CLASSROOM5 MIN
Why we still read aloud in Grade 9
Author
Rohit Menon
English Faculty · 14 JULY 2026
Somewhere around Grade 5 most schools stop reading aloud. The assumption is that fluent readers do not need it. Fluent readers do not need it to decode — but they do need it to hear argument, rhythm and the shape of a sentence.
Reading aloud is treated as a primary-school activity. We kept it for fifteen-year-olds, and the comprehension results are the argument.
Every English lesson at Mayo opens with four minutes of reading aloud, students only, no teacher voice. Over a year the effect shows up most clearly in essay writing: longer sentences, more subordination, fewer comma splices.
What we changed about homework, and what happened next
CLASSROOM7 MIN
What we changed about homework, and what happened next
Two years ago we cut written homework in the middle school by half. Here is the data, including the part that did not go the way we expected.
Anita Rawat
28 JULY 2026
Phones, and the boarding corridor at 10pm
BOARDING6 MIN
Phones, and the boarding corridor at 10pm
The phone policy parents ask about most, written out in full, including where we have compromised.
Farida Qureshi
30 JUNE 2026
What a lab period actually looks like
ACADEMICS8 MIN
What a lab period actually looks like
Forty minutes, twenty-four students, one set of apparatus. A minute-by-minute account of a Grade 11 chemistry practical.
Sandeep Iyer
16 JUNE 2026
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