Loyola School, Jamshedpur

Loyola School, Jamshedpur, India, is a private, Jesuit, KG - 12 school situated on a large, leafy campus in the Beldih Triangle in Jamshedpur, in state of Jharkhand, India. Students, staff, and alumni of Loyola, Jamshedpur, are known as Loyoleans. The institution was established in 1947 by Americans from the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), a Roman Catholic religious order founded by St. Ignatius Loyola in 1540. The school had previously been a boys school with the exception of girls studying only in standard 11 and 12, but in 2001 turned co-educational.

Loyola School, Jamshedpur, ranks among the "top 15 most respectable schools nationwide", by a survey conducted by Education World and IMRB (Indian Market Research Bureau).^[1]

The school crest

The "chakra" or wheel on the left-hand corner is found in the centre of India’s Tri-colour and stands for progress. The symbol on the right is the logo of the Society of Jesus - the Jesuits - which gives the universal trait of the Jesuits - being all things to all people. The symbol in the bottom left corner is a ladle from Tata Steel's blast furnace in Jamshedpur and signifies that the school is located in India’s Steel City. The symbol in the right-hand corner of two wolves drinking out of a cauldron is taken from the coat of arms to be found in the Castle of Loyola, Spain, the birth place of Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits.

Fests, events, and news

Etrix is the annual computerfest of Loyola School, organised by the school's Computer Club. It was formerly known as Abacus. In 2008, the event went national with schools from all over India participating.^[2]

The Thomas Paul Science Quiz is an annual, inter-school event in memory of one of the legendary teachers of the school, Thomas Paul. It is a much-awaited event and all the schools of the city participate in it.

The Battle Of Minds is an intra-school quiz organised by the school's GK Club which churns out the finest quizzers from the school and prepares them for inter-school quizzes. From 2013, a new event named Battle Of Legends was also started for those who have brought laurels to the school in quizzes from the passing out batch. Loyola Jamshedpur can be also called the quizzing base of Jamshedpur .

Ameliora is an English fest organized by the Debating Club of the school. It features events including "Point of View", a debate in which participants represent a country and speak on a topic as if they were a member of that country. "Mime Time" is a mime acting event and "Sonorous" a standard declamation. "A Cut Above" is a movie review while "Point Blank" is a personal interview. Events like "Lit-rapture", aka creative writing, and "Contradix" complete the scenario. The second edition of the fest in 2011 saw a record participation of 13 schools.

In 2015, Ameliora was replaced with the Excalibur - the first Inter School Debating Fest in town and was a huge success.

Helix (formerly, Maths Fest) is an annual maths extravaganza conducted by the Maths Club, held for budding maths geniuses in the city.^[3]

The school plays host to entertainment events. Rhapsody is the annual extravaganza organised by the JYOTI unit of Loyola School. Tamanna, a showpiece event, was held in the XLRI Auditorium for three consecutive years, as a platform for singers, dancers, and performers in the school. In 2011, it was organised in the Assembly Ground (within the school premises itself), and included a special audience of underprivileged, as well as handicapped children, from the local charitable organisations.

The school has undergone major upgrades. Apart from a new computer lab for the junior school, the chemistry lab has been upgraded. The former Jesuit hostel has been turned into a staff room for the teachers. A new library named Knowledge Centre has been constructed. The Senior School Computer Lab and the Physics Lab have been updated.

In 2014, Ayush Banerjee, a student of Loyola, topped the ISC exam with a 99.25% aggregate and near-perfect scores in all subjects.^[4] In August 2015 Loyola's new auditorium was inaugrated with all the modern facilities .

House system

The students as well as the faculty are divided into four houses - Panthers, Cheetahs, Leopards and Jaguars. The students from these houses compete throughout the year and the House Championship is given to the house with maximum points after the Annual Sports Day, which is generally held in early December.

Uniform

• Kindergarten to 5 (girls): white short sleeved blouse. Khaki checkered tunic black shoes and black socks.
• Kindergarten to 5 (boys): white shirt, khaki short pants, black shoes with lace and black socks.
• 6 to 10 (girls): white half sleeve shirt, with checkered tunic, black shoes and navy blue socks.
• 6 to 10 (boys): white half sleeve shirt, khaki full pants, black shoes with lace and navy blue socks.
• Plus 2 (girls): light blue half sleeve shirt, dark grey tunic, black shoes and white socks.
• Plus 2 (boys): light blue half sleeve shirt, dark grey full pants, black shoes with lace and white socks.

All uniforms have a monogram according to house colour.

Anthem

The Loyolean

The logo of the LPC

"The Loyolean", first published in 1992, is the official biannual magazine of Loyola School, Jamshedpur. It was started due to the interest shown by the students of XII Commerce 1993 batch who were supported by the then principal Father Eric Cassel and Mrs Leela Ghose, and is the successor to an earlier newspaper called "Jai Loyola" which was discontinued in the 80's. One of the only student-published magazines in East India, it frequently deals with matters of importance for teenagers and students in general.

Some issues of The Loyolean

The magazine is edited, illustrated, designed and typeset solely by the members of the Loyola Press Club with the support of its moderator, and consists mostly of contributions from students, teachers, and alumni, along with regular reports and articles by members of the LPC. Most of its content is in English, although a few pages of Hindi articles are also present. In 2011, a digitally illustrated comicstrip was added to the magazine.

In 2015 the LPC launched iLoyolean - a website meant to provide a platform to budding writers, artists and photographers. A special annual edition of the Loyolean was introduced instead of the bi annual editions. This issue also saw the introduction of section wise arrangement of the magazine and 8 coloured pages to give it a more appealing identity. The Editors also did away with the previous system and also brought on board the students of Standard 10.

Notable alumni

• Varun Aaron, cricketer
• Sumit Chowdhury, CEO & Founder at Gaia Smart Cities ^[5]
• Astad Deboo, modernist dancer
• Rajit Gadh, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, University of California, Los Angeles
• Sanjivan Lal, 1980, film director
• Tuhin Sinha, author and scriptwriter.
• Manik Ghoshal, author of books on Theology (NY), PhD Research scholar- Kings College London, Abrahamic Religions.
• Abhinav Kumar, IIT JEE AIR 1 (1998); associate professor of mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Rajdeep Chatterjee, Bollywood Playback Singer

References

External links

• Loyola School, Jamshedpur
• Annual Computer Fest – Etrix
• Loyola School on Gagan's website
• Bharat Scouts and Guides
• Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations
• http://math.mit.edu/people/profile.php?pid=141

Coordinates: 22°48′27.89″N 86°10′57.12″E / 22.8077472°N 86.1825333°E / 22.8077472; 86.1825333