(From top) The Titans team bagged the fair-play award at Mothers’ Premier League in Bhubaneswar, participants discuss child-centric issues at the kids’ parliament at Panposh in Rourkela and students enjoy a splash during the summer camp at Takshila School in Bhubaneswar. Telegraph pictures

Football league

The Mothers’ Public School, Bhubaneswar, hosted its maiden football league titled ‘Mothers’ Premier League’ from May 27 to June 4 at the Kishore Club Ground here. Sixty-four students were chosen from a larger pool through a three-day trial and selection process. They were divided into four teams of 16 players each — eight players from Mothers’, four ex-students of the school and four from other schools. The teams were called Titans, Assassins, Vulcans and Phoenix. The format was similar to the English Premier League (EPL).

Each team had a manager while the captains were chosen from a list of current Mothers’ players via voting on Facebook. The selection of the players was done by each captain through an auction system.

Each player had designated base points and bidding was done. Every captain had 10,000 points each to use on Mothers’ players, pass-outs and outsiders. This ensured every team was equally competitive.

The matches were played at 6:30am and 4:30pm with adequate time for rest in between. Qualified national level referees were brought in to conduct the games.

As it was a league tournament, there was no final match and each team played each other twice. Three points were awarded for a win, one for draw and zero for a loss.

Thirty-minute halves and rolling substitutions (no limit on this) were used, instead of three substitutions per match as is the norm. Thus, a player could retire from the ground and join again after five or 10 minutes as it is done in basketball and hockey. This allowed for fast paced gameplay and also ensured everyone got a chance to play.

An innovative system of green card was used. Every act of fair play earned the player and team a green card from the referee. At the end of the tournament, the fair play award was given to a team on this basis. All the matches were highly competetive and all the teams suffered at least two defeats. A man of the match trophy was awarded at the end of every game.

The final standings were as follows: Vulcans finished in first place, followed by Phoenix, Assassins and Titans. The fairplay award was bagged by the Titans.

The league concluded on June 4. The chief guest for the opening ceremony was Oriya footballer, Shradhanjali Samantaray. For the closing ceremony, it was Everest conquerer, Ganesh Jena.

Apart from being a learning experience for young, inexperienced players, the tournament made sure that students had something fun and healthy to do in their vacations rather than sit on the couch all day long.

Kids’ parliament

Around 360 children from economically weaker families participated in the summer session of a three-day Children’s Parliament at Panposh, near the Rourkela railway station, which began on June 3.

The children who had come from three blocks of Sundargarh district — Kuarmunda, Birsa and Nuagaon — were divided into small groups to discuss various child-centric issues. They took up topics such as education, mid-day meal and nutrition, health, livelihood, and so on, for debate and planning.

Girl children were made aware of their rights and how to protect themselves in the face of adversity. In the evening session of the last day, the little parliamentarians passed about five resolutions.

They have also prepared a memorandum, which would be forwarded to the President of India.

The programme was conducted by two child rights’ promoting organisations, Disha and Childline.

Summer camp

The Takshila School, Bhubaneswar, organised a fun-filled summer camp on its campus from May 4 to May 31.

Besides students of Takshila, 30-odd children from other schools in the capital also took part in an array of activities such as dance, music, yoga and cookery at the camp.

However, the major highlight was swimming as the kids spent most of their time near the pool to beat the heat. The camp concluded with a grand valedictory ceremony in which the children were given certificates of participation.

They also presented a colourful show of dance and music before their teachers and parents.