Swabodhini steps into its 29th academic year this June 2017. The staff geared up for the year with an orientation workshop on 1st June, 2017. Orientation was given to the new set of staff members, teachers and therapists about the organization structure, rules and policies. Additional changes in the classroom setting, list of new students as well as graduated students were updated to all the staff members.

This was followed by a workshop with our special education consultant Ms. Lakshmi Satish. On June 2nd, Ms. Lakshmi Satish gave a quick round up of previous academic year and brief introduction of the activities to be performed for bringing the curriculum to the next level by way of classroom modifications, visual schedules, wall displays, lesson plans and calming down techniques. The teachers were asked to present their views and ideas to set the classroom in a new and presentable manner.

The school reopened for our students on 7th June. It was wonderful to have our students back in school –fresh and bright after the summer holidays. We also conducted an orientation for all our parents on 19th June. The school’s vision for the students, introduction of staffs to the parents, briefing about school rules and regulations were done.

Mr. Saravanan Sivanithi, our therapy consultant and Ms. Agila, Swabodhini’s Head of Therapy, briefed the parents about Masgutova Neurosensorimotor Reflex Integration (MNRI) therapy. We have commenced therapy for identified students to whom it was assessed that MNRI will give a marked improvement in their behavior. We will be starting MNRI for other students also in this academic year.

With a flurry of enquiries for admission, which were followed up diligently by our staff by conducting assessments in May, we now have 7 new admissions at Swabodhini. We are excited to have new additions to our school and wish the new comers the best for their future.

To cater to the increased student strength, we have recruited a new special educator, Ms. Jagadeeswari for our primary B section, a new teacher assistant –Ms. Bala for pre vocational classes. We have also updated our computer skills training program and have appointed Ms. Deepika as our new computer skills trainer.

This month is “Food Month” for our primary classes. So our primary students learn about food, nutrition, what is healthy food, what is junk food, how to identify different food items, verbs and nouns related to food, activities based on food and so on. The ground floor is vibrant with calls of “dosa”, “puri”, “eat”, “spoon”, “pizza”, “vegetable” and so on.

The walls are vibrant with charts depicting food items, activities related to food such as cooking, eating, information on digestion and so on.

Mr. Mahesh Ram, who was previously interning at MAGC consultants, has now started working full time at Shankar Netralaya. He is given the role of arranging the kits with all the necessary accouterments that will be used in operation theatre.

Mr. Mahesh does packing and sealing of swabs, cutting stickers and stick it on the seal pack, folding gauze and writing expiry date on the pack.

Mr. Kannan, our vocational student, has started his internship at Writer’s Café, Royapettah. He is assigned the task for folding napkins, arranging the books at their library / bookstore in the first floor, helping at the kitchen in sorting greens.

Mr. S. Nikhil and Mr. Rahul Reddy have started their internship at Winner’s Bakery, Alwarpet as a part of their culinary skills vocational training. They are learning how to mix and prepare the dough and bake breads and cakes.

M.Sc students of JBAS College, Dept of Child Development and Nutrition did their internship training in Swabodhini in the month of June 2017. They were given several tasks like preparing teaching aids, interaction with students, diya paintings, observation of classroom sessions and activities. At the end of the internship, students submitted their feedback reports and certificates given to the students.

Swabodhini got an order to make decorated diyas to be given as return gifts for a thread ceremony. Our students, with the help of our staff made 150 beautiful diyas, decorated with colourful paints. The return gift was much appreciated by all the guests.

You can also place orders for such lamps, gift bags etc with the school. Please contact 9884746078 or write to us at swabodhini@gmail.com for details.

It has been a kind of re jig at school with the Swayam Shop moving to new premises. The Swayam Shop was previously located within school premises, right at the entrance. To accommodate more students for training and also to give them a real time shop environment, the Swayam Shop was shifted out of the school.

With a slew of new admissions, Primary B needed a separate classroom. So the office was shifted to the space that was previously occupied by Swayam Shop and Primary B is now set up as a separate class, set up at the space that was previously occupied by the office.

Our Director, Ms. Anuradha Mahesh visited the Autism Friendly Village in Hyderabad. The visit was aimed at understanding the possibilities of community living for people with autism.

Ms. Gayathry Manigandan, a well-wisher of Swabodhini celebrated her birthday by donating chart papers and poster colours for the school. She also came in person and distributed biscuits for all our students and staff.