4^th TAISI International School sports meet held at TISB (The International School Bangalore) and conducted by Bangalore International School. Seventeen International schools across the country participated in it.The meet opened with a glorious ceremony followed by the hoisting of the TAISI Flag, a march past, briefing of schools and the oath taking ceremony. The sports meet was then declare open. Our school participated in the tournament for the second time after the mind blowing performance in the 3rd TAISI at Pune.19 boys were selected to represent our school in various events. Though less in numbers the boys performed their level best to keep the school name flying high.

School achievement in 4^th TAISI at Bangalore :

1. Champions of Junior football Boys.
2. Overall championship in swimming.
3. Overall championship in swimming relay.
4. Individual championship in swimming in all categories.

Collectively it was a very good experience for all the students as they got the opportunity to compete with students from different International Schools.

Splash - Every child can paint is a belief of Concern India Foundation that gave Podar IBDP students an opportunity to experience a different CAS activity. On 13th Dec 2011, on 6th floor of Podar International School, around 100 students from various special schools (School for mentally challenged) had participated in a drawing competition. These children were given themes on which they drew pictures. One group of students were given drawn pictures which they had to color. IBDP students of Podar International School facilitated this event at Podar as volunteers. "It was a great learning for me. I am amazed to see the way these children could paint!" said Aditya Pai an IBDP student.

Podar International School is the recipient of the eINDIA Public Choice Award 2011 under the category of Best Use of Technology for Teaching / Learning Practice in Schools. This award is one of the innumerable innovative ICT initiatives set up by the Government to acknowledge these innovations across the country. The award was given by Mrs. Smriti Irani – Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, Gujarat to Dr. Mrs. Vandana Lulla on 15^th December 2011. Podar International School won the award for excellent design and practice using 3D cyber science. A Truly commendable effort indeed.

High order level thinking workshop conducted by Mr.____________ was well received by the faculty at Podar International School. The teachers were taken through the simple paradigms of teaching the hierarchy of simple to complex which make ideas and concepts easy to understand. An engrossed and audience brainstormed, explored, researched and shared their insights on how teaching in their subject areas can be made more challenging and interesting.

29 students of Podar International School IBDP1 went to the Securities & Exchange Board of India, SEBI Bhawan, Bandra Kurla Complex, Bandra on 8th December, 2011. Three teachers accompanied them.

One of the managers of SEBI provided a brief about the functioning of SEBI, how SEBI safeguards interest to investors, highlights of IPO, regulations of IPOs and also basics of Primary Market, Secondary Markets.

The students were able to understand the main functions of SEBI, stock traded and the meaning of financial terms through their inquisitiveness and desire to learn by asking a lot of questions to the official. This trip to the SEBI was an engaging and challenging experience for the students. It brought out the "inquirer" and the "risk taker" in them. They also got to see the professional conference hall with LCDs.

Students had the opportunity of listening to one of our eminent scientists Dr. A P Jayaraman, who made difficult concepts of science sound so interesting and easy with real-life examples and his research. A rapt audience, our students discussed concepts and ideas with him and came up with interesting insights.

The workshop on Project-Based Learning conducted by Suzie Boss gave the teachers valuable insights into using projects to enable students to become more active participants in their own learning process. The workshop included an examination of many successfully implemented projects in schools around the world, and the strategies that were used to evoke the best work from their students. Teachers at Podar International School then emulated the same process by formulating projects in their own subjects, guided by Ms. Boss.

This year annual day was celebrated with great fervour keeping the spirit of Christmas in mind. Children showcased their talent and love for folk dances through their remarkable performances. The theme for the annual day show was "Loving and believing in yourself', inspired by the popular "Rudolph the red nosed reindeer" story.

Through the skit the message of loving oneself and believing in oneself was beautifully demonstrated to the audience. The participants excelled in their performances and were able to emotionally connect with the audience.

The stage was decorated with colours of festivity: Red, Green and White. Red representing life and vitality, White the colour of snow and humility and Green representing the love for nature. Once again the students of Podar International School were able to entice the audience and keep them gripped to their seats for three hours as they danced and performed to various tunes.

On occasion of Makarsankranti, Grade 3 students visited St. Catherine's Home, situated at Andheri. They celebrated this festival with 150 children. These children include children from Catherin's Home as well as children from local slum.

Podar students carried kite decoration material, kites, thread to fly kites and til ladoos with them. On an open ground of school, podar children along with Catherine's children sat together in smaller circles. They decorated kites together with the decoration material. The groups with best decorated kites were selected by the judges from IDF. At the end children flew kites together. Podar students left Catherine's home, with joy of sharing.

'Podar International School-IB & CIE-Mumbai' achieved Championship Trophy in "Ganesh Podar Memorial Inter-School Gizmo Geeks (ICT) National Level Competition 2011-12" which was held at PIS School-Nasik in the month of Jan 2012. For this competition, the students from 5 different cities of India had participated namely Mumbai, Pune, Ahmadabad, Aurangabad, Sangli. The students of Podar International School-IB & CIE Mumbai were the winners in all 6 categories of the competition.

Mr. Sanjeev Rohilla, Deputy Manager of NABARD came to Podar International School on 18^th January 2012. He had a small presentation on Inflation. Mr. Sanjeev explained the causes and consequence of inflation with relationship of international & domestic market. How government is controlling inflation through monetary & fiscal policy and what is the effect of inflation to stakeholder were explained with real world examples. Ses-sion was very much interactive & resourceful.

We like to maintain good traditions at Podar International School. The International Evening is one of those good traditions which is celebrated as a yearly event. Students from PYP, IGCSE, A LEVELS and IBDP have the chance to represent their school , displaying their talents in multifarious activities. The various stalls lead you from 'What if the food pyramid turns upside down, to 'what if Mother Nature stops recycling? And much more! It was infectious to see the spirit, dedication and zest of students to create a wholesome experience for the guests and it is with a sense of awe and wonder that our guests left the venue with questions raging their minds, leading them to also think about the way our students perform differentently. Our theme for 2012 International Evening was "COMING OF A NEW AGE"- Interesting, thought provoking and offering a gamut of probabilities. One of the interesting topics selected by students was Topic - Parallel Universe…a reality? The concept of 'Parallel Universe' is a much researched and debated topic, hence, the class of VII D chose it as the topic for the International Evening. The VII D class students were bursting with ideas and theories of their own about the life, planetary system, etc in the parallel universe. Students were divided into mixed ability groups and were asked to elect a team captain and vice captain, thus ensuring that all students whole heartedly participated. After an extensive research on the topic, students worked on various models, charts and videos; slowly but steadily the students brought most ideas to life. Models included: working model of a wormhole, space shuttle , parallel scope, etc. Over two weeks of preparation, brain-storming and hard work, the students put up a fantastic show on the International Evening. They proudly stood by their models, charts, etc. This event brought out a lot of hidden talent and made all the effort put in seem worthwhile. All in all, the International Evening was an incredible experience for both the students and parents who visited the stall.

Among the international faculty visiting Podar international School was Dr. Keith Sharp, the Director of the University of London International Programmes at The London School of Economics, who introduced the students of the IB, A Level and ISC sections to the LSE's external programme (conducted at Podar World College). Dr. Sharp guided students and parents through the content of the courses, including aspects such as the standards, papers, evaluation process and minimum requirements for admission. Dr. Sharp also acknowledged the continuing commitment of Podar World College in maintaining the highest possible standards through its edition of the LSE's external programme

Ms. Preeti Singh conducted a workshop on Language Arts at Podar International School. Having a repertoire of strategies and assessment tools to facilitate learning, She broke many notions and eased teachers into thinking differently and courageously. Teachers worked with their group members to create models and unique teaching strategies, which could make classroom teaching more interactive and fruitful. The journey of being a teacher was well chronicled in the form of an open letter addressed to the Principal / Director Dr. Mrs. Vandana Lulla.

"Inception—Ideas Worth Sharing," an event hosted by Podar International School saw the entire fraternity participating vigorously. A platform to pro-vide both teachers and students a chance to innovate and present new ideas, Inception brought out the best in everybody. The event was conducted under the guidance of Mr. Simon Breakspear who is an inter-nationally renowned leader and thinker on the future of learning. Podar International School presented a kaleidoscope of ideas and one that deserves special mention is "Sensitivity," a theme that spoke about the need for sensitizing all to the evils of terrorism. The breathtaking sand art creation made by our teacher, Ms. Rajashree Pawar, captivated the audience and underlined the theme effectively.

The PYP Graduation Day marked the end of the Primary Years Program for the students of Grade 5. The entire event was hosted by the students of Grade 4. The students were given a trophy and a certificate to mark the culmination of their journey in the program. Each one of them shared their beautiful experiences and memories. They were sad that they had to leave their family, consisting of their coordinator and teachers but, were happy because this step also meant a movement to a higher grade. They listened carefully to the words of wisdom shared by the Principal and the Coordinator. The event ended with the cutting of a cake , moments of sweetness to be savored always.

The SAIBSA 2012 (South Asian IB Schools Association) DP Job Alike Ses-sion (South Asian IB Schools Association) was held at Podar International School on February 11, 2012. This one day session was attended by 340 repre-sentatives from 36 schools all over India. The Welcome Address was given by the Head of Podar International School, Dr. Ms. Vandana Lulla. She greeted the august gathering and felicitated the President of SAIBSA Mr. Kaisar Dopaishi and all the facilitators. The Plenary Session was conducted by Ms. Gillian Ashworth, Head of Secondary, Ecole Mondiale World School based on the theme: 'Inquiry based learning and IBDP, friends or foes?' She stressed that every aspect of the IBO, the Mission Statement, the Learner Profile and the higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy of thinking skills have their basis in Inquiry. So the DP teachers should not feel that inquiry is only for the PYP or MYP. Since exam-iners in DP also rate the highest marks for originality and inquiry in answers, a cyclical inquiry process in class will help students score better. Questioning tech-niques, Collaboration in class and formative assessment techniques were also discussed. During the breakout sessions teachers shared and discussed cur-riculum planning, various teaching ideas & assessments. They also shared resources. These sessions saw animated discussions, valuable exchange of idea and net working. All the participants were impressed with the hospitality and warmth of the school and arrangements of the working committee. The floral decoration and the song sung by Podar students which incorporated both Eng-lish and Hindi to welcome the guests was much appreciated.