Students of BD Memorial Institute perform a drill during the closing ceremony of Spanza 2011 on April 20. Picture by Anindya Shankar Ray

Two school football teams were locked in a close fight. The players tried to outdo each other in dribble, sprint and pass, before BD Memorial Institute beat Ballygunge Shiksha Sadan by a goal.

The event was the first girls’ inter-school football match, organised by BD Memorial Institute on April 20, as part of its sports tournament, Spanza 2011.

The meet — hosted by Indus Valley World School from April 11 to 20 — saw 25 schools participating, including Lakshmipat Singhania Academy, Don Bosco-Park Circus, Rani Rashmoni High School and National High School for Boys. 23chit

Utpal Chatterjee, the sheriff of Calcutta, was the chief guest at the closing ceremony.

The most popular event was the T-20 cricket matches that had CAB umpires officiating. National High School for Boys clinched the trophy in this section.

Other events included table tennis, chess, basketball and football. In table tennis, Jeet Chandra of Lycee School and Manisha Mukherjee of Barisha High School were the champions in the boys and girls’ sections, respectively.

Abhrapratim Manna of Don Bosco- Park Circus was crowned chess champion in the boys’ section, while Devika Bharani of Lakshmipat Singhania Academy was the champion among the girls. BD Memorial was the basketball champion in the boys’ category and Ballygunge Shiksha Sadan in the girls’.

“This tournament has given us all great exposure. Many of us are now encouraged to take up sport as a career,” said Aravind Narayanan, a Class X student of BD Memorial Institute, and part of the victorious basketball team.

“The competition was stiff, but regular practice saw us through,” said Jyotikant Mayur of Ballygunge Shiksha Sadan after winning the basketball crown.

In football, The Heritage School beat Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan to the trophy.

At the closing ceremony, students of BD Memorial Institute presented a wonderful drill display — Spectrum — dressed in colourful costumes. The audience could not stop clapping as the children exhibited some difficult moves and formations.

“Sport should be made compulsory in all schools so that we can spot more talent in the state,” said Usha Mehta, the director of Indus Valley World School.

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Prize day parade

nSouth Calcutta Inner Wheel School organised its annual prize day at Children’s Little Theatre recently. The institution imparts basic primary education to the slum children of Panchanantala and Kankulia, near Gariahat. The evening began with the students belting out songs like Amra sobai raja and Basante phul gathlo amar joyer mala. The little ones presented a programme to create awareness about the environment and on tiger preservation. Another set of children presented a play, Rabindranath o Khoka, as a tribute to the Nobel laureate. Students won prizes for both academic performance and their attendance. Scholarships were also given out to a number of students, while the

Students of The Heritage School in their play area. Picture by Anindya Shankar Ray.

performer of the year received a trophy.

Fun twist to math

nThe Centre for Pedagogical Studies in Mathematics organised an event — Maths for Fun — at Sakhawat Memorial Girls’ School last month. It was open to children of classes VI and VII. Many team-based competitions on mathematics were held to make math fun for kids. Around 360 children from 19 schools participated in theevent.