards using Zoom for most of their sessions.

Hi Stephen. A query on the asynchronous learning. We are new to the OIS family and the tools etc. are a bit of a catch up for the child. In this scenario asynchronous learning (given both of us are working) becomes a bit much especially if it is expected daily. Realistically we are in a “weekend catchup” mode with the asynchronous learning. Is there any way to relax the timelines a bit to allow kid to catch up? Thanks.
Please speak to your child’s homeroom teacher with regards to completion of tasks.

Given limitations of online, could you consider one on one sessions with the kid once a month to evaluate how they are coping up vis a vi’s then larger group and course correct if need be
This would be impossible to do considering the number of children we have at the school.  However, please feel free to ask for an appointment with an individual teacher if you have any questions or queries, we also have our Learning Support Team who are available to assist you in any way.

How about using Microsoft Teams instead of Google Meet or Zoom since we can do online classes and assignments on it.
We have explored Microsoft Teams as a Senior Leadership Team and as most of the functions were offline, we didn’t feel it was user friendly for the students and being an Apple School, we are using more of the online features for teaching and learning.

As a one school two campus philosophy there is yet a disparity in the schedule and content for the same grades at both campuses. How are we planning to reduce that?  Disparities are:
OGC started with Zoom from Day 1; Weekly schedules were better prepared from Day 1
With regards to schedules, teachers have different approaches to design schedules, some of our children are creating their own schedules independently (student choice and agency) and some students have been given a schedule, and some teachers are helping some students create schedules.

We received the very beautifully designed note books . Thankyou got that !As a new parent would like to know do we need to buy text books ?
Primary Parents do not need to buy textbooks.  We do not use textbooks in Primary school, as we are a PYP school.

Can we have online workshops from the Counselor like we had last year with Dr. Patricia?
Please contact the Learning Support team if you have any questions about counselling.

Now that the new education policy has made coding compulsory from Grade 6. how is school incorporating this into the curriculum?
As shared by Steve, a great deal of the elements of the NEP, we are doing already with our IB Programmes.

Can we have email of school counsellor if the child is facing school related anxiety.
Please contact the Learning Support team if you have any questions about counselling.

Is there a way to know in advance what all Units Kids are going to cover in each term?
The PYP Coordinator will be sharing the Programme of Inquiry with you very soon.

Do you have a set curriculum for nursery so we can get an idea what kids will learn and if yes can you share it with us.
We have a Programme of Inquiry set for the year, please ask your teacher to share it with you.

Now that school reopening till December looks next to impossible, may we request an insight into units and inquiries for next two terms. 
We have a Programme of Inquiry set for the year, please ask your teacher to share it with you.

i believe that these early years are extremely important as they are the basis of laying a strong foundation.i understand that the school is doing the best they can.But i m concerned about the impact of a virtual class room on my child as it simply cannot replace the real thing.Are you looking at newer and more dynamic ways of teaching online? we have so many resources we have access too.we need to make optimal use of them and try and introduce learning which is more hands on.Though there is 2 way communication between the child and teacher but it is no way as dynamic as it is in a real class room.
Learning on a screen can never replicate learning in ‘real-life,’ so many elements can never be accessed online, such as play time with friends, freedom of physical movement, interactions with each other.  However, we are providing sessions for our teachers to look at best practice online teaching and learning, so please give your child some time and I am sure you will see some positive changes in the near future.

Live session for Grade 2 is concerning in terms of screen time. Children have to sit and wait for each child to answer the same question. Engagement is minimal in big group. Out of interaction time of 20 minutes each child maybe speaks for 1 minute or even lesser. Repetitive answers as it’s 1 question. Can this be structured better so live sessions are more interactive and engaging? 
Grade 2 are re-evaluating their schedules and creating more opportunities for smaller groups.

Online Session time are more than 2 hours a days and in addition the assignments solving makes online screen time upto 3 hours almost. CAN WE WORK AROUND THIS?
Ask your teacher for more flexibility with the asynchronous learning.  As a school we are committing to up to certain time limits.

We need details of Academic curriculum which will be covered in this year. Please share all topics of UOI.
The PYP Coordinator will be sharing the Programme of Inquiry with you very soon.

While the oberoi-is.org page highlights 11 as the average class size, isn't 21 too many students for a single JKG group? (I am new and my expectation was classes in the 10-15 max).
Normally in school, new student's are mixed between the classes.  For the one JKG group, we placed all the new students together.  We felt it was important that they could focus on building relationships with the adults.  There are two teachers and 1 assistant linked to this class and the teachers will be doing more split class sessions, now that we have begun the year.

Many thanks for your questions,
Ms Lisa