At the grand, gala 10th anniversary celebrations of Williams Lea, the children from Swabodini School gave a 45 minute performance. The team from Williams Lea comprising of the management and employees, welcomed the team from Swabodini, simultaneously introducing the troupe of performers, as being “a bunch of extremely talented young ones”.

The celebrations began with the employees sharing their varied experiences that they had encountered during their professional journey at Williams Lea. This was followed by the performance from the students of Swabodini. Arjun Nataraj received wide appreciation for his skilful rendition of musical notes on his keyboard. This was followed by a group dance and then V. Venkat Narender took the centre stage to challenge the audience to test his skills in naming the bus routes / bus route numbers of the City Buses that ply through the City of Chennai. The audience loudly cheered and applauded the performers.

The celebrations concluded with a song from a Hindi movie and both the children from Swabodini and the employees of Williams Lea danced their hearts out. Refreshments were also served, which the students of Swabodini, enjoyed.

Every year, as part of their outreach programme, Cognizant conducts the “Shining Stars” event for children with special needs and for orphans from the Orphanage home. The Outreach programme this year was a sports event and our children from Swabodini, participated in the following events:

• Ball Gathering
• Balloon Bursting
• Hopping
• Rolling the Ball
• Sack Race
• Target Bowling

Prizes were distributed to a few of the children and certificates were given to all the participants. Children who won prizes were:

• Balloon Bursting – 1st Prize – Surya
• Rolling the Ball – 2nd Prize – Hisham Yesuri
• Ball Gathering – 3rd Prize – Gurubharan

Dr. Saravanan Sivanithi, Director, Consultant and Neurodevelopment Therapist at Paediatric Therapy Assoicates, Chennai, has partnered with Swabodini. Dr. Saravanan will be providing the following consultancy services:

• Outpatient Treatment
• Speech Behaviour
• Counselling
• Mentoring
• Training (of the teaching staff to augment their professional skills)

Dr. Saravanan will also be tracking the behavioural patterns in the children to ensure effective results.

It was a nostalgic moment when the present students met up with Amruth and Abhishek, our past students. This momentous moment took place on our school’s premises. The students shook hands with their seniors and there was music, as well as a display of body movements to action words. Venkat Narender, student undergoing vocational training, sang an invocation bhajan, which was followed by lime juice, served by our students from the culinary class. The present students then presented, the past students and the school, a note card.

• Start of New Academic Year – June 13, 2016
• Students have grasped the importance of being punctual and being present in the front yard of the school at 9.30am for assembly. The students were able to accomplish being punctual and disciplined within a very short period of time
• The students from the vocational training class, conduct the assembly proceedings by sharing the task. They also have taken on the responsibility of making announcements to the assembled students
• An electronic bell has been installed and it is utilized to announce the beginning of classroom sessions, lunch and other breaks. The students have become accustomed to this system within a short period of time
• A new curriculum has been designed with enhanced academic functionalities. This has been framed to cover all the primary and pre-vocational classes. There will be flash cards used to teach letters, words, recognition of objects, and so on. The new curriculum also comprises of picture comprehensions, and game based activities
• Those new students yet to be covered by IYP, received coverage
• Personalized yoga plans for each student will be designed by the yoga teacher. The basis of the plans will depend on each student’s assessment and the appropriate asanas prescribed
• Audio visual aids such as iPads, Tablets, LED projectors are now being utilized as a medium of instruction in all the classes, to impart lessons on life skills
• Discussions have been had with a leading retail giant, Big Basket, and we have successfully finalized plans to place one of our vocational students with them as an intern. The intern will begin working with Big Basket from July 01, 2016. Counselling and training has been given to the student, to travel by bus by himself, on how to conduct himself at the workplace, on managing in an emergency, etc. To begin with the student will be working with a job coach, until he settles in
• Students of culinary have been given a set timetable within which time they have to prepare various dishes in the kitchen, during the week. The dishes that were prepared included, vegetable rice, curd rice, juices, vegetable salads, dosa and sandwiches. Other training that these students are receiving are:
  • Cutting, chopping and cleaning vegetables
  • Serving beverages and food
  • Cleaning kitchen utensils
  • Grinding
  • Using various kitchen gadgets

The students are enthusiastic to learn and have also demonstrated great progress.

Group activities by students during theatre arts hour have resulted in lot of positive changes in the students. Role plays, imitation play, Mask activities, movement therapies etc. have had a significant impact in helping the children to learn life skills.