The Heritage Holler, Vol 4

The Heritage Holler

Issue: 4 21st February 2019

Master Class with Padma Vibhushan Pandit Shivkumar Sharma

Our Vision – ‘To invest in the genius & uniqueness of every child’
Our Mission - ‘To create an environment that fosters creativity,

innovation and a desire to challenge one’s own limitations’

Go Getters

Anika Arun of Grade 1C won the 1st position in the
Colour Splash for Chrysalis competition organized by
GEMS Our Own Indian School.
Her Topic was “ Happiness and well-being”. Her witty
expression of her view on happiness and joy is delightful
to behold.
Congratulations Anika!!!!

Go Getters

With the theme of Boney M & Cliff Richards, our school participated in the Millennium
Melodies is an annual choir competition with the numbers “Painter Man” and “Dancing
Shoes.”
Dressed in Black and Gold retro costumes, our students rocked the theme and the com-
petition. With soulful and enthusiastic renditions of the songs, GEMS Heritage had the
audience captivated. Parents appreciated the children on a fantastic performance.
Our school received special mention by Mr. Tyler Smith - Senior Vice President Asia &
Music coordinator for Trinity College London, Dubai. His words encouraged the students
and praised the school’s rendition of ‘Dancing Shoes’ which had his shoes
do just that – DANCE!
Congratulations to our students on a wonderful performance!!!

Heritage Initiatives

Indian Performing Arts—Master Class Series

There are days that leave one inspired and full of light -Thursday 7th February was just that!

GEMS Heritage Indian School was fortunate to have the legendary Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma
come and speak to our students who undertake Indian Performing Arts in collaboration with
Malhaar. In his exclusive interactive session, he taught, inspired, encouraged and even sang with
students, leaving an everlasting impression - A day each one of them will remember and cherish for
a lifetime!

Heritage Initiatives

Indian Performing Arts—Master Class Series

Our exclusive feature in Gulf News

(ctrl click to read further)

https://gulfnews.com/uae/education/
dubai-students-get-music-lessons-from-
indian-maestro-pandit-shiv-kumar-sharma-
1.61929720?
fbclid=IwAR389D5ygVZvcK30M33NiocgxaK
fLppVNRZpz0SF76H0E4aG95YPXEwSjlQ

Heritage Initiatives

Indian Performing Arts—Under the Heritage Tree

GEMS Heritage School hand in hand with Malhaar Centre for Performing Arts
bring to you our latest initiative, Under the Heritage Tree!
Join us every Tuesday morning and watch our students showcase their skills in
Vocals, Kathak and Tabla.

Vocal and Tabla Kathak

Malhaar Musical Playground with Kindergarten

Heritage Initiatives

Careers at Heritage

Dr. Amrita Das from the Institute of
Career Studies Lucknow, India at GEMS
Heritage addressed and interacted with
our senior students on 31st January 2019.
Dr.Amrita Dass is a leading Educationist
and Career-Consultant of India. She is
the Founder-Director of ICS-
International (Established in 1985) and
has the distinction of pioneering the
career counselling and guidance services
in India. She is also the Chairperson and
Managing Director of ICS Education Ltd.

She held a session on ‘Future Careers’
with our students of Grade 9 and the
changing face of education with our
teachers.

Heritage Initiatives

Hydroponics

The process of growing plants in sand, gravel or liquid with added
nutrients but without soil is called Hydroponics.
Hydroponics uses a mineral nutrient solution in a water solvent. This
allows the nutrient consumption to be more efficient than soil. There
are several variations of Hydroponics.
At Heritage we have taken an initiative towards conservation of water
through the process of Hydroponics which uses less water and soil for
the growth of plants. Plants like chilly, brinjal, mint, coriander are put
into pot like containers and are connected to the water tank through a
pipe. We have been able to harvest these in school and are fascinated
with this wonderful process of growing plants and conserving water.

-Mouli Mahajan and Riddhi Sharma
-Grade 7C

Student Voice

Peace and Love – Vinonah Sethi, Grade 2B

We kids roam in the park,
We see green trees.
They get water for free,
They eat food for free,
Why not us?

Nature and animals,
they all live in peace.
Whether cows or geese,
They are all calm.
Why not us?

My 7th Birthday — Felan Thakkar, Grade 1D

I had my grandpa and grandma visiting me on my
seventh birthday. We went to the ‘Flying Cup’ a
restaurant 40 meters high above the ground. I could see
the entire Dubai from up there. This was a birthday I will
never forget .

Watch me talk about my experience.

Student voice

Rhea’s
Corner

Meet Heritage’s littlest

youtuber—Rhea Murali (KG2 G)

Rhea loves art and crafts and has always
been a little teacher. Watch her channel

‘Rhea’s corner’ for lively instructions

on how to make unicorns, gooey slime
and other fun crafts.

My School

This is my first year in GEMS Heritage Indian School but it seems like forever!
Everything in this school is unique in its own way. I enjoy every moment spent
here and cherish every bit. Heritage has offered me a very challenging and
competitive environment, which helps me in bringing out my best potential in
everything I do.
I have been fortunate enough to be taught by a team of excellent and hardworking
teachers who are always supportive and motivate me in my learning journey. Each
member of the staff is very caring and helpful towards every child.
My school has state of the art facilities such as a huge library, two science labs, two
awesome multipurpose halls, three basketball courts and a humongous play-
ground! The little ones in my school have a plethora of activity areas with
trampolines, swings, slides, monkey bars and lots more to enjoy too!
My most memorable moment has been meeting with the world famous cricketer
Brian Lara, who visited us to launch our fabulous Heritage Cricket Academy. I am
indeed very happy to be a part of GEMS Heritage Indian School and look forward
to many more wonderful years.

Andrea Joy – 5B

Parent Corner

THOUGHTS ON HOPE

The origins of the word Hope are a bit obscure. Some say it has Indo-European roots (that’s a really wide geographical
area!), some are more specific and point to its Germanic/Dutch ori-
gins though the meaning that we know now probably evolved from its
usage in Old and later Middle English. All of us, at some point of
time, have hoped for something or the other. Like good grades at
school, sing well in a competition, have a better client meeting than
the last one (where you goofed up really badly) or maybe just hoped
for the rain to stop so you can go out and play. For me, hoping for
something to happen usually leads to an elevated state of mind and a
feeling of cautious optimism. I mean I would love it if I was clairvoy-
ant and could jump up in the air with joy in advance that whatever I
wanted came true but then it’s not really necessary that it should hap-
pen that way. What if I fall to the ground, roll in to a hole and again
fall a hundred thousand feet into the deepest bowels of the earth only to be eaten alive by giant spiders straight out of
JRR Tolkien’s fantasy wonderland? Well, that’s a bit too negative but you get the general drift. I hope and want for
something good to happen but could end up heartbroken too. So I am optimistic but cautious at the same time.

The real question, though, here is – Should we associate hope with luck, bemoan the vagaries of life and be done with
it? I think that’s not a reasonable conclusion to make as we are all naturally programmed by nature to demand better
for ourselves or at the very least dream about it. As the Architect from the Matrix movie series says to Neo “Hope - It
is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength and your greatest weakness”.
If we can ignore the part where he calls it a delusion, the rest of it does make some sort of sense. I feel that in a way,
hope is an expression of our desires and expectations. I say expression because sometimes this can take multiple
meanings as in aspiration, longing, yearning or even ambition depending on the context, situation and our needs. My
wife Pramitha and I always wanted a baby girl and when Neetara was born, it was the most joyous day of our lives.
There she was - a beautiful baby doll wrapped in a pale blue fleece blanket and screaming at whatever was moving/not
moving around her! As with all parents and their children, we have aspirations of her and as she grows older she will
have her own (even in the KG1-D she is in currently, she thinks she decides better for herself). So should we just hope
that she will turn out to be this world famous Paleontologist, Astronaut, Educator or Arctic Explorer and leave every-
thing else to chance? Doesn’t sound like good planning on our part for sure. Because, in any situation of life, simply
hoping that everything will work out for the best and all the roadblocks along the grand road to success will cease to
exist is pure fantasy. We need to learn how to turn our dreams into reality.

Hope is not just a feel good emotion but one of the strongest motivational tools as well – a weakness too if we do not
act upon it or learn to be realistic with it. So, as parents, we should encourage our children to hope for the wildest ac-
complishment they can imagine yet this should be tinged with a hint of reality else their dreams will be nothing more
than a pipe dream. Let them learn to plan and work towards their goals. Give them faith when they need it and at all
times teach them to be brave enough to confront reality and the problems they are facing. Let us teach them to ap-
proach life with the correct mindset, imbibe them with hope, belief, a willingness to take action and watch them scale
heights we could have scarcely dreamt of.

Binuraj Nair, Father of Neetara Nair, Grade KG1-D)

Sports News

Heritage Cricket Cup 2018/2019
The Girls under 13 finals was played
between GEMS Modern Academy
and Delhi Private school.

The proud winners

- GEMS Modern Academy

Sports News

The Boys under 13 finalists were GEMS Modern Academy and Our Own English
High School Sharjah.

The winners
- Our Own English High
School—Sharjah

Andrew Russel from the Emirates Cricket Board
addressing the winners of the Heritage Cricket Cup
at the prize distribution ceremony. Cheers and
thank you to all the teams that participated in this
series!

Sports News

Cubs Cricket

The Heritage Cubs Cricket Team has been extremely busy this month with inter
-school matches. We are delighted and extremely proud of their wins in two out
of the three matches they played!! A big shout out and cheer to our youngest
team!! Hip! Hip! Hurray! Well done Team Heritage!!

Our Cubs Team - basking in glory!

Watch us play.

Sports News

GEMS Heritage under
14 girls football team
emerge winners against
GEMS Millennium
School Sharjah in the
Ansar FC Delight
Football championship
2019!!!

Players— Kimaya Gujral, Emma Mariam Sam, Nina Der, Rupinder Kaur, Varsha
Thanunathan, Naadia Shahin Shaik, Richa Kewalramani, Angeliza Titus, Revaa
Gharad, Shivani Ramnath

With their coach
—Charles Eden
Hearty Congratulations
Team Heritage!!!!!!!

Technology

GEMS Global Innovation Challenge 2019

The GEMS Singularity University Global Innovation Challenge (GIC) invited GEMS students
from around the world to apply exponential technologies to address the world's most pressing
issues, ranging from health care and education to disaster resilience and prosperity. Solutions
were to be designed to be widely scalable, with the potential to positively impact hundreds of
millions globally and should include the use of exponential technologies. The Senior
Semi-finalists undergo 3 months of mentorship and training seminars/webinars conducted by
GEMS X, Singularity University and their industry partners.
There were 300 student teams highlighted their prototypes at the event. Nine teams from
GEMS Heritage Indian School participated in Global Innovation Showcase at GEMS Modern
Academy, Dubai on Saturday, February 9th 2019.

Technology

GEMS Global Innovation Challenge 2019

TEAM 1: PROJECT SNAPSHOT—SMARTCANE - THIRD EYE FOR
THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED

ARNAV VERMA Third eye smart cane for the blind is an innovation to help
DAKSH MEHROTRA
ERIC DENNISON blind people to navigate with greater comfort, speed and
KRRISHIL RAVAL confidence, making use of ultrasonic waves to detect obstacles
and to notify the user through vibrations and beeps of a buzzer.
The idea was inspired by bats, which also use high frequency
sound waves to move without sight. Using this Arduino smart
cane, a visually impaired person can walk independently. The
cane can automatically detect an obstacle and send the user a
feedback response by vibrating and delivering a warning beep.
CHALLENGE/CATEGORY : Health
EXPONENTIAL TECHNOLOGY USED: 3D Printing,
Arduino

Technology

GEMS Global Innovation Challenge 2019

TEAM 2: PROJECT SNAPSHOT — CLEANO AIR PURIFIER ROBOT

SAGAR KHANZODE The CLEANO is an intelligent air purifying system. It provides a safe and
CHETANSING RAJPUT comfortable indoor environment with clean, purified air. CLEANO can clean
SAFAN UR REHMAN indoor air from even the smallest, ultrafine particles, down to nanoscale. In
SAFI UR REHMAN addition, the method kills microbes, such as viruses, bacteria and mold spores.
IRENE MATHEW CLEANO air purifier can filter as much as 300 cubic meters of air per hour. In
addition, it uses Solar power to power up the system. The system also has an
option to add up to 100% fresh air ventilation with or without mechanical heat
recovery ventilation. This can further improve air quality and save energy. A
CO2 sensor can be added to create demand-controlled ventilation, which
measures and responds to the room’s conditions.
CHALLENGE/CATEGORY : Environment
EXPONENTIAL TECHNOLOGY USED: 3D Printing, Robotics with
Arduino

Technology

Safer Internet Day 2019

In line with our GEMS safeguarding campaign, Heritage registered its support for
this year’s Safer Internet Day. The campaign's slogan was "Together for a better
internet".

We aimed to inspire our students to use technology responsibly, respectfully, criti-
cally and creatively by making students aware of’:

How Photo Sharing can get out of Hand – “GOING VIRAL”

How to check if the information online is reliable – “SURFWISE”

The Stranger Danger – “ANONYMOUS ONLINE”

The day started with videos and quizzes to help create awareness on how we can
play our part in creating better internet use for everyone.
Students were given SAFER INTERNET DAY Badges to keep them mindful
and cautious.

Technology

GEMS Xcelerator Finals:

The GEMS Xcelerator Programme is designed to provide skills, knowledge
and support to evolve students from “inventors” to “entrepreneurs”.
Mohammad Faiz Adil from Grade 8B presented one such start-up idea,
which is inspired by Uber’s disruptive technology.

ORGELIVERY – an organic uber-style farm with drone-delivery. The idea
allows everyone to get organic fruits and vegetables almost at their initial
cost directly from the manufacturer through the internet portal.

Special Assemblies

Grade 1 organized a
special assembly on
Honesty!

KG 1 D had an assembly on Republic day where they showed Unity in Diversi-
ty through a wonderful dance performance.

Thank you Parents for attending our assemblies to encourage and motivate our
little ones!

Celebrations

Grandparents’ Day

KG 1 KG 2 Grade 1 and 2

Heritage Initiatives

Overnight Camps

A night of fun, bonding and camaraderie, our overnight camps were a huge
success! The students were overwhelmed by the activities arranged by their
teachers and completely thrilled to see them join in the fun and games.
Everyone left the next morning with a sense of happiness and friendships that
will last a lifetime!!

Heritage Initiatives

Students’ reflections

“I enjoyed the overnight camp at school. My friends
and I liked spending time together. We played so many
different games. Our teachers danced with us and we
also had a fashion show for the girls which was
enjoyable and funny.
I look forward to the next camp with my friends and
teachers. It gives me a chance to understand them
better.”

Saavi Sharma -Class 4A

“There was a variety of food for dinner like biryani, veg and non-veg curries, chicken lollipops,
and my favourite was the noodles. We also cut a cake for the special day. We then saw a movie
called ‘Angry birds’ which was so funny.”

Barkha —Grade 3C

“I was really excited because this was my first time spending a night away from my parents. There
were so many activities planned for us like the Tug of
war, crazy fashion show etc. My friends and I slept in
the sleeping bags. I really look forward to more camps
like this in the future.”

Akshara—Grade 3B

“I loved playing games with my friends at the overnight
camp. We made animals noises, then we played the
blind maze. We also went out on the field and played
cricket. After that I was tired so Dr. Anjuli Murthy called me to sit beside her on the couch. We
talked and watched the teachers and students dance together. In the morning after we freshened
up, we did some yoga and had breakfast. I really liked the over night camp.”

Ananya Shukla—Grade 3B

Heritage Initiatives

Evening Camps

Our students from
Grades 1 and 2 also had
their fair share of fun with

an evening camp.
Complete with bouncy
castles, dancing, face
painting and games, it was
an evening of joy and

happiness.

From the Principal’s desk

The school received its report for the first DSIB Inspection which was held in December, 2018
and the overall rating of ‘GOOD’ is undoubtedly because of the commitment of the students
and staff of the school.
The inspection team commended the school for
 A very safe, happy, supportive and healthy environment.
 Student’s positive attitudes towards learning.
 Involvement of student leaders in school development.
 A curriculum well planned, enriched with sports, performing arts and technology.
 Leaders with a clear vision for the development of the school.
 Strong Governance.
 Effective links with Parents.
This outcome was possible only because of the strong and positive relationship between the
parents and school and the support of all parents and members of the Governing Board.

Thank you to the Heritage Family!

Note from the Editors

Parents, students, teachers, we request you to share your thoughts,
achievements and accolades for our next issue by 10th March
2019. While the school appreciates all contributions we reserve the
right to select and publish the most appropriate ones. The topic for the
articles in the next issue will be “ KINDNESS - How I
practice it in my daily life”.

- Vidya Prakash , Saranya Senthilvel