DLDAV Shalimar Bagh entered its 40th year this May. The wealth of experience, expertise and repute that it enjoys makes it stand tall as an institution in North-West Delhi.
While we revel in the glory of our rich past and experience, we are never complacent about it.
In fact we take inspiration from Howard Simon’s poem and meet our challenges head-on.
“I choose, I choose the mountain
With all its stress and strain
Because only by climbing
Can I rise above the plain
I choose the mountain
And I will never stop climbing
I choose the mountain
And I shall forever be ascending”

Yes. We have chosen the mountain. Our school was one of the first ones to reinvent itself when the government declared a lockdown. Within two days, we had shifted all our academic and administrative procedures to virtual platforms.
In fact, something very beautiful is happening at DLDAV Shalimar Bagh!
A higher intelligence, a never-say-die-attitude and an eagerness to learn anew is emerging in times just when the global Covid-19  pandemic is threatening to take over our lives.
There is no better teacher than Adversity! It builds character and helps us discover who we are and what we are made of! As soon as the lockdown was declared, across wings and across subjects, the teachers geared up for turning the school into a virtual learning space. We knew we had it in us! The original Timetable for session 2020-21 was tweaked and redesigned to suit the virtual platform.
The school is holding all the classes- scholastic and co-scholastic virtually. There is nothing that we have not been doing! We have facilitated the transaction of Academics and even Co-curricular activities through the use of various secure platforms. Very conscious about the cyber safety of our children, we created GSuite accounts of all children and staff members so that the process of learning can take place uninterruptedly.
It is heartening to see the commitment of the faculty to learn the use of latest tech tools for reaching out to their students. Even the art and music teachers have shared their audios and videos to ensure that the children do not miss the things that they love dearly.
The school counsellor is playing a beautiful role by providing psychological support to both parents and children.
It is said, life is the biggest teacher of all! This is what we have communicated to our students. The new challenges and experiences that they are facing are providing them lessons in resilience and patience, time management and organization, innovation and reinvention. From kitchen work to watering the plants, each task has become a source of experiential learning. 

Also, our children are playing keyboard, reading books, making videos on cyber security and writing poetry.
We did not compromise our ethos of imparting holistic education to our children and thus have been providing opportunities to them to attend Webinars on various topics, pen down their thoughts for the school newsletters and participate in many inter school competitions. We are also having clubs, organizing events, celebrating festivals, releasing newsletters and reaching out to our parents through webinars and Google meets. We have not allowed learners’ talents and skills to become dull or loose sheen.
We have been able to carry out these exhaustive activities because of meticulous planning and sheer hard work of our faculty members. The many appreciative messages from the parents are a testimony of the success of our endeavors.
While we wish that we return to normalcy soon, we also promise to hold the fort with strength, wisdom and resilience!
I end with H.W. Longfellow’s lines,
 

Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
I wish you all good health and great spirits!

Ms. Reena Rajpal
Principal