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| A match during the CBSE Cluster II Basketball Tournament, 2010, hosted by Aditya Academy-Barasat. Thirty-seven teams from Jharkhand, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal participated in the meet. MGM School, Bokaro, beat Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Calcutta, to the trophy in the girls’ section. In the boys’ section, Sainik School (Tilaiya) defeated DAV (Jamshedpur) in the finals. |
Rupsha Bhadra, a Class IX student of Modern High School for Girls (MHS) waited with baited breath as the German rock band, Fotos, got ready to perform on their campus. It made little difference to her that the band would be performing in German.
“A rock concert in school sounds so cool!” squealed the teenager as she and her friends geared up to take over the dance floor for the next two hours.
The MHS ground witnessed an electrifying ambience last month as the band from Hamburg performed for the young audience. The event was an initiative of Max Mueller Bhavan, Calcutta, and Schools: Partners For The Future (PASCH), of which MHS is a member. It was open to all students.
Amritendrani Banerjee, the project coordinator of PASCH said: “We plan to reach out to children learning German in other schools as well. This event was part of a cultural exchange programme between the two countries. The band has already performed in other cities as a part of its South Asian tour.”
Though all the songs were in German, the audience cheered continuously, enjoying every bit of the evening.
“I did not understand a word. But the music was awesome,” gushed a group of students from Don Bosco Park Circus. The lead vocalist kept shouting in English: “We wanna see you dance even more,” and most students complied willingly.
Shreya Bhattacharya, a student of St Xavier’s College, is fluent in German. She found the experience thrilling.
“It reminded me of a one-year cultural exchange programme that I attended in Europe. Through these songs I could relate to the language again,” she said.
Others may have had little to relate to, but that did not stop them from behaving like die-hard fans. They rushed towards the lead vocalist as he leapt off the stage and mingled with the audience.
And when the programme ended, the fans kept chanting, “We want more!” The band had to comply and sing yet another number.
Twist your tongue right
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| Performers with their puppets at the Lakshmipat Singhania Academy Language and Entrepreneurship Mela |
Pick up a letter from a box and make a chain of words in one minute, dress as an author and speak about the person on stage, try to get a few tongue-twisters right or learn to use both music and words in literary compositions. These were some of the activities that students of Lakshmipat Singhania Academy engaged in at the Language and Entrepreneurship Mela, held on campus on November 16.
“Science and math melas have become common now. We wanted our children to have fun with language too. Such an event will inculcate in them a passion for literature,” said Meena Kak, the principal of the school.
The event was part of the birth centenary celebrations of the school’s founder, Lala Lakshmipat Singhania.
The school premises were dotted with stalls bearing innovative names like Letter Smith, Fumbling Fantasy, Beat Box or Acquaintances. Each stall offered an interesting language game for the participants.
The most popular among them was Fumbling Fantasy, that saw children and parents trying out various tongue-twisters (like “she sells sea shells on the sea shore”) and, often, breaking into peals of laughter as they stammered or got stuck mid-way.
The difficult ones included: “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper, a peck of pickled pepper Peter Piper picked” and “How many cookies could a good cook cook?” Few got them right, but most had a go at them. There were tongue-twisters in Hindi and Bengali, too.
In Acquaintances, children made “friends” with some literary greats like O’Henry, Oscar Wilde, Munshi Premchand and others. For every winner, there were chocolates.
The highlight of the day was a puppet show staged by the students of the junior section. The puppets, made by the kids, were made to dance to the tune of music and narration. The students also performed two dance dramas, one on Durga and her victory over evil, the other on “superhero Hanuman”.
Co-ed school to open in March
A co-educational school off Diamond Harbour Road is set to open doors in March 2011.
Akademia International School, with a 20-acre campus, will be affiliated to both CIE (Cambridge International Examinations) and CISCE (Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations) boards. It will offer education up to Class XII.
In the first year, admissions will be open for the Montessori section and for and classes I to VII. “We will follow a child-friendly teaching approach,” said P.S.P. Raju, the chairman of the school.
Each class will have a maximum of 30 students. With a well-defined co-curricular programme, experienced faculty and infrastructure, the school claims it will provide an “international education”.
“Grades I to VI will follow an in-house curriculum. In Class VII, students can opt for either the CIE or the CISCE board. They can also switch boards,” said Sujata Ghatak, the vice-principal and officiating principal of the school. Admissions started in November.
The campus has been divided into four zones — academic, athletic, activity (music, dance and theatre) and ancillary. The school will provide other amenities like a swimming pool, a gymnastics centre, billiards, squash and lawn tennis courts.
“Yoga and meditation will form an integral part of the curriculum,” said a school official.
Other facilities in the school include an outdoor plaza for students to relax and an auditorium with 1,200 seats.
