The underpinnings of education offered in Arsha Vidya Mandir are aimed towards nurturing the human potential. The school believes in the principles of Multiple Intelligences (Howard Gardener 1983) and has with conviction adopted these eight principles to design a teaching and learning environment that supports this vision. In addition, Gardener’s inclusion of the ninth intelligence as an existential and moral intelligence is also adopted consciously in our school learning environment as deeper learnings in ones attitudes and values. This is implemented through our sensitively designed Discipline, Values, Attitudes and Life skills programme as recommended by the CBSE. At Arsha we recognise that each young mind possesses a unique blend of all the intelligences and by Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences, Arsha Vidya Mandir’s responsibility is to ‘empower learners’, and not restrict them to any one area of learning. The CBSE through the Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) has introduced these principles and is a welcome approach to teaching and learning. To create the appropriate pathways to successfully implement this multi-dimensional approach to offering teaching and learning we have at Arsha organised the school teaching community into five departments of learning.

These five Departments are:

• English, English Literature and Languages
• Mathematics
• Sciences
• Social Sciences and Humanities
• Arts and Performing Arts

Each Department has its unique philosophy keeping in mind the overarching aim to clearly contribute towards enhancing learning abilities in the student. Each Department approaches its goal through a range of subjects and learning experiences. At the same time all the five Departments commonly strive towards nourishing personal values and attitudes towards oneself and the environment through a process of enquiry. Each of the five Departments try to develop skills of enquiry, critical thinking through research and analysis. The idea is to synthesise multiple perspectives and nurture these skills through various programmes in each of the Departments.

The five Departments of the school is the core of a simple and effective organisation structure where every member of the teaching community is empowered to take the initiative to enhance the desire to learn in students. Every teacher collaborates in the process of imparting enquiry based learning through their Department. The culture of our learning community is aimed towards providing a supportive and collaborative environment, that features mutual trust and sharing of ideas. Collaboration between our Departments implies mutual respect, commitment, and the courage to share ideas. At the same time strict adherence to processes facilitates in good collaboration to achieve our goals. Each of our five Departments strongly believes in keeping the spirit of teaming together as the central culture of organisation, leading to a ‘we’ enthusiasm as opposed to an ‘I’ or ‘you’ paradigm.