Sri Aurobindo Memorial School

Sri Aurobindo Memorial School is a school situated in Bengaluru, India. It was established in 1962 and today, is located in the Banashankari II stage in Bengaluru-560070.

Curriculum

Sri Aurobindo Memorial School offers CBSE curriculum from the 1st to the 10th grade and it also offers the Karnataka State SSLC curriculum from the 8th grade.^[1] It also offers nursery, lower and upper kindergarten level of education.

History

Sri Aurobindo Memorial School was founded in 1962 and, like many institutions of its kind, had undergone many incarnations to reach its present situation. It started out as "The New School" in January 1962 which, soon after, was changed to "The New English School". The School's location was near the Ashoka Pillar, close to Lalbagh, Jayanagar 1st Block. The original founders of the School were Nathaniel and Espoir Pearson, who were both devotees of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo, and the School received the Mother's blessings upon foundation. Mrs Pearson was the founding Principal of the School, and Mr Nathaniel Pearson was its Director of Studies. It was originally a primary school, having classes up to Standard 7. Indeed, this was so until the early 1970s, when Mr and Mrs Pearson left Bangalore for Australia. The initial focus and principal objective of the school was that it should be an English Medium School; that is, the Pearsons had a vision for excellence in English learning and teaching in Bangalore and they sensed (correctly as it turned out in hindsight) that there was a need for a good quality English school in what was then the new settlement of Jayanagar.

Between 1964 and 1966, Mr. and Mrs. Pearson took leave without pay from the School to live briefly in the United Kingdom, and at that time in order to ensure the continuity of the School, Mrs. Pearson's father, Dr. Santoshananda managed the day-to-day running of School as Interim Principal. Upon their return from the UK, Mrs. Espoir Pearson resumed duties as School Principal, Mr. Pearson assisted in curriculum development and teaching English to students while Mrs. Pearson's younger sister, Ms. Shashi Sharma assisted with various teaching duties. Some of the very early teachers of the New School/New English School included Mr. Balakrishnan and Ms. Shanta Issac.

Following the Pearsons' departure to Australia in 1971, Mrs Pearson's brother, Mr. Sri Kumar Vasishtha was appointed Principal of the School. He managed the School until 1975, when his younger brother Mr. Raj Vasishtha was appointed Administrator and his younger sister Ms. Aditi Vasishtha was appointed Principal. Shortly after these appointments were made, the name of the school was changed again, this time to 'Sri Aurobindo Memorial School', which is its present name.

Prayer

The school puts a lot of emphasis on prayer and meditation. A day at school starts and ends with a prayer. The morning prayer, is, Sri Aurobindo's Gayatri Mantra, that is, a Gayatri Mantra written by Sri Aurobindo. It is different from the Gayatri Mantra of the Rigveda. In the middle school, different morning prayers are sung on different days of the week. A lunch prayer, "Annapurne Sadaapurne", is sung before the students go for lunch and all the students sing a "Thank You God" prayer at the end of the school day. In the evenings, "Make of us the hero warriors" is sung. There is a meditation hall in the 1st floor of the Harmony Building which encompasses serenity and devotion. In the center of this room, lie the relics of Sri Aurobindo, brought to the school on relics day from the Pondicherry Ashram by Aditi and Raj Vasishtha in August 1997. The Relics are said to be a silver lock and some nails of Sri Aurobindo's which are contained in a silver casket enclosed by a sandalwood box. The relics are enshrined in a marble shrine.

Sports Facilities

Events on athletics, shuttle, basketball, volleyball, table tennis, kho kho, throwball, chess, carrom, cricket, football, tennis and netball are conducted annually. The school conducts karate and chess classes for students from classes 4 to 10 every morning. The school also sends students for different inter-school competitions like swimming, chess, taekwondo, skating etc. A, B, C, D,E are the classes that are present.

Extra Curricular/Activities

The school hosts events such as debates, speech contests(English and Hindi), science and social science seminars and recitations annually. Intra-section competitions are conducted on recitation, impromptu speeches and handwriting skills. Students are also sent for debates, quizzes, speeches, dance and music competitions. Annually students are asked to participate in the Independence Day program or Talent's Day program conducted for classes from U.K.G. to the 8th grade.

References