This experience is written anonymously by a student from Fountainhead School, Surat, and an Emerging Leader at NoticeBard.
Anonymous.
Class 11.
Fountainhead School, Surat, Gujarat.
I have always been quite content with the learning environment encouraged by my school so it doesn’t step away from offering the best academic staff. Teachers have always been available to cater to all the doubts and selfless enough to sacrifice their free time in case of any difficulties faced by any of the students. They always have an approachable attitude.
One thing which makes them stand out is they make sure they’re never too harsh on students nor do they disrespect them or raise their voices during classes. They are all ears to the students in case they have any complaints about a particular department (subjects, sports). They seem very free-minded and strongly encourage a friendly learning environment.
They make sure that they guide their students to the right path by approaching them personally and letting them know of their mistakes rather than openly discussing them and turning them into a class discussion, this helps instill self-confidence among students.
Everything has certain drawbacks too, I don’t really have many complaints regarding the faculty offered by my school but one thing that I’m not quite appreciative of is that the faculty sometimes is a little too liberal, too much, and too little of everything can lead to consequences. Similarly, too less rules can give a lot of freedom to the students which can compel them to carry out certain unappreciative acts.
The infrastructure of my school is something I have really been fascinated by. The way different grades are on the same floors but segregated into ‘grade wings’ makes the children of the same school familiar with each other and contributes to the width of the building rather than the height, great heights would have been difficult to climb with bags on back on by the younger students.
The school also has two separate huge dining areas where children, teachers, and staff, everyone can sit, eat, and have lunch together. The bridges that connect different grade wings too seem like a refreshing hangout place because of the vast stretches of green land in sight where one can chit-chat with their friends and have a stress-free time overall the infrastructure of the school intends to build a very homely environment.
The school has also installed centralized air conditioners so the students and teachers do not suffer from extreme humidity for hours. The grey paint on the school walls gives a very complimenting look to the building.
In my school, we have a system of ‘pantry cards’ that children can use to buy cafeteria extra food only if it has money in the name of their ID. However, school IDs aren’t confidential, and the only thing required to cut money from the account is the ID. however school lacks security in that case, children can use someone else’s ID number to buy food, the lack of security causes a loss of money from a person’s account which is highly unethical.
The student-to-teacher ratio is 1:10 which is actually very good because it can help students communicate more efficiently with their particular mentor, it creates a comfortable environment for the students to open up easily and communicate better with the teacher about any difficulties they are facing. it can help them connect and let their thoughts through with ease.
The bad thing about the teacher-to-student ratio is that such a close connection raises the possibility of favoring a certain student or partiality. Also, making the student so used to the guidance can actually make students used to it, they might fail to come up with solutions on their own, making them dependent, however, that isn’t the case always, mentors are always available to organize the ideas in a student’s mind or give light to it but never to spoon feed them.
The school is highly enthusiastic in the context of outdoor sports hence it offers a basketball court, badminton court, football turf, a playground for junior school students, a large assembly area, calisthenics bar. In the context of indoor activities, it offers a music room that has all the instruments required by the students, an art room, and a studio, it also has 4 extra rooms built for any kind of event with screens and AC. The school also has meeting rooms which can be booked by any club or teachers to discuss matters for change or initiatives.
One thing I’d like to change about the school is, to increase playgrounds for the frisbee students who often spend a lot of time playing their sport in the assembly area where a lot of students study too. most of the football practices are carried out at the same place, there can be a separate arena for that. I’d also like to change certain norms and rules if I could.
9 out of 10.
