Creativity was the buzzword on St Xavier's School, Ranchi, campus as over 879 schoolchildren from across the state assembled to take part in a daylong inter-school competition on Thursday.

Organised by the alumni association Doranda Old Xaverians' (DOX), students of Classes V to X from 29 schools including Loyola School, Jamshedpur; Holy Cross, Hazaribagh; JVM-Shyamali; Surendranath Centenary School; DPS-Ranchi; DAVs of Gandhinagar and Hehal and St Michael's School, Ranchi, took part in 37 events.

'We have been organising the event for the last 12 years and with each passing year the event gained popularity and students' participation have also increased,' said DOX senior vice-president Vishal Jain.

The event was inaugurated by principal secretary in social welfare department M.S. Bhatia.

From displaying their love for the Queen's language in competitions like spelling, debate, elocution, extempore, story writing, story-telling, poetry writing and recitation to showcasing their creativity in ad-making, fusion dance, flower arrangement and rangoli-making, it was a thrilling Thursday for all the 879 students.

'We had loads of fun and even got to learn a lot from my co-participants,' said Sahanubhuti Krishnan, a student of St Michael's School, Ranchi, adding all children were divided into three groups for each event.

At the end of the day, the host school bagged the champions trophy with 55 prizes followed by DPS-Ranchi and JVM- Shyamali with 50 and 33 prizes, respectively. Surendranath Centenary School came fourth with 31 prizes.

This year a new event Best of the Waste was introduced where students had to create innovative pieces using discarded materials like old newspapers, empty bottles, tyres, tiles, CDs and buttons.

'This was a really innovative event. I am surprised to see the beautiful items created by the students. More such events should be held in future,' said Swapna Das, a fine arts teacher of JVM-Shyamali who accompanied students for the competition.