Educational Project and Values
The teaching at the School is inspired by the humanistic philosophy that the founders have themselves received in their education. It provides a setting that fosters the “global” development of a person. The content of this education is intellectual, physical, artistic (or creative), moral (values of initiative, solidarity, responsibility, self-confidence, self-respect, and respect for others) and social (citizenship, order and discipline, sharing, and ecology).
Vellai Thamarai School is recognised by the Indian Government. The School teaches the Tamil Nadu State curriculum in English. Along with the official agenda, children thrive in 4 complementary areas:
• language: Hindi, Tamil and French are taught from kindergarten,
• physical education: both sport and play,
• harmony: dance, music, asanas (yoga postures),
• creativity: theatre, crafts and other creative work.
The founders’ educational principle is “learn while you play, and play while you learn.” The key is the children’s happiness of learning.
For the founders, children’s happiness evidenced at school is a fundamental criterion : “a happy child is a relaxed student. Relaxed, he is able to concentrate. Concentrated, he will learn. Learning fulfils the fundamental need to know. Satisfied in his needs, the child is happy.”
The educational project has three specific objectives:
• The students’ health is considered in a holistic dimension where all aspects of teaching are taken into account to lead to the child’s balance.
• A social and civic responsibility dimension is emphasized through a pedagogical approach that fosters individual initiative and team work.
• Individual and collective creativity are encouraged. The word “CREATIVITY’’ is written on the school’s pediment as a permanent call to everyone’s inventiveness— students as well as teachers and other adults.
At the Vellai Thamarai School we uphold the four pillars of education identified by UNESCO: “learn to know, learn to do, learn to be, learn to live together.”