The Millennium Education – Pakistan

Essential Learner Enrichment

Essential Learner Enrichment

All learners use art as a means of exploring and embracing the creativity within. It acts as a medium of expressing ideas, solving problems, encourages aesthetic development and poses intellectual demands to learners. Learners are encouraged to explore a variety of materials and craft skill during school hours to explore their creative and artsy skills. The value placed on learner’s artwork may be seen in the care with which it is displayed around the school.

The Millennium Education Art Programme allows self-expression and fine motor development in learners from an early stage. Involvement in the arts is associated with gains in math, reading, cognitive ability, critical thinking and verbal skill. Learning arts and crafts have successfully proven to improve motivation, concentration, confidence, and teamwork amongst learners.

The Millennium Education believes that Music is a form of talented expression, one that must be nourished and cultivated in our learners, specially now as scientific evidence proves that an education in such skills makes better math and science learners. From the early stages, learners are encouraged to develop the skills of listening and performing, by being introduced to a variety of songs, musical instruments, sound and music. Older learners are helped to develop these skills and assisted to use music in ways related to other curriculum areas as well, in order to make a creative blend.

Musical training physically develops the part of the left side of the brain known to be involved with processing language, and can actually wire the brain’s circuits in specific ways.  Perhaps the basic reason that every child must have an education in music is that music is a part of the fabric of our society.

Schools Music Curriculum framework and implementation resources are intended to support, promote and inspire the growth of all learners as artistic learners as they journey towards becoming creative, artistically literate adults and citizens who will truly enrich their own lives and the lives of future communities.

At The Millennium Education, the curriculum is presented as an extension to main lessons which focus on one subject in depth. This approach differs from other instructional approaches that allot equal time to every subject.  Teachers are free to include whatever activities they feel will work best for the learners in the class.

The Millennium Education Libraries are intended to provide welcoming, inclusive environments which are central to each school. They actively support teaching and learning within the school, filled with books and resources, both paper-based and digital, to encourage learners to develop reading skills by opening access to resources which support the development of independent learning and foster  love and enjoyment of reading in all its forms.

School libraries are fundamental to developing engaged readers who have the capability and inclination to read and learn beyond their years at school. School libraries help learners learn to find and use the information they need, to succeed now and in their future life and work. At The Millennium Education, we ensure that learners master reading fundamentals. Our Library and Reading Programme produces learners with better standardized test scores in reading and stronger literacy skills.

Essentials of Roots Millennium Library is in our all campuses which are being managed by professional and trained library teachers/librarians. Our Library Staff is trained annually and have an essential and specialist role to play in supporting learners’ learning and their development into effective, independent learners and readers. They work closely and proactively with teachers to provide professional services and facilities in support of learning across the whole school.

The Millennium Education’s Citizenship Programme enables learners to make their own decisions and to take responsibilities of their own lives and communities. As a subject at The Millennium Education, citizenship has a power to motivate and educate young people into becoming thoughtful, active citizen who engage with, and participate in public life.

Education for citizenship addresses the exercising of rights and responsibilities within communities at local, national and global levels. Young people are citizens of today, not citizens in waiting. Millennium  education for citizenship is about developing in learners the ability to take up their place in society as responsible, successful, effective and confident citizens both now and in the future. Through citizenship education, learners:

> Explore questions about democracy, justice, inequality, how we are governed and organized.
> Learn to work together to create solutions that try to address challenges facing neighbourhoods and wider communities.
> Develop political literacy to make a positive contribution to society as informed and responsible citizens.

The Millennium Education pay a significant attention to the learners’ life inside and outside the classroom. Extracurricular activities of learners reveal a great deal about them, such as what their interests are, whether they can manage their priorities and maintain a long-term commitment, what diversity they could bring to the learner body and how they can make a contribution in building the community they live in.

We have signed a MOU with Pakistan Red Crescent Society to promote volunteerism and community work. The Community Involvement Programme at TME in collaboration with PRCS is providing learners with the opportunity to participate in meaningful activities which will contribute to the community. It aims to nurture a sense of social responsibility and help learners understand that everyone can play a part in bettering the community. Our aim is to encourage our learners for long-term involvement in community service.

Our enterprising learners can find additional college scholarship opportunities that recognize excellence in community service as well as other activities.  Community services at The Millennium Education provides the critical missing link for many learners, an opportunity to apply academic learning to real human needs and to make the knowledge gained usable in one’s thinking beyond the situation in which the learning occurred.

Millennials who participate in TME Citizen Programme enjoy a number of benefits, both in their personal and social life and are the ones who are more civically engaged, thus, tend to perform better in curricular subjects and are more apt to learn life skills.

The Millennium Education is committed to improving learner achievement through personal outreach and mentoring. The mission of our Counseling Programme is to support the development of learner competencies in the academic, personal/social, and career domains, ensuring that learners achieve success and are prepared to be productive members of society.

Our counselors work with learners on all grade levels to ensure a smooth transition from one grade level to the next. Our School counselors work collaboratively with parents, teachers and learners to address adjustment concerns, peer relations and academic advisement to help prepare learners for high school. Career exploration and peer relations are important components of the guidance program.

TME Counseling Programme assists learners in a manner that meets the developmental needs of the learner. The program is delivered through individual counseling, small and large group counseling, consultation, and coordination. It includes such topics as grades/study skills, individual planning in career exploration, college awareness, decision-making, personal responsibility and personal health/ safety.

The Millennium Education pays a significant attention to the learners’ life inside and outside the classroom. Extracurricular activities of students reveal a great deal about them, such as what their interests are, whether they can manage their priorities and maintain a long-term commitment, what diversity they’d bring to the learner body and how they can make a contribution in building the community they live in.

Community services at The Millennium Education provides the critical missing link for many students, an opportunity to apply academic learning to real human needs and to make the knowledge gained usable in one’s thinking beyond the situation in which the learning occurred. The Millennium Education focuses on profile building of learners at a young age. The team of Student Affairs Coordinators and School and College Counsellors provide ample opportunities to our learners and engage them in different community service programmes.

TME has Community Engagement Programme is  mandatory at IGCSE/SSC level. It is important because it:

> Provides students with opportunities for helping the school, local, and international communities.
> Helps students apply academic, personal and social skills to improve the community.
> Develops an awareness to make a positive difference in the life of others.
> Encourages responsible citizenship by increasing students understanding of the world.
> Allows the student to discover new skills, talents, and interests.
> Helps students develop as leaders who take initiative.

FRAMEWORK OF COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT  PROGRAMME

At TME students must complete 40 credit hours of community service in IGCSE/SSC; 25 credit hours of community service in IGCSE-I/Pre-SSC and 15 credit hours of community service in First Term of IGCSE-II/SSC-I. The students must pick and choose appropriate activities, wisely as per their interest, at the time of registration for IGCSE/SSC in order to timely perform the required credit hours in each year.

LIST OF COMMUNITY SERVICE ACTIVITIES

Short Term (In-School) Activities:

Community service hours allocated for in-school activities are 5 hours per activity. Students have to select any TWO short term activities (to be completed in two years i.e. IGCSE-I/Pre-SSC and IGCSE-II/SSC-I) in order to perform 10 Credit Hours. Some of the suggested activities are listed below:

> Organize drives like tree plantation, cleanliness, anti-smoking, anti-bullying, child protection, child labour etc.
> Run charity programmes such as Ramadhan Charity, Winter Clothing Charity, Bake Sale activity etc.
> Design awareness campaigns for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
> Participate in activities related to UN Action Days
> Design and create a mural
> Learn and teach a new form of skill (art & craft)
> Design a website for underprivileged school/non-profit organization
> Write a moral poem or short story for the TME yearbook/newsletter
> Create a nature walking tour guide of the northern areas of Pakistan with map and create awareness to preserve nature
> Design and create attractive signs with environmental messages for your school or neighborhood.
> Be an Orientation Leader (for IGCSE/SSC Qualification, Libraries and Labs etc.)

Long Term (Out-of-School) Activities

Community service hours allocated for out of school activities are 10 hours per activity. Students have to select any ONE long term activity in IGCSE-I/Pre-SSC, in order to perform 10 Credit Hours. Some of the suggested activities are listed below:

> Volunteer with External Organizations like WWF, PRCS, Rescue 1122, Shoukat Khanum, The Citizens Foundation etc.
> Organize drives like tree plantation, cleanliness, anti-smoking, anti-bullying, child protection, child labour etc. outside the school
> Find an ugly wall in your neighbourhood and create a mural
> Collect and donate daily-use essentials to underprivileged children
> Organize a reading hour or summer reading programme at a local library/school
> Donate used books to any local school and set a working library corner
> Pay a day visit to Senior Citizens at Old Homes and helping them in their daily routine chores
> Participate in local and international competitions like Essay Writing, British Council Video Making Competition etc.
> Become a teacher aide/tutor at a local elementary school
> Learn and teach a new form of skill (art & craft) outside the school
> Volunteer to help play with orphans at local orphanage
> Visit the hospital for accident survivors weekly and run a campaign on safety and security rules in daily life
> Become certified in CPR/First Aid and teach at local Red Crescent
> Start a Model UN team

We have signed a MOU with Pakistan Red Crescent Society to promote volunteerism and community work. The Community Involvement Programme at TME in collaboration with PRCS is providing students with the opportunity to participate in meaningful activities which will contribute to the community. It aims to nurture a sense of social responsibility and help students understand that everyone can play a part in bettering the community. Our aim is to encourage our students for long-term involvement in community service.

Millennials who participate in community based service learning enjoy a number of benefits, both in their personal and social life and ones who are more civically engaged tend to perform better in school subjects such as reading, history, science and mathematics and are more apt to complete high school.

Teaches students to develop the ability to interact with greater diversity & expands one’s awareness of both the world as well as one’s relationship to it

Millennium Education ‘ Beyond Borders is a unique exchange programme which offers an alternative to traditional academic study abroad programmes and provides students with short-term, rich cultural learning experiences through immersion in the target cultures. The benefits that learners  get by participating in Beyond Borders; Learn about the target culture through interaction with the people in a variety of social, cultural, service and academic settings, Increase awareness of the social, cultural, political and environmental issues facing the host culture, Participate in leadership learning opportunities and share their culture with their counterparts during their exchange visit to Gain cultural competencies needed to make a difference in a global society.

Every year our learners  from different campuses nationwide get the opportunity to visit various countries on different agendas like recreational visits, educational and cultural exchange programme  in America, Dubai, India, Singapore, Turkey, Malaysia, China, Japan, Germany, Spain, England, Sirilanka and many others. Our learners have gone on numerous programmes like :

> Model United Nations Rome Italy February 2020
> HAMBURG MUN Germany 2020 January
> Harvard MUN, New York and Boston USA 2019
> Media Winter Programme – North Western University Doha 2019
> CWMUN, UN Headquarters USA 2019
> Explore Turkey 2019
> Media Winter Programme – North Western University Doha 2018
> CWMUN – UN Headquarters – 2018
> The Oxford Institute – Summer School 2018
> World Scholars Cup –Malaysia 2018
> Bilgi University – Istanbul 2018
> Media Winter Programme – North Western University Doha 2018
> CWMUN – UN Headquarters USA– 2017
> Urumqi – China Trip 2016
> Tokyo Trip 2015
> SC UOL Study & Beyond Border Tour to India 2014

Our belief is that education is the most powerful force we can use to change our world. This belief drives us in the Teaching beyond Borders program to diligently work to increase access to a quality education for all children. The Millennium Education is committed to prepare educators who embrace learning from diverse perspectives, and to engaging with domestic and international partners in ways that promote understanding about educational issues, policies and practices around the world. The mission of the Office Global Outreach & School Links at Millennium Education is research, teaching, and service and focuses on: Leadership development to initiate and sustain change; Collective capacity building for system alignment; Educational coaching; International networking, engagement and policy making.

Global issues are an important part of the lives of our learners living in a world where economies are increasingly interdependent and global communication is a daily reality. Our students have access to the internet and increased opportunity to travel, watch news stories from around the world, as they develop and follow for example, international sporting events as they happen the global dimension is reflected in the attitudes and values of our students, the ethos of the School and the programmes we offer.

Promotes awareness of and actions on important Social, Cultural and Humanitarian Issues

The Millennium Education Annual Activity Calendar clearly highlights and celebrates the UN action days at our schools. Special arrangement and presentations are made during morning assemblies and the school environment is transformed into a make belief environment to support the action day through art, activity, engagement and creativity.

Millennium learners are being taught that United Nations observances contribute to the achievement of the purposes of the UN Charter and promote awareness of and action on important political, social, cultural, humanitarian or human rights issues. They provide useful means for the promotion of international and national action and stimulate interest in United Nations activities and programmes. The purpose of the UN is to “preserve peace, advance justice and constitute a permanent structure for international cooperation.” In other words, the United Nations acts as a world forum to help countries work together to achieve peace and human rights.

The United Nations is an international organization founded in 1945 after the Second World War by 51 countries committed to maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations and promoting social progress, better living standards and human rights. Due to its unique international character, and the powers vested in its founding Charter, the Organization can take action on a wide range of issues, and provide a forum for its 193 Member States to express their views, through the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council and other bodies and committees.

The work of the United Nations reaches every corner of the globe. Although best known for peacekeeping, peace building, conflict prevention and humanitarian assistance, there are many other ways the United Nations and its System (specialized agencies, funds and programmes) affect our lives and make the world a better place. The Organization works on a broad range of fundamental issues, from sustainable development, environment and refugees protection, disaster relief, counter terrorism, disarmament and non-proliferation, to promoting democracy, human rights, gender equality and the advancement of women, governance, economic and social development and international health, clearing landmines, expanding food production, and more, in order to achieve its goals and coordinate efforts for a safer world for this and future generations.

Millennium learners are being taught about the four main purposes of UN which have a long lasting impact on community;

> To keep peace throughout the world.
> To develop friendly relations among nations.
> To help nations work together to improve the lives of poor people, to conquer hunger, disease and illiteracy, and to encourage respect for each other’s rights and freedoms
> To be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations to achieve these goals.

Most important realization about the UN is the fact that this organization is a human organization, it is a group of people coming together to talk. That is the UN in its simplest, most basic form. So the celebrations of UN Action Days, we keep in mind that nothing is perfect including the UN, but that doesn’t give us the right, as a global society, to not try and achieve perfection and along with it world peace.

Promotes social innovation and community re-engineering  as Millennial slogan is: ‘Sharing is the essence of human relationships’

TME has launched SCOPE-School Coaching Programme in collaboration with Abbas Husain, a name known nationally and internationally is the Director of a team of master trainers who work together to uplift the level of education in Pakistan. Abbas Husain along with his team has launched many new programs in TME under the umbrella of his initiative SCOPE Community Engagement Program which not only helped teachers to become professionals but groomed them as leaders in their field. Abbas Husain is the Founder & Director of Teachers Development Centre & Founder Member of SPELT and a renowned Intellectual & Thinker as well. Abbas Husain is a moderator and speaker of TME largest teacher development conference since from last 15 consecutive years.

Under the SCOPE School Coaching Programme, Abbas Husain has delivered numerous thought provoking counseling & coaching session to the parental community of The Millennium Education including the faculty and staff. Abbas Husain addressed the community on a thought provoking sessions on ‘Factors affecting self-esteem and self-confidence amongst students’,  Parenting Millennials Today, These sessions are organized to help mothers with the challenges they face while dealing with the young learners. After all, many factors outside a learner’s control can influence his or her performance. These sessions state the strategies that how parents can engage their child in self-motivated activities. TME believes in providing excellent learning opportunities not only to learners and teachers but also to the whole community.

This programme is giving benefits in terms of awareness, clarity of idea and motivation to the community engaged in these sessions and orientation, which are highly interactive. Parents & community are being briefed on topic like ‘Early intervention in childhood’, ‘What schools do and what schools should do’, ‘Industrial age assumptions about school’, ‘The boundaries of impact on schools’, ‘Work life balance’, ‘Handling difficult students’ and many more topics which are directly linked to the on ground realities of human life.  At TME , we realize the strong need to enrich and educate the community about sustainable development, restoring natural environment, adopting healthy lifestyles, providing services and access to quality education and reducing poverty. In view of our vision towards the community engagement program, SCOPE is benefiting our society at large and will continue doing this.

Parents & community are being briefed in this initiatives that they should do the following to overcome all the issues they face during parenthood for a healthy relationship with their children; Love them, Live your values, Do not compare, Encourage, Let your child teach, Discuss matters Openly & Let go.

Promotes holistic development of young people fostering their physical, social and emotional health

Millennium Schools Sports Education Programme is including fitness, skills, movement, dance, recreation, health, games and sport plus the appropriate values and knowledge of each. It is an integral part of the total education of any child and is closely linked to other creative and learning experiences and skill acquisition. It makes a significant contribution to the all-round harmonious development of the mind and body.Physical activity is vital to the holistic development of young people, fostering their physical, social and emotional health. The benefits of sport reach beyond the impact on physical well-being and the value of the educational benefits of sport should not be under-estimated.

Objective

The objective of the Schools Physical Education and Sports Policy is to provide guidelines to schools for their development. The aim of organized physical education and sport programme is to create an environment that stimulates selected movement experiences resulting in desirable responses that contribute to the optimal development of the individual’s potentialities in all phases of life.

Impact

Regular physical activities at Millennium Education provides numerous health benefits from leaner bodies and lower blood pressure to improved mental health and cognitive functioning. It is helping  learners to gain competence and confidence in a variety of movement forms such as: aquatics, gymnastics & recreational activities. It is providing a sound framework for the design and assessment that develop the learners  motivation, fitness, cognitive, behavioural, and active lifestyle needs, and  is focusing on life-time involvement. Physical education and sports at Millennium Education  have an educational impact. Changes can be seen in motor skills development, performance and educational potential. This shows the positive relationship between being involved in physical activities and psycho social development.

The real benefits of sport involvement appear among children and youth who have experienced appropriate forms of leadership. For example, at Millennium Education  martial arts is taught with a philosophy of respect, patience, responsibility and honour were related to decreased delinquency, when compared to martial arts taught with a focus on free sparring and self-defence. Coaches and physical educators at Millennium Education  have the potential to provide strong leadership.  The learners are excited to engage in fun based physical activities and encouraged through four different fitness exercises by the Millennium Sports Education Programme. The Sports Clubs are run by student body under the supervision of Sports Managers . Immediately, after the activities everyone gathers for an assembly to rest and listen to the Sports Manager about their individual sporting experiences, the lessons they have learned in life, and give a spectacular demonstration where possible.  Our activities take place during lunch times, after school- Wednesdays Stay and Play and during the holidays too! Every learner  is welcomed and for many  we have helped spark a love of sport, or a particular sport, that previously wasn’t there. Students of Millennium Education  are more likely to be confident and ready to advance as they join their first organized team, or even as they choose up sides on the playground.