"There is an Indian belief that everyone is a house of four rooms: a physical, a mental, an emotional and a spiritual room. Most of us tend to live in one room most of the time, but unless we go into every room every day, even if only to keep it aired, we are not complete."
...Rumer Godden
V-Excel News
The reopening time of school each academic year in June is always filled with a surge of activities across the board. From the welcome clatter and chatter in the corridors to parent orientation to teacher training programs, the whole environment rings in new ideas, new dreams and new plans. We look forward to this fresh start with a lot of enthusiasm!
V-Excel's Hobby Club set out this time to IIT Adyar, Chennai campus. The IIT management had granted permission to conduct a photography class for our special children inside their campus. The children were very excited when they saw deer and monkeys scampering around. The weather was really pleasant and it was cool by the lake; our children truly enjoyed the shoot and took lovely pictures. It was a thrilling experience for them, especially after their long hot summer holidays.
We have set the ball rolling for creating an application for V-Excel Trust, where all details and stakeholder information across the V-Excel centers will be consolidated. We are thankful to the two volunteers, Mr. Ramesh and Ms. Radhika from Checkpoint, who have taken up this assignment for us. This application will allow for easy online updation and will definitely take us a step ahead in effective data maintenance and communication practices.
Kaleisdoscope Learning Centre
As the new term began on the 7th of June, KLC welcomed ten new children and two new volunteers. A range of emotions crossed the faces of the children coming back to school, from sheer delight to relaxed to apprehension. The new children settled in quickly. On the 11th of June the school completed the art work to commemorate the tenth year of KLC. The Founder's Day Art work this year titled 'Soaring into the next year' has children's pictures from different grade levels, reflecting their developmental phase. Each member of the school painted, cut and pasted this collage; this team work was highly applauded when it finally took its proud position on the designated wall.
The first week was spent in completing the intake forms, arranging the classes and breathing deeply to solve the few hiccups that we faced at the start. The new Blocks started in all classes on the 11th of June and now the school is running smoothly on well-oiled wheels. Work is in full swing as parents are being called in for counseling, the Friday reviews are being sent home, and the supervisors are planning the year long curriculum. The kitchen is abuzz with activity as this year the senior students of the prevocational class help our kitchen incharge, Vasanthi Aunty, in making the morning ragi kanjee and distributing the morning snacks. Also every block will see three new students developing expertise in chopping and packing vegetables which the staff will then purchase for their homes.
The first in-service training for teachers this term was conducted by Anandi and Puja. It was a painting exercise where the teachers got useful insights about their own style of working and how they function in a team. The first reading for the teachers was on the second Friday and the teachers read an article on 'There is more to reading than meets the eye.'
A host of activities are being taken up, busying all the classes. For example, Grade 4 was scraping walls and getting ready to paint their classrooms as a part of their practical work, while the kindergarteners went to the beach as part of their encounters with nature.
Academy for Teacher Excellence
We have rechristened our Academy for Teacher Training and Excellence as 'Academy for Training and Excellence' in the light of the different training programs conducted by us for varying groups and audiences.
Dr. Vasudha Prakash, along with our Counseling Head, conducted a workshop on Guilt-free Parenting at one of the leading IT companies. The feedback very positive and we have been asked to conduct similar workshops in Kolkata and Coimbatore.
With the overwhelming response from the first batch, we are planning a second batch of Counseling Program. Curriculum design is underway for the second level too.
Early Intervention Unit
Early intervention unit re-opened for the new academic year on June 4th. Assessments were conducted for all the children who are presently in the early intervention program.
As many as 20 children have been discharged from the early intervention program while around 10 new consultations have been done in this month. More applicants are in line.
Our team reviewed and followed - up on the home programs given to parents as their holiday work. It was really heartening to note that most of them had tried to adhere to the given plan and reported positive experience.
We are exploring the option of starting a small intervention section for children with Cerebral Palsy. The evaluation is on and we are assessing space, manpower and resource needs for the purpose.
This term, we are focusing on hands-on training for parents for improving communication.
V-Excel Satellite Centres
Our Nashik satellite center has been steady in terms of its student enrolments and resource management. Presently we
are catering to about 32 children with special needs there with the help of an expert staff under the guidance of the
Regional Head, Mrs. Jayanthi Vishwanath.
As regards Tirunelveli, resources have been a constant challenge. Despite the crunch, we are glad that Ms. Jeyaseeli Rani, our Coordinator there has successfully been catering to about 20-25 special children coming from various parts of the district. She works under the guidance of Ms. Lalitha Sridhar, our Early Intervention specialist. The need for specialized services in both these locations is very high and it gives us satisfaction that we are able to offer professional services.
V-Excel Remedial Centre
At VRC, our work concerns students from regular schools who have learning problems or children who are not able to attend school due to lack of their readiness skills. We have hence been eagerly waiting for school reopening. Typically, once the schools start and teachers settle down in their routine, they identify and refer the children to us and our work gains momentum.
We have started two new assessments for remedial children.
We have started a small lending library on an experimental basis for our children to inculcate the habit of reading and shouldering the responsibility of handling books and records.
Rural Outreach Program
Our team of Special Educators completed the round of awareness programs and medical camps in all the nine blocks of Villipuram.
Three boxes of old clothes and eight boxes of biscuits were sent to some of the blocks in the district for distribution to the relatively economically backward families.
The schools in the rural areas resumed classes in June after their summer break. The special educators met the government school teachers for identifying and referring those children with special needs who required remedial intervention or any specific therapy.
Vocational Training Unit
The vocational training unit reopened this academic year on the 4th of June 2012 for the staff orientation and on the 9th of June for the trainees. We began with a collective prayer which included students, staff, parents and volunteers.
VTU has provided admissions to 6 new students and 2 new staff on its rolls in this new academic year. We also have new volunteers who have agreed to devote a few hours for their precious time everyday to work with our young adults.
Individualized specific programs for students have been drawn up and work towards this has begun in full swing.
Our staff underwent training during the holidays to fine tune their skills and further improve the quality of products made by our trainees. We shall introduce the upgraded methods and products in this term.
Counseling and Assessment Unit
The academic year started with a lot of enthusiasm and excitement of implementing new projects. This year there have been projects planned for parents, (group therapies and individual sessions), for children and for outsiders.
We already started seeing parents for individual counseling and children for individual play therapy.
We started with introducing an element of drama for our grade 5 and prevocational children. They took to it immediately and could relate to it very well. It was really exciting to watch them!
One of our psychologists completed a six-week course in Art Therapy in Australia and has been applying that beautifully in groups and for individuals. We hope to see our clients immensely benefit from this therapy. We are planning a session on Art therapy program for parents of the school. This year we have also started Art Therapy once a month for teacher healing. It was very well received and appreciated.
There has been a growing demand from our corporate clients to increase our services to their all locations as the associates have been demanding it.
Our HOD also completed her third module on 'Biography', a process that actively seeks to trace your life experiences that may have a bearing on the present and the future. From the Counseling viewpoint, biography work helps the healing process and answers some questions about an individual's thinking or behavior. We plan to conduct a small workshop to orient our teachers.
Contact Information
V-Excel Educational Trust
#1 Norton 2nd Street
Mandaveli Chennai 600 028
Tel: 91 - 44 - 24620243
91 - 44 - 24956373 E-mail us or visit us at www.v-excel.org
V-Excel Center for Research and Rehabilitation
(In assocation with S.V. Sarada Foundation)
50 Sreyes, M.G. Road
Shastri Nagar, Chennai 600 041
Tel: 91 - 44 - 24522061
91 - 44 - 24521986 E-mail us
Academic Concepts, Inc.
1403 Merrywood Drive
Edison New Jersey 08817
Tel: (732) 572-3748
Tax ID: 22-3632715 E-mail us
