School is the second home of the young minds where they spend a few hours daily with their fellow mates and learn under the guidance of a teacher. It’s every parent’s dream that their children have access to the best quality education for their personal growth and professional wealth.
Only a good school can provide quality education to shape children’s minds and improve their skills and expertise for a bright future. Pinegrove School is one of the best schools exhibiting all the qualities of a good school that makes education excellent for its students.
Nestled in the foothills of Shivalik hills with the snowcapped Himalayas to the north and rolling plains to the south, Pinegrove School is a CBSE affiliated, co-educational, fully residential, English medium school. The campus has grown by leaps and bounds in a short span of three decades both in stature and reputation under the profound leadership of its Founder, Headmaster and Executive Director, Capt A J Singh.
Pinegrove is situated in Dharampur (Estd. 1991) and Subathu (Estd. 1998), both in District Solan, in Himachal Pradesh, India.
The Subathu School is situated on the banks of gentle lapping brook in the exotic valley of Kutharon the Subathu-Kuthar-Kasauli – State Highway, at the height of about 3300 feet, and the Dharampur branch is located at about 5000ft from the sea level on the Dharampur-Kasauli Road, three kilometers off the main Kalka-Shimla National Highway (NH-22).
The spears of heavenly beams cut through the misty dawn of the school’s pristine environs, illuminating the meandering paths, whilst the sharp and refreshing fragrance of the dense conifer forest fills every infinitesimal part of its air with boundless energy and enthusiasm. One can smell the pine and feel the winds, orchestrating the Grovian symphony, with the birds offering their rendition of veritable chirruping as an accompaniment. The music reverberates in every nook and corner of the Pinegrove School’s 25 acres campus and invites its inhabitants to explore and become lifelong learners.
Under the profound leadership, Pinegrove school is a prominent member of the IPSC (Indian Public Schools’ Conference), IAYP (International Awards for Young People), International School Awards (ISA), the Round Square (UK), BSAI (Boarding Schools’ Association of India) and the BSA (UK). The school encompasses NCC, Nurtured Heart Approach (NHA) and holds the prestigious ISO 9001:2015 certification (BSI).
The Govt. of Sikkim, in liaison with the Govt. of Himachal, identified and approved Pinegrove School for “The Hon’ble Chief Minister’s Scholarship Programme”, and since 2010, the Govt. of Sikkim has regularly sponsored bright and capable children of their State for education in the School.
Pinegrove is reputed for its high standards in academic progress, value education, excellent work ethics, teacher development, personality development and discipline whilst maintaining the highest standards of academic and sporting excellence.
Embracing the Values with Mission and Vision
Pinegrove School firmly follows its mission statement, “We believe in the creation of ‘exalted lives’ by nurturing the body, mind, heart, and soul and aim to reach the stars of achievement through toil and determination. Hence, we dream, plan, endeavour, and pray to achieve our mission.”
Maintaining a fantastically high happiness quotient of all its stakeholders has been the raison d’être of Pinegrove since its inception because we believe that the foundation of any successful school is the happiness of all people associated with it be it parents, students, Alumni, Teaching and Supporting Staff.
An all-around, happy, and well-balanced personality is an asset to society, and the school is very serious about the quality of its finished product.
It takes years of concerted effort to form a school culture, which goes a long way in building an institution’s reputation.
All this requires painstakingly long and arduous hours of labour, put in by a handpicked team of competent, trained, and zealous facilitators who, apart from assisting the students in their studies, work on grey areas of the ones who need greater attention and motivate them to achieve their respective benchmarks.
Over the years, Pinegrove’s endeavour to inculcate the habit of self-discipline in its students by exercising the Nurtured Heart Approach (NHA) and awarding affirmative measures (an in-house programme designed to handle varying degrees of intensity among children) has helped us successfully groom morally responsible individuals who carry the legacy of “Good, Great and Godly” with themselves forever.
Pinegrove School is an architectural marvel on the geographically challenging terrain with its characteristic blue color-coding of all the rooftops, state-of-the-art wi-fi enabled campuses, smart-classrooms with hybrid capability, well-equipped science laboratories, tastefully designed dormitories, world class multi-sport Indoor Sports Complex, multiple floodlit playfields, oval-shaped Cricket Stadium ‘The Arena,’ world-class indoor Sporting complex and a state-of-the-art auditorium ‘The Colosseum,’ to name a few.
In the CBSE Boards Examinations over the last ten years in 10th and 12th classes, 100% children have passed out with First Division. The class average in the year 2020-21 were an astounding 87.14% and 93.37% for classes 10th and 12th, respectively.
Pinegrove’s aim is not just to improve the scholastic and co-scholastic performance of its students but also to sensitize them towards community service through various Programmes under the School’s Social Service Project ‘AASMAN’.
Apart from this, the School has taken the initiative of enrolling two bright girls from the Govt. Schools of Solan District of H.P. on 100% Scholarship every year since 2016.
Inculcating Fundamentals
Pinegrove school resonates the thought that travel opens one’s heart and mind to new possibilities, broadens the horizon and enhances knowledge by promoting “Internationalism” in its curriculum. Staff and student exchange programs are organised regularly with several institutions in the UK, USA, and South Africa to provide global exposure and opportunities to hone skill sets and embrace the dictum ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbtakam’, thereby strengthening the thought of unity in diversity amongst its pupils.
With rigorously well-planned schedules, continuous quality checks, high-order pastoral care and employing best practices in the form of regular Staff Appraisals, awarding Diamond Star (for good behavior), ensuring a fearless-Bully-free, Smoke-free, Abuse-free, Drug-free and even a shout-free environment and taking stringent steps for maintaining Safety, Security, Health and Hygiene of all the resident—the school has upped the ante in terms of making its presence felt as one of the top boarding schools across the country.
The corridors and hallways exude a sense of belongingness—making it a perfect place for the ebullient tiny- tots.
Pinegrove school is not only accredited and associated with numerous prestigious organizations, but also awarded the International School Awards (ISA), an educational initiative of The British Council and is a member of the Round Square International (UK), a coveted body of 80 Top-class international schools worldwide and the BSA (Boarding Schools’ Association, UK).
It is also a prominent member of the IPSC (Indian Public Schools’ Conference), IAYP (International Awards for Young People), BSAI (Boarding Schools’ Association of India) and adopts and encompasses NCC, Nurtured Heart Approach (NHA) and has ISO 9001:2015 certification (BSI).
Augmenting Student’s Engagement
In recent years to generate awareness about global warming and its drastic effects on the environment and give exposure to its pupil’s various adventure sports expeditions have been organized for the students over the years, wherein the groups have summited the highest mountain peak of the African continent: Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Mt. Yunum, Friendship Peak, and Mt. Deo Tibba in Manali, completed a Cycling Expedition to Khardunglain Leh-Ladhak and completed a 100 KM White-Water Rafting Expedition on the Ganges, undertook a Road Trip in cars from Pinegrove (HP) to Kanya Kumari (TN) and the back covering over 10000 KM in 40 days and attended Scuba Diving Camps and Deep-sea Diving Courses in the Arabian Sea and became certified divers.
Competitive games play a pivotal role in building self-confidence, sportsmanship, leadership qualities and make the students mentally robust and build esprit-de-corps with a world
beyond.
The playfields of Pinegrove get transformed into a sea of pulsating energy as competitors and bystanders, wearing their house colors, participate and cheer their housemates during Inter School or Inter-House matches. Over the years, the play-fields of Pinegrove School are witnessing a fair-share of victories, competing with the best schools of the country.
The school offers world-class facilities for the students’ recreation, including Libraries, Gymnasiums, swimming pools, Lush-green large Playfields, hard-courts for Basketball, Squash and Tennis, and art and craft rooms, music, pool/ billiards rooms, band rooms and two 20 bedded hospitals.
Pinegrove School boasts of the state-of-the-art auditorium ‘The Colosseum’, an oval-shaped-floodlight-Cricket-Stadium, ‘The Arena’ having a 66-seater Pavilion,’ and the recently constructed multi-disciplinary Indoor Sports’ complex houses a wide range of sporting facilities for the students to enjoy.
Education Integrated with Quality Assurance
Keeping in tandem with the National Education Policy 2020, Pinegrove has redesigned the curriculum and introduced a five-day week teaching model with an activity-based curriculum for Saturdays and Sundays for children up to Class ten.
These activities concern the prime objectives of conceptual learning through the latest pedagogy and to provide improved participation in Public Speaking, Sports, Activities, Visual and Performing Art, Social Service, Experiential Learning, Knowledge Development, Dual-Language Proficiency and Problem Solving, as these play an integral part in building one’s personality.
Pearls of Wisdom
Sharing advice for budding entrepreneurs, Capt A J Singh said, “Do not to venture into the field of education if your aim is to make money or have a business point of view,” We need to understand that school education is a socially charitable service. All excess income over expenditure is incidental and should not be the motive behind the service.
All incidental excesses must be used for further development of the institution so that the students benefit from the management’s policies. Schools need to be fair in dealing with parents, students, and employees by being honest, transparent, and democratic in their approach.
As an educationist, we need to keep pace with the shifting dynamics of learning because today’s learners are evolving faster, and they seek a change from traditional teaching methodology.
Hence, we need to adopt a flexible education model, one which enables students to toggle between classroom learning and the practical world. In other words, encourage and implement the NEP 2020 in letter and spirit.
Our stakeholders have shown a high degree of faith and trust in the institution over the years, which is a result of regular interaction and discussions with them on issues ranging from academics, fees and health and their valuable anonymous feedback/ suggestions from time to time on ways and means to improve the teaching-learning process.
Managing crisis and running an effective school in disruptive times, especially during the pandemic, required more than routine problem solving or occasional firefighting. He added that it needed unassailable support and collaboration from all the stakeholders, which we got without fail.
Embracing the Future Roadmap
Pinegrove school has championed multiple sustainable initiatives in becoming a Zero-Waste School by not sending any garbage to the municipality dump-yards.
Children are taught to coexist with nature via experiential-based learning activities, which includes segregation of waste at the source, organically composting kitchen waste, dairy farming, agriculture, and treating sewage water and using it for gardening purposes. The school has made endeavors to manage the other non-recyclable waste as well, so that not a kilogram of waste produced by the school goes to the Municipal Dump Yards.
The school has also installed solar panels to generate a total of 100 KW of electricity apart from having about 20 Lakh litres of rainwater harvesting tanks; the school has made serious efforts in recharging groundwater.
