When today’s children have an unprecedented amount of information at their fingertips, growing up with this level of technology is an all-new experience. Also, growing up today is all about learning new skills, techniques, & gaining immense knowledge, which they will need to succeed in this ever-changing new world. Schools and colleges of today strive hard towards giving the right amount of confidence boost to the children, to practice skills learned and in turn, try to make a difference to society. Inculcating the right attitude in them, to help them grow as a person in the process of making them learn to value life, love, relationships, integrity, values, and the joy of sharing is very important in today’s time. Thereby, one such renowned brand, which is growing as a vibrant school, providing activity-based learning, a stress-free, child-centered, holistic education to all, without compromising on the quality, St. Mary Champion Hr. Sec. School (SMCS) comes as a welcome ray of hope, even during these difficult times of the pandemic.
Driven by a strong passion for teaching, Mrs. Isabel Swamy, and Mr. Lourdu Swamy, founded the school with just nursery classes in the name of St. Mary Montessori. Consequently, progressing each day and within a span of a decade, the school was renamed St. Mary Champion School, which by now had learned to cater to the ever-changing needs of the students. An epitome of hard work, perseverance, and dedication – Mrs. Isabel Swamy, operating as the principal of the school, has played a major role in growing the school’s reputation and she owes equal credit to the dedicated teachers, staff, and management, who are heading right in the pursuit of creating milestones along the way.
Keeping all the demands of the parents and the students in the forefront, and with a clear zeal to grow further, the school now has shifted to a new state-of-the-art campus of around 6-acres. Also, with the school having 2 campuses – one for the CBSE board and the parental primary campus which is State Board affiliated, the school and its management have been providing quality education to all, growing each day with a constant desire to give the very best, one student at a time. Moreover, St. Mary Champion Hr. Sec School being a firm believer that education is not a destination, rather it’s a journey, the school collectively prepares young champions, such that, when they leave the portals of their Alma Mater, they are fine young boys and girls, ready for the world outside.
Best value practices
As the school mission is to enrich and edify students with a holistic education of “mind and soul, head & heart” to acquire profound knowledge and wisdom, assimilate noble life values for “ right thinking, right conduct and right living” and imbibe and manifest the school ethos, philosophy and champion culture, we continually infuse life values every fortnight and develop distinct champion characteristics. These value practices are assigned with some important days of the week, such as, Monday as Academic day, Wednesday as Virtue day, Saturday as Discipline day and Sunday as Parents’ day. Thus, students are nurtured in champion culture during the school life. Here in SMCS, students are groomed to be “ morally sound, mentally sharp, physically strong, academically brilliant and socially humane” so that they proudly carry a “ certificate of life” when they walk out of the Alma mater as Real Champions of life.
Towards a Better & a Brighter Future
Having a safe, nurturing yet challenging environment in the backdrop, students at St. Mary are mentored towards developing into trained & well-behaved individuals in aspects like emotions, social skills, & academics. Every student at the school is treated as a unique individual, and his/her learning capabilities are given equal consideration, in turn, altering the teaching styles based on their distinct talents, interests, & needs. Having a separate pre-primary wing called Universal Champs at the school, helps young students to learn via Jolly Phonics, which go beyond traditional methods of teaching/learning, side by side, pushing students to read and write new words on their own, and not develop the habit of mugging up.
“Each teacher is a guardian to a group of students, known as mentors”, quoted Mrs. Isabel Swamy, the founding principal, telling us how important the mentor-mentee bonds are for St. Mary. Also, during a brief conversation with Mrs. Isabel, we tried our best to understand the whole working ethos present at St. Mary and taking time out of her busy schedule Mrs. Isabel explained all the functioning elements of the school. From curriculum to the teachers, she also made sure we understood that the main motive of the school is to make sure that each child on campus feels cared for and is motivated towards giving in his/her best in whatever he/she does. Adding to her above quote, Mrs. Isabel added – “These mentors understand the various problems of the students which can be academic or even personal”.
Understanding and taking the whole pandemic scenario in a stride, St. Mary learned a very important lesson during the ongoing pandemic, which is – the ability to adapt. Changing the way, the school worked and taught, all the teachers on campus were diligently trained in the use of ICT. Various online webinars on how to effectively use Google G-Suite (now Google workspace), classrooms, drive, and jam board, were conducted regularly, while equipping the school physically with TATA Smart classes. All of this helped the school thoroughly elevate their ICT abilities and skills and infused in them a sense of confidence to take up this new challenge, which in turn was very visibly transferred in the students as well.
Learning beyond books
A hub for nurturing budding personalities, SMCS hosts a strong stimulating environment, developing students into conscientious citizens of tomorrow. Students are taught towards being responsible citizens of the country, and the society, in the process of realizing their rights and duties towards their nation. Clearly emphasizing an all-around education and development of each child, a complete education of mind, body, and soul is followed on the school campus. Having an array of activities from which students can choose, every year, the activities are divided into Sports and Cultural so that students get the opportunity to equip themselves with as many skills as possible. SMCS having produced National and International players both boys and girls in Wushu, Taekwondo, and Skating, the school was the second runner-up team in the Zonal Girls’ Volleyball tournament under the aegis of SGFI in 2019.
All in all, SMCS being that place where all its stakeholders are responsible for its upliftment and growth, the school thus finds it very important to bring parents on board to these many changes that were taking place at a faster pace than expected. Lastly, the school having thus conducted the first Online Parent’s Webinar on the changes and issues in parenting due to this lockdown in the month of June, the overwhelming and positive responses from parents strengthened the school’s conviction like never before, and, thereby, the school is now ever-ready and prepared to face upcoming challenges head-on, converting students into honest, hard-working and dedicated personalities of tomorrow.
Mrs. Isabel Swamy – Founding Principal
An expert academician from her early years, Mrs. Isabel has M. A & B.Ed. degrees to her credit. Along with bearing a pleasing, friendly, and cordial personality, she is a very ambitious and proactive individual, always leading the team by exemplary conduct. She has the unique characteristics of being friendly in nature dealing amicably with parents, regarding any issue with ease. Also, with over 29 years of experience, and as the founding principal of SMCS, Mrs. Isabel has won many awards and laurels throughout her life for her dedication and hard work towards the educational fellowship.
Mr. S.Lourdu Swamy – Founder Director
Started as the founder director, Mr. Lourdu Swamy had entertained a passionate dream of rendering his services in providing a holistic education of excellence of academics and life values – being considering two wings of flight –for a rewarding happy life and to live as proud citizens of the country. The flame of his passion could be realized when the light of literacy flashed as he dedicated working tirelessly with the founder principal. He has established a distinctive learning process through “the art of learning and living” and thus making learning so interesting and enjoyable.
The Academic Director, gifted with the talents of spoken English and mathematics, has authored a handbook on spoken English & structures demystifying the problems and confusions of Hindi students and facilitating easy methods to acquire communication skills –reading, writing and speaking- very well. He has to his acclaim 20 years of teaching spoken English in his own Easy English coaching class. He is equally gifted with an expertise of teaching math to the easy understanding of students making math interesting and stopping students from opting for coaching classes. His teaching concept of “mind-math-money” has really worked out with success as students are doing extremely well in math and enjoying it as well.
A pedagogical leader: His inherent passion supported with long rich experience in teaching and innovation has elevated him a pedagogical leader to plan and chalk out curriculum framework and implementation. Teachers are being given guidance in teaching-learning methodologies, periodical feedback, assessments and learning outcomes are producing satisfactory results. Art integration, life skills, integration of subjects, digital platform, interactive and activity based teaching, continuous assessments, motivation are introduced in teaching to bring out the skills, aptitudes and competency of students rather than relying on rote-learning. As a result, both teaching and learning become a new experience of exploiting the various potentials of students.
A trendsetter: The director, over the period of his teaching and innovation, has recently submitted his brainchild project titled INNOVATIVE PEDAGOGY FOR TEACHING ‘DIVISION’ NUMERACY- a solution to a grim reality where 60% of students of our country of class V are unable to solve a three digit by a one-digit division- submitted to RIE Bhopal of NCERT New Delhi, will surely be acknowledged and introduced in the numeracy curriculum. His innovation and application of math in daily situations help difficult math concepts for easy understanding and solving sums by students and thus developing all math skills, specifically critical thinking and problem solving aptitudes.
