Within less than a decade since it was established, MIS has earned an excellent reputation in the textiles city and beyond for providing rigorous academics balanced with co-curricular and sports education to its 539 students including 29 from six foreign countries – Hemalatha Raghupathi

Spread over a 17-acre green campus featuring expansive avenues, shady nooks and landscaped gardens in Coimbatore’s fast-growing educational hub of Saravanampatti, the Manchester International School (MIS, estb.2009) has earned an excellent reputation in the textile city and beyond for providing rigorous academics balanced with co-curricular and sports education to its 539 students including 272 girl children and 29 students from six foreign countries. In the EducationWorld India School Rankings 2018-19, MIS is ranked Tamil Nadu’s #2 international day-cum-boarding school, and among India’s Top 10 schools (#5) for STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) education excellence in the EW Grand Jury Awards 2018-19.

Promoted in 2009 by businessman P.S. Moorthi and wife Priya with the objective of establishing the first IB (International Baccalaureate) school in Coimbatore (pop. 1.6 million), MIS has evolved into a highly-respected K-12 school affiliated with multiple school-leaving exam boards — International Baccalaureate, Geneva; Cambridge Assessment International Education, UK, and the Delhi-based Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). Currently, it offers the IB Primary Years Programme (PYP: classes I-V) to 218 students mentored by 28 teachers; the Cambridge IGCSE, AS and A levels (classes VI-XII) to 171 pupils tutored by 18 teachers and the CBSE curriculum (kindergarten-class VIII) to 150 children mentored by 16 teachers. MIS also hosts a state-of-the-art preschool M-Kids on its main campus and an M-Kids’ franchise in the Ramnagar suburb for children aged 1.5-6 years which provides a blend of Montessori and IB pedagogies.

“The prime objective of MIS is to provide children of this fast growing city access to high-quality syllabuses and curriculums of offshore examination boards and prepare them for admission into the world’s best universities. The IB and Cambridge International affiliations empower us to provide students broad and balanced education rooted in contemporary inquiry-based pedagogies so that they evolve into socially conscious, well-adjusted citizens prepared to take on challenges of the new globalised order. Student diversity is also very important for us and currently we host 23 NRI students from Singapore, Malaysia and the Middle East, and six from France, Germany and China,” says P.S. Moorthi, an alumnus of Bharathiar University, managing director of the city-based Aishwariyaa Handlooms Pvt. Ltd and promoter-chairman of MIS.

To realise its institutional goal of providing education with an international perspective and reach, the Manchester International School management has integrated special programmes for language development and STEAM excellence into its curriculums. They include robotics engineering, 3D printing, fashion design and photography. Moreover, MIS has signed up with the Singapore Institute of Management and Rotary Youth Exchange for student exchange programmes.

The school’s emphasis on nurturing academic excellence through diverse skills development and exchange programmes is paying dividends. In 2018, six of 12 students who wrote Cambridge International’s A level exam received A and A* grades, and 15 of 32 class X students who wrote the IGCSE exam were graded A*. “The credit for our students’ impressive academic performance goes to our teachers. We invest heavily in professional development and conduct year-round in-service teacher training workshops on campus and also sign them up for Cambridge International and IB workshops and seminars. Beyond academics, the school has been winning accolades for our social initiatives,” says Dr. S. Ravindran, a human resources and business administration alumnus of Bharathiar and Anna universities who served with the Velammal Group of Institutions and Aditya Birla Edutech, before being appointed director, HR and projects of MIS in 2017.

Yet, perhaps the most distinguishing feature of Manchester International School is the world-class facilities provided to students. The school’s wi-fi enabled campus hosts separate buildings for kindergarten (M-Kids), IB PYP, Cambridge International and CBSE students and provides separate hostels for 80 boys and 25 girl children.

Academic facilities include 44 fully-wired classrooms fitted with smart boards, computers and overhead projectors, four well-equipped science laboratories, three computer labs with 120 computers and 40 laptops, STEAM lab for robotics and 3D animation, language lab and multimedia centre. The primary and secondary school libraries together house 22,000 volumes and subscribe to 18 national and international journals and multiple online resources.

Sports education is also accorded high priority at Manchester International School and professional mentoring is provided in several games and sports by in-house coaches and visiting trainers. Facilities include two soccer fields, separate courts for tennis, volleyball and basketball, a spacious cricket ground, four indoor badminton courts, 200 m athletics track, a 1,200-seat sports stadium and separate academies for gymnastics, skating, horse riding and rifle shooting.

“MIS is currently a candidate school for the IB Middle Years and IB Diploma programme. By 2020, we hope to qualify as a full-fledged IB school. Therefore we are upgrading our infrastructure, signing agreements for cultural exchanges with schools worldwide and are set to improve student learning outcomes through incorporation of contemporary pedagogies. Within three years, MIS will be routinely ranked among the country’s Top 10 international schools in the annual EducationWorld rankings,” vows Moorthi.

ADMISSION & FEES

Manchester International School is a Cambridge International, IB and CBSE-affiliated co-ed day-cum-boarding school providing full-term and weekly boarding options from class III onwards. Students are admitted throughout the year based on vacancies, after an aptitude test.

Tuition fees (per year)

CBSE: Rs.80,000

Cambridge: Rs.1.5-2 lakh

For further details, call 91 422-6656555. Website: www.manchesters.in