This speech welcomes guests to the school's annual day celebration and provides an overview of the past academic year. It discusses the school's growth over the past 9 years, with the first batch of class 10 students giving their board exams. It highlights the school's academic achievements, with most students expected to achieve high marks. It also notes challenges faced over the year, but says the school learned from these experiences. It concludes by looking forward to continued improvement and defining goals for the upcoming year focused on responsibility and accountability.

1. Welcome Speech - Annual Day.
A very good evening to one and all. On behalf of the whole team of DAFFODILS, I have great
pleasure in this wonderful afternoon in welcoming our chief guest …………….
In today's celebration our main star attraction are our students so I welcome them and you parents
also. The journey with the students so far has been very exciting and our educators always put their
best efforts to guide and help in showcasing the hidden qualities of each and every student. It is very
important to enhance the confidence level of the students so that they have stage daring, socializing
with others, linguistic and other skills are developed from an early age.
Children are our tomorrow – our future. Bright faces that I see here today envincing their talents will
be the citizens of tomorrow. They may tomorrow grow up to be Einsteins, Ranindranaths, Gandhis,
Abdul Kalams, and Kishore Kumars or they may just turn out to be a burden on the society,
strugglers in the race of life waiting for someone to give them a job. What our children are going to
be in future is what we make of them today. The talents they demonstrate here are the proff that
they have the potentiality to be useful citizens of the future.
Our staff of DAFFODILS being trained, sincere and always dedicated to handle the children with
utmost love and affection and make the children feel at home so that they are comfortable in the
learning environment.
So without wasting much time, let us begin and unfold the various events awaiting. I hope you all
enjoy the evening while our young dancers spread the magic by their artistic performances.
Thank you.

2. A warm welcome to all sitting here this evening – board members, colleagues,
guests, parents and dear children to the ninth Annual Day.
Thank you Sanjana and Shantanu for giving us an overview of last academic year.
While you touched upon the highlights and special events, we know each day had
its own spice and flavour which made it a year it was.
2012 – 13 was a historical year. We crossed an important milestone - our first batch
of Class X gave their CBSE board exam. Nine years ago, it was a distant dream,
today a reality. While we are happy to see them grow into confident young adults
ready to take on life, we miss them immensely.
Excellence in academics is the hallmark of any good institution. Effort in preparing
and class X has been intensive and we await the results eagerly. We are positive
that the students will do us proud.
The statistics of the school based result section which is 70% sounds like this – Out
of 42 students in class X – we have 28 in A1 grade which is between 91 – 100
percent (that’s more than 50% of the total number), 14 in A2 which is between 81 –
90 percent and 12 in B2 between 61 – 70 percent. The rest 30 % will be defined by
the board exam. So we are already expecting 100% result. The next batch will
follow suit, we know.
The last year saw varied events and happenings that touched us, inspired us and
taught us. All year through the whole school team continued to put efforts towards
quality improvement in every aspect of our work. We set standards and goals for
ourselves and strived to achieve them – be it in the area of academics, sports,
events, discipline, leadership, management systems and more.
Our school completed re – registration of ISO 9001:2008 in April 2012. This
validated that the processes and systems match the standards set.
The last year also had its own share of challenges and disappointments.(especially
in the case we had on child sexual abuse). This experience has undoubtedly
disturbed us, but we all had lessons to learn from it. While the passage was tough,
the end of the struggle will be satisfying because the choices and decisions were
based on principles that were morally, ethically and legally right.
Each year lays the foundation for ideas and improvement in the year to come. The
coming year is promising and defining too. So it is time to move on…
The enrolment figures for students at the point stand at a total of 1133. We had
148 new admissions and 48 withdrawals. Staff status continues to be stable – The
total staff strength is 132 – with 75 teaching staff , 28 admin staff and 29 service
staff. All teaching staff at Orchid meets the professional requirements for
teaching. We had 15 resignations all together.
We are approaching our 10th year of school – a decade soon. Time truly flies. It is
time to consolidate and reiterate the principles, values and beliefs TOS stands for.
This sentiment resonates in the school calendar this year as the theme of the year.

3. We have laid down tiny achievable tangible tick able targets (we call them TATTs)
for every level and department which will be reviewed and reflected up on as we
go along year.
The spirit and essence get captured in the 10 commandments we have penned
down for us. To put all of them in a nutshell, I would like to emphasize on one
main here today–
Our focus this year will be on increasing our level of responsibility and
accountability – this is both for our students and us teachers. The performance you
will soon see is based on this thought as well.
Our effort will be to develop intrinsic motivation is students, move to more and
more students led activities by which we can promote internal locus of control
without needing constant push and pull from adults. Being responsible in their
words, actions and the work they do.
We need to train our kids to take charge and trust that they will – let them be
responsible for their success and failure.
As adults we need to emulate the same and show them the path– accept
responsibility to achieve our goals. We need to lead by example. What children
most learn from us is our attitudes, values and perception.
This is the message we need to give collectively.
In all of these efforts we will need our parents to partner with us at all levels.
After all holistic education of our students is our common goal.
I must sincerely thank each stake holder for their unrelenting support and hope
that they will continue to support in our small and big endeavours.
The school has carved a niche for itself among the cluster of educational
institutions in the city and country and will continue to spread it wings far and
wide.
As our journey continues, we take on new challenges, new solutions and new
heights. We know ideas will be born, to be discarded, to be adopted, to succeed
and to triumph.
But we shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will
arrive where we started and know that place for the very first time.
May the force be with us as we go on…

4. Thank you Shrinidhi and Tanmay for the year in retrospect. The year gone by has
had varied initiatives – some to be replicated, some modified and some replaced.
Each year lays the foundation for ideas in the year to come. The coming year is
defining and significant. With 1025 students and almost 135 staff , we have
reached Class X. Our first batch of Xth graders are preparing to take on the
challenges of the world outside the cocoon of school life. It takes me back to the
year 2004 when this reality seemed farfetched. Hard to believe that we have
finally reached this threshold.
The coming year, along with focused attention on Classes IX and X, our endeavour
will be to continue to improve the quality of the school systems and increase the
standards in all aspects. We have already been working in this area.
Processes like the CSS and ISO audit help us to identify core strengths and
weaknesses and prioritize goals and work on them.
Our areas of work and focus in the coming year will be
• Enhancing the Sports Program
• Increasing Academic Competence and Performance
• Continuing to work on Teacher quality and appraisal
• Putting more effort on increasing student motivation, student behaviour and
igniting the joy of learning
• Enrolling and engaging the parent community widely and actively
The entire team will work towards achieving these goals and we will appreciate
the support of all parents on this.
Today, I have 2 key messages to be delivered - one for the adults and one for the
students.
For dear teachers and parents….
It is time we Shift Equations....
The world of the classroom and of learning has undergone both visible and invisible
changes. While the structure of school, with its text books and time tables, may
have remained untouched, the processes of learning, what we learn and how we
learn, is changing every day.
We don’t live in the 70’s where teachers talked and talked and students listened
(at least they pretended to), parents never questioned, management believed,
everybody walked in lines, the head master was happy but never showed it….
We live in new realities and emerging trends – knowledge explosion, increase in
parental involvement, teacher attrition, government policies and interference,
change in society and family structures, digital explosion …
With these visible changes have come the more subtle ones that creep up on us
and take hold of our lives before we are completely aware of them. Changes in the
way we talk, think and interact, and in the way we imagine our worlds.

5. We need to accept certain shifts - from an emphasis on providing content to
providing skills, from looking at the classroom as the only point of learning to
accepting that learning happens across life spaces, the shifting equation between
the relationship between teacher and student, parent and child.
Concepts such as flipped classrooms suggest giving the students more control of
learning, moving the power centre from the teacher’s desk to the student’s
fingertips and mind. Flipping the classroom may also mean more opportunities for
collaborative learning among children, from student to student, from student to
teacher and not just teacher to student.
Even in terms of “Discipline” – we need a paradigm shift from a authoritative
environment to a democratic and collaborative one.
But most of us are not quite ready for this shift. We teachers may not be ready
fearing that it might take away the legitimacy of our position in the system. We
parents may not be ready because we have always seen the teacher as the ‘know
all’ where as a teacher may not be, and need not be the ‘know all’.
Only if we make this shift in our thinking, our expectations will match the
outcome.
We need to constantly remember – We are yesterday’s adults (teachers and
parents) teaching children today for tomorrow.
For my dear children
Let’s not be Okay with okay.
We cannot be satisfied and complacent with mediocre outcome. We need to aspire
to raise the bar in every field, be it academics, co – curricular, sports, discipline or
attitude – Like Sharukh Khan famously says in the Dish TV ad “Don’t be Santusht –
Wish karo….” That’s the mantra we want to propagate.
Let’s not be Okay with okay.
• So it is not OK to get satisfactory marks if you are capable of more
• It is not okay to not win a race, a match or a competition if you have the
potential for more
• It is not okay to be casual and lax with your work if there is a deadline to reach
• It is not okay to abuse, hit or use foul words at the cost of hurting someone
• It is not okay to be disrespectful, rude or arrogant
• It is not okay to walk in to school with improper uniform or blunt pencils in your
box
• It is not okay to half heartedly participate in school activities and say “I am
bored” all the time when you are capable of being alive and showing that you are
alive
I am sure you are getting the point. All the students know this and we have already
begun tightening our expectations from each other through assembly and
classroom forums. This applies to us (teachers) as well.

6. A bad habit never disappears miraculously; it’s an undo – it – yourself project.
A habit cannot be tossed out of the window; it must be coaxed down the stairs a
step at a time.
So dear kids, do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do. What
many of us need most is a good vigorous kick in the back every once in a while. But
just think, your actions are capable of changing that same kick into a vigorous pat
on your shoulder. Eventually you should aim at raising expectations for self, where
each goal automatically leads you to a higher level.
Don’t just stand there, make something happen.
You cannot wait upon the world for success, or a lucky star to fall from heaven –
You must take action, go out and hunt it down, exhibiting initiative every step of
the way.
If you want to leave footprints in the sands of time, don’t drag your feet. Walk
with determination and confidence. The footprints will automatically form.