Christ Church School

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Christ Church School
Location
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Information
Religion Christian
Enrollment

1440
Faculty 90
Average class size 25
Student:teacher ratio 16:1
Type Co-ed, Private
Campus 20 acres
Athletics All Mumbai
Athletics conference ICSE
Motto Accepto Robore Sargam
Mascot None
Color(s) Red, Green, Navy Blue, Golden Yellow
Established 1925
Homepage n/a

Christ Church School is a private coeducational prep school located in Mumbai, India. It is a Christian school, founded in 1925, under the auspices of the Bombay Education Society. It has close to 1500 students, all of whom are day scholars. The school is twinned with Barnes School, in Devlali, Nashik. Both Schools follow the ICSE curriculum.

Contents

[edit] History

In the early 1700's, the Rev. Richard Cobbe was appointed chaplain to the British East India Company's Factory in Bombay. In 1718, he founded a small school where twelve poor boys were given free housing, clothing, food and education. The school, which had just one teacher, was located in a building not far from the present-day Cathedral of St. Thomas in Fort, Mumbai.

After nearly a century, the Ven. Archdeacon George Barnes, also with the East India Company, realised that the original school could not possibly meet the needs of hundreds of children it then looked after. He appealed for funds, and started the Bombay Education Society in 1815. The original school was taken over by the BES, and numbers grew rapidly until it was apparent that new grounds and school buildings were essential. A large site at Byculla was given by Government for the building of the school, and the new school buildings were opened in 1825. One of the copper plates commemorating the opening is on the wall of Evan's Hall in Barnes School, while the other remains with Christ Church School.

A parish church was later built on part of the land given originally to the BES, and remains there to this day. Much of the original land was later sold to help in the building of Barnes, which was established in 1925 as a school for boarders. The BES schools, as they were popularly known, were primarily boarding schools for Anglo-Indian boys and girls, mainly belonging to the Anglican Church. However, day-scholars were later admitted, and they were of all castes and creeds. For several decades, there seems to have been little change, but in the early 1900's, the BES merged with the Indo-British institution which had been founded by Rev. George Candy, in 1837. In 1925, two new schools were established - one for day-students only (Christ Church School), and one for boarders and day-students (Barnes School).

Main school building (from behind)
Main school building (from behind)

[edit] Campus and facilities

The school is spread across a large campus, with several distinct areas. The main building is a long, two-storey structure which houses the 1st to 10th grade classes, as well as the science laboratories, teacher's rooms, canteen, and administration offices.

At the other end of the school stands a fourteen-storey building which houses the kindergarten classes, and staff quarters, along with the woodwork room. In between the two buildings lie a large hall (used for morning assembly and school functions), a tennis lawn, a basketball court, and a children's playground. The school also has a sports field, which is used for all its internal sports activities, as well as for athletics.

There is also a parish church on the school premises, which operates as a separate entity.
School Front View

[edit] School Features

The school is co-educational, and has a respectable ratio of girls to boys. It follows the ICSE course syllabus, as set out by the ICSE board in Delhi.

The school runs classes from kindergarten to the 10th grade, with each grade being divided into four divisions (A to D). The average class consists of 25 students in kindergarten, and increases to an average of 45 students per class in the 10th grade.

The school is also divided into four 'Houses', which have their distinct colours and compete through the year in extracurricular activities. The houses are denoted by their own colour, and are - Barnes (Red), Heber (Green), Malcolm (Blue), Willoughby (Yellow).

There are also students called 'Prefects',who are appointed by the school to perform duties like monitoring various classes when there is no teacher in the class or being involved in flag hoisting during independence day etc.The prefects are highly respected as a group of students by school teachers and students. These prefects wear a special coloured tie of their respective house. The main prefects are the head boy and the head girl. There are also house captains for each house, who are the secondary head of each house. The primary head of each house are the 'house presidents', who are one of the teachers themselves.

[edit] Dress Code

The school has a mandatory dress code, as with all schools in India. Kindergarten students wear green coloured shorts, and a pink-checked shirt, while girls wear a pink-checked dress.

Boys ,up to the 7th grade wear white shorts, white half-sleeved shirts, school belt, black shoes, and the school tie (which is kind of dark bottle green colour with a thin yellow stripes running diagonally) .The students usually pin a badge of their house name (and the house colour on the background)to their tie or their pockets. From the 8th grade onwards, boys wear full white trousers, a white half- sleeved shirt, the green and yellow striped school belt with school logo in the middle, black shoes, and the school tie. Girls wear a belted all-white dress, with a House tie(for all grades).

On days when students have Physical Education (PE) training, the boys wear a white collared t-shirt, with the collar and sleeves being in the colour of their House. Girls wear a similar t-shirt, with a House-coloured skirt, with House-coloured shorts underneath. Both girls and boys wear white canvas shoes and socks (with 2 circular bands on the socks representing their house colour) on these days.

[edit] Faculty

Currently, there is a 16:1 student to teacher ratio. Some of the faculty live on campus, in apartments located in a tall building which also houses the kindergarten school classes.

Each teacher is also affiliated to a House, and each House has a House Master/Mistress, and Vice-House Master/Mistress. As part of their House duties, teachers oversee the selection and training of students for participation in inter-House activities through the year.

[edit] Heads of Staff

The present Principal is Mr. C Laurie. The Vice-Principal is Mrs. B.Almeida.The co-ordinator is Mrs. N.Peters.

[edit] College acceptance

For the past three years, approximately 90% of the 10th grade class was admitted to a college.

[edit] Notable Alumni