Modernites to visit Sri Lanka

Developing an understanding of the culture of Sri Lanka and sharing the concept of Students Quality Circles will be the focus of the upcoming visit of the Modernites to the brother country of Sri Lanka. The delegation of seven students is headed by the Co-Principal, Modernage, Mrs. Sumeera Wahid and Vice Principal Mr. Muhammad Zakir Hassan. The group will meet the youth of Sri Lanka at the National Youth services Council, Sri Lanka Colombo. They will also visit the cities of Badulla and Nuwaraeliya. Further, they will take part in a community work campaign and visit vocational training centers.

The delegation will remain in Sri Lanka for seven days from Wednesday 2nd Oct, till Wednesday 9th Oct, 2013. Previously in 2012 the 1st Youth Exchange Program had been successfully conducted between the two countries. In the month of November a delegation of Sri Lanka youth will visit Pakistan. They will attend the 5th national Convention on Students Quality Circles. They will also take part in cultural and educational activities.

3-DAY IN-SERVICE SUMMER REFRESHER COURSE FOR TEACHING STAFF, 2013

The academic session resumed for teachers in Modernage after the summer break with a 3-Day Intensive Summer Refresher Course from Thurs 15^th Aug to Sat 17^th Aug, 2013. The training sessions each day began with presentations of different departments of Modernage about the activities that they remained engaged in since the beginning of the current academic year. Both the Pre-Primary and Primary Sections of Modernage presented a detailed overview of their academic and co-curricular activities. Besides, the Departments of Biology & Chemistry of Girls College and the Departments of Maths, Physics and Islamiat from the Boys College also briefed the faculty members about their activities. These presentations helped us to understand how our activities are connected vertically as well as horizontally so as to generate a synergy leading to achievement of the common vision of Modernage. 

After the initial presentations, two concurrent plenary sessions were held on all three days. These included Seven Habits of Highly Effective Team Members by Mr Abdul Wahid Mir, Know Your Teaching Style by Ms Aatika Salam, Helping Students Learn How to Attempt a Paper by Ms Sumeera Wahid and Low Anxiety Classroom by Mr. Asif Khan. Of these the first two were held twice separately for two groups of teachers. In the second half of the day, concurrent workshops were held specifically for teachers dealing with students at Pre-Primary, Primary, Secondary and Higher Secondary levels. The topics for Pre-Primary and Primary included Helping Students to Construct Knowledge Using the SLOs of Curriculum by Mr. Asif Khan, Cognitive, Social & Moral Development by Ms Aatika Salam, Using Phonics to Teach Reading by Ms. Fozia Asim, Building Blocks of Learning and Gross & Fine Motor Skills Development by Ms Sumeera Wahid. The teachers of Secondary and Higher Secondary levels participated in workshops namely Handling Students with Challenging Behaviour by Ms Fauzia Shah, Learning How to Conduct a Science Practical by Prof. Muhammad Farid (only for science teachers), Developing Questions for a Comprehension Passage by Ms Shagufta Tahir (only for language teachers) and Teaching Probability to Students by Dr. Sultan Hussain (only for Math teachers). The workshop on Building Blocks of Learning by Ms Sumeera Wahid was also repeated for this group of teachers as well.

The topics of all these workshops were based on the first two standards of the National Professional Standards for Teachers in Pakistan published by the Ministry of Education in 2009. It was felt that the training sessions were much more systematic and organized.

3-DAY SUMMER REFRESHER COURSE FOR SUPPORT STAFF

Well-trained staff plays a vital role in carrying out the day-to-day activities in any institution. 

A 3-Day Summer Refresher Course for support staff of all branches of Modernage was held at Yousafi Auditorium from 25th to 27th July. Day one began with a session on the topic “Our Statement of Values” conducted by Ms Shumaila Raheem followed by a session on “Polite Behaviour” by Ms Farhat Khalid. Both the resource persons were from the Girls College of Modernage. They delivered interactive lectures followed by question answer session which they handled logically and confidently. 

On the day two, there was an interesting but a very informative session by our Co-Principal Ms Sumeera Wahid about “Being an Effective Team Member”. First the participants were divided in different teams and then there were amazing game competitions among them. Though the participants took it as entertainment and enjoyed it but at the end of the competitions, Ms Sumeera Wahid concluded the session on a lesson that a team could deliver well as compared to those dispersed persons who worked individually. She also told the famous story of a hare and tortoise but with a different ending in which both the animals become friends and support each other to achieve their goal. The staff was inspired by the way she explained things. The second session for day two was “Our Roles in Modernage” facilitated by Mr Naveed Khan, Secretary Boys College. He had a lengthy discussion on the topic and said that we must all be aware of our job descriptions to perform optimally. 

The last day of the workshop also had two sessions. In the first one Mr. Fazal-ur-Rehman exchanged his views about “Halaal and Haraam” and advised the participants to be punctual and sincere to their duty. He said earning money through illegal ways was Haraam according to the teachings of our Holy Prophet Hazrat Muhammad(PBUH). Mr. Fazal-ur-Rehman described the responsibilities of the staff members in the light of Hadees. In the second session, Mr Qari Munir discussed the topic of “Personal and Environmental Hygiene” with the participants. The three-day workshop ended with a positive note. 

In the concluding ceremony, Ms Sumeera Wahid distributed workshop souvenirs among the participants. This had been a very fruitful workshop for the supporting staff of the college. They looked determined to do practically what they learnt in three days of their training.

3-DAY SUMMER REFRESHER COURSE FOR COLLEGE COUNCIL

The school closed down for summer holidays on Sat 20th July 2013, but the diligent College Council of Modernage remained busy for three more days from Mon 22nd July to Wed 24th July in the 3-Day Summer Refresher Course. The heads of all the three branches of Modernage participated in the event. On Day one the Quality Manual of Modernage was reviewed for implementation in the next term. This manual is a monitoring tool that will help to quantitatively calculate the Quality Index of our institution. The Council members enlisted all the policies that need to be developed to streamline our processes. They also enlisted the data sources for all the indicators of the Manual. This session was conducted by Mr. Abdul Wahid Mir, Principal of Modernage.



On day two, Mrs. Sumeera Wahid led the session on the Development of the Strategic Plan of Modernage from the year 2014 to 2018. A SWOT Analysis was conducted to highlight our strengths and weaknesses. A plan was made to include the input from students, teachers and parents of students as well.

 
On the final day of the workshops, Mr. Aqeel Khokhar, the System Administrator of Modernage, conducted an introductory session on Using MS Excel. He discussed the main features of the program and gave tasks to the participants to practice basic algebraic operations. They also learnt how to draw graphs and use advance statistical tools. In the second half of the workshop, Mr. Aqeel showed the main features of the webpage and blog of Modernage to the participants. He requested them to send him data related to their activities to keep the blog and webpage updated.

 
The workshops were held in the Holy month of Ramazan. In spite of that, the members of the College Council ensured their regular attendance and gave their feedback which kept the sessions lively and interactive. Let us hope that the work done during these days will help us to achieve our mission for education.

Modernage Girls Secured 4 Positions

The students of Modernage Public School & Girls College secured 4 positions among the top 20 in the Secondary School Certificate Exams 2013 conducted by the Board of Intermediate & Secondary Education Abbottabad. By securing 989 marks i.e. 94%, Ms. Zoya Fayyaz stood third. Ms. Sara Ilyas stood 5th after securing 979 marks i.e. 93%. Ms. Dua Tahir & Ms. Hadia Naveed both stood 13th by securing 968 marks i.e. 92%. At this happy moment merit scholarships were announced by the College Council for all the four outshining Modernites. The Principal also appreciated the efforts of the teachers of these students and hoped that their efforts would continue in future as well. 

3rd Regional Convention

3rd Regional Convention on Students Quality Circles

(KPK Chapter)

October 5, 2013, Havelian-Pakistan

3rd Juniors Joy-2013

3^rd National Juniors Joy: A Fiesta of Friendship, Learning and Fun

Report By: Ms Nighat Sultana

The 3^rd National Junior’s Joy was held in Modernage Girls College, Abbottabad to enhance the creative abilities of primary level students. The event which was organized in the Mukhtar Masud Auditorium, had about 700 participants from 28 schools of Abbottabad, Haripur, Mansehra, Havelian and Wah Cantt region. The Chief Guest was Mrs. Sajida Hussain, a renowned artist affiliated with Hunerkada College of Visual Arts, Islamabad. The students competed in eight different streams comprising Poem Recitation, Water Colouring, Play Dough Modeling, Tongue Twisters, Mask Making, Recycled Craft Making, Folk Song Singing and Folk Dance. In the overall result for all streams, Yusra Model High School secured the first position; Bahria Foundation School Haripur took the second whereas Roots School System Abbottabad grabbed the third.

Modernage Public School also got positions in many streams but being the host the opportunity of success was provided to the guest schools. The performances of the students remained outstanding in all the streams and no doubt set new watermarks. The event provided an opportunity of networking to educationists as well. On that occasion the Principal Mr. Abdul Wahid Mir and Co Principal of Modernage Mrs. Sumeera Wahid emphasized the need of these type of activities for enhancing the creative abilities of children and said that in order to face the challenges of future we have to make our children confident and keep them in a stress free and emotionally balanced environment. They reaffirmed their commitment that in the future too Modernage will always be ready to provide a platform to the youngsters for polishing their skills.

In her vote of thanks, the Executive Director of Equip Pakistan Mrs. Aatika Salam paid tribute to all the contestants and praised the efforts of all the members of Modernage staff, Co Principal Mrs. Sameera Wahid, Prof. Saeed Qureshi and all the contestants.