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Highlights of 2010-11
- Added 3rd grade and 2 new teachers, total of 75 children
- Montessori-based activity materials added
- Made dance classes part of the curriculum
- Started children’s literary association (Bala Samaj)
- Achieved excellent results in scholarship examination
- Conducted Neo-Humanistic Education based teacher’s training programs at the school
- Grand annual cultural day celebration; Children from our school were invited for performance at reputed dance festival
- Increased parent’s involvement in the school
- Purchased new computer, printer and LCD projector
- Added 750 sq ft of new classroom space
Little history
EverGreen Elementary School is located about 7 KM from the heart of Kozhikode (Calicut), a major town in the Southern Indian state of Kerala. ‘Neo-Humanist Education Charitable Trust (NHECT)’ in association with ‘Voice Of a Child’, a US 501 c (3) non-profit organization, started this school in 2006. The school was started with the aim of imparting good quality, holistic education at a nominal cost to the children living in this lower middle class neighborhood. We feel that children are our most precious resource and that by providing them with a holistic base for life we can help bring about a bright, more enlightened future.
Last year’s Progress
The school continued to make tremendous progress under the leadership and hard work of Principal and Chairman of the Trust, Mr. V.K Velayudhan. In less than five years, the school has grown to seventy five children and a full time staff of ten people. We added twenty two children and two new teachers last year.
Our academic supervisor, Ms. Suchitra Dahikar, left the school to pursue Montessori teacher’s training diploma course. We are extremely grateful to Ms. Suchitra for all her dedication and hard work towards training the teachers and for guiding the academic program of our school. She will continue to guide us with new ideas and provide training whenever possible.
There were several developments on the administration front. The school accounts are now audited by a chartered accountant, and the audited accounts are filed with the Income Tax department every year. We have also filed application for the Income tax exemption for the Trust and FCRA approval. FCRA is needed for receiving funds from outside India. Until now, all the expenses of the project are borne by the generous donation of the Trust members.
Extra-curricular activities
The children’s literary association that we started this year (Bala Samaj), was quite popular among the children. The bi-weekly meeting of the association provided a stage for the children to develop and nourish various innate talents hidden in them including public speaking, music and story-telling. By having children organize and conduct the meeting themselves, we are trying to lay the seeds for team-work and leadership skills in them. Our morning circle and kids yoga programs are unique among the schools in our area. Children practice a simple form of meditation in our morning circle. It is quite inspiring to see how some children are able to go deep within themselves at such an early age. We believe that the mental discipline that they are developing at this stage is laying a strong foundation for a balanced, universally thinking and caring personality of future.
Scholarship results
Similar to previous years, the children performed extremely well in the Holyfaith National Talent Search Scholarship Examination. Two children were in the top twenty in the state, and over 80% of the children who wrote the exam passed with distinction.
Festivals and Annual day celebrations
We celebrated Onam festival with a delicious feast at the school. The annual sports and cultural day were celebrated with much fiesta. The cultural day, held in December, was preceded by couple of months of intense preparation. The children put together a show that lasted for over four hours. It included twelve dances, several songs and a drama. The dances represented many cultures and languages of India – Punjabi (bhangara), Gujarati (Dandiya), Yoga dance, Muslim wedding dance, fishermen’s dance, adivasi (indigenous people) dance and dance representing fight against women’s exploitation. A packed crowd of over 250 people witnessed the program. The show became so popular that the children from our school were invited to present at the reputed Minnaminni Nursery Art & Dance Festival. Our gratitude goes to our talented and dedicated dance teacher, Ms Jisha Sunil, for helping to put together the cultural day program in a grand fashion.
Facility
On the facilities font, we added 750 sq ft of new classroom space last year. The school can now accommodate up to hundred children. We purchased a new computer, LCD projector and laser printer for the school. Several Montessori-based activity materials were added and the book collection in our library continues to grow.
Future
We are very excited at the exponential growth that is happening at the school. There is quite a long way for us to go before we reach the standards that we have set for ourselves. We have made steady progress ever since we started the school 5 years ago. With the hard work and dedication of our staff and the well wishes of our supporters, we hope to continue this good work in the years to come.
