A Simple Question About 2035: What Will Our Children Really Need? Let’s start with a small thought experiment. It’s 2026 now. If your child is in middle school today, they’ll probably start working around the year 2035. Pause for a second and picture that world. By then, Artificial Intelligence...

When “Wrong” Is Actually the Beginning of Learning In many homes across Chennai, report card discussions tend to sound the same. How many marks? Where did you lose marks? Why was this wrong? Without realising it, we grow up believing that a wrong answer is a bad sign. Something...

In a world where Artificial Intelligence can answer almost any factual question in seconds, the traditional educational model—which prioritizes the storage and retrieval of information—is becoming obsolete. For decades, “good schooling” was synonymous with high marks achieved through rote memorization. Today, that definition is being dismantled. At Sun Smart...

For a long time, schooling in Chennai followed a fairly predictable script. Study hard. Score well. Clear an entrance exam. Secure a professional seat. And for many families, this approach worked. But something has changed over the past decade. Parents today aren’t just anxious about board results or ranks....

Creators in the making require time! “All great achievements require time” these words of Maya Angelou resonate this season at school.  It has been an answer to this question ‘Can kids really do everything? Where is the time?’  Creation:  The last year has seen some great work which was...

“You could not remove a single grain of sand from its place without thereby …  changing something throughout all parts of the immeasurable whole.”  — Fichte, The Vocation of Man (1800)  Human beings have everything they need on planet earth.  But as Mahatma Gandhi said The world has enough for everyone’s needs, but not everyone’s greed. Sharing this planet with millions of lifeforms entails us with the responsibility to protect it. The purpose of this article is to contribute to that internalizing process. We often hear this ‘We are all one’, meaning that all life forms are same, and our needs are one.  Butterfly effect signifies that the world functions in synchronicity. Let’s explore how all of this is connected.   The Story of the heroic Cyanobacteria  Research shows that billions of years ago, the atmosphere did not have free oxygen; only nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and Methane were predominantly present. The single-celled bacteria that thrived on existent molecules called Cyanobacteria are the reason for our existence. Through photosynthesis, the ‘Cyanobacteria’ emitted the first free oxygen molecules into the atmosphere, which caused all lifeforms on earth to perish as well as enabled the existence of more complex  organisms, including us. Had it not been for these single-celled bacteria, today, life as we know it, would have been but a fiction. Scientists believe that these Cyanobacteria still exist in plants as chloroplasts.   This is how we are really connected. Being in sync is how life was inherited from nature and it is time we realised it. By synchronizing with nature, the process becomes organic and consistent.  While talking about purpose, there’s this one incident that led to this article.  On a rare rainy morning in June as I sat on my usual sofa in the reception, a third grader walked in, looking a little dismayed. She hurried despite all her worries as it was way past 8:30, and the  classes had already begun after the mindfulness routines. But I couldn’t let her go to class like that, and so I started a casual chat hoping to make her more cheerful. What could bother this little  mind so much that she didn’t even get excited about muddy puddles?   Slowly she opened up only to surprise me with existential questions and her dissatisfaction with human coexistence. She said, “mam, I have been wondering about death. What is death? Why does it happen to all of us?”   I was taken aback but understood that she wasn’t going to go without an answer. I told her that there was a purpose to all of us being here and when the purpose is done, we might have to go  back to where we came from..nature..in true Na’vi style. Then came the next question, “how will we know our purpose?”. I replied to her that it is for each of us to find out our path and purpose, but we will know when we interact and coexist with everything around us. Finally, she said, “I am upset, mam because it is raining after a long time here, but I don’t see anyone doing rainwater harvesting. What is going to happen? Why can’t people around me dig a hole and let the water  seep in? Is this being there for others? What am I to do when I grow up, and there is no water?  What do I do? ” I assured her that with people who think like her, the world’s going to be a much  better place, and we might not be in such a state after all. With that momentary solace she smiled and went off to class  The greatest secrets are hidden in the most unlikely places – Roald Dahl This unforgettable conversation is the reason this theme Sharing the planet came to be.  ...

Social and emotional learning is embedded in every strand of teaching and learning at SSFI. On October 16th 2019, Learners at SSFi involved themselves in a community outreach programme. The theme for 2019 was “healthy diets for a zero-hunger world” and it was in tandem with the Theme of...

The town of Hamelin is infested with rats and their elusive saviour comes to their rescue. The learners of Sun Smart Foundation International School came together to put up the play Pied Piper for Putri an organization involved in educating girl children. To enable learners to look beyond books...

The focus of bringing in theatre amongst our youngest learners is to develop self-awareness, coordination, social and emotional learning, and language skills. The theatre program is tailor made to suit our learner attributes where they become SMART (Skilful, Mindful, Artistic, Responsible Thinkers). They are taught body language, emotions and...

The last Friday of every month at SSFI is where hands n fun filled day of learning for our kindergarteners. The theme for month was force. To experience the learning learners made a pin wheel to learn about air as another element that helps objects move. They learnt that...