Twenty-two years in international education across three countries. Writes on assessment design and how schools can be demanding without being anxious places.
Dr. Nandita Rao
Principal
Educational leadership · Cognitive science
About Aurelia
A school builton one conviction.
That the job of an education is not to fill a child with answers, but to give them the confidence to ask harder questions — and the discipline to pursue them.
Founded 2001K–1235+ nationalities
01Philosophy
Education should not preparestudents for yesterday.It should prepare themto shape tomorrow.
Aurelia was built on a simple conviction: that a school's job is not to fill a child with answers, but to give them the confidence to ask harder questions — and the discipline to pursue them.
Our academic programme is rigorous and unapologetically so. Around it we build the things that rigour alone cannot teach: creativity, judgement, empathy, and the quiet resilience that lets a young person stand in front of something difficult and begin.
Students leave Aurelia fluent in more than subjects. They leave knowing how to think in public, work with people unlike themselves, and carry an idea from a question to something real.
01
Curiosity
Questions are treated as the beginning of the work, not an interruption to it.
02
Rigour
High expectations, held warmly, applied consistently, and supported every step.
03
Character
Integrity, service and self-knowledge are taught as deliberately as algebra.
04
Citizenship
A global outlook rooted in a clear sense of where our students come from.
02At a glance
- Years of educational excellence
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- Students across K–12
- 0+
- Student nationalities
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- Student–teacher ratio
- 18:1
- Clubs and activities
- 0+
Figures are illustrative and shown to demonstrate the design of this concept website.
10Faculty
People who makethe difference.
Aurelia recruits educators who are practitioners first — researchers, writers, engineers, performers — and gives them the time and the class sizes to teach properly. Every faculty member mentors a small advisory group through the year.
Former research mathematician. Believes most students are talked out of mathematics long before they are found unable to do it.
Arjun Bhatia
Head of Senior School
Mathematics · Olympiad coaching
Product engineer turned educator. Runs the Innovation Lab and the competition robotics programme, and insists that failure is logged, not hidden.
Claire Mwangi
Director of Innovation
Engineering design · Robotics
Director and composer. Has staged two productions a year at Aurelia since 2016 and coaches the senior ensemble.
Rohan Iyer
Head of Performing Arts
Theatre direction · Music
Supervises senior research projects and the Olympiad pathway. Runs the Saturday laboratory for students who want more bench time.
Dr. Ayesha Siddiqui
Head of Science
Chemistry · Research supervision
Fifteen years advising students into universities across seven countries. Starts working with families in Grade 9, not Grade 12.
Maeve Whelan
Director of University Guidance
Counselling · Global admissions
12Global outlook
Global minds.Local roots.
Aurelia students grow up in Chandigarh and think in a wider frame. Partner schools, exchanges, competitions and joint projects put them in rooms with young people who see the same problem differently — which is the fastest education in humility there is.
Hover a marker or a city to explore
Partner cities
Partner schools
Long-term relationships with schools on four continents, with reciprocal exchange places each year.
Student exchange
Term-long placements in Grades 10 and 11, with academic credit and a host family.
Model United Nations
Delegations to regional and international conferences, prepared through a year-round committee.
Global competitions
Robotics, debate, mathematics and design, entered as teams with faculty coaching.
Joint projects
Cross-border student research on shared problems — water, air quality, migration, energy.
Cultural exchange
Language immersion, hosted festivals and a visiting-artist programme.
Partnerships shown are illustrative examples for this concept website.
09Parent voices
A school that feels like a community.
Parent satisfaction
Illustrative figure shown for this concept website.
They know my child.
In our first term the class teacher called to talk about something my daughter had said in a discussion. Not a problem — an observation. That is when we knew she was actually being seen.
Ambition without pressure.
The expectations are high and completely clear. What surprised us is how calm it feels. Our son works harder here than he ever has, and he sleeps better.
We moved cities for it.
We relocated from Delhi and expected a difficult year. The transition team stayed in touch every week until she was settled. That care set the tone for everything since.
The communication is real.
Reports that say something. Meetings that start on time and end with a plan. As parents you always know exactly where your child stands and what happens next.
Meet the peoplebehind all of this.
The fastest way to understand a school is to walk it on an ordinary day. Come and ask our students and faculty whatever you like.
Chandigarh • India · Weekday tours 09:30 and 14:00