Sky School System
Sky School System
Introduction:
The Sky School system was founded in the summer of 2012 with the purpose of educating underprivileged and extremely poor young boys from conflict-affected and violence prone areas of Pakistan, who had lost a parent due to the strife in their community.
We initially started as school, and our students were housed by the Bait-ul-Maal, but we eventually expanded to take over the children’s boarding as well as education. We currently house and school 105 boys in a single facility in F/11, Islamabad. Our children, from the ages of 3-11 years, come from various areas in Pakistan, including Parachinar, Peshawar, Dera Bugti and Sui.
Sky school was set up by the initiative of a private entrepreneur and philanthropist Mr. Hassan Bokhari, who provides all of the funds required to run the facility to a remarkably high standard, and without whose support and generosity we would not exist.
School: Staff & Facilities
The Sky School administration team includes a general manager who oversees both the management of the school and boarding facility, a headmistress and an accountant.
Currently, we provide education from playgroup up until year 3. As our children grow, we aim to keep adding on additional classes so we can educate them all up until the A’ level.
We have a staff of ten highly qualified permanent teachers, two of whom have trained in Montessori teaching methods abroad. We also have a small teaching staff of dedicated volunteers.
Our curriculum is based on the standard GCSE/Cambridge syllabus followed in the UK, and we stress computer skills and language skills in addition. For this reason, we have a dedicated computer lab on site.
For extra-curricular activities, we have an outdoor play area, and a ground opposite the school is used regularly for sports. We also encourage creative expression and the examination of topical issues through the arts; our children recently put on a splendid theatrical performance on child abuse.
In addition, once a month we celebrate the birthdays of all the children born that month, with a huge cake and a party, which the children love. We also take the children out to the zoo, one of the city’s parks or some other site of interest for special treats; we recently visited the salt mines in Kallar Kahar, a trip that our little boys enjoyed immensely.
Boarding Facility:
Our boarding facility is managed on a daily basis by 10 “mother-maids,” each responsible for the care of approximately 10 children in the after-school hours.
Our children are provided three healthy communal meals and two snacks daily, cooked on-site by two chefs that are part of our permanent staff. After school, older children are assigned basic chores such as cleaning up their dishes, ironing their clothes and polishing their shoes. They spend an hour in the early evening playing sports in the ground followed by homework. Late evenings are spent having dinner, taking showers and getting ready for bed.
There are two guards on-site permanently to manage security, and a “dhobi” who regularly launders clothing and bedding is also part of the permanent staff.
Education ethos:
At Sky School system our goal is to do more than educate children; we want to raise responsible, self-reliant, aware and moral citizens. For this reason we take a holistic approach, teaching the boys not just academics, but also about health and hygiene, the difference between right and wrong, good manners and etiquette, brotherhood, camaraderie, citizenship and community-mindedness.
Though our students come from the most underprivileged backgrounds, we believe and we inculcate in them the belief that with hard work they can truly be anything they want to be. Our teaching reflects this belief and we are dedicated to ensuring that the children of Sky School will be the leaders of their communities and of tomorrow’s Pakistan.
Note: •We are very fortunate to have found enormous support for all of our bright young boys from wonderful organisations within Islamabad; our children are seen free of charge by devoted doctors and dentists who are experts in their field. We are provided enormous cakes every month by one of the city’s leading bakeries to celebrate our children’s birthdays. We cannot thank them enough for the comfort and joy they bring to our boys.
