This report is an annual opportunity to recount and celebrate the achievements of our pupils, and this year the celebration is very special because 2019-20 marks our diamond jubilee year, the completion of 60 glorious years since the establishment of CMS ! We were overwhelmed with the achievements of our students in the past year on the academic plane, in extra curriculars and in terms of pro-social engagement in community life and in the affairs of the age.

Throughout the session 2019-20 we created opportunities for our students to grow in confidence and develop skills through our diverse programme of sport, music, literary activities, art-craft, debates, public speaking, educational trips, youth empowerment activities, school council processes, community service, environmental activities, hobby clubs and international exchanges. Through these students learned to fail and succeed and gained perspective and self-knowledge. We are especially proud that, belying our large size, we created space and opportunity for the flourishing of the talents and niche interests of individual children. And, even when it did not get translated into visible achievement, we valued effort, participation (in a broad range of activities), and, importantly, also one another.

Jubilation over board exam results

A total of 5964 CMS students took the ISC and ICSE Board Exams in 2019 and Vedanshi Tiwari of CMS Mahanagar Campus secured second All India Rank (AIR) in the ISC with a 99.75% aggregate mark. In ICSE Board Exam 2019, Radhika Gupta of CMS Mahanagar Campus also grabbed the AIR 2 with a 99.40% aggregate mark. Nine students secured the AIR 3 nationally, in ISC with a 99.50% aggregate mark, while one student, Shashwat Verma of CMS Gomti Nagar II secured the AIR 3 in ICSE with a 99.20% aggregate mark.

If we see the top 10 ten rank holders of India (i.e. those with astronomical aggregate marks of 97.75% to 99.75%), a total of exactly 123 ISC students of CMS were among the ISC top ten All-India-Rank holders. At the ICSE level, 50 CMS students of Class 10 were in the All India top-10 ICSE Merit list.

A total of 2940 CMS pupils of ICSE and ISC (49.3% of all board exam takers of CMS in March 2019) got an aggregate mark of 90% or above (upto 99.75%). A total of 2155 CMS students got 100% marks in different subjects. A detailed results analysis was given in the July 2019 CMS Bulletin, and is also available to read at http://www.cmseducation.org/monthly_bulletin/session_2019_2020/july.html.

Admission offers from universities abroad

81 CMS students received admission offers from some highly ranked universities abroad in the US, UK, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Finland, Spain, Germany, Abu Dhabi, Japan, Hong Kong and Canada in the calendar year 2019, and 34 of them received generous scholarships, with several getting 100% scholarship for 04 years. Some of the top scholarship offers were: to Shreyash Sharma at Florida Institute of Technology, USA, on a scholarship of US$ 1,60,000 (Rs. 1.12 crore); to Mallika Saxena at Knox University, USA on a scholarship of US$ 1,57,900 (Rs. 1.50 crore); to Kshitij Jain at Dartmouth University, USA on a scholarship of US$ 1,44,372 (Rs. 1.09 crore); to Shivansh Tiwari at Drexel University, USA, on a scholarship of US$ 1,41,600 (Rs. 99 lakh); and to Mohd. Muttasif on a 100% scholarship US$ 91,465 (Rs. 64 lakh) at Hong Kong University. From 2016-2019, 250 CMS students have received offer from universities abroad out of which 136 students received generous scholarships. Two CMS students won the Tata Trust 100% scholarship to study at Cornell University: Aditya Dwivedi in Fall 2016, and Deepika Gupta in Fall 2017; Saubhagya Vardhan went on a 100% scholarship to Stanford University. For more information, see http://www.cmseducation.org/results_&_achievements/top_universities.html

Professional course entrances and scholarships

Demonstrating our strong abilities once again in Maths, Physics and Chemistry, 62 CMS students qualified the IIT-JEE exam 2019, out of the 256 who passed the IIT Mains exam. 96 students passed the NEET exam for medical entrance, and 25 the CLAT exam for entry into the national law colleges. 12 CMS students were selected for the Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojna Scholarship (KVPY) 2019 winning a total scholarship of Rs 48 Lakhs. 83 CMS students of class XII qualified for the Government of India’s Ministry of Science & Technology National Merit scholarship of Rs. 4 lakh each, earning a total scholarship of Rs 3.32 crore.

CMS students excelled in the International Benchmark Test (IBT) conducted by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), with 6 students securing 100% marks and winning top positions at the international level. These were Ayush Raghvendra in maths (Gomti Nagar II campus); Praharsh Chaturvedi in English (Gomti Nagar I); Adhyatm Agnihotri in Science and also in Maths (Gomti Nagar I); Akriti Samyak in English (Gomti Nagar I); Kavya Gupta in Reasoning (Gomti Nagar I); and Abhiyaansh Narain in English (Kanpur Road campus). See http://www.cmseducation.org/results_&_achievements/selection.html

Success in the Civil Services exams

Six CMS alumni entered the prestigious Civil Services to become IAS officers in 2019: Ayushi Singh (rank 86), Nripendra Singh (rank 327), Kriti Pandey (rank 389), Siddhartha Gautam (rank 538), Deepak Misra (rank 511) and Abhijeet Kumar (rank 717).

Six CMS ex-students have been selected inprestigious PCS entrance exams: Aishwarya Nanda of CMS Aliganj I, Surabhi Roy of CMS Mahanagar, Lavi Tripathi of CMS Mahanagar, Anandya Vikram Singh of CMS Gomti Nagar I in 2017, Alpika Verma of CMS Rajendra Nagar I and Shruti Gupta of CMS Aliganj I.

Three CMS alumnae passed the PCS-J (Judicial Services) exam in 2018-19 (results declared in 2019), and will go on to become judges: Ayushi Chaturvedi alumna of CMS Station Road campus (Rank 77); Umaima Shahnawaz, Station Road campus (Rank 100); and Vrushali Gupta, Mahanagar campus (Rank 391).
For details, see: http://www.cmseducation.org/results_&_achievements/ias_selection.html

Awards to CMS management and staff

The distinguished contributions of CMS to Indian education were amply recognized in 2019. CMS again figured in the Guinness Book of Records as the World's Largest City School in terms of pupils with the updated figure of 55,547 pupils as of 16 Jan 2019, across 18 campuses in the city. This is testimony to the quality of its service that so many parents repose their faith in CMS.

CMS was ranked among India’s top three ‘Most Respected Education Brands’ by the premier education magazine Education World in Sept. 2019.

The CMS Founder-Manager DrJagdish Gandhi was honoured with a 'Lifetime Achievement award' for his unmatched contributions to education at the 'Education Excellence Awards’ ceremony in Dehradun. The CMS Founder-Director Dr Bharti Gandhi was honoured with the 'Lifetime Achievement Award' for her outstanding contributions to the field of educationat a glittering honouring ceremony in the Churchill Hall at the British Parliament in London, by the 'Intelligent Minds Trust' and attended by several Indian and British dignitaries from the fields of education, literature, politics and journalism.

Mrs Abha Anant, Principal of CMS Gomti Nagar I Campus was judged the Best Co-Educational School in Uttar Pradesh by the Education World magazine. CMS Aliganj and CMS Rajendra Nagar were placed 5th and 6th while CMS Rajajipuram and CMS Kanpur Road were ranked 9th and 10th. Thus, five CMS Campuses were ranked among the top ten co-educational schools of Lucknow.

Senior Principal of CMS Gomti Nagar Campus, Ms Manjit Batra was bestowed with "Leadership Award for Excellence in Co-Curricular Education" at the national level at a felicitation function held in New Delhi. Mrs Jyoti Kashyap, Senior Principal of CMS Aliganj Campus I and Mrs Abha Anant, Principal of Gomti Nagar Campus I were conferred 'Future 50 Leaders Shaping Success' award at a ceremony held in Jaipur, see :http://www.cmseducation.org/awards_recognitions/index.html

Developments in infrastructure

It is a pleasure to report that in 2019, CMS Rajajipuram I Campus, Gomti Nagar II and Rajendra Nagar III have been equipped with new Robotics Labs. Buildings were expanded at the CMS Mahanagar, Asharfabad, Kanpur Road campuses and at Head Office. The renovation work at CMS Rajajipuram I and Gomti Nagar I Campus is under process. In addition, land was acquired adjacent to the Gomti Nagar extension campus and in Jopling Road for future growth and better facilities.

As part of its energy-saving drive to be eco-friendly and as part of the sustainable development agenda, CMS installed solar panels at five campuses: Kanpur Road, Rajajipuram I, Aliganj I, Gomti Nagar I and Gomti Nagar II campuses.

A unique state-of-the-art Career Library was set up at the CMS Rajajipuram Campus I for students to research various career domains and for career talks. A new pre-primary library was set up at the CMS Chowk Campus.

We upgraded all ISC classes (classes 11 to 12) with brand new furniture, which completes our six-year project to provide new furniture to all students from Montessori to Class 12. For more information, please visit: http://www.cmseducation.org/infrastructure_facilities/index.html

Introduction of 7th Pay Commission

CMS is paying the Seventh Pay Commission salary scales for both teaching and non-teaching staff, i.e. the government prescribed Basic pay plus DA, as well as the recently doubled House Rent Allowance and City Compensatory Allowance, in addition to a teachers’ Home Visit Allowance. To attract and retain talent, CMS pays its senior school leaders attractive salaries, which are put in the public domain through newspaper advertisements at the time of the annual recruitment.

Staff training

To strengthen teaching skills and to improve child centred quality education, we organised workshops and seminars throughout the year from Pre Primary to Senior Secondary levels in 2019-20. Ms Sumathi Shivashankar, an expert from Association Montessori Internationale conducted a series of workshops on the use of Montessori Apparatus for Pre Primary teachers. Workshops on Phonics were conducted for Pre Primary and Primary teachers. Workshops for Primary Maths teachers were also held. Junior teachers were trained in Mind Mapping and Mathematics.

The Council was also requested to provide some assistance for both ICSE and ISC teachers. In response Mrs Hilda Peacock for ICSE English Language, Mrs Suchismita Raha for ISC English Literature and Mrs Adarsh Wadhwa for ISC Accounts were sent by the Council to conduct workshops to apprise teachers with the latest trends and expectations in their respective subjects to help the learners score their best in the board examinations.

Apart from the aforementioned workshops, Champion Teachers from various CMS campuses and Teacher Facilitators from the Innovation Wing regularly conducted refresher training workshops for better concept penetration and improvement in the pedagogical skills of the teachers by empowering them with knowledge to cope with the ever changing educational environment.

• Professional Learning Communities (PLCs)

  Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) are groups of teachers and administrators engaged in sharing and generating new ideas through continuous enquiry and improvement for the benefit of students. The process of developing PLCs in City Montessori School has borne fruits as various vertical and horizontal PLCs have been successfully established in most of the campuses. This has promoted cooperation, support and personal development of the teachers and has influenced classroom teaching practices by data driven decision making. PLCs are working incessantly towards the progress of the learners as well as the teachers.

• Open Education Resources (OERs)

  CMS teachers are not only curating Open Education Resources (OERs) from the internet, but also developing their own in house Effective Resourceful Assets (ERA). They are trained by the CMS eLearning Department in collaboration with the Innovation Wing, to create digital content that is customized for the CMS classes. For details see: https://www.cmsitportal.org/resource

• Learning Expedition for Educators and Mentors

  To bring their learning into the classrooms, teachers of the CMS Cambridge section planned an expedition for grade VIII students, taking Social Studies as the core subject, seeking to develop skills aligned with the syllabus, such as observing and making inferences. The Expedition titled ‘How a historian works’ encourage students of grade VIII to think like historians while analysing the primary sources available in their city like monuments, bazars, houses, arts and crafts, food, languages. Students also learned the crucial skill of taking other perspectives into account while reconstructing old narratives. Throughout the expedition, students were the detectives of the past, with teachers only nudging them to inquire further with clues and readings. Students also understood the concept of continuity and change by mapping the changes the city had undergone. A reflection sheet was prepared for them to organise their learning into Nawab and British eras. This goal-orientation made the learning process more engaging. For their final product students made scripts on the history and culture of the present day Lucknow and how it got shaped. The entire experience was delightful for students as all their senses were engaged and learning was more real and personalised.

Safety and Security

Campus safety and security committees continued their monthly minuted-meetings to ensure that safety is kept a foremost concern of the campus leadership team. Police verification of all school drivers and helper staff was very nearly completed in 2019-20. Regular training and workshops on health and hygiene, POCSO Act 2012, and Prevention of Sexual Harassment Act 2013 was conducted periodically in 2019-20. Workshops were conducted for all CMS bus/van/rickshaw drivers and cleaners with the help of the staff of the RTO and the traffic police, on the New Motor Vehicle Amendment Act 2019 which includes road and child safety aspects.

Some more CCTV cameraswere added on the school premises, and the existing ones were well-maintained and used. Aqualified full-time Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) officer was appointed in 2019. There was fortnightly checking of the functionality of the fire safety equipment, periodic Fire-Fighting Mock Drills, and extensive training of staff in the use of fire-extinguishers and hose-pipes. Emergency evacuation plans continue to be displayed near staircases. For more details, see www.cmseducation.org/safety.

Introduction of technology

The CMS Computer and eLearning Departments had already successfully installed Interactive Whiteboards and Interactive Flat Panels, and provided high quality Tata ClassEdge soft-content that empowers teachers to teach better, with an effective blend of curriculum-mapped classroom activities and multiple types of digital assets like Smart Notebook across all CMS classrooms. In 2019-20, there has been a progression to new technologies to further enhance teaching and learning. For more information, please visit:https://www.cmsitportal.org/about_iwb.aspx

We are successfully running projects of Artificially Intelligent e-learning platforms (Khan Academy, Seneca Learning App, Genius Corner) in campuses. Students learn using built-in content, and based on their answers to a number of diagnostic and formative assessments, the system automatically (using machine learning and big data) provides a personalized learning path for each student.

We are pleased to share that CMS’s administrative processes are rapidly being automated, thanks to a dedicated in-house development team. This year, the CMS IT Portal successfully completed four years, with a variety of live modules and approximately 6,08,661 visitors so far. We have successfully implemented the Workforce ERP, with the help of which contractual staff across CMS can be easily managed and tracked. Their biometric attendance, work status, and salary generation is now also being monitored efficiently. We have also deployed the Purchase ERP, drastically improving the efficiency of the procurement process. These developments are providing great assistance with budget forecasting and post-expenditure results and reporting. Our HR Department is further automated with the development of Recruitment and Staff’s yearly performance management Module. In addition, a new ERP system is being used across CMS campuses for greater administrative efficiency with the help of their Parent App and Report card generation process.For more information, please visit: www.cmsitportal.org

Child Wellbeing

The brain child of our Founder Director who is also a child psychologist (Dr. Bharti Gandhi), the CMS Child Wellbeing Department will complete its fifth year in July 2020. Our 13 full time psychological counsellors continued to provide support to students and their families in 2019-20 in a warm and supportive environment, to assist children to make good choices and to become positive about themselves and their learning. 2019-20 wascelebrated as ‘year of Compassion’.

The school counsellors provided Individual Counselling, Group Counselling, Parental Counselling, Family Counselling and Life skill training. To keep their professionalism high, they themselves were provided frequent training opportunities in 2019-20, including trainingon the Protection of children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act 2012; training on ‘How to deal with Self harm Behavior in Adolescents and Young Adults’; and a training named ‘Path to Success – Study Smart’. One session was conducted with the purpose of spreading awareness about safe use of Internet, Cyber Laws and Data privacy to make students virtually smart.

The Local complaint committee on the ‘Prevention of Sexual Harassment of Women in Workplace’in every CMS campus met three times in 2019-20. A Child Wellbeing survey was conducted for CMS Junior and Senior Students in August 2019, for Principals, Incharges, teachers and school counsellorsto gain a better understanding of various aspects of the well-being of the children, such as diet, nutrition, exercise, bullying, perceptions of inequality, and self-perceived socio-emotional state. For more information on the work of the department, please see: www.cmseducation.org/childwellbeing

Expanding international opportunities

Opportunities for international exposure of our students expanded further in 2019-20.

• In 2019, CMS became a TOEFL test centre, for the ‘Test of English as a Foreign Language’, to measure the English language ability of non-native speakers wishing to enroll in English-speaking universities. We continued to be the onlyexam center in Uttar Pradesh for the SAT exam (required for admission in US universities), Advanced Placement (AP) and ACT exam, as well as for Admission Testing Service (ATS) exams for UK Universities, including for the BMAT and UKCAT tests etc. for entry into medicine, natural sciences and other disciplines at Oxford and Cambridge.

• In 2019, we organized more international talks for students and shared career options for students with parents, empowering them with the knowledge to make informed decisions. CMS’s inhouse career counselors were given regular training. They also participated in the International Career and College Counselling Conference (IC3) in Mumbai in August 2019, and in a training workshop of the International Award for Young People (IAYP). CMS also hosted the 2019 IC3 Regional ICCC Forum in April 2019.

• More external collaboration happened in 2019-20, with the sophisticated Mindler career guidance programme being successfully rolled out for all our students of Classes 9-12. This programme provided students with personalized insights into career options through psychometric testing, expert counselling, and access to valuable materials.

• Apurva Chauhan, Gomti Nagar Campus I received her level 4 ABRSM Diploma at the ABRSM Diploma Awards ceremony for South East Asia at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 13 April 2019 becoming the youngest Indian to join the elite group of renowned opera singers such as Cecilia Bartolli (Italy), Renee Fleming (USA) etc.

• The popular singing duo, 'Jack & Joel', from the University of Oxford, UK performed live concerts at CMS receiving overwhelming response.

• To celebrate the CMS Diamond Jubilee (1959-2019) and 150th birth of Mahatma Gandhi, CMS organized a grand 'Western Classical Music Concert'. 168 musician from 17 nations and 11 Indian States representing the Vienna University Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir (INYOC) and musicians from the Dominican Republic performed selected pieces of music of four of the greatest 18th & 19th century classical composers.

• An eight member delegation of German teachers visited CMS to study its unique pedagogical methods to impart a holistic education to students.

• The CMS Cambridge Section (at our Gomti Nagar Extension campus), which is Lucknow’s only secondary school affiliated with an international exam board (Cambridge Assessment International Education, CAIE), expanded to class 11th, also known as AS (‘Advanced Secondary’) Level. In March 2021 students will sit their first A-Level (class 12) board exam.

• The German and French language programmes expanded, with the number of CMS students opting for German reaching about 4,500 this year. 9 CMS students are currently studying in German universities free of tuition-fee, thanks to these classes.

Sports at CMS

Apart from existing big, natural grass playgrounds at CMS Aliganj, Kanpur Road and Rajajipuram I campuses, modern astroturf and polygrass fields for team games like hockey, basketball, and football have been developed at CMS Gomti Nagar I, Gomti Nagar II, Rajendranagar I and Rajendranagar III campuses. International cricket matches are played under state-of-the-art floodlights that have been installed at the cricket stadium of CMS Kanpur Road campus, which also organized the hugely successful CISCE National Cricket Tournament this academic session. RDSO organized “EXSPO” International 2019 in 15 sporting disciplines. International teams from a number of countries participated in the International football tournament “Concord” which was organized by CMS Station Road campus. Like every year, inter-campus games and sports competitions were held in football, basketball, table tennis, karate, judo, cricket, yoga athletics, swimming, etc. CMS students brought laurels to the school by winning numerous awards at the zonal, state, national and SGFI(Sports and Games Federation of India) levels. For more information, please visit: http://cmseducation.org/sports/

Professionally qualified sports and physical education teachers diligently nurtured the sporting talent of students. Some of the sporting achievements in 2019-20 have been:

• 17 CMS students represented the Council for the SGFI Games 2019-20. Mridual Kashyap for under-14 yoga, Aanya Verma for under-13 yoga, Mahika Gupta for under -17 Taekwondo, Akshat Saxena for under-14 Taekwondo, Anushka, Satakashi Singh and Sheetanshu Gautam for Swimming, Aditya Pratap Singh, Krishna Gupta, Brahmansh Nigam, Pawan Kumar Verma and Aryan Singh for U-17 Cricket, Nishesh Singh, Tanisha Verma and Lakshya Tiwari for U-19 Cricket Vaishnavi Singh and Ashish Durgapal for Karate.

• Divyansh from Kanpur Road campus won Gold medals in ASISC National Skating 500 meter & 1000 meter road races and a Silver medal in the 5000 meter road race, held at Khopali, Maharashtra.

• Naman and Amrit from Kanpur Road campus won Gold medal in ASISC National Cricket held at Hyderabad.

• Akshat Saxena from Gomti Nagar I campus won Gold medal in ASISC National Taekwondo at Ahmadabad, Gujrat.

• Ayushi Singh from Gomti Nagar II campus won Silver medal in ASISC National Taekwondo held at Ahmadabad.

• Khalid Umar from Gomti Nagar I campus won Bronze medal in ASISC National Swimming held at Bangalore.

• Arushi Pandey from Gomti Nagar I campus won Bronze Medal in ASISC National Skating held at Greater Noida.

• Yavinika and Anushka from Kanpur Road campus won Bronze Medal in ASISC National Swimming 200 meter butterfly stroke held at Bangalore.

• Aporva from Kanpur Road campus won Bronze medal in ASISC National Skating 3000 meter road race held at Khopali, Maharashtra.

• Aryan Singh, Pawan Kumar, Krishna Gupta and Brahmansen Nigam from Chowk campus won Gold medal in CISCE National Cricket held at Jaipur.

• Mahika Gupta from Station Road campus won Gold medal in CISCE National Taekwondo held at Ahmadabad.

• Mridul, Ummie, Samridhi and Aanya from Chowk campus won Silver medal in CISCE National Yoga held at Ranchi.

• Wafa Sadiq and Aviral Verma from Chowk campus won Bronze medal in CISCE National Taekwondo held at Ahmadabad.

• Aishwarya Vaish from Station Road campus won Bronze medal in CISCE National Taekwondo held at Ahmadabad.

• Aditya Pratap Singh from RDSO campus won Gold medal in CISCE U-17 National Cricket held at Hyderabad.

• Satakshi Singh from Rajendra Nagar I campus won Silver and Bronze medal in CISCE National Swimming held at Bangalore.

• Aniruddh Singh from Rajendra Nagar I campus won Bronze medal in CISCE National Swimming held at Bangalore.

• Arnav Srivastava from Rajajipuram I campus won Gold medal in National Level Taekwondo held at M.K. Classic Open International Taekwondo Championship, New Delhi.

• Abhijeet Saxena, Akshat Saxena and Dev Pratap Singh from Gomti Nagar I campus won Silver medal in CISCE Regional Level Taekwondo held at St. Jesus Convent, Noida.

• Sushant Sahu from Gomti Nagar I campus won Bronze medal in CISCE Regional Level Taekwondo held at St. Jesus Convent, Noida.

• Vaishnavi Singh from Gomti Nagar I campus won Gold and Silver medal in CISCE Regional Level Skating held at La-Martiniere Boys, Lucknow.

• Ananya Singh from Gomti Nagar I campus won 2 Gold medals in CISCE Regional Level Skating held at La-Martiniere Boys, Lucknow.

• Akshita Singh from Gomti Nagar I campus won Bronze medal in CISCE Regional Level Skating held at La-Martiniere Boys, Lucknow.

• Kanishka Singh from Gomti Nagar I campus won 2 Gold medals in CISCE Regional Level Skating held at La-Martiniere Boys, Lucknow.

• Avika Mishra from Gomti Nagar I campus won Bronze medal in CISCE Regional Level Skating held at La-Martiniere Boys, Lucknow.

• Suyansh Gupta from Gomti Nagar I campus won Silver medal in CISCE Regional Level Skating held at La-Martiniere Boys, Lucknow.

• Anshika Pandey from Gomti Nagar I campus won 2 Silver medals in CISCE Regional Level Skating Championship held at La-Martiniere Boys, Lucknow.

• Devanshi Pandey from Gomti Nagar I campus won 2 Gold and 1 Bronze medals medal in CISCE Regional Level Skating Championship held at La-Martiniere Boys, Lucknow.

• Vidyansh Singh from Gomti Nagar I campus won 2 Gold medals in CISCE Regional Level Swimming Meet held at Allahabad.

• Anushka Rana from Gomti Nagar I campus won Gold medals in CISCE Regional Level Swimming held at Allahabad.

• Lovjot Kaur and Vishadeep Singh from Kanpur Road campus won Gold medal in CISCE Regional Level Karate held at Jhansi.

• Devyansh from Kanpur Road campus won Gold medal in CISCE Regional Level Skating 1000 meter held at La-Martiniere Boys, Lucknow.

• Anushka Thakur and Anshubhi from Kanpur Road campus won Silver medal in CISCE Regional Level Skating 300 meter held at La-Martiniere Boys, Lucknow.

• Bhavya from Kanpur Road campus won Bronze medal in CISCE Regional Level Skating 300 meter held at La-Martiniere Boys, Lucknow.

• Saksham from Kanpur Road campus won Bronze medal in CISCE Regional Level Skating 3000 meter and 100 meter held at La-Martiniere Boys, Lucknow.

• Om from Kanpur Road campus won Bronze medal in CISCE Regional Level Skating 300 meter held at La-Martiniere Boys, Lucknow.

• Nirmal and Aporuv from Kanpur Road campus won Bronze medal in CISCE Regional Level Skating 1000 meter held at La-Martiniere Boys, Lucknow.

• Anushka from Kanpur Road campus won Silver medal in CISCE Regional Level Skating 500 meter held at La-Martiniere Boys, Lucknow.

• Sahiba from Kanpur Road campus won Bronze medal in CISCE Regional Level Skating 500 meter held at La-Martiniere Boys, Lucknow.

• Nirmal from Kanpur Road campus won Gold medal in CISCE Regional Level Skating 500 meter held at La-Martiniere Boys, Lucknow.

• Divyansh from Kanpur Road campus won Gold medal in CISCE Regional Level Skating 5000 meter held at La-Martiniere Boys, Lucknow.

• Parth Ratan from Mahanagar campus won Gold medal in AISC Regional Lawn Tennis held at St. Peters, Agra.

• Bismen Singh from Mahanagar campus won Bronze medal in AISC Regional Lawn Tennis held at St. Peters, Agra.

• Sagar Bhargava and Avinash Pandey from Mahanagar campus won Bronze medal in State Taekwondo held at Chowk Stadium, Lucknow.

• Ayushi Singh and Pragya Pandey from Gomti Nagar II campus won Gold medal in ASISC Regional Taekwondo held at Greater Noida.

• Akshit Bhatnagar from Gomti Nagar II campus won Silver medal in CISCE Regional Level Skating 3000 meter held at La-Martiniere Boys, Lucknow.

• Medhanshu Saxena from Gomti Nagar II campus won Bronze medal in CISCE Regional Level Skating 1000 meter held at La-Martiniere Boys, Lucknow.

• Harshit Kumar from Gomti Nagar II campus won Silver medal in CISCE Regional Level Skating 3000 meter held at La-Martiniere Boys, Lucknow.

• Arav Thakur, Anay Mathur, Yash Dubey, Ojas Agarwal, Padmaja Singh, Swaroop, Suhani Nagar, Abhivyanti and Ujjwal from Gomti Nagar II campus won Gold medal in CISCE Regional Taekwondo held at Chowk Stadium, Lucknow.

• Ishan Shukla, Ujjwal, Vidansh, Shubhi Vijendra and Krishana Priya Singh from Gomti Nagar II campus won Silver medal in CISCE Regional Taekwondo held at Chowk Stadium, Lucknow.

• Lalit and Mohd Ahmed Khan from Gomti Nagar II campus won Bronze medal in CISCE Regional Taekwondo held at Chowk Stadium, Lucknow.

• Joshva Sanker and Lokshya from Cambridge campus won Silver medal in CISCE Regional Taekwondo held at Chowk Stadium, Lucknow.

• Ayush Mahaseth from Gomti Nagar II campus won Gold Medal in CISCE Regional Athletic 100 and 200 meter race held at PAC Stadium, Lucknow.

• Ayush Mahaseth from Gomti Nagar II campus won Gold Medal in CISCE Regional Athletic 100 and 200 meter race held at PAC Stadium, Lucknow.

• Ayush Mahaseth from Gomti Nagar II campus won Silver Medal in CISCE Regional Athletic 400 meter race held at PAC Stadium, Lucknow.

• Ayush Mahaseth from Gomti Nagar II campus won Gold Medal in CISCE Regional Athletic 4 x 100 meter relay race held at PAC Stadium, Lucknow.

• Medhan Jai Saxena from Gomti Nagar II campus won Bronze Medal in CISCE Regional Athletic 200 and 400 meter race held at PAC Stadium, Lucknow.

• Medhan Jai Saxena from Gomti Nagar II campus won Silver Medal in CISCE Regional Athletic 800 meter race held at PAC Stadium, Lucknow.

• Medhan Jai Saxena from Gomti Nagar II campus won Gold Medal in CISCE Regional Athletic 4 x 100 meter relay held at PAC Stadium, Lucknow.

• Parth Tiwari from Gomti Nagar II campus won Gold Medal in CISCE Regional Swimming 50meter back Stroke held at Allahabad.

• Wafa Sadia, Aviral Verma, Mohd Adnan, Hussain Mehandi and Aanya Verma from Chowk campus won Gold Medal in CISCE Regional Taekwondo held at Greater Noida.

• Navita Bharti, from Chowk campus won Silver Medal in CISCE Regional Taekwondo held at Greater Noida.

• Vijit Rastogi, Mohd. Hasan, Aryan Singh, Kavish, Pawan Kumar, Krishna Gupta, Brammarishna Nigam and Kartavya Jain from Chowk Campus won Gold medal in CISCE Regional U-14 Cricket held at Colvin Taluqdars' College, Lucknow.

• Prakhar Srivastava, Jain Haider, Tushik, Mritunjay Pandey, Mohd. Shanzar and Ritansh Agarwal from Chowk Campus won Gold medal in CISCE Regional U-17 Cricket held at Colvin College, Lucknow.

• Mridual, Ummie and Samridhi from Chowk Campus won Gold medal in CISCE Regional Yoga held at Kanpur.

• Aanya and Angle from Chowk Campus won Bronze medal in CISCE Regional Yoga held at Kanpur.

• Shashwat Singh from Chowk Campus won Bronze medal in CISCE Regional Swimming 50 and 100 meter breast stroke held at Allahabad.

• Shashwat Singh from Chowk Campus won Gold medal in CISCE Regional Swimming 200 meter breast stroke held at Allahabad.

• Yuraj Singh from Chowk Campus won Silver medal in CISCE Regional Swimming 50 and 100 meter breast stroke held at Allahabad.

• Parth Ajay from Chowk Campus won Silver medal in CISCE Regional Swimming 200 meter butterfly stroke held at Allahabad.

• Syed Ata Abbas from Chowk Campus won Silver medal in CISCE Regional Swimming 200 meter breast stroke held at Allahabad.

• Sanskar Sagar from Chowk Campus won Silver medal in CISCE Regional Swimming 200 meter back stroke held at Allahabad.

• Animeha Mishra from Chowk Campus won Bronze medal in CISCE Regional Swimming 100 meter back stroke held at Allahabad.

• Sania Majood from Chowk Campus won Bronze medal in CISCE Regional Swimming 50 meter back stroke held at Allahabad.

• Ali Zehra from Chowk Campus won Bronze medal in CISCE Regional Swimming 50 meter breast stroke held at Allahabad.

• Vaishnavi Pal from Chowk Campus won Bronze medal in CISCE Regional Swimming 50 meter butterfly stroke held at Allahabad.

• Mahika Gupta and Aishwarya from Station Road Campus won Gold medal in CISCE Regional Taekwondo held at Noida.

• Danish Ahmad from Station Road Campus won Gold medal in CISCE Regional Boxing held at L.M.C. Lucknow.

• Ashutosh Kumar, SaniyaNiyaz, Fareha, NamanJha and Altamish Ahmed from Station Road Campus won Silver medal in CISCE Regional Boxing held at L.M.C. Lucknow.

• Ali Abbas from Rajajipuram I Campus won Silver medal in CISCE Regional 200 meter race held at P.A.C. Lucknow.

• Ali Abbas from Rajajipuram I Campus won Bronze medal in CISCE Regional 110 meter Hurdle held at P.A.C. Lucknow.

• Saksham from RDSO Campus won Gold medal in CISCE Regional Karate held at Jhasi, Lucknow.

• Aditya Pratap Singh, Mritunjay Mishra, Akarsh Shukla, Sparsh Prajapati and Shiv Pandey from RDSO Campus won Gold medal in CISCE Regional U-17 Cricket held at Colvin College. Lucknow.

• Aryavee Shukla from Rajendra Nagar I campus won Silver Medal in CISCE Regional Taekwondo held at Chowk Stadium, Lucknow.

• Anirudh Pratap Singh, Sheetanshu, Satakashi, Lavanya Bajpai and Aryan Yadav from Rajendra Nagar I campus won Gold Medal in CISCE Regional Swimming held at Allahabad.

• Satakashi, Aryan Yadav, AkaritiAgarwal, RiddhamJaiswal and Aman Kumar Srivastava from Rajendra Nagar I campus won Silver Medal in CISCE Regional Swimming held at Allahabad.

• Riddham Jaiwal and Aakriti Agarwal from Rajendra Nagar I campus won Gold Medal in CISCE Regional Swimming held at Allahabad.

• Football Team- Girls from Aliganj I Campus won Silver medal in Regional Level Football held at UP Sainik School, Lucknow.

• Football Team- Boys from Aliganj I Campus won Gold medal in Regional Level Football held at UP Sainik School, Lucknow.

• Suryansh Pal Singh from Aliganj I Campus won Gold medal in CISCE Regional Level High Jump held at PAC Mahanagar, Lucknow.

• Arnav Agnihotri, Ayaz Khan and Rishi Chaturvedi from Aliganj I Campus won Gold medal in CISCE Regional Level 4 x 100 meter held at PAC Mahanagar, Lucknow.

• Vaishnavi Singh and Parth Dwivedi from Aliganj I Campus won Gold medal in SGFI State level Karate held at Khalsa Inter College.

• Ratnesh Rai from Aliganj I campus won Silver medal in CISCE Regional Level Taekwondo held at Greater Noida.

Global Exposure to CMS students

With the world converging towards globalization, CMS students benefitted enormously from international exposure that we deliberately arranged for them. In 2019-20, CMS hosted a number of international events, conferences, festivals and olympiads. In addition, there have various special initiatives such as the ‘Generation Global’ international video conference for dialogue between students, and several student delegations have gone to educational programmes in Australia, Austria, Egypt, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Mauritius, Norway, South Africa and USA. Our annual engagements with CISV and ISSE (International School to School Exchange)continued in 2019-20, creating opportunities for multi-cultural experience.

Conclusion

CMS has consciously striven to make its education more relevant by choosing pedagogical approaches, materials and technologies that develop the skills needed today. We have also expanded our child wellbeing, virtues-orientation and youth empowerment work to develop pupils’ socio-emotional skills. We have sought to create a happy environment in our school, where there is scope for self-expression, where pupils feel accepted, affirmed and fortified, where their confidence and self-belief grows, and where they feel empowered to take on the world.

I am absolutely thrilled with the developments of the past year, and am proud of the diligent and dutiful CMS staff who remain in a posture of learning, and are constantly accepting new challenges in order to help students to shore up the many spectacular victories described above. I am grateful to our discerning parent community for recognizing the specialness of a CMS education, for entrusting us with their children and for supporting the home-school partnership.

This report is an annual opportunity to celebrate our pupils’ achievements, and in 2018-19 there have been many to celebrate. We are justly proud of our students’ outstanding ICSE and ISC board exam performance, academic awards, Olympiad medals won, and the university/college places secured in India and abroad. But beyond an outstanding academic programme, we are also delighted with our students’ glittering achievements in non-curricular areas, which are the product of talent and sustained endeavour.

Through our varied programme of sport, music, art-craft, debate, public speaking, educational trips, youth empowerment, school council processes, community service, environmental activities, international exchanges and hobby clubs in 2018-19, we created opportunities for children to have fun, grow in confidence and to develop leadership, communication, and problem solving skills. Through these they learned to fail and succeed and gained perspective and self-knowledge. We are especially proud that, belying our large size, we create space and opportunity for the flourishing of the talents and niche interests of individual children. And, even when it did not get translated into visible achievement, we valued effort, participation (in a broad range of activities), and, importantly, also one another.

Euphoria over board exam results

This year, 3 CMS students (Radhika Chandra and Saman Waheed of CMS Mahanagar Campus, and Sakshi Pradyumn of CMS Kanpur Road Campus), broke all previous records by securing first rank in the ISC All India merit list with 99.50% aggregate mark. Two CMS students, Mansi Acharya of CMS Gomti Nagar Campus I and Sanjeevani Hazra of CMS Kanpur Road Campus, grabbed the second rank nationally, securing 99.25% mark. Another 10 students secured the third rank nationally, with a 99.00% aggregate mark.

If we see the top 10 ten rank holders of India (i.e. those with astronomical aggregate marks of 97.25% to 99.50%), a total of exactly 100 ISC students of CMS were among the ISC top ten All-India-Rank holders. At the ICSE level, 33 CMS students of class 10 were in the All India top-10 ICSE Merit list.

A total of 2269 CMS pupils of ICSE and ISC (39.1% of all board exam takers of CMS in March 2018) got an aggregate mark of 90% or above (upto 99.5%). A total of 1258 CMS students got 100% marks in different subjects. A detailed results analysis was given in the July 2018 CMS Bulletin, and is also available to read at www.cmseducation.org/bulletin.

Admission offers from universities abroad

64 CMS students received admission offers from some highly ranked universities abroad in the US, UK, Germany, Ireland, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and Australia in the calendar year 2018, and 39 of them received generous scholarships, with several getting 100% scholarship. Some of the top scholarship offers were: to Shubh Agarwal at CALTECH (California Institute of Technology), USA, on a 100% scholarship of US$ 2,16,000 (Rs. 1.53 crore); to Sakshi Pradyumn at Rochester Institute of Technology USA on a scholarship of US$ 2,16,000 (Rs. 1.53 crore); to Vaibhav Pratap Singh at University of Rochester on a scholarship of US$ 2,02,540 (Rs. 1.42 crore); to Ilika Tripathi at Mount Holyoke College, USA, on a scholarship of US$ 1,99,420 (Rs. 1.40 crore); to Radhika Chandra on a 100% scholarship at Earlham College, USA; to Aparajita Biswas at Texas Christian University, USA on 100% Scholarship; and to Tushar Rai at Drexel University, USA on a scholarship of US$ 1,92,000 (Rs. 1.34 crore). In the previous three years consecutively, CMS students won the Tata Trust 100% scholarship to study at Cornell University –Aditya Dwivedi in Fall 2016, and Deepika Gupta in Fall 2017, and Saubhagya Vardhan went on a 100% scholarship to Stanford University. For more information, please visit: https://www.cmseducation.org/results_&_achievements/top_universities.html

Professional course entrances and scholarships

In keeping with our historical strength in maths, physics and chemistry, 42 CMS students were selected in IIT-JEE exam 2018, out of the 258 who passed the IIT Mains exam. 51 CMS students passed the NEET exam for medical entrance, and 9 passed the CLAT exam for entry into the national law colleges. 80 CMS students of Class XII won a total of Rs. 3 crore 20 Lakhs in 2018 as Government of India’s National Merit Scholarship to pursue higher studies in Science: each will be getting Rs. 80,000/- per year for four years from the government’s Department of Science and Technology as a merit scholarship. 8 CMS students were selected for the Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojna Scholarship (KVPY) 2018 winning a combined total of Rs 37 Lakhs.

Aakansha Singh and Aniket Giri of CMS Gomti Nagar Campus I were among the four Times SPARK scholarship winners of Rs 1,00,000/- each from the city of Lucknow. They are among 300 national awardees. The Times Scholarship Programme for Awareness, Responsibility and Knowledge (SPARK), is an initiative of Times of India.

CMS students performed exceptionally well in the International Benchmark Test (IBT) conducted by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), with 3 CMS students securing 100% marks and winning top positions at the international level. These were Anahita Singh, CMS Cambridge Section in English; Ayush Shukla, CMS Aliganj Campus I in English; and Atharv Narayan, CMS Gomti Nagar Campus II in Science. For more information, please visit: https://www.cmseducation.org/results_&_achievements/selection.html

Success in the Civil Services exams

Two CMS alumni passed the Civil Services exam to become IAS officers in 2018: Swapnil Yadav (Rank 591) and Avalokita Ashok (Rank 915), and six CMS alumni passed the civil services exam 2017 to become IAS officers.

In addition, 5 CMS alumni attained success in the PCS-J (Judicial Services) exam in 2017-18, and will go on to become judges: Swarangi Shukla alumna of CMS Gomti Nagar I topped the UP PCS-J exam (UP Rank 1). Sonakshi Verma, alumna of CMS Aliganj I campus topped the Bihar PCS-J exam (Bihar Rank 1). Three more CMS alumna qualified PCS-J in UP: Ambika Mehrotra of CMS Mahanagar (Rank 39), Shaleen Mishra of CMS Mahanagar (Rank 75) and Akanksha Bajpai of CMS Kanpur Road (Rank 86).

CMS alumnus, Major Aditya Vikram Singh (1st Mechanized Infantry), was honoured with the prestigious Sena Medal for his exemplary bravery by the President of India H.E. Shri Ram Nath Kovind and General Bipin Rawat, Chief of Army Staff on the occasion of Army Day on 15th January 2018 in New Delhi. For more information, please visit: https://www.cmseducation.org/results_&_achievements/ias_selection.html

Awards to CMS management and staff

The distinguished contribution of CMS to Indian education was amply recognized in 2018. To mention a few accolades, CMS Founder-Manager, Dr Jagdish Gandhi was conferred the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Lucknow University Alumni Association; received the Lifetime Achievement award at the Education Today magazine’s North Education Summit in Gurugram; was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Her Royal Excellency of Thailand at the International Global Achievers Alliance Award ceremony by the held in Bangkok; was presented with the Fr George Hess Excellence Award 2018 by the Association of Schools for Indian School Certificate (ASISC) for his 'outside contribution to the cause of education, human enrichment and world peace' at a glittering ceremony held in Kolkata; and was presented the Fr. J. Maurus National Award for Innovation in Education in Mumbai. Dr Bharti Gandhi, Founder-Director of CMS, was awarded the DEVI award by Hon. Mr Rajnath Singh, Home Minister of India; she was honoured with the DainikBhaskar.com's 'Visionary of Uttar Pradesh' Award which was presented by Deputy Chief Ministers of UP; and also awarded the Golden Souls of Awadh award in January 2019.

Dr Vineeta Kamran, Principal of CMS Kanpur Road campus was popularly re-elected as President of the Association of Schools for the Indian School Certificate (ASISC) and, a great honour, she was also included as a member of the Board of the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS). Mrs Jyoti Kashyap, Senior Principal CMS Aliganj Campus I was honoured with the 'Best Principal Award' at the Eco Achievers Award function held in Mumbai by the Saevus Wildlife India, a leading organization promoting wildlife and nature conservation. The Principal of CMS Gomti Nagar Campus I Mrs Abha Anant was awarded for her campus being declared by Education World Magazine as the Best School in U.P. and the No. 1 Co-Education Day School in Lucknow, on the basis of a national survey. Her campus also received the Elite India School Rankings award 2018-19. The Principals of CMS Gomti Nagar Campus I and Aliganj Campus I were also honoured in Mumbai by Fortune India for their campuses making it to the top schools’ list of India. Ms Manjit Batra, Senior Principal of CMS Gomti Nagar Campus II received the National Leadership Award for Thoughtful Leadership in Co-curricular Education 2018-19 by School Stars at a ceremony in Delhi. For more information, please visit: https://www.cmseducation.org/awards_recognitions/index.html

Developments in infrastructure

It is a pleasure to report that in 2018, CMS Rajajipuram I Campus, Gomti Nagar II Campus and Rajendra Nagar III Campuses have been equipped with new Robotics Labs. Buildings have been expanded at the CMS Anand Nagar, Aliganj I, Aliganj II and Rajajipuram I campuses. In addition, in 2018, land was acquired adjacent to the Gomti Nagar extension campus and in Jopling Road for future growth and better facilities.

As part of its energy-saving drive and to be eco-friendly as part of the sustainable development agenda, CMS installed solar panels at five campuses: Kanpur Road, Rajajipuram I, Aliganj I, Gomti Nagar I and Gomti Nagar II campuses.

A unique state-of-the-art Career Library was set up at the CMS Rajajipuram Campus I for students to research various career domains and for career talks. A new pre-primary library was set up in the CMS Chowk Campus.

We are delighted to say that in 2018, we supplied new furniture to all Senior students (classes 9 to 10), which completes our five-year project to provide new furniture to all students from Montessori to Class 10. Our eyes are now fixed on providing new furniture to the ISC section students.For more information, please visit: https://www.cmseducation.org/infrastructure_facilities/index.html

Introduction of 7th Pay Commission

CMS is paying the Seventh Pay Commission salary scales for both teaching and non-teaching staff, i.e. the government prescribed Basic pay plus DA, as well as the recently doubled House Rent Allowance and City Compensatory Allowance, in addition to a teachers’ Home Visit Allowance. To attract and retain talent, CMS pays its senior school leaders very attractive salaries, which are put in the public domain through newspaper advertisements at the time of the annual recruitment.

Staff training

Consistent with our sustained emphasis on enhancing the professionalism of our staff, 2018-19 saw a robust programme of training seminars and workshops, with two focuses: improving teachers’ pedagogical skills and also their ability to use judiciously chosen education technology:

• Professional Learning Communities (PLCs)

  Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) were set up across various campuses of CMS, in collaboration with the pedagogical consulting company A2Q (Access to Quality Education) from Mumbai. PLCs networks permitted teachers to share knowledge and to collaborate with each other regularly in a structured way, to use data to make decisions about teaching and learning, and engage one another in cycles of continuous enquiry. PLCs are developing well and yielding good fruit.

• Open Education Resources (OERs)

  CMS teachers are not only curating Open Education Resources (OERs) from the internet, but also developing their own. They are trained by the CMS eLearning Department in collaboration with the Innovation Wing, to create digital content that is customized for the CMS classes. For more information, please visit: https://www.cmsitportal.org/resource

• Courage to Lead, 2018 - Learning Expedition for Educators and Mentors

  The Courage to Lead Experiential Learning workshop took selected CMS teachers and leaders through pedagogical tools, processes, techniques and concepts that helped educators design learning expeditions for their students. Going through the cycle of experiencing – reflecting – conceptualizing – implementing, teachers were able to understand for themselves the value that experiential learning brings. This year’s expedition in Lucknow enabled teachers to experience and understand – with the help of historical evidence – how the culture and social structures of Lucknow city evolved over time.

A number of training initiatives for non-teaching staff were taken up in 2018-19. Dr Sunila Modi, UK University of Westminster lecturer in Business and Management, conducted a workshop for CMS Junior Engineers and some Heads of Department of CMS Head Office, on 'Agile' methodology and Project Management - the principles on which to successfully plan and execute different kinds of projects. Training sessions were also organized for CMS drivers, campus care-takers, gardeners, and cleaners.

Safety and Security

Campus level safety and security committees were formed already in 2017 and these have regular minuted meetings to ensure that safety is kept a foremost concern of the campus leadership team. The CMS Transport Department organised a Transport Safety meeting of the Transport-In-charges of all campuses to emphasize the safety and security of children who avail school transport. In collaboration with the Regional Transport Officer (RTO)the school organized a workshop on 'School Children's Transport safety' for its roughly 500 drivers and cleaners at CMS Gomti Nagar Campus I in March 2018.The school organized a free eye check-up camp for all our drivers, and exactly 100 drivers were found in need of spectacles, who were given free prescription-spectacles.

Fire safety drills were regularly conducted in all CMS campuses. Fire safety officers of the state government came to make staff and students aware of the basic precautions and simple control measures to reduce fire risk. Each CMS campus has evacuation plans displayed near staircases. To ensure student safety, all CMS campuses are equipped with CCTV cameras throughout. Detailed information is available at www.cmseducation.org/safety.

Introduction of technology

While the CMS Computer and eLearning Departments have successfully installed Interactive Whiteboards and provided high quality soft-content across all CMS classrooms, in recent months there has been a progression to new technologies to further enhance teaching and learning. For more information, please visit: https://www.cmsitportal.org/about_iwb.aspx

We launched a pilot project of an artificially intelligent e-learning platform. Students learn using built-in content, and based on their answers to a number of diagnostic and formative assessments, the system automatically (using machine learning and big data) provides a personalized learning path to each student.

We are pleased to share that CMS’s administrative processes are rapidly being automated, thanks to the dedicated efforts of the in-house development team. Last year, the CMS IT Portal successfully completed three years, with a variety of live modules and approx. 4,43,975 visitors so far. We have successfully launched the Workforce ERP, with the help of which the approx 1,500 contractual staff across CMS can be easily managed and tracked. Their attendance, work status, and salary generation is now also being monitored efficiently. We have also recently deployed the Purchase ERP, drastically improving the efficiency of the procurement process. These developments are providing great assistance with budget forecasting and post-expenditure results and reporting. In addition, a new ERP system is being rolled out across CMS campuses for greater administrative efficiency. For more information, please visit: www.cmsitportal.org

Child Wellbeing

In 2018-19 our eleven full-time children’s psychological counselors in the CMS ‘Child Wellbeing Cell’ continued their work with ever-greater skill and empathy. A Child Wellbeing Survey of all CMS students of classes 7 to 12 was conducted and statistically analyzed to reveal students’ behavioral patterns, experience of bullying, perceived happiness, nutrition and food habits, health, exercise, internet usage, etc. The findings were made the basis of group counseling and action plans at the campus level to enhance pupils’ wellbeing. A series of motivation cum de-stressing workshops were conducted for senior students in January and February to help students cope with exam stress, while our psychological counselors attended a number of special workshops and courses in addition to their monthly training/review seminar, to nurture and grow their professionalism. For more information, please visit: www.cmseducation.org/childwellbeing

Expanding international opportunities (including Cambridge Section)

Opportunities for international exposure of students were significantly expanded in 2018-19. Some highlights include:

• The new Cambridge Section is affiliated with the Cambridge Assessment International Education (CAIE) to offer the international secondary and higher-secondary educational qualifications (IGCSE and A-Level) to our students, at our Gomti Nagar Extension campus. For more information, please visit: www.cmseducation.org/cambridge
• An expanded German and French language programme has been introduced, with the number of students opting for German reaching about 4,500 this year. 8 CMS students are currently attending universities in Germany free of tuition-fee, thanks to German language classes at CMS.
• CMS is the only center in Uttar Pradesh for the Scholastic Aptitude Test popularly known as SAT, the major test required for admission in US universities. CMS is also an Advanced Placement (AP) and ACT exam center. CMS also conducts Admission Testing Service (ATS) exams for UK Universities, including the BMAT and UKCAT tests etc. for entry into medicine, natural sciences, etc. at Oxford and Cambridge.
• CMS created greater awareness in 2018-19, with more international talks to students, and regular training sessions for our career counsellors were organized, including their participation in the International Career and College Counselling conference (ICCC) in Delhi in August 2018. CMS is hosting the 2019 Regional ICCC Forum in April 2019.
• More external collaboration happened in 2018-2019, with the sophisticated Mindler career guidance programme successfully piloted across 4 campuses and now being rolled out for all students of Classes 9-12. This programme greatly assists the CMS career counsellors with providing students with personalized insights into career options through psychometric testing, expert training and counselling, and access to valuable materials.

Sports at CMS

Games and sports are an integral part of CMS education. Well-trained in-house sports instructors are appointed to nurture the sports talents of the students. Apart from extensive playing grounds at CMS Aliganj, Kanpur Road and Rajajipuram I campuses, there are Astro-turf grounds for team games like hockey, basket- ball and football at CMS Gomti Nagar I, Rajendra Nagar I, Gomti Nagar Extension and Rajendra Nagar III campuses, and facilities for international level cricket at CMS Kanpur Road – including floodlights for night-time play. Kanpur Road campus organised the highly prestigious International School’s Cricket Premier League (ISCPL) in Dec 2018. Other International sporting events are the International sport Olympiad (EXSPO) by CMS RDSO campus and the International football tournament Concord by CMS Station Road Campus both of which attract participation of students from many countries and different states of India. As every year, in 2018 also Inter campus games and sport championships for football, basketball, athletics, badminton, table Tennis, karate, judo, cricket, yoga, swimming and chess were organized. Our students have achieved hundreds of medals at local, state and national sporting competitions in 2018-19. For more information, please visit: https://www.cmseducation.org/sports/

Global Exposure to CMS students

In 2018-19, CMS hosted a number of international events, conferences, festivals and olympiads. In addition, there have various special initiatives to increase students’ opportunities for international exposure such as the ‘Generation Global’ international video conference for dialogue between students in collaboration with the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, and several visits of student delegations to places including: France, Germany, Italy, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Canada and USA.

Conclusion

With all the opportunities before them, it is not surprising that our students seized them, used them for their personal development, and performed well across the board! While school reports normally record high profile visible achievements, what also matters equally are the invisible everyday achievements, the small steps of progress: trying out a new activity, taking part in a school function, engaging in a service project, saying more in class, becoming more socially confident, and believing in yourself are all everyday achievements in school, which we care about and which are part of the educational journey towards happiness and success. These are the hidden parts of the personal development ‘iceberg’; they do not attract mention in the President’s annual report but they do shape lives. So well done to all our pupils who achieved so much in so many different ways in 2018-19, and my profuse gratitude to all the staff and parents who supported the students in all their achievements. While our achievements this year have been many, we can never rest on our laurels, since each height reached shows new peaks which must be climbed. Forward and onward CMS!