| The Bishop's School | |
|---|---|
| Location | |
| Pune, Maharashtra, India | |
| Information | |
| Type | Private |
| Motto | "Thorough!" |
| Established | 1864 |
| Principal | Mr. Frank R. Freese |
| Faculty | 320+ staff |
| Number of students | 8000+ students |
| Website | http://www.thebishopsschool.org |
The Bishop's School, Pune, India, was established by the British in 1864 to cater for the sons of Warrant officers and Non-commissioned officers of the British Indian Army. The school has since functioned as a Christian Anglo-Indian minority institution. It is located in Pune Cantonment close to MG road. In addition to its day school, Bishop's also has a boarding school. The school has three branches with the one in Camp being the first and oldest and an all boys school. The school has opened two branches in the Kalyani Nagar and Undri areas of Pune. These branches, unlike the flagship camp branch, are co-educational.
The School is affiliated to the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE), New Delhi.
Contents |
The Bishop's School was founded in 1864. On this day the Quarter Master General of the Bombay Army, writing to the Secretary Govt. Military Department, stated
"At the instance of the Lord Bishop, the Commander-in-Chief has bestirred himself to lend one of the old barracks for a school to cater for the sons of Warrant Officers and N.C.Os".
On May 30, 1864 the Adjutant General of the Army, Lt. Col. Sydney T. Stock, wrote to the Secretary of Government, Education Department, Bombay, requesting educational facilities for children of Warrant Officers and Non-Commissioned Officers stationed at Poona who, not belonging to Regiments, did not have regimental facilities.
The scheme for the School was drawn up by the Quartermaster General, Major General Smith CB. The school was to be self-supporting. The original fees per month in respect of each boy were Rs. 5/-. Corporal Mansfield was the first School Master and the school started with 15 pupils. Rev. Fenton and Lt. Jacob, Acting Superintendent of Army Schools, did a lot of the work in getting the school started. The school started functioning in one of the Old Barracks, and the Barrack Master provided the basic furniture.
A reference to the formation of the school was made in the Bombay Gazette dated 14 June 1864. On the 6th August, 1864 there was a statement in the Gazette by Sir A. Grant that the school was established for the children of Warrant and Non-Commissioned Officers.
The school moved to its present site in 1868 when Khan Bahadur Pudumjee Pestonjee sold the property to the then Lord Bishop of Bombay for a sum of Rs. 25,000/-. In 1883 an indenture between the Secretary in State for Council in India and the Rt. Rev. George Milne, Bishop of Bombay, was signed. The grant was received from the Department under the old grant-in-aid Rules for European and Eurasian (Anglo-Indian) Schools.
In 1950 the school was registered as a Public Trust under the Bombay Public Trusts Act and functioned under the Poona Diocesan Schools Committee(P.D.S.C) which was responsible for both the Bishop's School and St. Mary's School. In 1965, the Poona Diocesan Schools Committee resolved that two new societies be formed for separate administration of the two schools. In 1966, the P.D.S.C accepted resolutions for the dissolution of the P.D.S.C in favor of two separate societies. In 1967, the St. Mary's School, Poona, and the Bishop's School, Poona, registered as two separate societies, and in 1969 these two separate societies became the legal successors of the Poona Diocesan Schools Committee. Most of the present Trustees are the Trustees approved by the P.D.S.C in 1967.
The main campus is situated in Pune Cantonment, 2 km from Pune Railway Station. The campus is one of the oldest school campuses in India, and one of the most important landmarks of Pune. Adjacent to the campus is the St. Marys Church built by the British in the 19th century.
Following rapid development of the city and increasing demand for education, the school opened two new branches at Kalyani Nagar and Undri areas of Pune.
The school is administered by the Bishops Education Society, the management council appoints a Principal to administer the schools. The society appoints a Headmaster to administer the Camp School.
Bishop's originally had three houses: Arnold (green), Harding (blue) and Mansfield (red). In the 1960s, a fourth house Bishops (yellow) was added.
In Bishop's Kalyaninagar there are four houses Cooper (green), Freese (blue), Roberts (red) and Lunn (yellow).Undri also follows the same format, the houses are Rae (red), O'connor (green), Wintle (blue) and Young (yellow).
Instead of deriving a student's percentage at the end of a semester there is a point system. For every bracket of marks a student gets a certain point score is allocated. The student with the least number of points gets to the highest level in class.
In the senior classes, students are marked according to the Board exam pattern in order to provide a picture of their expected performance in the Board exams.
The school provides education up to the 10+2 level (ICSE and ISC). The average percentage of the students is 72 percent. With at least 40 boys scoring above 90 percent in each grade.
Sports include football, cricket, basketball, table tennis, hockey, volleyball and tennis. Cricketers who have passed out from Bishop's are playing in tournaments like the Ranji trophy. The school has won the PSAAA football cup 18 times and has triumphed in the All India Anglo-Indian football cup three times. It has won the PSAAA cricket cup seven times.
Other sports at the school are boxing (one of only two schools in Maharastra to have it as a part of its regular activities) and athletics. There are long distance runs where juniors run 2.5 km and seniors run 5 km).
The school holds concerts, choirs, debates, quiz competitions and essay writing.