‘Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.’ Nelson Mandela

In today’s world, being a student is not easy. Life for them is more than academics at school. The amount of information readily available to them is a challenge. Adding on this mountain of information is the peer pressure and the pressures of the family and society. The gap between academics and the challenges faced has to be bridged. But how? Are life skills so important in a student’s life today? Yes, it is required for a smooth transition at all stages of their student life and for the healthy development of their social and emotional skills.

The HDFC School teachers as Life Skills facilitators:

‘It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.’ Albert Einstein The teachers blend regular academic content with life skills. Character building and emotional intelligence is built in children by touching on virtues like ‘empathy’, ‘cooperation’ and ‘fairness’ in an elusive way. As The HDFC School teachers, these skills are flagged and backed up with exemplary behaviour. Of course, it has to be done with lots of humour and smile to show them that it is okay to make mistakes along the process.

Participating in Sports and Performing Arts:

‘Great things are never done by one person, they are done by a team of people.’ Steve Jobs Co-curricular activities at The HDFC School empower the children to attract, mobilize and inspire life skills such as respect for the opponent, acceptance of binding rules, teamwork and fairness. It is important for students to realise that it is important to work on each other’s strengths and not look down on their weaknesses. It is important for the students to know that their opinions are valued and that it is important to develop the skill to be articulate. The theatre classes ensure that they are trained to face an audience and develop high levels of communication. Each of the above is relevant to the holistic development of children, building blocks for a strong, responsible and healthy community in the future.

Developing Scientific Temper through weekly activity classes:

‘Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.‘ Henry Ford Developing skills in children is the need of the hour and in the bargain facing failure and emerging successful is equally important. An environment of scientific temperament, innovation, creativity amongst the HDFC students is a step towards new learning at the school. The activity classes encourage the ‘do it yourself’ approach inculcating skills such as designing mindset, computational thinking and overcoming failures to succeed. Young children get a chance to work with tools and equipment to understand what, how and why aspects of Science, Technology and Math.

Weekly Assemblies, Events and Annual Concert:

Weekly school events play an important role in building confidence among children where they freely express their feelings with confidence. This also helps them to become more empathetic towards people from different cultural backgrounds. They also become more imaginative and self-aware, helping in chiseling social, emotional and thinking skills that benefit the overall personalities of children, leading to their holistic development. By honing life skills in and beyond the classroom, students are taught to deal with increasing pace of modern life, with which they need to be well equipped.

Interactions with professionals:

In the higher classes, it is important for students to be exposed to professionals from different walks of life. This would open their windows into the wide world they would be eventually stepping into. In a safe, secure and caring environment, our students will no doubt imbibe the best academic pedagogical skills. At The HDFC School, Bengaluru a lot is invested in nurturing students with cherishable values and life skills that would enable them to leave an indelible mark on the sands of time.