The Sun Smart Foundation International School is a happy thinking school located at Anna Nagar and Shenoy Nagar. Being an accredited CAIE (Cambridge Assessment International Education) school gives us the freedom to deliver an inquiry-based program and design a curriculum that is guided by a Question-Think-Learn process. The SSFI is one of the many schools under the aegis Vailankanni Charity Trust, a prestigious name in the field of education which has been around for five-decades. The SSFI is a brainchild of this institution.
Design Thinking: Design Thinking is a mind-set and approach to learning, collaboration, and problem-solving in practice. At The SSFI, a structured framework is laid down to facilitate learners to identify challenges, gather information, generate potential solutions, refine ideas, and test solutions. We have designed it as a course by itself rather as an activity. The design thinking program underlines our vision to become a thinking school as our children actually go through the entire process starting with empathy right up to developing and designing the prototype. The nature of the programme goes beyond the walls of the classroom by letting our learners to collaborate and share ideas on digital platforms as well as experiencing the process in real-world.
Art: We at The SSFI realize the importance of integrating Art in Education due to which we have spiralled down our Art curriculum from Cambridge’s IGCSE framework to stage 1. Our learners aren’t ‘taught’ art but are facilitated to use art as a tool to learn and explore other subjects. It is interlinked to other subjects such as English, Maths, Science, Social, and more. In art they explore painting, 3dmodelling, printmaking, Digital audio/visual media as well as art appreciation. All our programs right from kindergarten use a variety of STEAM based active learning strategies to think question and learn.
Young CEO Program: at The SSFI is designed to cultivate entrepreneurial skills and responsibilities in learners. It helps to build on existing personal strengths, skills, abilities through both practical and theoretical sessions. We focus on developing their financial, strategic, communication, and leadership abilities required to manage an organization effectively and become the CEO of the future.
Big Dream Learning: Our Pre-Primary team has incorporated the Big Picture Learning program into their curriculum to facilitate learners to become the centre of their own education. The program allows our youngest learning to take up real world jobs and simulate them in school to learn new skill. The kids this year have taken up toy making which aims to engage the learners, provides challenges, and makes learning authentic and relevant. It is entirely on terms with Cambridge’s learner-centric classroom design where students are actively invested in their learning.
Mrs. Aparna Bharani Pillai
