“Our mission is to motivate our students as we are dedicated to bringing a continuing tradition of excellence in a competitive world.”
-Redbridge International Academy
Driven by the enthusiasm to achieve the aforementioned goal, Redbridge International Academy started its pursuit of educational excellence in June 2013 as a day school, amidst an expansive green campus in the garden city of Bangalore. The parents wanted their children to experience and learn a systematic and disciplined life at the sprawling resort-like campus.
However, they wanted that the boarding should not be the run like the run of the mill-kind of dorms offered at other schools. This led to the inauguration of a boarding facility for children 2014, that was like an apartment, with three children sharing a room with study and entertainment rooms under the watchful supervision of the warden, security, and virtual eyes (CCTV in common areas and corridors).
At Redbridge, the boarding options/formats are:
- Regular Boarding (child is a boarder throughout and goes home during long vacations).
- Weekly Boarding (child is a boarder from Monday to Friday. School transport drops and picks up on Friday evenings and Monday mornings, respectively). The child gets to experience the best of both worlds (at the hostel during weekdays and at home during weekends).
- Emergency Boarding (child can stay at the boarding if both parents are travelling for work or due to family commitments. This is a temporary stay lasting a few days to a month).
Parents have opted for all three boarding formats that are available at Redbridge based on their requirements. Weekly boarding is the preferred option for working parents or single parents, who can spend time with their children during weekends.
Redbridge has been offering boarding facilities to children from Thailand, Kenya, Burma, New Zealand, Maldives, Bangladesh, and so on. Children of ex-pats working in India from various other countries are also welcomed at Redbridge.
In short, at Redbridge International Academy, students can experience a ‘Home away from Home.’
Plethora of Excellent Facilities
The facilities offered by Redbridge provide the students with the experience of an extended family home. Eight children share a flat consisting of three bedrooms, one study room, two washrooms with a 24-hour hot water facility, and a foyer for footwear, airing towels, indoor games, and a lot more.
There are a total of twelve flats that can accommodate eight children each – thus having a total capacity of 94 children and two wardens. The hostel block provides separate floors for boys, girls, and staff. Students can also avail the facilities of a common play & meditation area, entertainment area with TV, microwave, refrigerator, board games, and internet (Wi-Fi) for study and seamless communication with parents.
When it comes to cleaning and laundry, students can rely on hostel helpers. The hostel houses a cafeteria which serves sumptuous and mouth-watering meals that changes every day & repeats every fortnight.
Five meals (breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch, evening snack, and dinner) are served every day that includes a choice of continental, North/South Indian, Chinese, and Italian dishes. The hostel’s food menu also has soups and desserts every day.
Weathering Storms with a Game Face
The academy follows a two-language policy along with a hands-on and enquiry-based approach to tearing. This helps the student to understand and remember concepts rather than memorise or learn by rote.
However, parents were initially apprehensive about the ‘hybrid’ curriculum when contemporary schools offered only Indian or only international curricula to children. To tide over this scenario, Redbridge introduced the Buddy program, where parents can gather first-hand experience of the school facilities, teachings, infrastructure, sports, cafeteria, transport, and the rest, for a couple of days (up to one week).
The result was that parents who took admission as the child were able to tell them how they enjoyed learning at Redbridge. The subconscious learning imparted through activities gave the children the element of fun and stress-less learning.
Many parents were willing to admit their ward into the academy owing to the word-of-mouth promotion by existing parents and children. Additionally, the post-COVID scenario wherein parents preferred a school with social distancing and a pollution-free environment also acted as a positive situation for the academy.
“We fit both bills perfectly as we offered a per capita space of 1100 sq ft per child- a sheer luxury in a place like Bangalore where an average size of a flat is less than 1000 sq. ft.,” shared the management.
Astute Leadership
The person responsible for the growth and prosperity of Redbridge International Academy is none other than Mr. Rohan Agarwal, the Chairman. Under his dedicated leadership, the academy has been successfully educating the students and has been ensuring their holistic development.
Owing to the concerted efforts of Mr. Rohan, the academy has won many awards, such as
1) Best Infrastructure in school category (2) Best School for Holistic Education (3) Best Individual Attention (4) Best International School Award (5) Excellence in Adoption of Digital Teaching & Learning Methods (6) Outstanding Experiential learning Implementation in school (7) Unique Classroom Engagement Initiatives.
Equipping Students with Essential Skills
At Redbridge, the hybrid curriculum ensures that the child’s growth is balanced. Activities such as organic farming, vermicomposting, and life skills ensure that every child at the academy is exposed to a holistic environment to grow and branch out. A few alumni students have carved out a career out of the activities they had learnt at Redbridge.
The schedule of evening games, socializing common spaces, study time, and much more are demarcated into specific slots. This ensures that the students develop a multi-faceted personality while growing spiritually and can become leaders with independent thinking and opinion, as well as a compassionate and holistic nature in every way.
Ensuring Maximum Co-Curricular Engagement
Redbridge International Academy incorporates co-curricular activities such as art–craft, pottery, dance, music, drama, yoga, robotics, and so on into the timetable of the students. This makes these activities compulsory, unlike being optional and by choice at most schools. This ensures that every child is an all-rounder with knowledge in every sphere of life. A jack of all and master of some is the adage at the co-curricular wing of Redbridge.
The faculty in each department is an expert in their respective fields. Thus, the child can learn under the watchful supervision of a master who observes, recognises, motivates, goads, and polishes the hidden and histrionic talent of the child.
The talent thus acquired will stand them in good stead and help the students lifelong in choosing a career that will give them satisfaction as well as monetary support.
Transforming Students into Seasoned Individuals
Students of Redbridge are groomed to be flexible and life-long learners. The management believes one has to be observant and absorbent to keep growing. The academy’s curriculum is designed to make the child a seeker and go-getter. The value-based education instilled in students helps them to differentiate between right and wrong. “The knowledge ingrained at Redbridge will serve as a Swiss knife-like tool in all their endeavours,” expresses Mr. Rohan.
Redbridge exposes the students to new ideas with webinars and guest speakers who share their experiences with them. Universities from India and abroad also showcase their courses and opportunities to the children so that they can make up their minds and can strive to get into the institution of their choice.
The IBDP curriculum is also designed to bring out the best in a student, not only in terms of studies but how the knowledge is being used to help society at large while living their passion and dreams. The academy hones in the child the art of writing and expressing so they can maintain a log of achievements and good deeds. This would help in the SWOT analysis and self-appraisal at every turn in their life.
Advice for the Blooming Buds
While advising the children, Mr. Rohan states, “Every child must be independent and be in charge of their destiny. Completing a simple task like making your own beds will give you a sense of accomplishment that one task has been completed.” “This sets the mood and rhythm to complete tasks or objectives for the day. Being disciplined and focused will help in achieving goals and ultimately your aim or target in life,” he adds.
Mr. Rohan also states that life in a boarding helps a child in a structured manner by earmarking schedules for specific tasks and purposes. “Planning the day and recognizing your needs instead of depending on your parents for everything is a great start. Being in charge and being organized is the mantra,” he adds.
Vision for the Future
Team Redbridge believes that with nuclear families being the new norm, youth moving to metropolitan cities to carve out a future and place for themselves is very common. Also, the rising cost of living necessitates having multiple working members in every household.
As any couple starts planning a family, they are not able to devote the time and attention to the child’s education. Thus, for the well-being and proper care of their wards, parents entrust their children to professionals who will groom, teach, discipline, and make the children independent learners and researchers.
With the above situation in perspective, the academy believes that good boarding schools will be in high demand a few years from now. It believes that boarding makes sense as the expenses involved in food, electricity, travel, fuel, and so on are rising, with inflation peaking now and then.
A parent has to pay a small premium over these expenses to entrust their children to experts to mould and educate them in the desired sphere of interest. Team Redbridge opines that the onus of grooming children will be better-taken care of by teachers in the respective fields rather than by parents who are busy creating a space and career for themselves.
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