May 2021

Message from the Principal’s Desk:

“Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning but the willingness to go on, with all the wisdom that experience instilled in us.”

– Hal Borland - Dear Parent,

The school ended on a high note with the virtual graduation ceremony of the batch of 2021 on May 22nd. This year was an exciting journey of innovation and learning as we successfully navigated through the worst pandemic known to man in the modern history. Covid-19 forced us to make many changes since March last year—redesign our homes into office spaces and classrooms and the teaching learning too was pushed to shift gears from physical campuses to campuses on the cloud. We evolved with hypervelocity and adjusted to the new world order. Despite challenges – we moved on, determined to not give up. Students were provided with new opportunities in building competencies through the innovation curriculum. This transformed in the classrooms into design thinking and climate chal-lenge giving rise to collaborative learning. The past year helped us to rethink our priorities, to be responsible, empathetic and compassionate . Our teachers and students adapted to the change to become lifelong learners. But this success would be incomplete without the appreciation and gratitude towards our young warriors – the young Eagles of IISH, our parent fraternity whose unending support helped us glide smoothly the past year and welcomed us in their houses and their lives and our teachers who displayed courage and relentless care support to their students. In recognition of all the hardwork and willingness to overcome the turbulent times, we at Indus, Hyderabad decided to rein-state the special awards to students of grades 6-12. The list of the awards and their winners is attached as an annexure of this news letter. I wish you all a happy, safe and healthy summer break and look forward to seeing everyone in July. Let us begin with some events in the month of May.

1. Year end meeting of the Principal with teachers and Staff – The Principal had a meeting with all teachers and staff

looking back at how far and how well the education at Indus transformed and evolved to suit the online scenario.

The Principal congratulated and expressed gratitude towards each member of the Indus faculty for their unending

support and service to the Indus Community.

2. IBDP:

a) Grade 12 Graduation: - The virtual graduation ceremony of the Grade 12 students was conducted on 22nd May 2021.

Our chief guest, Lt.General Arjun Ray addressed the graduating students followed by our Principal, Ms Aparna

Achanta. It was indeed a moment to reflect on our students’ time and experience at Indus. Although we were emo-

tional to say goodbye to this incredibly talented and diverse group of students, we also couldn’t wait to see them

fly high equipped with attributes and values gained over the years spent at Indus, to make an impact in the real

world.

b) Pre-IB Classes: - The Pre-IB classes continued in the month of May. The students are learning various skills required

in the Diploma Program, be it the approaches to learning (ATL), learner profile, academic honesty, Theory of

Knowledge, Extended Essay. Students are also exposed to innovation curriculum and college placement procedures.

c) Grade 11 TOK Exhibition:- The online Theory of Knowledge exhibition at IISH DP by the grade 11 students was con-

ducted on 19th May 2021. The exhibition was an embodiment of theory of knowledge in our everyday world pre-

sented by our grade 11 students. The grade 11 students welcomed parents, teachers, pre-IB students and their peers

to a world of reflection on questioning the prevalence of knowledge and finding answers within common place ob-

jects. Each student explored one IA prompt whilst relating to three regular objects around them to discover the

awaited answer. The event concluded with students sharing their reflections on their journey of preparation for the

exhibition. The theory of knowledge (TOK) course plays a special role in the Diploma Programme (DP) by providing

an opportunity for students to construct their knowledge, rather than acquire it by adopting the art of metacogni-

tion.

3. MYP:

a) Parent Orientation: - Middle Year Programme (MYP) conducted Parent orientation Programme current grade 10

students who are moving to Diploma Programme on 22nd May 2021. The aim of this orientation was to facilitate

smooth transition from MYP to DP. Leadership team briefed about the programme requirements and expectation.

90 minutes session included the subjects offered, unique features of DP at IISH, and the start-up school and its ben-

efits. This was supported by the college placement and counselling department. The session went well with question

and answer session at the end.

b) Grade 10 E-assessments - MYP year 5 (10th grade) second batch at IISH successfully completed their academic year

on 21st May 2021. Though pandemic was the challenge for every one MYP took it as a challenge and conducted the

final exam. As IISH is offering e-assessment to all the students, our students have took the challenge and gave their

exam. All the students wrote their exam in spite of all the hurdles they had due to Covid-19. This is the clear evidence

for our schools motto “In Omnia Paratus” prepared for all challenges. Our students have documented their learning,

skills attained. IBMYP came up with an idea of Alternative Task Assessment (ATA) due to the pandemic to make the

year-end assessment more reliable and valid to certify students learning. As we have prepared our students and

parents for ATA, it was a smooth journey this time.

4. PYP:

a) PYP Exhibition: - The PYP exhibition is a significant event in the life Grade5 students. As a culminating experience,

Exhibition gave an opportunity to the students to exhibit the attributes of the IB learner profile, to synthesize and

apply their learning of previous years and reflect upon their journey through the PYP. Students of Grade5 also inte-

grated their learning with various forms of art such as dance, music, art and drama. It was great learning experience

for our students as took ownership for their learning.

b) Grade 5 Graduation: - With a sense of pride and achievement students of Grade 5 graduated from primary class and

got transitioned to the middle year of school. It was a very proud and memorable moment for the graduates, par-

ents and teachers . We congratulate all our fifth graders on their achievements and we wish them all the very best

in all their future endeavors.

c) PYP Student Led Conference -Term 3 :- PYP Students have successfully participated in term 3 SLC wherein students

enthusiastically and confidently showcased their learning with the parents and teachers.

5. Counseling & Placement:- This month the Counseling and Placement office completed with the Pre-IB classes. The

Grade 10 profile-building meeting was also accomplished.The students of Grade 10 completed with their subject se-

lection session.

The following were the objectves covered in the Sessions:

a) The students to be aware of general eligibility for admission into popular countries like the USA, UK, Canada, Singa-pore, Australia, Europe, India, and the Middle East.

b) To learn of what weighs higher in application assessment for top universities like Ivy league

c) Be competent to select subjects according to their career interest

d) To understand the research process to look for a university, course, requirement, and application timeline.

e) Be confident of designing their own profile

f) Be aware of various test requirements for admission, like SAT, ACT, IELTS, TOEFL, BMAT, UCAT, NEET, JEE, etc

g) Understand the entire application process and the crucial timeline for each component

h) Be able to strengthen their writing with reflection.

6. CAS at Indus:

a) Money and its Importance – Poem by Anand Kamma, Grade 11.

It is said that with money you can have everything, but you cannot. You can buy food, but not appetite; Medicine but not health Knowledge but not wisdom Glitter, but not beauty Fun, but not joy Acquaintances, but not friends Servants, but not faithfulness Leisure, but not peace.

b) Video on COVID Precautions by Simridhi and Kiah of Grade 11

The goal was to create a video on precautions to take during this Covid 19 pandemic. The video is made in Hindi and

English so that people from all over India can understand this especially the one’s living in rural areas who are not aware

of the pandemic and its adverse effects. Hundreds of people died as proper precautions were not followed. Therefore,

this video was aimed at creating awareness.

https://indusschoolhydmy.sharepoint.com/:v:/p/simridhi_ram/ESdQZpAxwO9PtFXKBPKw7e0BRx-

iYOObo3_CEaLJ_3fAdDw

7. IISH Start-up School Update:

a) Elevator Pitch Presentations – Round 1 - 28 May 2021

Thirty-five of our start-up school students took part in Elevator Pitch Presentations (Round 1) scheduled on 28 May 2021. A total of seven teams participated in this event, and each team presented its elevator pitch to a panel of four of our start-up school Parent-Mentors comprising Ms Kanchan Chakravarty, Mr Rajesh Agarwal, Ms Shalini Sadhu & Ms Amita Lulla. Each team was given 5 minutes to present the pitch, which was followed by a Q&A session. The panelists assessed each team on the following criteria:

1. The Idea 2. The Impact 3. Implementation Plan 4. Structure of Pitch 5. Delivery of Pitch The top three teams will be competing with six other teams from Indus Bangalore & Pune, scheduled for 03 June 2021 to be attended by the CEO & MD of Indus Trust Lt Gen Arjun Ray, Principals, and a Panel of Parent-Mentors. It was quite reassuring to witness the effort put in by our students to pitch their idea to the selected panel of judges. They answered all the challenging and thought-provoking questions asked by our Parent-Mentors quite confidently. The glimpses of this event can be seen below.

8. Boarding at IISH: - The boarding team extended help and support to all boarder parents and boarders by conducting

evening prep from Monday to Friday from 5:30 pm to 7 pm. The boarders and their parents appreciated this support

immensely as they were able to clear many of their doubts during the prep time. This helped them in their prepara-

tions for their exams as well. Weekend activities like creative writing and painting competitions were conducted for

the PYP boarders and they loved it.

The boarding counsellor and the boarding team worked in close unison to extend all emotional support to all board-

ers during their exams,

9. Run for oxygen:- The event was organized by Indus International School Hyderabad under the guidance of our Prin-

cipal, Ms Aparna Achanta. This event was led by our students of grade 11. The purpose of this event was to provide

support to the people in need of oxygen and concentrators under the guidance of government rules and regulations

whilst spreading awareness of the importance of physical activity.

Students led core team was made was provided with necessary guidance led by our Principal and Vice-Principal. The

CAS Coordinator- Mr Samuel Joseph and the Head of Sports Mr Franclene Rajesh were involved in executing the plan

on the ground. The inception of the idea had taken place towards the end of April when the unfortunate cries of our

fellow citizens reached our ears regarding the lack of oxygen. The need to do something was strong and it slowly

began to take shape and action in the form of the virtual spots event. The core team played a vital role in creating

the website, posters, acknowledging the mails and the various social media platform were used like Facebook, In-

stagram to publicize this noble cause.

The students across programmes actively participated in this event including the teachers and parents. They were

given in a common platform where they involved in physical activities led by the sports teachers.

The two-day event registered a total no. of 318 participants and collected – ₹ 3,04349.1

The success of any event lies in the resolve to pursue excellence and in this case it was combined with the will to do

good so even during these uncertain times, we had people coming together to help and support the people in need

– of Oxygen –in the Fight Against COVID-19.

I thank wholeheartedly everyone for their encouragement, participation and support. The funds as promised will be

sent to the government hospitals to support the underpriveliged in the hour of need with medical supplies.

10. Awards and Recognitions for the Session 2020 – 21: -

"People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them

feel".

The School also introduced the following awards in recognition of the goal mindedness, grit and determination dis-

played by our students along with role modelling the core values of Indus i.e. love respect, empathy and discipline.

a) Mahatma Gandhi Award- This award is the highest award in Indus International Schools and is bestowed during the

graduation ceremony to the Grade 12 student who embodies the Indus philosophy of servant leadership and Inno-

vation.

This is awarded to students who have not only transformed themselves but brought in transformation in soci-

ety. The impact of the servant leadership displayed by the student should lead to a visible and impactful social

change. It includes a silver plaque and a scroll of honour.

b) Indus Eagle Award- This award is given for exemplary community service leading to high impact in the chosen area.

This is awarded during the Graduation ceremony for the selected Grade 12 students. It includes a memento and a

scroll of honour.

c) Gold Star Award: This award is given to the student who has shown high levels of empathy and pursued their pur-

pose in community service with a single-minded focus. The student should have won the Blue star award for three

years consequently. The student who wins the Gold star award wins a nomination for the Eagle award in Grade 12.

This is awarded to the student of any grades 9 and above. This includes a scroll of honour and a badge.

d) Blue Star Award- This award is open to all students of grades 6 -12. This is given to students who have been able

to balance between excellent academic performance and co-curricular activities. This award is given at the end of

every school year. This includes a scroll of honour and a badge.

e) Green Star Award. This award is open to all students of grades 6 -12. This is given to all students who have dis-

played consistent academic excellence throughout the grade. This award is given at the end of every academic year.

This includes a scroll of honour and a badge.

Please find the list of awardees from the graduating batch of 2021 and the green and blue star awardees from grades

6-11.

f) Eagle Award Winners 2020 – 21:-

a) Smriti Marar founded Project WE in July 2019. This is a non-profit organization with the aim of creating a program

for girls of her age to grow and develop into independent, self-sufficient women. At Project WE, Smriti has taught

computer & financial literacy, goal setting & career counselling to more than 100 girls until now. Many of these girls

are studying in colleges right now and quite a few of the remaining are employed in supermarkets, IT companies &

beauty parlours. In March 2020, the dreaded pandemic threatened to derail her project. However, she displayed re-

silience, innovation and creativity to overcome the challenges that she faced. In just a few weeks, Smriti seamlessly

moved from offline to online by creating a library of video modules to teach the girls.

b) Abhinaya Polaka founded GREAP, a non-profit organization with the motto of guarding the rights of the animals

and the environment. Growing up in a small town in Andhra Pradesh, she witnessed first-hand how animals are

treated cruelly and the utter disregard the people had towards the natural environment. Abhinaya took matters

into her own hands to bring about a change in the community. She planned, initiated, organized and managed many

projects including the Tree Plantation Drive, Animal Rescue Drive, Animal Birth Control Programme & Beach Cleanup

Drive.

VALEDICTORIAN

1 2

Palki Gupta Smriti Marar

YOUNG ACHIEVER AWARD

1 2

YOUNG ENTREPRENEUR Armaan Singh Bagga Krishna Reddy

3 4

COMMUNITY SERVICE Gitika Velichala Sreeja Muppaneni

5 6

MUN Abhinaya Polaka Harini Botcha

7 8 9

SPORTS Sreeja Muppaneni Azar Khan Aditya Sai Prakash Reddy

10 11 12

SPIRIT OF INDUS Avanish Meedimale Aalekhya Satya Narayani Palki Gupta

13 14 15

MUSIC Chaithra Lakshmi Gorre Reddy Aalekhya Satya Narayani Bhavana Balasubramanian

16 17

VISUAL ARTS Ratchanun Kitjumroen Prasanna Pattan

18 19

DRAMATICS Ivy Micheal Clement Varun Mehta

GRADE 12 - SUBJECT TOPPERS BATCH OF 2021

SUBJECTS STUDENT NAME

English A Lang & Lit HL Aakash Reddy Sudini

English A Lang & Lit SL Vaishnavi Muthu Krishnan

English B HL Chaewon Park

ESS SL Gitika Velichala Prerana Mahapatra

Biology HL Palki Gupta Vaishnavi Muthu Krishnan

Biology SL Shreyas Reddy Palley Tvisha Shukla

Economics HL Tvisha Shukla

Economics SL Aalekhya Satya Narayani

Physics HL Shreyhas Yachamaneni

Physics SL Palki Gupta Chaithra Lakshmi Reddy

Psychology HL Esha Sai Manduva

Psychology SL Jinryeol Park

History HL Tvisha Shukla

History SL Aakash Reddy Sudini

Business Management HL Rhea Agarwal

Business Management SL Smriti Mara Gitika Velichala

Hindi B HL Saanya Gupta

Hindi B SL Akshira Sharma Smriti Marar

Spanish B SL Chaithra Lakshmi Gorre Reddy

Spanish Ab initio SL Aan Gupta

Computer Science HL Aalekhya Satya Narayani

Computer Science SL Shreyhas Yachamaneni

Chemistry HL Palki Gupta

Chemistry SL Rhea Agarwal

Mathematics AA HL Palki Gupta

Mathematics AA SL Tvisha Shukla

Mathematics AI HL Jinryeol Park

Mathematics AI SL Esha Sai Manduva

DP BLUE STAR AWARDEES

GRADE 11

S. NO. NAME OF THE STUDENT

1 Prabhath Puli

2 Sindhuja Muppaneni

3 Abhishikth Savarapu

4 Amy Rachal Clement

5 Krishnam Raju

6 Mahima Chennadi

7 Tanmay Grandhisiri

8 Revanth Reddy

9 Chandana Nayeneni

10 Dyuti Rama Ratna Peddada

11 Umang Singhania

12 Harshitha Reddy Suram

13 Aditya Munamarty

14 Rohan Movva

15 Prashant Reddy Pilla

16 Aarush Kumbhakern

17 Kiah Tashaa Meneses

DP BLUE STAR AWARDEES

GRADE 11

S. NO. NAME OF THE STUDENT

18 Shridhatri Reddy Gandhi

19 Alimineti Vijaysimha Reddy

20 Simridhi Ram

21 Mridani Kashyap

22 Riya Rachel Mani

23 Savannah Pinto

24 Naimish Kandula

DP GREEN STAR AWARDEES

GRADE 11

S. NO. NAME OF THE STUDENT

1 Nahyeon Ju

2 Sameeka Reddy Poddutur

3 Rohan Tummala

4 Saianjan Akella

5 Sohan Rao Kondapelli

6 Ashok Kamma

MYP BLUE STAR AWARDEES

GRADE 6 GRADE 7

S.NO NAME OF THE STUDENT S.NO NAME OF THE STUDENT

1 Ayan Dharod 1 Saanvi Maguluri

2 Saisha Bagga 2 Pradeep Reddy

3 Moksha Duggirala 3 Shreyas Nallavelly

4 Aanya Pande 4 Esha Agarwal

5 Nirvaan Duggirala 5 Hyungjoon Kim

6 Rahul Iyer 6 Nirupa Yalavarthi

7 Bhavya Agarwal 7 Srivik Gandhe

8 Aagam Jain 8 Rishi Ponangi

9 Akul Khare 9 Dhanya Chowdary Arimilli

10 Maya Yadlapalli GRADE 10

11 Medha Koppula S. NO. NAME OF THE STUDENT

GRADE 9 1 Panipak Kitjumroen

S. NO. NAME OF THE STUDENT 2 Nishanth Reddy Aduma

1 Sarayu Meedimale 3 Sohan Koti Yedulla

2 Anwisha Reddy 4 Arya Dharod

3 Adhira Sannidhi Thyvalap 5 Divya Choudhury

4 Meghana Munamarty 6 Ved Sriram

5 Megna Yadlapalli 7 Diguvamurthi Lesika Choudary

6 Ashria Yalamanchili 8 Kongpak Soonthornwan

7 Anusha Agrawal 9 Shian Jeewani

8 Anisha Sulthana 10 Trisha Rao Yachamaneni

9 Aditya Srinivasan 11 Sheen Gupta

10 Diya Madhusoodan

11 Pranith Bollampally

12 Rohan Sriram

13 Raaina Kumar

14 Harshini Reddy Gandhi

15 Anish Atluri

16 Palle Hemanth Sai Reddy

17 Vipul Kurapati

MYP GREEN STAR AWARDEES

GRADE 6 GRADE 7

S.NO NAME OF THE STUDENT S.NO NAME OF THE STUDENT

1 Tisha Sehrawat 1 Sanyogita Bobba

2 Edamakanti Dhruv Reddy 2 Amogh Reddy Badikol

3 Sai Prateek Mandadi 3 Nitya Kashyap

4 Deepal Jain 4 Naithrav Satish

5 Shravya Sri Gorre Reddy 5 Dhruv Behera

Hearty congratulations to all the winners and we are sure that they will pursue their goals with same zest and enthusiasm in future too. Warm regards,

Ms Aparna Achanta

Principal, IISH

6 Natcha Chonsaranon 6 Rian Johnson

GRADE 8 7 Ruhan Gudeli

S.NO NAME OF THE STUDENT 8 Shiwoo Kim

1 Abhay Roshan 9 Pratham Narayan Parvathneni

2 Torita Chakravarty 10 Praveenya Neelam

3 Ahana Kripalani 11 Shreya Ramesh

4 Urvi Gupta 12 Anjali Reddy Ranga

5 Donghyun Shin 13 Cho Hyunwoo

6 Zayan Ali 14 Naysha Kapre

7 Arya Tiwari 15 Dhanya Chowdary

8 Vishnu Rama Kalidindi GRADE 9

9 Pattraporn Soonthornwan S.NO NAME OF THE STUDENT

10 Saanvi Sai Manduva 1 Sanjana Iyer

11 Srivalli Konakanchi 2 Mohammad Emaad Anzar

12 Napas Chonsaranon 3 Lakshmi Poojitha Annapureddy

13 Sheik Nashitah Hussain GRADE 10

14 Tejas Mandke S.NO NAME OF THE STUDENT

15 Kirti Vemuri 1 Mehek Shreyas Sanghavi

16 Meenakshi Ponduri 2 Esha Sai Saxena

3 Smaran Teja