Tridha – A Rudolf Steiner School
At Tridha, every morning arises with the students’ chatter, whether it’s sun, rain or cloud. From the 2-year-olds in playgroup to the 18-year-olds in the 12th grade, our students find themselves enveloped in the warm embrace that they consider their second home. Over the years, our garden has blossomed with purple mulberries, sumptuous pumpkins, sour gooseberries, nurtured by little hands in primary school. We have lived through a myriad spiral walks, school melas, overnight trips, Diwali diya dances, high school plays and musicals, and celebrated cultural traditions across religions. Based on the principles of Rudolf Steiner, Tridha has grown since the year 2000 and has more than 650 students who come through its gates every day, wearing a cotton kurta – simple, multi-coloured, and comfortable.
Tridha is a towering book-shaped building, coming as a pleasant surprise at the end of a narrow lane bustling with vegetable vendors and flower-sellers, in Andheri. There are no corners, only curves in our huge, winding corridors. The carvings on the exterior, the spacious classrooms, the red and white walls, and the marble tiles create a sense of infinity. The copper cod tree standing in the centre of the garden holds students in its cool shade, and on its high branches.
Our kindergarteners play in their make-shift tunnels, fashion fairy-houses out of mud, frolic in circle time movement, cook meals from scratch, play house with fabric dolls and wooden kitchenware, and listen to many a tale as the pearly raindrops drip outside the large glass windows and the soft breeze wafts through the muslin curtains.
Honing their “doing” skills, the primary grade students build life-size wooden play structures, grow rice, harvest, fashion Greek amphorae out of clay, find their way in unknown terrain with just a map and compass, and undertake the drawing of complex Mandalas. They crochet, knit and weave with their little fingers from Grade 1, with no rush to write.
As our students' limbs develop, so do their minds and by High School, it is time to nourish them with deeper thoughts and enhance their skills in academics, art and music. Holistic, artistic, grounded and modern families, confident individual voices, fingers playing the recorder and recreating painting masterpieces, carving wood and stone, star-gazing for nights on end, trekking on Ladakh mountains, and so on.
“Lunch day” – is a concept unique to Tridha, where each student gets a meal for the class and teacher. This is the day when one family lovingly prepares a meal for their child’s class, making it an experience that brings the class community closer together. Meals are served by the students themselves, and the dishes are cleaned by them as well.
The chirping mynas, the moist earth and cosy rooms prompt many a song to be written by the teachers, and walking through the school one is serenaded with quiet passages, as well as music resonating across the floors.
Time and again, the parents of the school have played and continue to play, an integral part in the school’s ecosystem, giving their energies, expertise and support, helping us stand strong at each stage of our progress.
Tridha believes that a child’s development must be carefully and lovingly guided if he or she must become a truly productive human being. Following the IGCSE curriculum, our endeavour is to prepare the students to enter adulthood with self-discipline, social awareness, wonder and reverence for the world. From Playgroup to Grade 12 we follow an integrated curriculum of prerequisite history, geography, mathematics, science, and languages, along with Steiner subjects like drama, history of architecture, of poetry, astronomy, field trips and more.
Basking in the warmth of the glorious sun with loving light, we hold on to the joy of teaching and learning together with our head, heart and hands.