This has been another busy winter vacation at The Doon School:

• Eighteen Masters’ Houses are due to be completed by the end of the Summer Term 2016. Much progress has been made over the holidays in this ambitious building project. At long last, all masters will be accommodated on site, and this will help those currently living outside to play a fuller part in the lives of the boys. In terms of square feet, this is the largest single building programme since the school was originally set up.

• Main Building is in the final stages of its centenary makeover: work on the foundations and a new drainage system was completed before the monsoon, for which the ivy had to be temporarily removed; we have completely refurbished the entire roof and the balustrades along its edges; the brickwork has been repaired, re-pointed, refurbished and power-cleaned. The troughs for re-growing the ivy have been designed by our conservation architect and fabricated, and will be planted with ivy after all the structural repairs are completed. This icon of The Doon School now looks completely rejuvenated.

• After the exterior work is completely done, the school will then proceed with the reconstruction of the interiors of the teaching spaces after garnering a little further feedback on the utility of the two pilot classrooms we set up for visitors to view at Founder’s. In addition, many other small projects are underway to continue the enhancement of this national treasure we call Chandbagh.

• The school’s teacher training programme with the Institute of Education in London, ranked No. 1 in the world for the second consecutive year, continues apace. At the very beginning of the holidays, we had the graduation ceremony for the first cohort of ten teachers from this two-year master’s level programme specifically tailored to Doon’s needs; thirty-five others are studying behind them in successive cohorts. This is a heavy investment by the school, but well worth it. As our curriculum reform and academic programmes continue to unfold and improve over the years ahead, this IOE professional development and research programme will form a firm foundation for our future success.