We begin our learning the moment we are born. From there on, our education through our living continues till we commence our formal education. Early learning makes the greatest impact on children’s minds, life and future.
In earlier eras, when familial, social, communal, local, and global norms, trends, lifestyles, and the entire fabric of the surrounding ecosystem was different, we, the children, and our parents as children grew up in a completely dissimilar environment than today’s, what we call the modern era.
In present times, when nuclear families are the norm, society, and every other aspect of our livelihoods and lifestyle has completely changed, many parents live their parenthood lives in a great conundrum, worries and hypertension about the upbringing of their child/children with the crucial early phase of childcare which sets the course for the future of the learning-hungry budding minds.
If you, as parents living in and around the metro city of Pune, are reading this, you are very fortunate because now all your worries, doubts, issues, and tensions are erased. Angels Paradise Academy, located in Pune, Maharashtra, is ardently and passionately involved in shaping young minds and re-shaping the next civilization.
Mrs Sayali Bhosale, the Director of Angels Paradise Academy and Founder of Uriel Kids assures you that they at Angels Paradise Academy endeavour to equip children with skills they’ll need tomorrow. “We prepare their foundation by enhancing creative and critical thinking skills, effective communication and interaction skills along with a complete focus on their holistic development,” she says.
A Holistic Ecosystem of Caring
Angels Paradise has nestled within a single-level 15,000 square feet safe and secure environment. All its rooms are spacious, bright and well-lit, with large windows for natural light and ventilation. Each classroom is sprawling enough to allow the little minds to explore and enjoy every purposefully designed learning corner. The classrooms are structured and designed keeping in mind the utmost safety of the students. Each classroom has an attached washroom which is also very child-centric. The classrooms have sensory corners, reading nooks, free play and pretend play zones and art zones to give our students the best possible learning opportunities.
Mrs Bhosale has been instrumental in her career towards creating a balanced educational ecosystem where early learners can learn with fun. She leveraged her international background to establish a new era in the EdTech domain and deliver globally benchmarked curriculums and institutional development services. Mrs Sayali is a visionary educationist, a committed professional, pioneer of change, and she appreciates disruptive technologies in transforming and facilitating the Indian education system. She is a game changer and believes in the vocational learning system, emphasising the “listen and learn” approach and genuine adoption of online platforms.
Nurturing Lifelong Learners
She adds that their programme aims to support children’s psychomotor, social-emotional, linguistic and cognitive development from two-and-a-half to six years old. They also aim at building self-care skills and preparing the child for primary education. “Our programme is totally holistic.” Achievements envisaged in this programme encompass all common skills adopted by primary education programmes. Problem-solving, communication, reasoning, connecting, decision-making, undertaking and fulfilling responsibility, investigating, environmental awareness, creating and many other skills are imparted naturally to children through situations, environments and play-based activities.
While responding to the developmental needs, the academy’s programme also aims at advancing, diversifying and enriching the child’s behaviour by Cultivating values, good habits, and ethics and teaching the children the difference between right and wrong.
Apart from all the specialities mentioned above, the school has an innovative curriculum designed and developed by a team of early education experts. The academy works coherently with educational advisors from the UK, with an approach of integrated aspects from the Indian and British curricula. The curriculum includes a scientific amalgamation of:
- The Theory of Multiple Intelligences
- The Montessori Method
- The Play Way Method
- Angels Paradise Academy’s Original Methods (Tried and Tested)
Erasing the Challenges
The COVID-19 Pandemic has brought much of the world to a virtual standstill. As a result, innumerable schools were being shut down worldwide. Many schools collapsed due to the economic impact.
She recalls, “Like every other preschool, it was a very challenging time for all of us, but as we struggled to come to terms with these circumstances where a pandemic of this magnitude had derailed the best of planning in the whole world, we were looking for ways and means to minimize the academic loss for our students.”
The academy then initiated a process to provide fruitful academic experiences for its children, and therefore, Mrs Bhosale and her expert team planned to go for online teaching to make this time productive and happy for their students.
In pursuit of excellence, Angels Paradise Academy continuously endeavours to create meaningful learning experiences for its students. With this paradigm shift, they aimed to utilize interactive, collaborative tools on a single platform. They redesigned their curriculum for virtual schooling and tried their best to reach out to their students and make a difference in their lives.
With so much free time, they believed keeping kids on a routine was important.
It was when they introduced their first ever 24×7 online preschool Uriel Kids, to reach out to parents from all across the Globe. Apart from regular school, they also started after-school activities like Phonics, Foreign language classes, Shlokas, Chess, Public speaking and much more for kids to keep them engaged and give them the joys of limitless learning! (www.urielkids.com)
Safety Comes First
“Since the safety of the staff was of utmost priority to us, we started the practice of working from home and all of us geared to take up the new challenges ahead. The next few days were onerous for us as we would prepare for distance learning through online content, pre-recorded videos, taking live online classes, and preparing worksheets and assignments from home. We supported and mentored our teachers by providing them various online training programmes to help them become adept with online teaching through innovative and fun ways.”
Since this was a new experience for all of them, they all needed to practice patience, flexibility and understanding. After all these arduous times, they can proudly say that they efficiently adapted to this new normal and shifted seamlessly to suit the current need, ensuring that none of their children is impacted. They arranged monthly PTMs to stay in touch with parents and understand the outcome of online teaching. They used various online tools to impart knowledge in a very exciting way.
Tech the Way Forward
Virtual classrooms are not just the need of the hour today. They are the way of the future, and an increasing number of schools will look towards online school management software to ensure that they are prepared for a better and brighter future tomorrow.
Even though Virtual school has been a saviour for all of them during the pandemic, there have been mixed thoughts about it regarding its disadvantages. Online learning creates a sense of isolation. Children do not get an opportunity to mingle with their peers and teachers. The interpersonal development of a child has gone for a toss for sure in virtual learning.
A child’s basic discipline and routine have been hampered big time. Increased screen time is a bigger concern. Research also supports that increased screen time affects a child’s cognitive ability.
Inspiring Future Innovators
In the long run, Angels Paradise Academy wants to be an innovative leader in childcare education where the child is continuously encouraged to go beyond boundaries. To be a globally recognized household name providing excellence in the finest childcare experience imparting knowledge, creativity and fun. They would like to be a child’s second home where they can nurture them with affection, care, responsibility and happiness through a comprehensive learning environment.
The Indian education industry is surely in an upward swing; a school is where the child acquires the basic cognitive, physical, social and emotional capabilities that prepare them for later success in school and life. With growing parent awareness coupled with the rising number of nuclear families and factors like increasing disposable income of parents and rapid urbanization, there will be an increased penetration of schools in the country. It has resulted in the development of innovative and advanced infrastructures as well as quality education programmes for schools across the country.
