It is important for every child to get opportunities at school to freely think and openly discuss their thoughts and questions related to not just their academics but also to their personal quests and life experiences. SAMWAD is a platform to give a direction to their thoughts, and make them feel heard. The school regularly invites accomplished professionals under the ‘Samwad’ series to share their life journeys, learnings and challenges to inspire students. The format of the session could be Lecture mode, Workshops, Motivational plenary session, or demonstration based.

‘Win + Inspiration’ is a term, a thought, a process for continual motivation and to promote the culture of excellence amongst the staff members. Many specialized workshops are regularly organized in CDS to bring Positivity, Accountability, and Professionalism to the practices undertaken by the team. The learnings are from the experiences of experts who are able to add value to the personal and professional development of the team.

R-K-L (Read-Knead-Lead) is a monthly sharing of interesting learning links with the team members. Leaders and teachers take turns voluntarily to send out every month’s RKL. The key idea is to share what moves a team member and S(he) finds interesting and worth spreading.
The joy of RKL is that as a team we have this growth opportunity to - (Read) read and watch these useful learning videos and articles- (Knead) understand them for retention and application– (Lead) Implement them in our day-to-day personal and professional life. Every month we share links of Ted Talks, You Tube Videos, Edutopia Articles etc. with all of our staff members. It helps us to keep exploring and sharing new sources of knowledge and development.

Each team member is gifted with some innate qualities and expertise. To share this skill with his/her colleagues and to learn & enhance new skills, TMS is a great platform. Here every team member takes turns to present his/her passion to the team and also engages them in an hands-on experience in that particular skill.

CDS is an institutional member of British Library, Pune since 2013.
As a Corporate Member, CDS team members avail the following facilities, which have been provided by British Library:

• Exclusive invitations to events, film screenings, talks, readings and workshops
• Borrow up to 30 books, magazines, periodicals and newspapers from the general and children’s collections at any one time
• Borrow 10 British films / CDs at any one time.

The British Council International School Award (ISA) is a benchmarking process that accredits schools as having an outstanding level of support for:

• Nurturing global citizenship in young people
• Enriching teaching and learning

The range of schools participating in the International School Award varies from the well-resourced private schools to government schools from rural areas and schools for the less advantaged communities. The International School Award now has a presence in 31 countries worldwide.

MGM Clover Dale School registered with the British Council for the ISA award in 2016-’17. As part of the ISA Action Plan, the school planned seven activities with an International perspective in co-ordination with International Partner Schools. The partner schools for the collaborative activities were The Harker School from USA and Radiant Montessori English School from Nepal. Students were engaged in various activities like scrap book making, field trips, map work, expert talks, interviews etc. for completion of these projects.

MGM Clover Dale School, in association with British Council, initiated ‘The Reading Challenge’ in Aurangabad for the first time in 2016. This program was open to all children in Aurangabad city in the age group 5 yrs – 14 yrs. Till date (over 2016 and 2017) more than 150 students have participated in this challenge and have completed it successfully. The theme in 2016 was ‘Record Breakers’ and 2017 was ‘The Big Friendly Read’.

Reading Challenge is a Reading Program of 6 weeks by British Council. After registration, the students are expected to read minimum 6 theme –based books in the time span of six weeks i.e. 1 book in 1 week. Within these six weeks, 3 interactive workshops focused on child Language skill development such as ‘Inculcate the Habit of Reading’, ‘Creative Writing’ and ‘Improve Speaking Skills’, are also conducted by British Council Mentors. The students students are felicitated with certificates and medals on successful completion of the challenge.

KidSpirit is a New York based online magazine, where teens share write-ups, poetry and art-work in a non-affiliated and inclusive forum. Their prompts and questions for expression are very interesting and of youth interest for instance – ‘Creation and Destruction’, ‘Resilience’, ‘HHuman Dignity’, ‘Happiness’, ‘Mysteries of the Universe’ etc . In order to showcase the hidden talent of our students, CDS has associated with the Indian Ed Board of KidSpirit. Students have made many contributions and their articles are regularly published. Some of them have also won awards for their work.

Parenting is a quest, a challenge, an opportunity, and very often an endless job – yet bringing the greatest & most beautiful meaning to our lives! ‘Happy Parenting’ – a quarterly newsletter for parents is first about happy children and their holistic development. Through this small initiative, we aspire to bring about big transformations. For instance, the some of the ideas we have explored are - the idea of spending quality time with our children; How to deal with the serious issue of students experiencing stress before or during exams; How to make the school ecosystem more inclusive etc.

The campus of CDS is buzzing with many activities and so is the world outside of the campus. Children are always in wonderment of what spikes their interest and curiosity. CDS Buzz is a monthly student’s newsletter which highlights the world events, campus events and also offers children a mental spa with quizzes and teasers. What makes CDS Buzz special is that it is of the students, for the students and by the students

The annual magazine which connects the children to their passions and interests alongside highlighting the various achievements of the year is the all encompassing ‘CDS CONNECTED’. It is a much treasured collection for students as it helps them to milestone their journey with the school and they often turn the pages of older issues to bring alive the happy memories of their earlier schooling years!

“Bad libraries build collections;
Good libraries build services;
Great libraries build communities!
-David Lankes

Often, the library becomes a space for collection of piles of books, with dingy corners and insufficient space. At MGM CDS, we have boldly re-imagined the library as a vibrant space for meeting of minds and explorations of every child’s passion. This vision led us to re-design not just the physical space but also the experiences that a child goes through during a library class. You will often find children watching their favourite videos together and then engaging in film appreciation, or forming groups with friends of similar interests for group readings. Facilitators often hook the children to books through story-telling and play. Need I say, that the library period is ranking amongst the most favourite sessions with the kids

We recognize that to grow a love for reading, children have to be given an opportunity to access reading material that engages them and fires their imagination. The freshness and joy of reading about recent events is facilitated through subscriptions to 7 newspapers and 14 magazines & jounals. The library houses more than 10,000 titles. Additionally, children also receive copies of My Cloud, and Primary Plus. CIE also takes the initiative to organize seminars and workshops to help children improve their reading skills.

An important focus area for CIE is to ensure the highest quality in the design, content and printing of school communications such as the School Diary, Brochure, Annual Planner and Teacher’s Planner. These are proof-read and also archived for future reference in the CIE. Similarly, the website design and regular updations are also routed through CIE.

Event records, PTM records, Minutes of Director’s meetings, press releases and reports are meticulously archived at CIE making it a hub for archiving of important school achievements. These are ready-reckoners for benchmarking and also serve as a reference during inspections by ZP, CBSE and other government bodies.