Ryan Global School, Andheri (Mumbai)

Accredited by the Geneva-based IBO and the UK-based CIE, RGS-A is set to evolve as a benchmark institution for all 128 Ryan International Group schools in India and abroad

The Mumbai-based Ryan International Group of Institutions (RIGI) — India’s largest chain of proprietorial K-12 schools comprising 128 high quality English-medium schools with an aggregate enrolment of 250,000 students mentored by over 14,000 teachers countrywide — has gone upmarket. On June 18, its Ryan Global School, Andheri, Mumbai (RGS-A, estb. 2009), was accredited by the Geneva-based International Baccal-aureate Organisation (IBO) as an IB World School. Earlier, in January 2010, RGS-A was affiliated by the UK-based Cambridge International Examinations (CIE) and authorised to offer its IGSCE (International General School Certificate Examinations) curriculum. Currently, RGS-A provides a fully international school education to its students — the IB Primary Years Programme (PYP) in classes I-V and the IGSCE curriculum in classes VI-XII.

“The combination of the IB-PYP and IGSCE curriculums is the best academic programme for Indian conditions. PYP introduces primary students to IB’s inquiry-based learning process, which encourages self-learning whereas the CIE’s rigorous IGSCE curriculum is familiar to Indian teachers and students and easy to follow. But beyond academics, in the RIGI tradition, there is strong emphasis on co-curricular and extra-curricular learning to provide balanced education. RGS-A is committed to developing students as thinking and caring global citizens, who are at the same time securely rooted in their communities, share common values and have a genuinely compassionate attitude towards society,” says John Last, principal of RGS-A.

A maths, science and physiology alumnus of the University of Western Australia, Last brings an international experience of 23 years in schools in Oz and 12 years in Dubai, Singapore, Indonesia, Kuwait, Cambodia and Vietnam, in various capacities, including teacher, consultant and headmaster/principal into RGS-A, where he signed up as principal in June this year.

Sited on a 1.2-acre plot in a five-storey building, with a built-up area of 47,346 sq. ft, RGS-A offers 36 fully-wired classrooms equipped with smart inter-active boards and other ICT (information and communications technology) facilities. Its state-of-the-art campus offers a spacious library with 5,000 volumes, several journal subscriptions and online research facilities. Other facilities include dance and art studios, music rooms, a well-equipped computer lab, science laboratories, two multi-purpose halls, a children’s activity room, as well as a special education wing and language labs.

The parent RIGI Group, established by Dr. Augustine Pinto and Mme Grace Pinto in 1976, has always prided itself for sparing no pains to provide thoroughly contemporary sports facilities for students of all constituent schools. Therefore RGS-A’s sports infrastructure comprises an imported turf football ground, all-weather synthetic surface tennis and basketball courts and fully-equipped outdoor play areas. To ensure students are properly tutored and mentored in games and co-curricular activities of their choice, RIGI has signed up with the Mahesh Bhupathi Tennis Academy, Baichung Bhutia Football School, Vishwanathan Anand Chess Academy, the Raell Padamsee Academy for Creative Expressions and Sandeep Soparkar Dance Academy. This March, the school hosted its first All India Soccer tournament in Goa, fully supported by the Goa Sports Authority.

Focussed on providing a holistic,  balanced primary-secondary learning experience to students, the RGS-A management is firmly convinced there’s no contradiction between co-curricular, extra-curricular and academic excel-lence. “By affiliating RGS-A with the world’s most respected examination boards, we have ensured our students will become academically competent life-long learners. But also central to the RGS-A philosophy is a deep awareness that co-curricular and sports education take students beyond their comfort zones, enabling them to bond with peers and raise their self-esteem and life skills in preparation for success in the real world, beyond the school gates,” says Last.

To this end, the school management gives top priority to upgrading the skills and talents of its teachers. To familiarise them with IB-PYP pedagogy and processes, the school runs weekly teacher training, in-group training, personality development and peer learning programmes.

With RGS-A having overcome its teething pains and inducted a highly experienced international educator as principal, the RIGI management has drawn up ambitious plans to roll out more schools patterned on this model. “We are confident that RGS-A which at peak capacity will double its enrolment to over 700 students, will establish itself as the preferred international school of India’s commercial capital. We intend to establish Ryan Global Schools in other cities countrywide. We have already promoted international schools in Chembur and Khargar in Mumbai, three in Bangalore and a Ryan Global Montessori in Gurgaon. Now they will be shaped to conform to the RGS-A model. We are also in the process of setting up a Ryan Teacher Training Academy, which will become operational next year. Our belief is that RGS-A will evolve into a benchmark institution which will raise teaching-learning standards in all our schools in India and abroad,” says Tammy Hoskins, director of international curriculum of Ryan Global Schools.

Wind in your sails!

Praveer Sinha (Mumbai)