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PRIZE DAY 2007-2008
 

Honoured guests, ladies and gentlemen, girls and boys of the school, it gives me great pleasure to welcome to our School this evening Mr. Neil O’Brien. Chairman of the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations, New Delhi. I thank you for giving up the time to be with us on this important occasion for the School, when we celebrate the endeavours and achievements of our pupils during the past year.

Civilisation and the values by which it is upheld cannot be sustained through generations without schools. Education is fundamentally about the values by which we live. Some might want to argue that education is about the imparting of knowledge and skills, but skilfully manipulated knowledge is dangerous in the hands of those without sound moral judgement. So a good education will impart knowledge and skills, but must do so in the context of a sound sense of values and a strong moral fibre.

It is with this in mind that we, at National Gems Higher Secondary School, continue to impart education that caters to an all round development of the child and which must be built around a strong moral fibre.

The academic year 2007-2008 commenced on a happy note with an array of programmes scheduled on our very own campus.

For the first time ever the Junior School and Senior School presented concerts separately and which were open to all students and all parents.

 

The Annual Concert of the Senior School was held on 3rd May, 7th May and 11th May. Mr. Ian Myers, Principal, Frank Anthony Public School was the Chief Guest on the 7th and Mr. S. N. Sarkar, IPS, Addl. Commissioner of Police (I), Kolkata was the Chief Guest on the 11th.

 

The Dramatics Club Endeavour shouldered the entire responsibility of staging, “Ali Baba and The Forty Thieves” – An English Musical Dance Drama, which delightfully entertained the audience. The stage performances of the Hindi and the Bengali department were of an extremely high standard and were highly appreciated.

 

The Annual Concert of the Junior School was held on 2nd May, 8th May and 10th May. Mrs. L. Vanhaeftan, Headmistress, Frank Anthony Public School was the Chief Guest on 8th May. The concert was a happy blend of dance, drama and music.

 

The Annual Prize Day for the Junior School on 4th May had Ms. Usha Andrews, Principal, St. Thomas’ Boys’ School grace the occasion as the Chief Guest.
 

The Chief Guest for the Annual Prize Day for the Senior School on 5th May was Rev. Fr Moloy D’Costa, Principal, St Aloysius School and also Secretary, Diocesan Schools.

 

The Inter School Topical Quiz on 9th May was as exciting as ever. Mr. Barry O’Brien, Managing Committee Member, was the Quiz Master and was his usual best.
 

35 schools participated and the top three teams were Don Bosco School, Park Circus, La Martiniere For Boys, Calcutta and our very own National Gems Higher Secondary School.
 

Mr. S. N. Gupta, IPS, Superintendent of Police, 24 Pgs. (S), was the Chief Guest for the programme.
 

During the past year the School ran a wide and varied sports programme and enjoyed a pleasing level of success across a wide range of sports. Football, cricket, table tennis, throw ball, caroms and chess are very much part of the exciting sports programmes we have to offer. Perhaps the most remarkable discovery was the wealth of talent among our basketball players. Inter class and inter house basketball was played with great vigour and for the first time we fielded a school basketball team for boys and girls at inter school tournaments.

 

Inter-class and inter-house competitions ensure that children participate in a healthy spirit of competition. The juniors and the seniors had their fair share of activities ranging from Singing, Dancing, Elocution, Debating, Dramatics, Painting, and Quizzing to Football, Cricket, Throw ball and Table Tennis. They bring to the fore hidden talents and help children develop as individuals.

 

Exhibitions of Art & Craft and Science of the senior school were held on 21st of September where our children got a chance to display their creativity and their scientific bent of minds.

 

The Junior School art & craft exhibition on 12th October was once again wonderfully arranged to the satisfaction of all concerned.

 

The Junior school is proud of Katha Mitra who ranked 4th among four thousand students who participated in the All Bengal Sit & Draw Competition. Our school collected the maximum number of signatures for a signature campaign organized by ‘Kids for Tigers’ and also came first in the fancy dress awareness drive for endangered species.

 

The Nature Club, Vasudha, makes every effort to contribute in a positive way to the environmental concerns. Whether it be planting of saplings or carrying out awareness programmes the children think globally and act locally.
 

The different clubs of the school, both for dancing and singing, never fail to captivate the audience with their presentations whether it is for an in-house event or an inter school event.

 

The Quiz Club Inquisitive continues to participate in as many contests as possible and never fails to bring laurels for the school.
 

The finals for the Senior Inter class quiz was graced by Mr. Barry O’Brien on the 12th July ’07 who also shared his valuable thoughts with our young students.

 

At the ASISC Quiz on 4th August the juniors secured the 3rd position and our seniors secured the 1st position

 

A remarkable and pleasing achievement last year was the accomplishment of some of our students in the public speaking arena. The All India Inter-School Frank Anthony Debate was held at Bhawanipur Gujarati Educational Society in May. Our school, represented by Ankita Basu and Jayshree Saraswat was adjudged first and Jayshree was declared the Best Speaker.
 

The school hosted the second stage of The All India Inter School Frank Anthony Debate on the 3rd August, which is held under auspices of the CISCE, New Delhi. At the same debate held in Bhubaneswar our team came a proud second.
 

The Derozio Extempore Competition organized by the Kolkata Branch of the AIAIA was an event that brought great joy and excitement to the school with Sneha Karmakar bagging the 1st prize from among 25 top schools in Kolkata.

 

Special assemblies were held on various occasions and special programmes were organized on May Day, Independence Day, Teachers’ Day and Children’s Day. Meaningful prayer services were held on two separate days to commemorate the death anniversary of the Late Ganesh Prasad Khanna and the Late Narayan Shaw.

 

The students once again delightfully organized Saraswati Puja and at their own initiative food packets and books were distributed to needy children of the locality.

 

The NCC, Scouts and Guides Movements have grown in stature and more and more students are showing a great deal of interest in joining. The NCC Army wing for the Girls presently has 60 cadets.

NCC Air Wing for the boys also went on a number of camps and participated in various events. At the Inter Squadron Debate Championship and the Inter Squadron Quiz Championship our school came a proud first and was also adjudged the best disciplined school.

 

A Talent Hunt for Radio Jockey organized by Red FM was held on the 10th of August in which our students participated and the three victors were:

                   1.     Soham Chakraborty – 1st
                   2.     Saika Majumdar – 2nd
                   3.     Neha Kesri – 3rd

 

A team of seven students visited City Montessori School in Lucknow to participate in Quanta 2007, an international event, and I am happy to announce that we stood third in the Science Quiz and first in the Debate. That was a remarkable achievement.
 

In the month of December last year the school embarked on an ambitious venture by organizing a Carnival for a Cause. For three consecutive days there was fun and frolic for the children and guardians of our school. With plenty of game stalls and music and excitement there was never a dull moment. Dance competitions, singing competitions, antakshari, quiz and a live band added to the excitement. But what made all this even more special was that three NGO’s; namely Sanchar, Divine Smile and Naba Prayas were invited to run stalls at no cost to them. Each NGO had their specially challenged inmates perform on stage for the audience and about 20 from each organization were gifted with a blanket and a towel. This was an extremely fulfilling endeavour and I am deeply indebted to you parents for the support you extended to the school for this noble venture.

 

The Telegraph Education Foundation organized an award giving ceremony on the 18th August and the 25th August which was held at the Science City Auditorium in which the following students: Shivalik Halder, Arindam Das, Annanya Ghosh and Sourav Sarkar were awarded with certificates of honour for the courage they have shown in the face of physical ailments.

 

Our school was also awarded two certificates of honour as follows: -

1. The G. D. Salarpuria Foundation Award for Best Academic Performance (ISC)
2. The Best Extra – Curricular performance by a School.

The Junior School classrooms were colour washed during the last summer vacation. The hall in the junior school building has been completed and this will allow for more playing space and will also provide the school the opportunity to organise some functions.

 

An activity room or playroom for the Lower Nursery, Upper Nursery and Kindergarten children has been completed and the little ones are happily and gainfully engaged when they visit the playroom.

 

The desks and benches for the little children have been colourfully painted to make the classrooms more attractive and student friendly.

 

The school has invested in play equipment and books for the library for the juniors.

 

Besides the regular cleaning and treating of the drinking water, samples were taken for laboratory testing to ensure that the water is safe for the students to drink. This was done for the juniors and seniors.

 

Water filters have been installed in the junior and senior school, which further ensures that children get safe drinking water.

 

A school canteen has been planned with Nestle India and will be operational when school reopens after the summer vacation.

 

Be it the British Council, or the Council for the ISC Examinations, or the Teachers Training Centre at Loreto College or any other professional in the field of education the school never fails to send teachers for workshops, seminars or refresher courses which serve to keep the teachers abreast of the changes that are taking place in the world of education and which will ultimately benefit your children.

 

Academics continues to be our primary concern and with a dedicated set of staff the school will continue to impart value-based education. The system of testing with two assessments and two examinations will remain. During the vacations teachers offer to conduct extra classes but, sadly, the response has not been very encouraging.

 

Regrettably, a school is widely referred to as a “good” school if the average board examination results are above 90%. It wouldn’t be out of place to mention that while many schools reject students with a low percentage because they are considered “weak” students, we at National Gems Higher Secondary School take up the challenge and turn those “weak” students into determined young people striving to succeed and achieve. Many teachers nowadays do not join National Gems Higher Secondary School if they lack commitment and want the easy way out; and they certainly don't continue in our school if that is their attitude! It is an all-consuming task and one which requires complete dedication during term-time, a love for their subject and faith in their students. It is this dedication, this disposition of giving and sharing, which we wish to see as the basis of all children's learning, a process of learning which recognises the leadership quality in every individual and seeks to bring it to the surface and enable it to blossom. The measure of our success is borne by the fact that our results are 100% passes.

 

A summary of the ISC and ICSE results for the 2007 are as follows:

ISC 2007

107 students appeared
107 students passed
Abhinav Mukherjee of the Science stream secured 92%
Susmita Gupta of the Commerce stream secured 93%

4 students secured more than 90%

ICSE 2007

167 students appeared
167 students passed
Paromita Dubey secured 97.6 %
24 students scored above 90 %
75 students scored in the range 80 – 89%
52 students scored in the range 70 – 79%

Average of all students: 79.4%

 

For this achievement we have four groups of people to congratulate: first the students themselves for their hard and consistent effort; next the teachers for their dedication and service; then you parents for the support and encouragement you provide to your children and finally the management for its single focus on working for the progress of the school.

 

I might add here that the school discourages private tuitions or tutorials home. However, we believe that some children do need special attention which can only be provided in smaller numbers and not in large numbers that we generally find outside the school. Please feel free to come and discuss with me any academic needs of your child.

Involvement in such projects and programmes as outlined earlier cannot happen without the commitment and enthusiasm of our staff, pupils and parents. We never cease to be impressed at the willingness of such a large number of pupils to become involved in the wider life of the school or at the talent that they show. And Schools need to provide opportunities for those talents to take root and to nourish them, so that ultimately our pupils can become ambassadors through sport, through our clubs and societies, through travel and through modern communication technologies: ambassadors not only for their School, but for their country in a global context. The opportunities that are illustrated in this report this evening are eagerly seized and used to advantage by the pupils who come here, because the vast majority of those pupils and their parents strongly identify with the ethos of this school, support its aims and want it to succeed.

I am deeply obliged to the Managing Committee of our school, and particularly to Mr. Manoj Shaw, Mr. Sudeep Kumar Khanna and Mr. Barry O’Brien for the patience and understanding that they have shown and for tremendous support they have extended to me.

I would like to express my appreciation to the Headmaster, Mr. Michael D’Cruize and the Headmistress, Mrs. Gagan Arora for their support and cooperation in ensuring the smooth running of the School over the past year. Indeed the staff as a whole must be thanked for the professional and cheerful way in which they discharge their responsibilities. I thank also the administrative and support staff of the school for their efforts over the past year. My dear students, thank you for being what you are, children whom we love. And parents thank you for being a very important pillar of support in our endeavour to ensure that your children lead happy and fulfilled lives.

"Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength for our nation."

"We do not own our knowledge; it is not ours to keep. We must share our gift of knowing with those who seek to know. Learning is a blessing, teaching is a gift, and knowledge is power! Let's empower your children."

M.S. CALVERT