St. John's Diocesan Girls' Higher Secondary School

St. John's Diocesan Girls' Higher Secondary School
St. John's Diocesan Girls' Higher Secondary School
	Athletics and basketball
Nickname	Diocenas
Publication	Papyrus
Affiliations	WBBSE and WBCHSE
Website	www.stjohndiocesan.in

22°32′15.00″N 88°21′15.23″E / 22.5375000°N 88.3542306°E / 22.5375000; 88.3542306

St. John's Diocesan Girls' H.S. School (informally known as Diocesan or Dio) is a girls-only day school located in

Saint John the Baptist. Although previously a college, the school was stripped of its college status by the British Government when freedom-fighter Bina Das, a student of the school, attempted to assassinate the Governor of Bengal, Stanley Jackson

.

Today, the school is often considered to be one of the most prestigious girls' schools in Bengal, and has a rich history of distinguished alumnae such as Lady Abala Bose, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, and Maitreyi Devi. It is situated in the iconic Landsdowne Road (officially Sarat Bose Road) in South Kolkata and also runs a school for underprivileged children in Ripon Street.^[1]

Statue of St.John-the Baptist at School Campus

History

The school is one of the oldest

St. John's Diocesan by the Clewer Sisters of John the Baptist from Windsor, Berkshire. The school was started in 1876 by Sister Angelina Margaret Hoare (17 May 1843 – 10 January 1892), a British missionary from Kent, England who devoted her life to the advancement of women's education in British India. From her diaries we know that the school started with 16 female students.^{[citation needed}

]

From 1908 to 1931, St. John's Diocesan School remained the only Christian women's college of good repute in eastern India. Hoare wrote in a letters to her brother in

Diocesan School of Calcutta and other schools in the Sundarbans , which will bear fruit in the generations to come...

^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]

On 7 April 1931,

women in Kolkata was felt and since then the school has devoted itself to the betterment of female education only. It has more than 3,800 female students and is affiliated to the WBBSE and WBCHSE.^{[citation needed}

]

Principals

List of Principals

Sister Hilda Francis	—
Charubala Das	—
Molina Mukherjee	—
Nilima Pyne	—
Joya Shome	—
T. Samuel Raj	1985 - 1990
Rosita Chrestien	1990 - 2012
Carolyn Lionel	2012 - 2018
Snigdha Gain	2019–present

Academic life

The school admits only

Hindi

are also taught as first languages beside English. Pre-primary, Primary, Secondary and Higher Secondary section starts class at the same time in the morning, five days a week, with the first two sections having an earlier finish than the rest.

Motto and emblem

The school motto is The Good Retain The Better Follow , as illustrated in the school's emblem. This is printed on all school dresses, sweaters, blazers, Physical Education, and athletic uniforms as well as school diaries, bags, note book covers and other articles.

Prayer and anthem

Before starting classes students pray the

Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace

", adapted by Sebastian Temple.

Campus

The campus of the school is a mixture of natural beauty along with old British buildings and new buildings. It has separate playgrounds for students of nursery classes and other senior classes. Inside the campus there is a park, three play grounds, a basketball court and seven buildings in a lush green surrounding. The school has a small chapel inside one of the buildings.

Facilities

The school's facilities includes seven laboratories - Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Nutrition, Home Management and Home Nursing, Junior School Computer, Senior School Computer labs. The school has an LCD projector in the library for audio-visual aid to teaching as well as for showing films to the junior students. There is also the United Bank of India -St. John's Diocesan School branch, transport (23 buses), uniform and stationery, booth, tea and coffee booth, school canteen, and a Fulbright Scholar Exchange Programme.

Library

The school library called ‘Dio Bibliothique’ has a seating capacity of 200 students and has a collection of over 35,000 books and subscribes to periodicals and dailies.

Music Room - Conference Hall

The school Music and Audio-Visual room known as 'La Sale Diphony’ is also used for conference and seminars. Piano, organ, keyboard, Octapad, guitar and drums are the instruments which are taught in the school.

Calendar

The

vacations

are given and the sessions usually starts for Lower Nursery to Class X - Feb through January and for Class XI and XII July through June.

Celebrations

Winter Carnival, Diotornie, Melior (Annual School Fest) and other special days of the school.^{[citation needed}

]

Uniform

The school uniform contains the school emblem and is of two sets - one for daily use and another for physical education or sports days. There are separate uniforms for daily use for the students of pre-primary section, primary section, secondary section, and higher secondary section..

Events

The school organizes academic prize distribution ceremony, sports, exhibitions, educational excursions or trips, school fests, conferences, academic and artistic programmes, Christmas Party, Farewell Party (for the leaving batches of 12th grades) and publishes a school magazine every year .

Magazine

The annual magazine of the school known as 'Papyrus' is published every year highlighting the literary talents and other achievements of the students and the school along with its events.

Houses and colors

The four houses were formally known as Lily (blue), Rose (pink), Lotus (green), and Pansy (yellow) Currently the four

houses

and their colors are:

Angelina Margaret Hoare - Pink
Sister Mary Victoria - Blue
Sister Hilda Francis - Green
Beena Das
- Yellow

Green House Pink House Blue House Yellow House

Social services

The school is involved in social services, charities and community welfare. A tradition since 1990 has been donation of one onion and one potato on every Friday by each student from Lower Nursery to Class XII to the school which goes to the

St. Joseph's old age home run by the Little Sisters of the Poor. Visits to old age homes such as Mulvany House, Shanti Nivas and St Joseph's Old Age Home are made by students. Some of the reflections of the school's devotion for the welfare of the public at large include the 2004 Tsunami relief, 2009 Aila

relief programme, 2008 drinking water supply programme, slum rehabilitation activities, educational Tours for underprivileged children, and a free Seva Clinic at St Mary's Church, Kolkata.

Awards

Winner of 1999 Britannia Trophy for Better Calcutta Project, winner of Best School Award by Pathfinder and Heritage Resources Pvt. Ltd, Centennial Award from the Rotary Club of Victoria, winner of The Best Maintained School Award by TTIS in three consecutive years 2006, 2007 and 2008,^[6] TTIS trophy for the school that cares, winner of The Best Maintained School Award by Indian Chambers of Commerce, 2009 "Best School of the Year Award" -Mother Teresa International Award. The 2008 Golden Flame Award was given to one of its teacher, Mrs S.B. Nandi.^{[citation needed]}

Notable alumni

Notable alumni^[7] include: Armed Forces of India

Joyanto Nath Chaudhuri – former Chief of the Army Staff (India)

Air Marshal of the Indian Air Force

Noted Government Officials

S. N. Roy
, ICS

Arts, culture and entertainment

Goutam Ghose, film director
Maitreyi Devi, literati
Leela Majumdar, author
Sharmila Tagore, actor
Mala Sinha, actor
Shreyasi Chatterjee, artist and art historian, Rabindra Bharati University

Academia and education

Lady Abala Bose, wife of Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose, who later started Brahmo Samaj Girls' School
Sarala Roy, founder of Gokhale Memorial School, Kolkata
Tanika Sarkar, Professor in the Department of History, St. Stephen's College, Delhi
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Professor in English, Columbia University
feminist
, women studies academician
Purabi Roy, noted scholar, author and Netaji researcher

Field of Law

Subimal Roy – former Justice, Supreme Court of India

Field of Medicine

Dr Priyadarshini Bhattacharjee – Internal Medicine Specialist and Clinical Supervisor University of Cambridge and Founder-Director, South Asian Medical Students' Association an NGO based in Kolkata.

References

^ "About". St. John’s Diocesan Girls' HS School. 23 November 2020. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
^ St. John's Diocesan Girls' Higher Secondary School website Archived 18 December 2014 at the Wayback Machine, stjohnsdiocesanschool.org; accessed 17 June 2016.
^ CNI Diocese of Calcutta – Bishops Archived 1 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, cnicalcutta.org; accessed 17 June 2016.
^ Chapter XXVII: The Mother Diocese of Calcutta, 1815 - A History of the Church of England in India, SPCK, 1924.
^ Diocese of Kolkata Archived 26 December 2009 at the Wayback Machine, cnisynod.org; accessed 17 June 2016.
^ The Telegraph Official Website
^ School Alumni

External links

Official website
CNI Diocese of Calcutta – Bishops Archived 1 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine
Diocese of Kolkata Archived 26 December 2009 at the Wayback Machine - Church of North India
NDTV Fitness Campaign 2011

[1] "About". St. John’s Diocesan Girls' HS School. 23 November 2020. Retrieved 13 December 2023.

[2] St. John's Diocesan Girls' Higher Secondary School website Archived 18 December 2014 at the Wayback Machine, stjohnsdiocesanschool.org; accessed 17 June 2016.

[3] CNI Diocese of Calcutta – Bishops Archived 1 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, cnicalcutta.org; accessed 17 June 2016.

[4] Chapter XXVII: The Mother Diocese of Calcutta, 1815 - A History of the Church of England in India, SPCK, 1924.

[5] Diocese of Kolkata Archived 26 December 2009 at the Wayback Machine, cnisynod.org; accessed 17 June 2016.

[Award-6] The Telegraph Official Website

[Alumni-7] School Alumni

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

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