Grade One teacher Guramrit Kaur Singh works with a couple of her students.
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Thinking Outside The Box:
The Khalsa Community School
Brampton, Canada
MARYAM SHAH
Brampton, Ontario, Canada
A typical morning at The Khalsa Community School involves kids sitting cross-legged and content on a carpeted classroom floor, drumming away on several tablas.
The private Brampton school combines traditional Sikh values within its academic curriculum, instilling a sense of pride in its students while preparing them for the world.
Perhaps that’s why year after year, the school keeps topping the list of top-10 schools in its region on the Fraser Institute Elementary School Report Card.
The Khalsa Community School is among the top-scoring schools in the Peel Region for the 2013-2014 school year, with a close-to-perfect score of 9.8 out of 10.
School administrator Ripsodhak Singh Grewal said it’s all about “thinking outside the box and challenging the students to meet that expectation.
“They’re developing civic sense, they’re becoming responsible, and they are thinking globally,” Ripsodhak Singh said.
After establishing itself in 1995, the school has grown to include about 800 students spanning junior kindergarten to Grade 10. Plans are in the works to add Grade 11 next year and Grade 12 the year after, with a focus on streaming into science.
Good grades are old news at the Khalsa School. In the Fraser report card for 2012-2013, the school received a perfect score of 10. The year before that, it had a result of 9.8.
The day begins with a morning assembly that includes a traditional prayer as well as hymns sung by the students.
“They conduct the whole ceremony and Guru Granth Sahib, the Scripture, is our central theme,” Ripsodhak Singh said.
In a Grade 1 classroom, about two dozen students listened quietly as a teacher schooled them about Canadian astronauts.
Teacher Guramrit Kaur Singh finds the students understand the curriculum “a lot easier” when traditional values have a comfortable seat in the classroom. She cited a recent class discussion on Family Day.
“It’s nice for them to incorporate things they did spiritually together with their family, as well as just everyday things like they went ice skating, they want to go see a game; it was really nice to see the fusion of those two,” Guramrit said.
For one mother, the benefits of enrolment were clear soon after her son joined the school.
Jagdip Kaur said her six-year-old son has grown by leaps and bounds after beginning Grade 1 at the Khalsa School. Other than playing with sand and toys, he wasn’t taught anything in kindergarten at another school, she said.
“Whereas now he is a fluent writer, fluent reader,” Jagdip marvelled. “He wrote an amazing essay on police officers.”
Jagdip has a three-year-old daughter at the school who has “suddenly” transformed from a picky eater to one open to trying anything.
“The teachers (are) so much more caring,” she said.
She appreciates the fact her kids are picking up Punjabi along with English.
“The school is teaching them ‘Be proud of who you are’ and at the same time, respect others around you,” Jagdip said.
[Courtesy: Toronto Sun. Edited for sikhchic.com]
March 2, 2015
Conversation about this article
1: Sangat Singh (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), March 03, 2015, 7:20 AM.
That's the way to go: catch them young! The lessons learnt then will make them good, caring human beings. This is how Sikhi works. Don't waste time and money on jathedars. This is the best investment we can ever make when we start with the nursery.