Pinewoods International High School & Junior College

About School

Pinewoods International High School & Junior College is a co-educational residential institution established in 1986, run by Mahatma Laxmanji Arya Educational Public Charitable Trust in Panchgani.
Panchgani is a famous hill resort in Maharashtra, situated at a height of 1,334 meters above sea level and is known not only for its natural beauty but as a bastion of education too.
Pinewoods is a residential institution. It offers a clean, happy and safe atmosphere together with the benefits of modern facilities and educational technology within a traditional Indian cultural and moral framework.
Pinewoods School admits students of Indian and foreign origins.
Pinewood is accredited to ICSE, SSC and HSC boards.
The institution ethos is one of a formal and disciplined approach to both academic and leisure activities. Development of mind, strong character, will-power and personality are not achieved by chance but are brought about by a policy designed to achieve them. Similarly, knowledge, skill and moral attitudes are acquired through a curriculum decided by the institution:

PINEWOODS AIMS TO ENGENDER
• to instill a positive attitude towards learning as an immediate enrichment of life and as a preparation for
future education.
• to orient each child individually through educational process so that the child can realize his/ her
maximum potential, self confidence and sense of personal responsibility.
• to provide each child with opportunities and discover and foster interests and talents in arts and other
non academic areas.
• to impart character traits, trust, dependability, honesty and refinement.
• to foster realistic understanding appreciation of the culture of India.
• to have tolerant attitudes towards all moral and religious values.
• to respect for what is good, true and virtuous human achievement.

Vision & Leadership

1.School Vision:
While the phrase, “all students can learn at all levels” is what I feel Pinewoods is about. Pinewoods faces the challenges of diversity of students coming from various backgrounds, including English-language learners, students with disabilities, but finally with a broad level of support in addition to skill development , strong vision and belief system, we make a difference. It takes more than one person to instill lasting change. I, the principal spearheading with teams of adults (my staff) and my students function together as a collective voice. As we engender continuity and cohesiveness to the school culture, as well as drive unified expectations and direction by empowering all stakeholders, from students to parents and to teachers. The institution offers a number of courses, considers teachers’ needs for instructional planning, and accommodates extra-curricular activities in its yearly fixture.

2.Principal & Executive Trustee’s Profile :
Mrs. Renuka Devendra Parihar is a dedicated educationist. Children are the prime focus of all her effort in work. She sincerely believes that real education lies way beyond books.
She did her Master’s in English from Jaipur University and got her teachers’ training at Allahabad University. She also qualified as a journalist from Delhi’s Institute of Journalism. During her student days she has excelled in sports and was an avid orator. She has won many prizes in sports, debates and dramatics. She has won athletic championship at university level and played hockey at state level. She has devoted over two decades to the field of education. While she has been a passionate and caring teacher, as an administrator she has been firmly result-oriented with a steady vision. She is a strong believer of “teaching the child and not the subject” which involves experiential learning strategies that foster critical thinking. She confronts and remedies inadequate teaching practices, creates and maintains a safe school climate.
Her thinking and expectations effectively delivers results for academic achievement, climate safety, budget efficiency, and employee/student performance. Her creativity to organize the functions brings out the best work from students and staff. She pursues everything with energy, drive, and a need to finish; does not give up before finishing, even in the face of resistance or setbacks; steadfastly pushes self and others for results.
With her rich experience, multi-faceted personality and qualities she leads the school community with vision and dedication.

Infrastructure
3.Building, Infrastructure and Facilities:
Infrastructure and Facilities
Pinewoods provides a pragmatic child-centered environment that makes learning a joyful experience. The School is surrounded by pine trees around, thus the school campus caters to the needs of young, growing children. Schools, being the second home, serve a number of purposes in a child’s life. From boosting their confidence to making them learn the importance of team work and socialization, schools does it all. Away from home, schools become the place for children to spend their maximum time. Especially as Pinewoods is a residential school, kids are sent to school considering the fact that there is an experienced hand to guide them and also a safe environment promoting growth. We also accept the fact that infrastructure plays a budding hand in creating a favorable environment for a child’s growth. In Pinewoods classrooms, playgrounds and libraries are the most important aspect of school infrastructure. The building is safe and the class-rooms well- ventilated. It’s proven that overcrowded and stressful environment can affect the learning capabilities of children. Therefore the number of students in each class does not exceed 20. Well-equipped laboratories enable students to perform lab activities more effectively. Facilities like extracurricular workshops, libraries, halls, games equipment, assembly area and proper sanitation facilities are some of the infrastructure that Pinewoods provides to its students. Safe and secure building with Security Guards, CC TV cameras, earthquake resistant structure, full Time DG Power Back up, fire fighting equipments, and digital sound broadcast system. Separate hygienic toilets for girls and boys with filtered drinking water facility. Fully fledged mess facility serving healthy and nutritive food to students.
Pinewoods has a regular school cleaning and waste management programme to prevent harmful micro-organisms from spreading around the building and onto furniture and equipment where it can be easily transmitted. We pride ourselves on thorough, reliable cleaning service which include carrying out tasks such as vacuum, window cleaning, polishing, washing hard floors etc at the beginning of each term.
We have waste management service for both buildings. The institution relies on team of cleaners to attend to the premises on a scheduled basis to sweep, swab and to collect the litter and dispose of it safely at a time decided.
School dormitories, toilets, dining hall and kitchen are deep cleaned on a regular basis before the beginning of each term.
In Pinewoods clean filtered drinking water, hand-washing, toilet and soap facilities is provided in school compound for use by children and teachers.
Students adopt hygienic habits if they enjoy doing them. Students are taught the importance of hygiene of washing hands, grooming their finger nails, oral hygiene, cleaning of classrooms etc.
Through co-curricular activities and inter-house competitions conducted in schools, the importance of hygiene is conveyed in a fun and competitive manner.

Learning Rooms:
The faculty members use every technology tool at their disposal to foster a rich and varied learning environment in the learning rooms. This includes digital boards, audiovisual systems, the Internet, and educational CDs. Every learning room also has display and writing boards.
ICT Lab
The school a computer laboratory with Broadband Internet connection and sophisticated multimedia facilities and resources. Equipped with the latest hardware and software, our computer laboratories provide an excellent ambience and opportunity to learn and master ICT skills from the basic to the advanced levels.

Library:
The school has a well-resourced library with books, periodicals and a variety of other resources that can be used reference and new learning. Reading is encouraged in students from a very young age, as an independent way to learn and gain knowledge. For reading pleasure there is a wide range of fiction for all age groups and reading abilities right from age 3 to 18.

Arts and Music:
Art, craft and music studios encourage students to develop a variety of interests. Special emphasis is placed on developing student’s appreciation for and involvement in various forms of drama, dance, music elocution, art and craft as a means of self-expression and cultural enrichment. Students are encouraged to participate in all inter-house competitions.

Audio Visual Education:
Audio-visual education is an integral part of the school’s programme, which supplements learning through charts, slides, films etc. to provide a more meaningful and active learning experience. To develop proficiency in activities like elocution and dramatics. The faculty members create and foster a rich and varied learning environment. This includes digital boards, audiovisual systems, the Internet, and educational CDs.
School Mess
The School Mess conforming to the highest standards of cleanliness serves balanced and nutritious vegetarian meals. Special care is taken to provide students with options that are healthy, nutritious and balanced. Hygiene and strict quality control of food are a priority. Filtered drinking water is available throughout the day at the school and hostel.

Medical Facility:
The school places great importance on the health and safety of students. Doctor is available on call for any emergency. The student’s health records are well-documented. The school arranges for routine medical treatments as well as health promotion activities such as an annual check-up, and dental and ophthalmologic check-up

School Transport:
The need for safe passage of each child to school and back to the hostel is of paramount importance to us. To ensure safe travel the school has its own school buses designed as per standards and manned by trained drivers and personnel sensitized to the needs of small children. For supervision and monitoring a transport a staff member is on board.

Safety Features:
Safety of students is of paramount significance to us. The entire building structure is Earthquake resistant and is equipped with the latest fire fighting equipments. There are CC TV cameras installed at all important locations. The campus is manned by efficient Security Guards throughout the year who only permit authorized access into the campus. The school has a full time DG power back up.