Sri Sathya Sai Vidya Vihar Higher Secondary School

This school sits on Nadabai Garden Street in Tiruvottiyur, right under the No 3 Sai Sudhan Educational Trust. Chennai is a big, busy city, and this neighborhood is no different. We have a lot of history in this building. It’s a higher secondary school, so we deal with older students who are preparing for their big exams. The pressure can be high sometimes, but we try to keep things grounded. The classrooms are large with ceiling fans that hum all day long to beat the heat. We have a small library and some science labs that get used quite a bit. The teachers here have been around for a long time, and they know most of the families in the area. It’s common to see siblings following each other through the grades. We have a playground, but it’s mostly just dirt and some goalposts. During the breaks, you can hear the kids shouting and playing from blocks away. We focus on the textbooks and the syllabus because that’s what the students need to move on to college. It’s a straightforward way of doing things. The office is always busy with paperwork and parents coming in to pay fees or ask questions. We don’t use any fancy management talk; we just run the school the way it’s always been run. It’s a community place where everyone is just trying to get through their lessons.