The Inclusive Education Cell (IEC) at Podar Group of Schools was set up with the primary aim of facilitating needs of children with various learning, behavioural and emotional concerns which they face during their course of development.
IEC functions not only to assist special need children but also looks into each and every child's learning, behavioural and emotional issues in their day to day life. The goal is to emphasize on the holistic development of students and their support groups in particular and promoting school mental health in general.
IEC works towards sensitizing, awareness building and educating wellness teachers, school teachers, peers and parents towards dealing with their children in this challenging and exigent environment.
Our school has a counsellor that is available to help the students deal with their problems and make their school days happy. Our School counsellors are regularly in touch with the IEC department in formulating strategies for the school counselling, psychometric testing, treatment plan and workshops, etc, all working towards the goal of Inclusion for diverse learners.
When Schools concentrate on creating a positive atmosphere in the school, student experiences change for the better. With this thought in mind , the IEC initiated the idea of Happy classrooms this year. The School took several initiatives to promote the above concept.
This included a variety of activities centered around expressing Gratitude and Happiness. A preview of the activities that were conducted in the schools are as follows :
Students' happy thoughts were put on a soft board depicting their thoughts on “What makes you Happy?”
Happiness collage is a collection of the students' happiest and the most memorable moments and creating a collage of the same. Similarly some students could opt to draw their favorite things & express themselves.
What's better than laughing to spread Happiness. Students were encouraged to share their experiences of events in their life that made them laugh. Joke corners were created. In some schools they enacted folklores with their friends to spread happiness around.
The students were asked to jot down their thoughts on the recent happy social event they attended and revisit the same at the end of academic year.
This activity focused on the students' understanding emotions and the circle of control. In this, they were given a worksheet with things to jot down which they can control, and in the outer circle, things they have no control over. This activity gave them a chance to accept things out of their control and work on life and things they can control, taking the responsibity of their feelings and emotions, leading to a happy peaceful minds.
Similar activities were done with Junior school in the form of awareness about their strengths and recogninsing them as their own superpowers.
Spreading happiness and expressing gratitude activity conducted with Grade V to X students. Students were asked to write thank you messages to their friends on displayed smiley cards. Students & staffs were asked to share their thoughts on joy & things they were grateful for. These were read and discussed to see what brought joy to them.