Study Hall School organised its Convocation ceremony on 30th December, 2020 virtually felicitating all its graduating students of classes 10th and 12th of 2019-20 batch.
The occasion was graced by Dr. Reva Joshee,a renowned academician and Professor from Canada who delivered the convocation address,reminiscing her own journey.
Prior to the commencement of the felicitation ceremony the school Principal Mrs Meenakshi Bahadur addressed the gathering and shared the placement report of the alumni. Next the Founder Director and CEO of SHEF, Dr Urvashi Sahni, congratulated the distinguished alumni for their achievements.
This year’s convocation was held virtually for the first time and we surmounted varied challenges to host it successfully. It took creativity, organisation and team effort to make it seamless and one of its kind.
The convocation ceremony marked the conclusion of the academic year 2019-20 and it received an overwhelming response. It was an event filled with nostalgia and excitement.
We wish all our students a great and successful future ahead.
Yes, friends !! the jingling of bells, carols and the impeccably adorable decorations at every corner of the city in fact world indicates the onset of Christmas eve and Santa Claus, the name that has been given to the harbinger of happiness and joy adds the special elements of innocence and hope to our life.
With that high spirit of hope that our good days will be back soon (everything will be fine very soon) during this pandemic time DOSTI and junior school celebrated Christmas in a very holistic and special way following all the protocols of COVID- 19 and at the same time keeping the enthusiasm and joy of our children intact by distributing lovely Christmas gifts and cute Santa pencil puppets made by their teachers to the children over a period of 4 days.
We even doubled our joy of happiness and immense pleasure by becoming santa for a day and gave variety of beautiful and lovely gifts to our little friends of Gyan setu and brought smile to their faces too, which was Real Christmas that symbolizes true love and service to human kind.
Last but not the least as we say to add cherry on the cake to the Christmas celebration of our special stars of DOSTI conducted a special virtual Christmas assembly on 24th Dec. where they said a special Christmas prayer, sang carols, recited Christmas poems along with children of class I & II hence creating a festive atmosphere.
At the end keeping the spirit of Christmas and with a smile and faith of Santa that our live as will be back to normal soon we wish you a “A Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year”
Dr Urvashi Sahni has been named in the Asia’s Most Influential Impact List 2020 published by Tatler Magazine. Dr Sahni shares this honour alongside the likes Ratan Tata and Azim Prermji.
The article in the magazine, which has now been in publication for over 300 years, reads, “With our December issue, Tatler introduces an ambitious new directory of the most influential individuals who are defining the future of Asia. While forthcoming features in 2021 will focus on style, culture and taste, we begin with a subject that is at the heart of our brand—philanthropy. Here are the most impactful philanthropists from around Asia who are making a positive change this year”.
On being asked how she feels about the recognition, Dr Sahni said, “I am astonished and very humbled to find my name there. I feel I don’t belong in the same league. However what is heartening is that Study Hall Educational Foundation’s work is being recognized not just in India but world over. This recognition is another motivation for us to continue the work we have been doing for over 3 decades now.”
Dr Urvashi Sahni is a social entrepreneur, women’s rights activist, and educationist, who has been active in the field for more than three decades, with many pioneering innovations to her credit. She is a leading expert in school governance, curriculum reform, and teacher training with a special focus on girls’ education, gender equality and Democratic Citizenship. She believes that Education should include a strong focus on teaching democratic values of equality and fraternity. She founded Suraksha (a women’s rights organisation), DiDi’s (a social enterprise for sustainable livelihoods for women), and is the founding president and CEO of SHEF. Over the last 3 decades, Dr. Sahni’s work, through SHEF and its schools and outreach initiatives, has impacted more than 100,000 teachers and 5 million children, most of whom are girls from disadvantaged communities.
Additionally, Dr Sahni is an Ashoka Fellow, a non-resident fellow at the Center for Universal Education at The Brookings Institution, U.S.A., and a former member of Rajasthan’s Chief Minister’s Advisory Council. In 2017, she was declared the Social Entrepreneur of the Year India by the Schwab-Jubilant Bhartiya Foundation and joined the international fellowship of Schwab social entrepreneurs. She is also a co-founder of Catalyst 2030, a global network of over 600 Social Entrepreneurs engaged in expediting the SDGs globally through their innovations.
The Yoga and Mindfulness workshop conducted by Ms. Shibani Sahni on 18th Nov 2020 was attended by almost 30 teachers of Study Hall. It was a rejuvenating and refreshing session that focused on ‘mindfulness’, or a conscious effort at synergising our thought, action, energy all in one direction for attaining optimism results in all our physical and mental endeavours.
It was a beginner’s guide to deep breathing exercises or ‘pranayama’ and some basic yoga exercises meant to strengthen the body and improve our immunity and resilience.
From getting to know our bodies better, to learning the positive impact of mindfulness and yoga in our day to day lives, it a was an hour and a half well spent.
The teachers were left completely mesmerized by the students’ impassioned performance on 5th of September, so on 14th of November, they decided to turn the tide and make the students feel special. The teachers of Study Hall Senior school had diligently put up a virtual show for the students on the occasion of Children’s Day. It was a fun-filled day for all. Even the adults relived their childhood. The celebrations began with the usual morning prayer and then the mic was passed to the ‘live on location’ comperes of the day- Mr Himanshu and Mr Kamlesh. They took the children down memory lane, showing how children’s day was celebrated in the pre pandemic years. Coming to this year, all the teachers performed in small groups. Few danced with grace, others sang tunefully, and some acted out little episodes, giving insights into the hilarious moments of student life like, ‘types of friends during exams’ and ‘the secret formula to top exams’, ‘the virtual school’, ‘locked in with grandma during lockdown’ and how ‘the children dearly want to go to school’. The highlight of the day was the melodious performance by everyone’s beloved, the school founder- Dr Urvashi Sahni, the school principal -Mrs Meenakshi Bahadur and the vice principal of the school- Mrs Meenakshi Shah who regaled their audience to the hilt.
Behind this 2-hour program, was the teachers’ week(s) long effort, managing classes and practices every day, all to bring a smile on the faces of their children. The students were beaming with joy throughout and couldn’t thank their gurus enough for making the day memorable albeit virtually!
Children’s day came with lots of excitement. This year as everything is going virtual the Children’s Day celebration was also organized online to entertain the students and make them feel special. A novel idea of making teachers enact the role of historical figures was conceived. Two teachers took the main role of Badshah Akbar and Birbal.
Badshah Akbar and Birbal were welcomed by junior school headmistress Mrs. Bani Malhotra. The curtain raiser was in the form of blessings by the school founder Dr. Urvashi Sahni, Principal Mrs. Meenakshi Bahadur and Vice Principal Mrs. Meenakshi Shah.
Then the headmistress took these two guests Badshah Akbar and Birbal for a school tour to showcase the teaching style of Study Hall School. Teachers of different subjects were shown teaching in a witty manner in their respective classes. Children enjoyed this mimicry by the junior school teachers and this truly made children’s day a memorable event for the students of Study Hall junior School.
International Day of the girl child celebrated on 11th October 2020. Study Hall students and teachers celebrated it in their own beautiful way, with poetry artwork and write ups.
Study Hall CHRYSALIS presented ‘Art in Action’, an online Inter-House Art Competition for students right from grade 6 to 12, allowing them to take a breather from the current stressful situations and provided them a platform to unlock their creativity flamboyantly. Sizeable number of students self nominated themselves to be a part of the event. The categories under the event were- Junior (6th to 8th) and senior (9th to 12th), 6 students per house were shortlisted in the preliminary round by their art teachers based on their previous art work which they had sent on their house Whatsapp .
The shortlisted artists in the consequent days had several workshops with the art teachers regarding how to use-mix-create colors that suit the mood of the creation; they rapidly produced ideas on how to portray meaningful issues through brushes and pastels following the rules and procedures of the event. To exercise the mind and hands prior to the central event, several themes were given in these sessions, in sync with social issues and the ongoing pandemic. The final topics were allotted on the eve of 29th august and final creations were to be handed on 30th, the junior Vincent van Goughs expressed their picture of solidarity during the pandemic and the senior Picassos equated rights for women to Human Rights! The judging parameters were creativity and originality, drawing and layout, color scheme and quality of work. No entries were to be accepted after the given deadline. All the artworks were eye-opening and touching but the few victors who managed to ace the task were–
Children of class 1, 2 and 3 of Study Hall School raised the bar of critical thinking this year by engaging in a virtual panel discussion on Discrimination, Gender and the current Pandemic. The panel discussion saw a very good turnout from junior school parents as well as students. The panelists from all the three grades were very eager and enthusiastic to participate in the discussion actively. The discussion started with the Head Mistress Mrs. Bani Malhotra welcoming Dr. Urvashi Sahni, the founder of the school and the parents, assuring them that they would find the discussion really interesting.
Mrs. Gunjan Singh, who was moderating the session along with Mrs. Shalini Sangal and Mrs. Neelam Singh, initiated the panel discussion by requesting the panelists to introduce themselves one by one before diving into the discussion. Dr. Sahni and the parents were delighted and also wonderstruck seeing the inquisitive and bright minds of the students who shared their points of views confidently. The panel discussion saw varied opinions being shared by the panelists with agreements as well as respectful disagreements during the course of it. Dr. Urvashi Sahni also engaged with the student panelists by asking them extremely relevant questions at various points during the discussion. The views of the children were thought provoking and sensitive towards the under-privileged. It was laudable to see how the teachers had guided the students to become introspective and aware individuals who were willing to take the mantle of fighting against discrimination prevalent in our society. It was good to see how comfortable and confident the children were in using all the technology tools in this virtual panel discussion. The parents were full of praise for the school authorities for organizing and conducting this edifying panel discussion. The program was closed with a Vote of thanks delivered by Mrs. Meenakshi Bahadur, the Principal of Study Hall School.
Welcoming all to the celebrations of 5th September’20, Teachers’ Day. The students utilized the day to express their heartfelt gratitude and thankfulness towards their teachers through a virtual presentation. As is the ritual of Study Hall, the head girl of school Deepanshi Verma, adorned as the principal Meenakshi Bahadur aunty and the vice head girl Gaurisha Prakash, as vice principal Meenakshi Shah Aunty started the morning assembly with usual meditation and the vice head boy Aryaman Shukla, that day transformed into Rajesh sir, the yoga teacher @Study Hall headed the yoga session. The head boy Kushagra Trivedi entitled the teachers as the unsung heroes, and it’s worth it, all those moments they asking the students to switch on the cameras, permission for PDF in drives, responding to the questions, while the students sometimes choose to stay silent; thanked them for adapting to the virtual medium so well and making the teams classes as any other reality class. Thereafter Sherlock Holmes and James Watson, the comparers for the day (detective theme) opened the show, which was mostly pre-recorded and displayed through screen share on zoom, and invited the students of standard 6th and 7th to present their dance on peppy and fun numbers. It was enchanting to see the little ones hop and rock on the screen and how the teachers wished they were relishing the event physically in the school campus. Nevertheless there was no compromise from the student body in putting up a great show. The pair of detective friends handed over the microphone to batman and robin, who sadly drew the former’s vehicle into an accident and so the conversation moved on to listening and respecting elders and specifically teachers. Why? Due to 3 reasons- firstly if students are smart, teachers are double smart, next for the amount of hard work they put in and manage their job and homes both, and last teachers have since ancient times been the superior figures even where god stands in comparison, all of these creatively visualized and presented by the students of 8th and 9th in a skit. Next the celebration had Dana Scully and Fox Mulder from FBI opened the floor for riddles where the teachers were required to move the detective minds in them and ace the games. Then again the legends Feluda and Byomkesh, the celebrated detectives came on screen and introduced the music video prepared by the musicians of 10th and 11th. The audience was swaying and tip toeing to their tune, mesmerized, praised by Nancy Drew and the Hardy boys as well. And last but not the least, standard 12th put up yet another comical dance-drama to make their last teachers’ day in school memorable for their teachers. They took the reality of their virtual classes to the skit, mixed with additional comedy, intertwined with dance to portray the situation, garnished with emotions! And with a thank you note from all the students and Meenakshi aunty herself for making the celebration possible on virtual platform, the day came to an end. With all due respect and love, HAPPY TEACHERS’ DAY.
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