Academy teachers provide entertainment on Children's Day

Teachers and students of the Aga Khan Academy Hyderabad celebrated national Children’s Day on Wednesday, 14^th November. Junior School faculty held a morning assembly with all students to discuss children’s rights based on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, followed by a visit to the cinema. Senior School students gathered at the Commons for an afternoon assembly where their teachers danced, played music and performed for them.

At the Junior School assembly, teachers read from the book I Have the Right to Be a Child by Alain Serres. Our PYP faculty presented different children’s rights using creative techniques incorporating props, music, dance and skits. Later in the morning, students left to watch the animated film The Grinch at a cinema in the city. The film follows the infamous Dr Seuss character as he learns the true spirit of the holiday season.

At their afternoon assembly, Senior School students got a chance to see their teachers in new avatars as they danced, sang and acted for them on the Commons stage. Teachers choreographed their dances, wrote monologues and scripted a play as part of the day’s celebrations. Music faculty also had a chance to show off their mastery of instruments.

Children’s Day performances by Senior School teachers have come to be a tradition at AKA Hyderabad, setting staffrooms abuzz as early as October. “Children’s Day tends to fill both teachers and students with a sense of anticipation and eagerness,” says Raghav Pathak of grade 11. "At the end of it all, the teachers received a standing ovation, as thanks for not only their brilliant show, but also the effort they put into each and every student on a daily basis, to ensure that they move on to succeed and make something of themselves. The event may have been held for the children, but it was the teachers who stole the show."

This Children’s Day also saw a special lunch menu, the most exciting inclusion being chocolate ice cream for dessert. India celebrates the day almost a week ahead of the UN’s International Children’s Day, which is on 20^th November, to commemorate the birthday of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India, who was known for his children’s rights activism.