IN HARMONY

Our School Chorus performed ‘The Mountains Are Calling, Are We Really Listening’ composed by our Assistant Director Virgil Vihaan Sequeira and Music Facilitator Shubam Biswakarma, commissioned by the Himalayan Institute of Goodwill and Living Ethics at the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, Darjeeling to commemorate 100 years of Russian painter & philosopher Nicholas Roerich in Darjeeling Hills as well as the 70th year of reaching the summit of Mount Everest. The Chief Guest, Member of Parliament for Darjeeling, Mr. Raju Bista appreciated the performance and the strong message. Hayden Hall Institute very warmly welcomed the chorus for lunch.  As we drew towards the end of the school year 2023, we conducted summative assessments (Term 2 Written Evaluations) and the ASER Test - English and Nepali Literacy Skills and Arithmetic Skills as Endline for 2023 and Baseline for 2024.  141 students received School level Awards at Appreciation Day , this time, new monetary awards in...

  We marked the significance of Dasai at a morning assembly before school shut for the break.  When we returned, we organised the first GAS Fête to raise funds for the Music & the Arts and the Health & Community Missions. It was yet again, a powerful collaboration between the Staff, Parent Guardian Council, the Student Council and Class 10 students for whom, this was their culminating action project under their Adolescent Life Skills course. The footfall was over 1,500 with many friends of our students, alumni, community members and students from other schools visiting. We managed to raise INR 90,000.  Our School Orchestra and Music Teachers performed at the Sikkim State Education Awards on the invitation of Mount Zion Schools trustee, Sharolyn Zimba, including arranging overnight the favourite Hindi and Nepali song of the Chief Guest, The Hon’ble Chief Minister.  The Cello and Viola Ensemble (Classes 3 to 10) performed an original composition of our Cello...

We kept the school open through the rains and took the opportunity to educate students about the GLOF disaster along the Teesta and kept four of our students from Teesta Bazar in our prayers. Our Community Coordinator, Binita Mothay kept in touch with government authorities for relief work and sent out a call for small contributions of items for the relief camps. What we witnessed the next day was an outpouring of generosity from our children and parents.  Our teachers in the Life Skills & Facilitation group completed their final session and those in the Pedagogy and Psychosocial Behaviour Group began their course.  Migma Girmi Sherpa, founder of Rimbick Fresh and Dekho Darjeeling and our alumnus, Sushil Chettri, founder of Ghumaun Kalimpong joined forces to deliver a 2-day workshop on entrepreneurship for our Class 10 students with special focus on agrobusiness & ecotourism. The first day was filled with their stories of challenges, rejection, perseverance and succes...

September began with the Trimester 2 Open Day for Class 9 & 10.  The Parent Guardian Council & the Student Council organised Teacher’s Day for the first time, under the mentorship of our School Co-ordinator, Sr. Veronica Lepcha SJC. The Parent Guardian Council also mobilised their zones for a second round of Village Clean Up Drive that they started as part of the ‘Our Common Home, Our Shared Future’ Annual Interdisciplinary Project in June.  The Social Studies Team organised ‘Hamro Gaun: Model Gram Panchayat’ on the occasion of Founder’s Day - the Birth Anniversary of Fr. Edward McGuire SJ. Students from classes 5 and 6 represented their Houses, educating the school about the opportunity that the Panchayati Raj Institutions bring for our communities, especially since it was resurrected in the Hills after over 20 years. T he Parent Guardian Council was invited as Special Guests for the occasion.  Our Class 10 students went on an Exposure Visit as part of the Adol...

Following our feast day celebrations, kindly graced by Fr. Oshish Tirkey SJ, we took advantage of the monsoons and organised a Campus Plantation drive involving students, parents and teachers from Classes LKG to 10 on three different Saturdays.  Our Parent Guardian Council and our Health & Community Team participated in a peace rally organised by the Kalimpong NGO Network in solidarity with the victims of the recent heinous crimes not far from home.  Some representatives also participated in the Needs Assessment sessions conducted by Hayden Hall Institute. We have been spreading awareness on the ongoing Conjunctivitis outbreak.  Adolescent Life Skills Education and Staff Capacity Building is proceeding well with staff from the Lifeskills & Facilitation group having their monthly session and students of class 10, their fortnightly sessions.  Jerome Tamang, Sashi Rai and Jemma Lepcha participated in the Teacher’s Effectiveness Enhancement Program (TEEP) organi...

The Ignatian month of July brought opportunities for meaningful exploration of Ignatian character.  Firstly, the commitment to justice, as we observed Fr. Stan’s death anniversary during our summer break. We created a tribute video of Fr. Stan’s struggle with our chorus and orchestra’s performance of Fr. Cristobal Fones SJ’s La Herida (The Wound) in Nepali, from the Ignatian Year Musical last year. We invited students and parents to share their stories of justice - when they stood up for what was right or someone stood up for them. As soon as the school reopened, the assemblies and morning meetings in class were dedicated to these justice stories.  Secondly, we organised an Ignatian novena at assembly . On day 1 and 2, Mrs. Rosa Kumai and Mr. Jerome Tamang, Teacher Mentors and Discipline Prefects took up the Examen and Discernment respectively. Day 3 onwards, classes 3 to 9 presented on the following topics: Finding God in All Things, Magis - Striving for Excellence, Men ...

The highlight of the month was the culmination of our Annual Interdisciplinary Project - ‘Our Common Home; Our Shared Future’ that marked World Environment Day. The project itself was primarily inspired by our Pope Francis’  Laudato Si’ and the 4th Universal Apostolic Preference of the Society of Jesus, passionately pursued by our Director, Fr. Paul D’Souza SJ. Both, very strongly placing humans at the centre of the crisis - acknowledging that we are part of  the problem and inviting us to be part of the solution.  The Dance Musical organised by our Music & the Arts Team, showcased dance, movement pieces, a mime routine, choral and orchestral works - I am the Earth by Gyln Lehmann and Prakriti by the Nepali band, The Shadows. These were all based on the theme assigned to each class from LKG to Class 10. The Seeds of Hope and Action Exhibition of the Bharat Soka Gakkai was inaugurated by Mrs. Rajni Tshering, a senior member of the BSG in Kalimpong and retired teacher o...

Post the Easter break, Jenny Cafiso, Executive Director and Juan Emilio Hernandez, International Programs Coordinator of the Canadian Jesuits International visited us. Sr. Ann Stevens SJC, General Councillor of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny also visited us. We also has the Inauguration of the Campus road by the GTA Chairman Anit Thapa, Accompanied by  MLA Ruden Lepcha, Municipality Chairperson Rabi Pradhan, Councillors. The GTA has promised a football ground for the school.  Our Music Team worked along with Belgian conductor, Rozemarijn Vanwijnsberghe to present the ‘Hope Concert’ with over 170 students in the chorus and orchestra, performing extracts from the Oratorio ‘Heavens’ by young beligan composer, Philippe Lamouris, in multiple languages, drawing from spiritual traditions of the world. It was truly the most modern repertoire that the team ever performed and the students rose up to the challenge in style.  We kickstarted our Annual Interdisciplinary Proje...

 1 .Way to school Jeshika Biswakarma   of class 7 drew this picture showing some children on their way to school. This drawing perfectly depicts the life of most of our student here who come walking from different surrounding areas with their siblings and friends ! 2.Tree of colors  Arun Poddar   of class 7 drew this picture of a tree with different colored leaves . It shows the creativity in their minds and that they are ready to do something or think outside the box. 3.Zentangle The Zentangle method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. We call these patterns, tangles. You create tangles with combination of dots, lines, simple curves. Here are some few works done by the students.

1. Importance of education Prajanna Biswakarma  of class 10 wrote an essay on the importance of education in which she describes the importance of school especially in her locality where many children come from vulnerable backgrounds.  2. Mother Rishika Tamang of class 10 has beautifully written an essay about her mother. In her essay she describes how her mother has influenced her in life and how she sacrificed so much to give her the best in life .  3. My village Somchur Lepcha of class 9 writes in her essay about her village "Ngassey" which means "a place to rest" in her mother tongue which is lepcha . Her essay tells us about the various agricultural work done by the people, about their daily lives and about the various people in the village.   4. Human behavior  Pravesh Kumai of class 9 wrote a poem describing the human nature and behavior. He vividly describes the everyday behavior pattern of a human being and how it has evolved throughout the years. ...

We held elections for our Student Representatives and appointed House Representatives. We have also assigned House Mentors to students.  We have had some wonderful assemblies put up by students and weekly news read out by them in English and Nepali. At our recent staff meeting, teachers shared that there is a very positive vibe at the campus, a sign of pre-lockdown times. We are witnessing a drastic rise in the average confidence level of the students. The Kindergarten children have a separate assembly with stretching and rhymes.  The English & Nepali Subject Team conducted an Inter-House Spelling Bee Competition called Autocorrect. Our stress on teaching English through phonics is already seeming to improve children’s spelling and pronunciation.  Naveen Jhajharia, a development professional, counselor & special educator, conducted a needs assessment session with Classes 7 to 10 to design a comprehensive Values and Life Skills intervention to support our students....