While we were walking together for the morning assembly, I mentioned to one of our students the date being 13th was interesting. She shared that the page number of the notebook on which she took down notes this morning bore the number 13 too! We talked about how we generally consider the number 13 to be inauspicious and maybe even ominous. We decided to check the truth of blind beliefs by experiencing the day that awaited us! We hoped it would help us dispel blind beliefs. This interaction provides a glimpse of the scope and nature of the educational intent of our seven-year-old school.

Strangely, a child of seven and a school of seven seem to share common characteristics, at least up to the first two of the commonly held stages. As is the case with most new schools, we have gone through the first phase of sensory motor stage with many intensive, convulsive, and rupturing experiences. We started experiencing the pre-operational stage in an inadequately formed manner because a coordinated and learning orientation of a systematic kind was not available. However, due to the concerted and focussed work of our present team we could chart our course much better soon after that.

During the second stage of our school development, it was reforms, minor and radical, in all domains of the school so that the right ethos, attitude, and practices are established. At the end, we could bring about a fair, reasonable, and promising environment. Obviously, we are not yet time-tested. The test would be whether we are able to operate, improve, and sustain what we learnt in the previous phases.

About four years back, just after the Parent Teacher Meeting (PTM) of that academic year, a significant number of parents emphasised upon having individual meetings with the Principal and wanted to tell him that the school had made false promises in the initial days, and we must quickly fulfil the promises made. Over a period of four years, we worked upon the feedback while improving the school in all respects. After the present PTM, only a few parents wished to meet the Principal.

Looking forward, the road during the third phase of development looks as challenging as it was during the second phase! The nature of the challenge is obviously different and related to the intent. It may be a good idea to state the organisational intent for this phase of development.