Lakshmipat Singhania Academy
Students and teachers celebrate the 26th Founder’s Day of Lakshmipat Singhania Academy through music, dance and nostalgia. The achievers are lauded and teachers look back at many battles undertaken and won.
The virtual programme began with a welcome song about the school that was written by a teacher Sutirtha Roy Ghatak and performed by students from classes VI to IX.
The school’s head girl Saanvi Nagar was the anchor for the event. The highlight of the celebration was a play that is about six friends, who take time out to revisit their school. As they tour the corridors, laboratories and classrooms and play a game of football with the current students, they manage to turn back time. The play took the audience on a virtual tour of the school with its state-of-the art classrooms, activity rooms, Covid isolation wards, Atal tinkering lab and game rooms. As the six friends — played by Harshita Saraf, Riddhima Koley, Anikait Chakraborty, Khushboo Gupta and Shivaang Tyagi (all from Class XI) and Aaditya Hans of Class IX — recount their school life, the audience are taken through LSA’s progress over the years.
School director Meena Kak, in her speech, highlighted some exchange projects and national-level achievements that the school and its students earned in 2021. The institute also bagged the school of the year award at The Telegraph School Awards for Excellence 2021. “The LSA students have been donning the cap of responsibility and integrity successfully and have been displaying a great sense of dedication towards different causes,” she said.
“It is important to have knowledge about different subjects but the ultimate goal of education is enlightenment. Tagore had said that the goal of education is anadam or joy. Let the joy of knowledge flood you as you study,” said chief guest Anupam Basu, director of National Institute of Technology, Durgapur.
Future Hope
Students recently hosted their annual drama festival — Katie Baddley Drama Competition — online. The theme was Zooming On 2121 — A Look at the Future. The four Houses — Panther, Cobra, Elephant and Tiger — competed with each other under the training of theatre personality Amlan Chaudhuri. After months of online practice, the group recorded the performances on YouTube. The judges were Quasar Thakore Padamsee of Q Theatre (Mumbai) and Shuktara Lal.
“The children were amazing. I would love to hold a workshop with them live next year,” said Padamsee. Future Hope CEO Sujata Sen was all praises for the participants. “It’s not easy to practice theatre online especially when networks are dodgy and sound not always perfect. However, our children are made of grittier stuff and they performed so well,” she said.
DPS Howrah
School farewells are always special, more so for DPS Howrah as they gave their first batch of Class XII a send-off last year. The Class XI students were the hosts of this party and they wanted to make it a grand affair. Sixty-odd students from classes XI and XII finally turned up for the farewell, which was planned over brainstorming sessions for over a week. The Class XI students and the teachers had planned everything meticulously, right from decorating the venue with handmade craft.
The outgoing batch was treated to a cultural programme that included a skit - Their Siblings Away from Home - on a student’s journey in school right from Nursery to Class XII. Written by the students themselves, the skit helped the outgoing batch look back on some wonderful times that they had spent in the corridors and on the grounds. Class XII students penned their memories in their yearbook and the juniors read some of them out.
“They are like a family to us. We share a very special bond with our immediate seniors and the sharing of memories was a very emotional exercise,” said Class XI student Sheikh Nafisa Nazrin.
The skit was followed by dance performances that had the students cheering all along. Finally, the floor was open for dance, some emotional goodbyes and selfies. Some of the Class XII students also played football with their mates on the school grounds.
“We bade farewell to our first batch of students with joy in our hearts and tears in our eyes. Joy because the results were excellent with placements in IIT’s and topmost medical colleges, tears because it is difficult to cut the umbilical cord. However, the strong bond between the students and teachers will remain for years to come. Fond memories of good times and mischievous moments have been captured in our hearts,” said principal Sunita Arora.
Shri Shikshayatan School
Fun with numbers, date with history and bonding over science — a STEAM (short for science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics) exhibition recently organised by Shri Shikshayatan School was all that and more. The event — whose participants included members of interact clubs such as mathematics, science, art, craft, photography and film, nature, heritage and cookery — was held online and uploaded on YouTube. The aim was to teach students how their regular lessons can be fun. The mathematics club had children showcasing their number skills, while members of the science club performed many experiments to prove the fundamental elements of life. The nature club demonstrated how one should reduce, reuse and recycle for a greener environment. The heritage club showcased various models of heritage sites in the city. A video on the history of Calcutta - that also covered its hand-pulled rickshaws, trams and the high court - was screened. The film and photography club presented a visual magazine on candid, nature and black and white shots. The art club presented the work of many budding talents in watercolour, acrylic and mixed media. The craft club proved that one can convert waste into something useful and beautiful. The design club exhibited their creativity in poster-making and wall hangings. The icing on the cake was all the delightful dishes prepared by the cookery club. The young chefs tossed up triple layer chocolate mousse, mixed fruit juice and interesting sandwiches in their home kitchens.
“It was a perfect opportunity for our girls to engage in various projects and engage in activities under the guidance of their club teachers. They took part enthusiastically according to their interest. We are also grateful to their parents for motivating them. We hope more girls will take up STEAM education in future,” said principal Sangeeta Tandon.