Sashikala and Sanen Imchen established The Maple Tree in Dimapur, Nagaland in 2011, with 30 students and no formal school management experience. Their bold vision – to establish a school that was different, where children took an active role in the learning process.

“XSEED was developing conceptual learning instead of traditional rote-memorization and we entrusted them to guide us and help establish our dream of creating a school different to the rest. Right from the beginning we felt truly connected with the philosophy of XSEED”, says Sashikala Imchen.

Fast-forward 8 years and The Maple Tree now has 600+ students and has grown into a school of repute in Nagaland. Although the school is now very successful, the initial phase was not without its challenges. Parents compared the school’s curriculum with traditional teaching methods, while teachers had to change habits. “What worked for us was to keep the channels of communication open with parents and the focus throughout was on process and implementation. The other key contributors to our success are the role of the education coach and the training and retraining of teachers. Some of the observations from parents now are that children enjoy coming to school, they see huge improvements when it comes to their confidence and interacting with people, confidence in speaking and in their ability to think and write on their own.”, Sashikala adds.

The Maple Tree’s 20x growth in students sounds sweeter when they tell us it has all been through word of mouth. The school takes pride in not advertising and has grown purely through student performance and referrals from parents, who have seen their children improve.

“Maple Tree has been carrying the baton of improving learning for children in the small town of Dimapur. The school has a beautiful lily pond in the middle and is loved for its culture by both parents and students. XSEED’s relationship with The Maple Tree is long and cherished, and the story of their growth is inspiring”, says Jyotsna Sharma, Regional Executive Officer, XSEED Education.