Our First Gift

Krishiv our youngest student accepting Dr. Kole's gift on behalf of his school mates and teachers. 

Dr. J. L. Kole, Deputy Director General (retired), Govt. Of India, on a short visit from Kolkata, gave us our first gift, a set of eight books for our children.

And... Our Night Was Filled With Music... Video

This Video comes to us thanks to Mr. Subhash Chintamaneni who shot and edited the video and then posted it on facebook...

Subhash Chintamaneni: Hi guys, it was a great evening, i took a few snippets of video and made a quick trailer in imovie. turn up the volume :)

Thank You Subhash... With parents and supporters like you, we cannot but aim to be the best...!!!

And... Our Night Was Filled With Music...

We at Sancta Maria had our first ever Music Concert on Saturday the19th of Februrary...

Some of the reactions we got from our parents and audience on our Facebook page...

·         Charles Gabriel

Hi, It was a wonderful, no WONDERFUL evening at Sancta Maria., truly a lot of effort & more importantly love and devotion went into it. I am sure this passion for instilling and demonstrating excellence is a way of life in Sancta Maria. I cant wait for my daugther to start her schooling! If ever a father was envious of his child, it must be me.. How I wish we all had this complete education when we needed it! The children were heartwarming with their sincere performances, the faculty were indeed enjoying their work - I could clearly feel their devotion and passion. I am a drummer by interest & the percussion repertoire was a class act! 

Dear Mrs.Shetty, you raised a big lump in my throat with your words! 
Dear Faculty, thank you in advance! I am very sure my child is in great hands!

·      Urska Anumanchi

You should be super proud of yourself for tonight's performance! My two year old kept clapping and asking for more songs in between - that "martial art" act was clearly his favorite :) Bravo Sanctamarians!

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

Venkat Bhamidipati 

Today's performance was a total class act. Teachers and kids have pleasantly surprised us. Kudos to everyone involved.

·      Rachel Vandana 

You guys were fantastic! Add me to your fan list :)

·    Behl Coal 

I can say only one thing...... I AM Jealous … I am jealous I am jealous because I want such a great team of teachers who are doing fabulous job with ma’am's guidance... Miss you so much

·      Jyoti T Saini 

‎[imminent blink] congratulations [blink] to the entire team of Sancta Maria...on the sucess of concert.Keep it up!

·      Soumya Padhy 

It was a wonderful evening at Sancta maria .. the little ones were amazing and the not so little ones were like the ones sent by the Guaridan angels . . so protective, so caring . . guilding the little ones on their little steps . . fanatbulous Sancta . . cheers!!!!

Here are a few pictures of the night and 

 Peeyush Pandey - Music is moonlight in the gloomy night of life.... This picture itself tells me that night is full of love.... Its so nice.....

The Glass Harp Players...
Ethan Levitt, Athira Sajeev, Trisha Reddy, Shreyas Bathi, Sanchin Thakur, Paramjit Singh and Pia Shetty

Sandhya Reddy - awesum kids! i loved this!

Joyful Joyful being sung to the accompaniment of the Glass Harp...

'Joyful Joyful' sung by Ankita Koshy... 

The Glass Harp Players: Ruchi Arora, Meena Sharma, Shailaja Thakur, Ankita Koshy, Viji Sajeev, Geetika D'Rosario, Paramjit Singh, Sandeeep Arora, Kawaljeet Babra and Pia Shetty...

Ghir Ghir Aayee Re...

Lead Singer and Dholak: Shailaja Thakur...

Chorus: Athira Sajeev, Trisha Redddy, Sanchin Thakur, Sharon Chiranjeevi, Shreeansh Reddy, Ethan Levitt, Shreyas Bathi,Sushrit Panda, Prabhvir Singh Babra, Praval Bathi, Viji Sajeev, Kawaljeet Babra, Meena Sharma, Geetika D'Rosario, Vijay Shetty, Pia Shetty, Paramjit Singh and Sandeep Arora.

Hulle Hulla Re...

Lead Singer: Kawaljeet Babra...

Chorus: Athira Sajeev, Trisha Redddy, Sanchin Thakur, Sharon Chiranjeevi, Shreeansh Reddy, Ethan Levitt, Shreyas Bathi,Sushrit Panda, Prabhvir Singh Babra, Praval Bathi, Viji Sajeev, Shailaja Thakur , Meena Sharma, Geetika D'Rosario, Vijay Shetty, Pia Shetty, Paramjit Singh and Sandeep Arora.

The Answer Is Blowin In The Wind...

Geetika D'Rosario and Ankita Koshy

Mrs. Ratnalekha Shetty, our Principal recites Taylor Mali's poem "The Miracle Worker".

High Hopes!!

As the day dawned on 14^th feb. 2011, the Sancta Marians started off on an adventurous journey to the Air Force Station Hakimpet. The adventure was the hot air balloon ride organized at the open ground of the Air Force base. The parents also accompanied our children to the venue. The children’s excitement knew no bounds when they saw the hot air being filled inside the balloon. They were amazed at the mammoth balloon bulging out into the sky! Finally, it was their turn to hop into it and soar high up in the sky. And what a ride it was! The parents and teachers were equally fascinated by the ride. The excitement came to an end by relishing the morning snacks that were arranged at the venue. Within an hour the children, with their parents, returned home with the wish to come back again and get rocketed up!! The most interesting question that came up during this journey was by Shreyas( Grade 1 ) when he said as we started the journey at 5.00 a.m “ I cannot see the clouds. I cannot see the sun. Then how is it morning?!

We reached the air base at 5:30 to watch the balloon being filled with hot air. We were given a briefing on the technicalities of filling the balloon with hot air.

Ready to soar to the skies!

Ready to launch…….

Ballooning is a natural ‘high’!

The balloon seems to stand still in the air while the earth flies past underneath!

Time to give flight to your imagination!

The ‘Adventurers’… for whom the sky is the limit.

I have known today a magnificent intoxication. I have learnt how it feels to be a bird. I have flown.

Getting inspired... And learning to whistle...

For the Musical Celebration of our New Amphitheater on the 19th of February...

One of the songs we've chosen as part of the repertoire is "Don't Worry, Be Happy" by ten-time Grammy Award winner Bobby McFerrin...

In this song, apart from singing it, we were also required to whistle some parts of it...

Though quite a few of us can whistle, none of us could really hit the right notes to fit what was required in the song, so we decided against whistling.

Today, while I was looking for something else, I chanced upon this wonderful TEDEX video clip of a man who whistled his way to the world championship, just because he (as he says it) did not want to loose face...

  

When we had decided to disband the idea of using whistling for the performance of  "Don't Worry, Be Happy", I had sort of written myself off as non whistler...

Now I am inspired... 

No.. No... I do not intend to try for the world championship, but if we can help our students instill a sense of rhythm and melody in them, we should do everything we can... 

Encouragement... Pass it on...

Children...
At most times,
are innocent, yet eager,
not knowing,
yet willing to try...

Adults...
In comparison,
worry and are mostly
scared of failure...

In this fear...
We sometimes,
tend to prohibit,
children from,
experimenting,
and learning
for themselves...

...and the night shall be filled with music...

A new school is an exciting venture! And one of the most exciting things of our school is our beautiful amphi theater which opens out to the stars on the 19^th of February, 2011. We celebrate this open air theater by singing to those twinkling stars.

Come join us on this joyful night.

Venue: The Amphi Theater @ Sancta Maria International School, Lingampally, Hyderabad.

Time: 5:30 PM

Our Tamarind Tree

One of the big highlights of our school, is the tall and huge Tamarind Tree in the middle of our campus...
Though our campus was originally designed to face the main road, and we were advised by many that we should cut it down, our management decided to change the the way our building was positioned rather than cut this hundred year old symbol of strength, character and dignity.

Our Big, Tall And Deeply Rooted Tamarind Tree 

I was thinking of this, and on a lark, I decided to do a search on Google to see if I could find any literary work on a Tamarind tree and to my pleasant surprise I found this poem that I am posting below. 

The Trunk Of Our Tamarind Tree

The Tamarind Tree

Deepak Menon

When the world was young and gay

And bluebirds sang songs of love

A traveler along his merry way

Saw clouds gathering above

Surprised was he at this strange sight

For in those days it never rained

And when the clouds dimmed the light

He felt his cheery spirits drained

Looking around in that vast expanse

Where only lived the wind roaming free

He suddenly espied, what at a glance

appeared to be a tree

How glad was he at the sight

His heart could not express

He hurried to it through fading light

Unable his joy to suppress

Finally he reached the solitary tree

As the heavens their tears shed

And crouched there fearfully

Arms covering his head

  

By and by as he calmed down

Wonder filled his soul

For he was dry from toe to crown

The tree had played its role

And suddenly the clouds had gone

He looked at his new found friend

A Friend of Friends, of envy shorn

From beginning to the end

It was a just a little Tamarind Tree

Alone in the vast wide plain

Whose role was just there to be

To give shelter from the rain

And all his life he never forgot

That wondrous Tamarind Tree

And all his life he always sought

Just like it, to Be!

Deepak Menon

Our Tree House On Our Tamarind Tree

I want to express my gratitude to Mr. Deepak Menon for permitting me to use his poem on our blog and I also hope, as Mrs. Ratnalekha Shetty our Principal constantly reminds, we learn from the Tamarind tree to not only grow bigger and taller but also deeper too...!!!