the earth school

26/09/2026

The intern has entered the building! 😎

A week of observing, discovering and wondering!

14/07/2026

And how do we free play?

You’ve seen glimpses of it in our posts—mud kitchens, log houses, chalk drawings that trail the school, pop-up shops selling found rocks, ingenious ziplines and pools, and endless wonder sparked by the living and non-living things around us. Much fun in the rain and sun!

What may look like fleeting moments are, in fact, stories sustained over days, weeks, months—and sometimes even years.

Take Cracia, an imagined country that has continued to evolve over several years. The inspiration rises and ebbs, but it always finds its way back.
It has a flag, a constitution, laws, elections, and now, a newly revised constitution and cabinet.
Yesterday was spent formally inviting new citizens. Today, the children gathered to debate, revise, and adopt their constitution before installing a new cabinet.
This is what happens when schools make space for free play with the same commitment they give to work time—every single day.
Children create worlds. They negotiate, imagine, collaborate, solve problems, and build cultures of their own.

10/07/2026

In praise of multi age classrooms with open ended material under the guidance of a thoughtful adult.

These are ordinary scenes in our classrooms.
But what is happening here?

One little child is mesmerised by insects and learns the names of the parts of an arthropod while examining specimens. This gives her the language to describe what she sees at a deeper level. Right behind her is an older child working on the parts of a fish. Here she is drawing, colouring and labelling each part. They work in the same space, quietly absorbing each other's nomenclature as well. The younger child witnesses where she will go as she gets older and the other, looks back at where she just came from.

In another area of the class a child re-visits the names of the continents. She traces them and writes their names. Right in front of her is her peer working on animals that are found on different continents.
Each child's work quietly entices the other to revisit previous learning and delve deeper.

Often we pass by golden moments around us without realising the beauty we are witnessing.

07/07/2026

Oh! For the love of circles.
A geometry lesson on the circle goes straight to the heart. It makes us ponder circles in nature and wonder how the first perfect circle may have been constructed. It connects us to humans past. It entices us to explore all the ways we can draw circles.
It compels us to explore and create and spend our hours immersed in imagining and doing.

02/07/2026

Starting the year right!
Our outbound trip to the magical Kumaran's in Hakatur, Western Ghats.

20/05/2026

The Earth School Adolescent Volunteer Program

The Earth School is opening its doors to adolescents between the ages of 13–16 years to come share, volunteer, create, and grow with us.

Young people are invited to:

✨ Share an interest, skill, or activity with younger children
or
✨ Volunteer in areas where the school may need support

This could include storytelling, art, gardening, games, sports, organizing spaces, caring for books, material making, helping maintain the environment, or contributing in other meaningful ways within the school community.

At The Earth School, we believe adolescence is a time for meaningful work, responsibility, creativity, collaboration, and connection with the larger social environment.

This experience is intended to offer adolescents:
• Opportunities to gain valuable work experience
• A chance to contribute meaningfully to a community
• Real experiences of responsibility and collaboration
• Connection with younger children and the wider social world

Volunteer opportunities may be short-term and time-bound — ranging from a single day to a week or longer, depending on the project, interest, or needs of the school community.

We hope to create a space where young people can experience independence, care, contribution, and belonging within a thoughtful and nurturing environment.

Age Group: 13–16 years
Location: The Earth School

For inquiries:
[email protected]

06/05/2026

Learning the nuts and bolts of book repair with .thandapani.
A delightful day of slowing down for us, bibliophiles.

09/03/2026

We all love winners!

The fastest, brightest, biggest, strongest are celebrated.

We ignore that winners have also been losers at some point in the past and will be again in the future.

We forget that the adrenaline from a good match, a play well done, or a test cracked open is as fleeting as a whisper.

The one who shows up time and again, who tries untiringly even when winning is a distant dream, is often left with no accolades.

This morning we walked into class fresh from the exuberance of India’s T20 World Cup win, and our conversation naturally turned to the awesome skill, endurance, and grit displayed last evening.

Quite as naturally, our conversation turned to how we view failures — our own and those of others.

Ask a six- or eight-year-old about errors and losing, and you will be immersed in a dialogue worthy of a sage — a dialogue of growth, learning, and empathy.

The older children, however, were more cerebral in their responses. While they gave trite, politically correct answers, they were visibly uncomfortable sharing their own experiences of losing and missing the goalpost.

Though all the children have experienced a non-performative, non-competitive school environment, the older ones had already absorbed society’s love for winning and our quiet shame around losing.

This conversation was beautiful — one for philosophers.

Kindness for ourselves, our ability for growth and empathy for others shone through.

Our children remind us what truly matters.

14/11/2025

Children's Day Bubble , Ice Cream Pop and Dance party!

We made our own bubble solution, magical metal bubble wands, 3 D bubble wands and ate and danced the noon away!

05/11/2025