The International School Award (ISA) was piloted in India in 2003. It is a benchmarking scheme that accredits schools as having an outstanding level of support for nurturing global citizenship in young people and enriching teaching and learning. Three campuses of Global Indian International School, namely GIIS Bangalore, GIIS Chinchwad and GIIS Noida developed an action plan and implemented international activities throughout the year as per the framework provided by British Council. Each GIIS campus won an ISA trophy and Certificates for the school, Principal, ISA Coordinator and members of the ISA team in school. The three campuses will have the opportunity to showcase their portfolios at British Council offices and libraries, speak at British Council events as resource persons, participate in selected events and workshops an get invited to join the ISA assessment panel in the future.

GIIS Bangalore:

The ISA journey for GIIS Bangalore commenced in June 2013. Students of Class V engaged through video conferencing with GIIS schools in Singapore to discuss effective ways of Waste Management in both the countries and the impact of Social Media on Education across the world. They also learned how to create a blog for the first time and discussed trends in social media through blogging. Students studied numerous topics ranging from cuisines of different countries to birthday celebrations around the world. Students of Class I had opportunities to link with Beddington Park Primary School in Croydon, London and Blackshaw Primary in Bolton, UK and share their experiences through an exchange of mails and photographs. Another enriching experience was hosting an international visitor, Ms. Kathy Browes, Vice-Principal of Taughmonagh Primary School, Belfast, Ireland. Kathy’s visit to GIIS Bangalore was a platform for knowledge sharing and helped us to gain an insight into teaching and learning practices in overseas schools. GIIS Bangalore is currently linked with Sutton Manor Primary School in UK and students of class 5 have been exchanging letters and sharing their knowledge about India and its rich heritage and students of Class 2 continue their link from last year with Beddington Park Primary School.

GIIS Chinchwad:

After the ISA briefing at Mumbai, GIIS Chinchwad formulated an ISA Coordination Committee which was responsible for looking into the planning and execution of all projects. The International Coordinator was appointed for establishing link and contacts with our international counterparts. Eight projects were finalised and through these projects students realized that although they came from different cultural backgrounds, they faced similar global problems and found creative ways of addressing them. The projects like “e-Waste” and “Deep Dive into Sea” along with “Migratory Birds” created environmental awareness and redressed the global issues like waste management, recycling and reuse of resources. Through the projects “Compassion as Value” and “Folktales from around the World” and “Renaissance of Mathematics” students appreciated cultural diversity and the contribution of different cultures for the progress of mankind. The final project “Martial Art Forms” introduced martial art forms from Japan and India and helped students understand the importance of learning self-defence. Their sense of responsibility for our environment by caring about using resources was highly appreciated by everyone. Students who took part in the programme have greatly improved their language skills, research skills, and skill of collaboration which will help them to grow as leaders in the global community. Successful completion of all the activities planned throughout the year has brought international dimensions to our curriculum.

GIIS Noida:

GIIS Noida initiated a participatory and interactive Action Planning Workshop to understand the ISA assessment criteria and standards. The ISA Coordination Committee put together the project list ranging across various subjects. ‘Adopt a monument’ consisted of a ‘heritage walk’ through the old monuments of Delhi to spread the awareness about it to the visitors and clicking pictures to make postcards. Students noted the architectural patterns on gateways, minarets and arches of the monument and made sketches for the same. ‘Money makes the world go round’ was a project with a school from UK where students showcased various currencies and enacted a virtual market-place. ‘Traditional Games’ was another topic that was targeted towards centuries-old games like Shatranj from India and Shogi from Japan were played with GIIS Japan over skype detailing the origin and evolution. ‘Tiger@aps@s - Let@aps@s Protect our stripes@aps@ involved creating campaigns and slogans for protection of the endangered tiger species for which they collected donation for the tiger conservation organizations. ‘Mapping Famous Rivers’ was an exchange programme with Malaysia on river legends and local river life. ‘Folk Tales’ was propped up with Book-week, Storytelling, Character Parade and Guessing Game on the tale/character. ‘Transport’ was another topic for exchange of information on transport density and system with students of Singapore which ended in a quiz.

“While we are practicing a ‘collaborative project’ approach within our own schools in India and overseas, ISA is a platform that creates opportunity to work with schools in UK by the use of ICT and exchanging creative pedagogical methods. The winning of this prestigious award has had a tremendous impact on our students and teachers in terms of team building, leadership, innovation and project management. This has further given our Indian campuses international recognition. It gives me immense pleasure and pride to see that the tiny steps that I had taken to initiate the process have been beautifully taken forward and built up to perfection that resulted in winning awards of international standard.” said Ms. Sunita Jaisingh - National Head-Academics, GIIS-India.