Sir Sayyad English High School

The foundation of the school was laid by the late Mr. Mohiuddin Jabali, an eminent Social activist, and educationalist. He worked tirelessly for the upliftment of the poor and needy.
He firmly believed that the community into which one is born should not determine one’s future. He envisioned quality education for children from underserved and under-resourced communities of Cheetah Camp, Pailipada, and Trombay with a Human Development index of 0.005% as these children were less likely to achieve highly at school and progress to university to take fulfilling employment. 
Thus with the core intention of making quality education accessible to all he founded Unique Educational Academy in the year 1985 under which functions Sir Sayyad English High School, Trombay English School & Little angels Kg classes with a total strength of 1200.

Our Parents are daily wagers, Zari workers, Bag workers, Vendors, Auto drivers, etc. The majority of our students are first-generation learners.

Our students face difficulty in expression, because of poor communication skills, this leads to low confidence and hence hampers their critical thinking and problem-solving skills. We are focusing on developing communication skills by taking project-based learning in order to improve the understanding of the concept through various methods and involve a majority of students through individual projects and group projects so that students' confidence improves along with the understanding and it involves parents also in it.
Through project-based learning, we aim to bridge the learning gaps for underserved children ages 4 to 12.

Today, We stand proud under this successful institution which is the vision of this great man whose tireless efforts have been instrumental in changing the lives of scores of needy and deserving ones. Our primary focus is not just on academic progress but, to make our kids job-ready in the competitive world.

Due to the student's environment at home where both the parents are working on daily wages, they live in a 10 by 10 feet home along with 4-5 siblings. Parents are not very keen on getting their children educated and therefore, the attendance is poor. The students in the community also migrated to rural spaces (their hometowns) during the pandemic which has led to an increased dropout rate. 

Project Udaan is a project-based learning initiative that gives students an opportunity to understand the concept through projects so that apart from the traditional method of learning, they get to relate with their real-life instants and parents can also see the progress of their child. We gave the training to teachers with the help of a partner organisation, that works to holistically transform the leadership of the school. As these processes needed additional time and effort from the staff, we offered the training to teachers who were interested in the pedagogy. We started PBL during the lockdown and targetted students between ages 3 to 7 years. Before introducing project-based learning, parents used to get students' notebooks with completed questions and answers. There was no interaction between us.

For PBLs, initially, teachers made videos of the project to be prepared. They had planned activities on a daily basis which took around 15-20 minutes. Project duration was kept around 8-10 days. Teachers made voice notes to guide parents. We used to incentivize students to complete their projects by giving their projects shoutouts on groups on WhatsApp. It also boosted their confidence. To our pleasant surprise, students who did not have mobile phones started contacting us as well. We got really positive results. Students were able to express themselves through drawing, poetry recitations, and story narrations - much of which had taken a pause due to the pandemic. 

Activities

1. Trainers will be training teachers from mid-June to July
2. Designing projects with the help of Lead by Design
3. Students will showcase their projects 

Outputs

1. 35 teachers learn how to conduct project-based learning
2. 8 projects designed
3. Increase in confidence

Short-term outcomes

1. Securing buy-in from teachers
2. Creation of a bank of resources for PBLs
3. Students learn to become problem solvers

Long-term outcomes

1. Focus on learning-by-doing as a method of learning
2. Creating differentiated learning resources across grades
3. Students design and lead the process of PBLs

• Formats used to assess PBL for students right now: baseline/endline before every project

• We track the following parameters:
  - Increased percentage of attendance (Attendance records)
  - Positive student-teacher interaction (Classroom observations)
  - Enhanced student performance (Student report card)
  - Increased student motivation and engagement (classroom observations, # of projects submitted, # of co-curricular activities the student participates in)
  - Increased development of 4 C’s of 21st Century Learning: creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, and communication (Classroom observations)

• We also collect case studies over the course of the year to document our students' progress. PBL gives opportunities to students to increase their involvement. For instance, a student who has difficulty expressing themselves verbally can express themselves through drawing, and writing. We had a project named “Grandma Tales”. Students were told to discuss stories with their grandparents, Parents, and Siblings. Then students narrated a story orally and also drew a pictorial representation. All the students were involved, some students narrated in english, some students narrated in their mother tongue, and the remaining made drawing. It helped improve their rapport with their family members, and we could see an increase in their confidence.

We use qualitative and quantitative feedback from parents, teachers and students to measure the impact of the project. We conduct assessments at the beginning and end of every project to track students’ progress.

In the Baseline, we tracked attendance, students' previous knowledge, and communication skills. After the project completion, through Endline, we got to know there was a tremendous improvement in attendance, communication skills, and students' confidence levels. 

Before PBL, students were scared of school and teachers but afterward they started enjoying coming to school and interacting with teachers. It even improved Student-teacher relations.
Students were allotted 20 marks in Semester I and 20 marks in Semester II for PBL which showed the progress in scored cards also.

The exhibition of Projects is kept twice a year where 5 high-performing students are rewarded with prizes. Through this we assess our students' performance.

The indicators of PBL include: 

- Deeper engagement and interaction with learning content
- Encouragement of higher-order thinking and problem-solving skills
- Development of peer and professional networks
- Engagement with potential employers and career mentors
- Fostering 21st-century skills like collaboration and communication
- Enhanced autonomy and agency in learning
- A sense of mastery and self-efficacy
- Gaining valuable career insights

“ Tell me and I forget,

Show me and I remember,

Involve me and I understand.”

Through the LEAP Project, we would like to create a grade-wise student-evaluation framework to track each child’s progress over the course of the year. The deliverables would include frameworks, assessments, and project evaluation criteria for teachers and students.