Principal Message

Greetings to all!!!

Welcome to the new session 2020-21. The new session has started with possibilities, chances for success, empathy and a lot more to discover. It is a great honor to be named as the Principal of St. Thomas and a privilege to work with such a wonderful team. Looking forward to this academic year , I know that this part of the year was challenging for all stakeholders, we as mentors, you as parents & guardians to navigate the pandemic as its related to careers, childcare, staying healthy, and the overall safety of our family. I could not be more proud of our faculty, staff, community and our parents for getting through this phase strongly. This experience will no doubt help teach our students the “grit” that it takes to succeed in tough times such as these with COVID19. So congratulations to YOU and our students for making it worth appreciating. Many of you are probably wondering, we are not sure what school will look like in August 2020 as of now due to COVID 19. Though the circumstances were not foreseen or ideal, I am optimistic because it will teach some valuable lessons to our students. First of all, our students must learn that the opportunity to go to school and acquire knowledge with their friends is a blessing. It is not guaranteed to most of the children in the world, but sometimes our students take it for granted. I hope they take the time to reflect and recognize how much their teachers and administrators love them and push them to be better.

I am hopeful that we will be back in the classrooms with our kids and continuing to make our students better than they already are. We will miss our babies tremendously and we hope that we are back in session as soon as possible, but for the safety of all of our families, it is important that we shift our learning approach being virtual. We are already working on emotional intelligence through restorative practice rather than punitive consequences to promote positive school environment outside the school boundaries as well, create a genuine dialogue between all stakeholders and increase parental involvement. The opportunity is NOW or NEVER.

I believe that learning is personal to each one of us and one should not be defined by his or her failures rather they should be empowered by them. Students should know that they are safe for making mistakes because learning from mistakes is not always the best way, but sometimes it is the only way. As lifelong learners we decide what, when and how we learn. If we can plant the desire for success in our students early on, then they will be unstoppable. Success would be hard, exhausting and sometimes it will be lonely but it will be worth it.

Too often many of us live with more awareness of our limitations than our potential. This has been currently proved in COVID -19 pandemic spread. We are brought up with many beliefs, right or wrong about ourselves and what we could do. Not all of them may have been proactive.

My mission as the Principal is to make the student feel safe to open up. Nothing empowers students like teaching them how to be critical thinkers in an ever-changing world. Any classroom can become a strong network of support when honesty and transparency exists between the teacher and the pupil. The teacher is no longer the gatekeeper of knowledge .Their role in the present scenario has switched to guide, assistant and enabler of student’s potential.

I thank all the parents for showing faith towards me and my hope is to partner with you to help your son or daughter learn valuable life lessons that will shape their character and help kids to be the best people they can be. If I can leave you with one thing, it’s this: at the end of all of this, your kids’ mental health will be more important than their academic skills. And how they felt during this time will stay with them long after the memory of what they did during those weeks is long gone. So keep that in mind, every single day. I continue my accent towards success by asking more of ourselves, today, tomorrow, and forever…………..

Stay safe and happy!!

SANDHYA TANWAR
Principal