Shri Shikshayatan School

Shri Shikshayatan School recently celebrated its 68th Foundation Day on a virtual platform. The institute put up a good show despite all the limitations. The programme started with invoking Lord Ganesh through a dance recital, put up by the junior school students. This was followed by another cultural performance by the students of senior school where they presented the beauty of Lord Vishnu. “As we assemble on the virtual platform to celebrate the birthday of the institute, we would thank the forefathers of the school. This institute aims to educate girl children, so that they are empowered in every way possible,” said Shikshayatan Foundation’s secretary-general Bratati Bhattacharyya.

The school calendar of the year, titled Canvas Musicscape 2021, was launched on the occasion through which the students gave a pictorial ode to music and musicians by painting pictures of indigenous musical instruments. The highlight of the day was felicitation of the teaching staff members. “In the past year, the education system had gone through a drastic change, but we worked it out successfully with sheer dedication of our teachers,” said principal Sangeeta Tandon. Teachers of both the junior and senior sections were given certificates of appreciation, silver medals and cash prizes. “Finding out the best class teacher is difficult, as every child thinks his or her class teacher is the best. This year, it was a bit different as the parents took part in an online pole and the contest was very close,” said headmistress Poushali Mukherjee.

Birla High School junior section

It was family time as the junior section of Birla High School, Moira Street, digitally celebrated Bonds that Bind with a Family Day event. The need to bond with the family was underlined with this celebration. Kids, parents and grandparents performed for each other and took part in a variety of activities on the occasion. The hour-long celebration commenced with a prayer service and was followed by recitations by students in vernacular languages and performances by their enthusiastic family members. Students from the kindergarten section to Class V took part in a variety of fun activities with their families, too. Nursery students created various craft items such as ice-cream stick, photo frame, Play Dough box and pencil holder from recycled items with the help of their families, while the kindergarten students teamed up with their family members to make sweets and savouries such as fruit salad, cheese corn sandwiches and biscuit cookies topped with vegetables. The students of Class I took part in a discussion on the importance of family and Class II kids designed crowns. Students of classes III and V turned chefs and whipped up dishes with their grandparents and relatives. The grandparents shared jokes, narrated stories and sang songs, making the occasion a successful one. “Celebrating Family Day brings into focus the importance of family solidarity wherein members of the family work together to sustain the unit through challenges, trials and tribulations. We believe that working together can do more to create a caring society,” said headmistress Farida Singh.

St Augustine’s Day School, Barrackpore

St Augustine’s Day School, Barrackpore, recently organised their annual sports carnival virtually for the primary students. Students as well as parents took part in several sports events such as sail and sink, run for fun, balance me and so on. There were displays of victory stand, trophies and certificates also to encourage the kids. “This year, owing to the pandemic, we had to do it online which requires a lot of planning. Parents were talking of indulging their wards in some physical activity. Hence, we did this as physical activity is important for a child’s well-being,” said principal Jhuma Biswas. St Augustine’s Education Society president Janet Gasper Chowdhury said: “During this period the majority of people, including students, have grown accustomed to a lifestyle with less physical activity and rarely exercise. So, we decided to arrange an online version of sports which would help them to reduce stress, control anxiety and depression, make them feel less isolated. They all have a lot of feelings right now, such as being scared because a loved one is sick, sad as they cannot see their friends at school or on the playground or even confused because they do not know what is going on. Thus, online sports is one of our many innovative initiatives to help students and their parents cope with the new normal.”

Birla High School, Mukundapur

Birla High School, Mukundapur, recently organised the second edition of Spellympic — an inter-school spelling and word-building contest — on a virtual platform to commemorate its Founder’s Day. This contest for students from classes IV and V focused on enabling the students to enrich their vocabulary and spellings. A total of 15 schools took part in the preliminary rounds from which 10 made it to the final that was shown live on Facebook for guardians and other viewers. The event commenced with a video of students singing Saraswati Vandana with folded hands and a visual of Goddess Saraswati. Calcutta Debating Circle’s executive member Raju Raman conducted the competition. Spellympic consisted of six rounds — general spellings, unscrambling letters, collective nouns, homophones, proverbs and online scrabble. The host school emerged champions and the first and second runner-up positions were secured by South Point School and Garden High School, respectively.

“We were slightly apprehensive about conducting it on the virtual platform this year, but got delighted that it was so successful. The idea behind conducting Spellympic is to motivate the young students to hone their language skills and judging from the performance of the students on that day, it seems we have been successful in doing so,” said principal Minnie Sengupta.

Delhi Public School Newtown

Delhi Public School Newtown started the new year by launching an e-magazine, Udaan, for the years 2019-2020 and 2020-21. Students from nursery to Class XII, alumni and even teachers contributed to it that also contained music videos. Its link has been shared on the school website for a wider reach. “The whole school has been very enthusiastic about the project. Every year, we bring out a printed version. But the e-magazine has got a new look. We could also upload music videos,” said principal Sonali Sen. Students have contributed in Hindi, Bengali English, French and German.

Fun-Learn Day Boarding School

Children of the Asian Association of Chesterfield and North Derbyshire, UK, and Fun-Learn Day Boarding School, Calcutta, bridged the East and the West through a cross-border nativity play and carols. Fun-Learn Day Boarding School turned the pandemic into an opportunity as they collaborated with the UK organisation for the carol evenings this time. The cross-border nativity play on a digital platform had children aged four to six from both the countries. Children from India aged between six and nine sung the carols, while an eight-year-old girl from the UK played the violin to lend soul to the carols. “Many years ago, John Lenon had imagined a world sans borders, religions and boundaries. This cross-border act has proved that it is not so difficult to create such a world. More such collaborations will help the children of both the worlds appreciate each other,” said founder Udita Chakraborty.