SPECTACULAR PERFORMANCE BY THE TEACHERS IN BADMINTON

A team of teachers of St. Anthony's High School participated in the Inter-School Teachers Badminton Tournament for the McGee Cup organized by Calcutta Boys' School on 26th and 27th October, 2013. A total of 24 teams participated from 16 schools. The tournament comprised of singles, doubles and mixed doubles categories. The team of Fr. Devraj Fernandes, Philip D'Costa, Shane Fernandez and Cynthia Garg put up a spectacular performance and came runners-up.

ST. ANTHONY'S HIGH SCHOOL WINS THE INTER-DIOCESAN SCHOOL ONE-ACT PLAY CONTEST

Seven schools participated in the first ever Inter-Diocesan School One-Act Play Contest held at St. Mary’s School, Ripon Street on 27th September, 2013. St. Anthony’s High School was declared the winners of the competition for staging the original play “Life is Beautiful”. The play was written and directed by Mr. Steve Menezes. Mr. Binod Prabhakar was the co-director. The judges of the contest were Mr. Sunil Lucas, Mrs. Mavis Partridge and Mr. S. Roy.

The Actors of "Life is Beautiful"

Nathan Astle Spirito

Md. Arif

Md. Asif

Souchitro Mondol

Sarbartha Chakraborty

Md. Javed Akhtar

Vipul Chowdhury

Argha Biswas

Afif uz zaman

ST. ANTHONY'S HIGH SCHOOL HOSTS LET'S GET QUIZZICAL

St. Anthony’s High School, in association with The Telegraph, organized Let’s Get Quizzical 2013: the Inter-School Quiz Competition on 27^th September. The quiz was a part of the series of inter-school events being organized to celebrate the Sesquicentennial Year of Foundation of the school. This was the second edition of Let’s Get Quizzical, the first edition being held in 2011. The event was an eagerly anticipated one for the budding quizzers of the many schools as they had seen the hoardings around the city advertising the event. The quiz was held in Fr. Camille Limbourg Auditorium and saw enthusiastic participation from fourteen top schools of the city. The event was sponsored by Oxford University Press and powered by TTIS. The Area Sales Manager of Oxford University Press, Mr. Pratik Ghosh Dastidar, was present on the occasion. The quiz was conducted by the renowned Delhi-based quiz master Mr. Adittya Nath Mubayi of QuizCraft, the firm known for conducting knowledge-based events. Mr. Adittya has worked as Research Coordinator with Synergy Communications and assisted Mr. Siddhartha Basu. He has also been the Content Editor for popular television shows like Kaun Banega Crorepati, Kamzor Kadi Kaun and Mastermind India.

Felicitating Mr. Pratik Ghosh Dastidar

Mr. Adittya conducting the Quiz

The quizzing began with the preliminary round from where six top teams – Calcutta Boys School, St. James’ School, Don Bosco (Park Circus), St. Thomas Boys School (Khidderpore), St. Aloysius School (Howrah) and the host St. Anthony’s High School – qualified for the final. Mr. Adittya conducted a challenging quiz consisting of rounds based on Anagrams, Visuals, Audio as well as direct questions. The quiz was stimulating as well as fun with a good number of questions for the audience too. The final round saw the buzzers going on rapidly as the teams tried to grab as many points as they could even though the round had negative points for wrong answers. There was a tie between Don Bosco, Park Circus, and St. Thomas Boys School, Khidderpore, for the third place and a tie-breaker question decided the final standings. Calcutta Boys' School, comprising of Deb Shankar Ghosh, Sayan Bhattacharya, Saikat Kar and Rajarshi Mukherjee emerged the deserving champions. The first runners-up trophy went to St. James’ School comprising of Adwait Mitra, Ayush Banerjee, Siddhartha Chatterjee and Tamoghna Chowdhury. The second runners-up trophy was won by Don Bosco, Park Circus, comprising of Ananda Sankar Dasgupta, Kundan Dasgupta, Niladri Shekhar Dutt and Nikhil Nair. The Headmaster of St. Anthony’s High School, Fr. Devraj Fernandes, gave away the prizes to the winners and thanked the participants. He also welcomed them to participate in the upcoming inter-school events of St. Anthony’s High School leading to the closing ceremony to mark the 150^th Anniversary of the school’s foundation.

Champions - Calcutta Boys' School

1st Runners-up - St. James' School

2nd Runners-up - Don Bosco, Park Circus

KEEP KOLKATA CLEAN DRIVE

St. Anthony’s High School, in association with the Lions Club International, Sealdah, launched a project to keep Kolkata clean. For this project twenty students from each section of Class IX were chosen. These students were divided into ten groups of four members each. On the first day all the groups were given the task to visit ten houses around the school locality. The groups had to tell the people they visited the necessity of cleanliness and provide them with free plastic bags so that they could dispose garbage properly. On this project the teams were accompanied by the members of the Lions Club and some school teachers. All the teams had a great experience. The teams also collected the necessary information, like phone numbers, from the houses they visited. The teams did have a few problems because not all people co-operated nicely with the students. The students were provided with refreshments after they finished their task. The second day of the programme was held on 9^th September. This time they had the visit the locality of Janbazar for the same purpose.

Lion Binay Kumar Singhania, President

Lion Girish Jain, Secretary

Lion Ram Sagar Poddar and Lion R. K. Basotia, Past Presidents

Lion Vikash Tibrewal, Member

All of Lions Club of Calcutta Sealdah

ST. ANTHONY'S HIGH SCHOOL HOSTS THE SESQUICENTENNIAL CUP FOOTBALL TOURNAMENT

The Sesquicentennial Football Cup, St. Anthony's High School's maiden Inter-School Football Tournament was held on 7th September 2013 at St. James' School Ground as part of the school's celebrations of the 150th year of its foundation. Twelve schools from the city enrolled their players' names for the Tournament, which began at 9 a.m. sharp.  Neutral referees from the Football Federation of Bengal were invited to oversee the games' proceedings to ensure fair play. The event was Co-Sponsored by Viva Education.The Tournament was organised by the Sports Committee of St. Anthony's High School. The Headmaster, Fr. Devraj Fernandes, was present on the occasion and sat through the matches with rapt attention. The first match of the day was played between the host school and the team from Meghmala Roy Education Center. The host team won the match with a goal taking them to the next lap of the tournament. The next match was cancelled owing to the non- appearance of their opponents and and St. Mary's School got the benefit of a walkover. In the third match between St. Peter's School and Apeejay School, Park Street, the former defeated the latter with a 3-0 score. St. Lawrence High School defeated Apeejay School, Salt Lake, and reserved a berth for them in the next round. Albany Hall Public School defeated St. Aloysius Day and Orphanage School and went to the next round. The last match of the first round went in favour of Loyola High School whose players outplayed Ratnakar North Point School.  In the second round the host team came crashing out of the tournament when St. Mary's convincingly scored two penalty shots and made a place for themselves in the semi finals. St. Lawrence High School scored the solo goal of the next match and prevented St. Peter's High School form proceeding further in the tournament. Albany Hall Public School also moved to the semifinals with a convincing win against Loyola High School. The first Semi- Final Between Albany Hall Public School and St. Mary's School turned out to be a non scoring one and a penalty shootout became inevitable to decide the fate of the match. Ultimately St. Mary's School, whose players had been demonstrating excellent football skills, got the advantage and edged out their opponents from the competition. St. Lawrence High School moved into the final by virtue of their high score in the preliminary matches. The final match was an excellent showcase of football skills as the players of both teams used every nuance in the book to outdo their opponents, But since the match yielded no result a penalty shootout decided the winner. St. Lawrence High School managed to come out victorious and lifted the Sesquicentennial Cup Champions Trophy. St. Mary's School was adjudge Runners Up. The trophy for highest goal scorer was given to Abdul Ejaz of Albany Hall Public School.

The Officials

Highest Scorer, Abdul Ejaz (Albany Hall Public School)

Winners, St. Lawrence High School

Runners-Up, St. Mary's School

ANTHONIANS GET GROOVING AT THEIR NEW AUDITORIUM

It has been an eventful first quarter of the Sesquicentennial Anniversary year of the foundation of St. Anthony’s High School. Ever since the inaugural Mass (19^th April) and the Opening Ceremony (20^th April) earlier this year, the school has been hosting programmes to celebrate this grand milestone of completing 150 years of its existence.  The latest in the list of events for the year was “The Groove” the Inter- School Dance competition held on Friday, 28^th June in the newly renovated School Hall. The Chief Guest on the occasion was Mrs. Amita Dutt Mukherjee. One of the leading exponents of Kathak in India, Amita Dutt is Professor of Dance in the Uday Shankar Chair at the Rabindra Bharati University (from 2000) and has also been the Head of the Department of Dance (2001-2003) and the Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts (2006-2010) at Rabindra Bharati University.

         

The Groove was the maiden programme to be held in the revamped School Hall and it was only appropriate that with the current look, that bore no semblance to what the hall looked earlier, it needed to be inaugurated afresh. The honours were done by the Chief Guest and the Headmaster, Fr. Devraj Fernandes, the man behind the renovation of the hall and other portions of the school building. The school students and teachers, who got their first look of the hall on the occasion, were visibly impressed with the plush interiors and wore a look of pride to have such a wonderfully designed and well equipped hall within the school premises. The hall was aptly christened Fr. Camille Limbourg Auditorium after one of the earliest founding fathers of the school.

The program began with the welcome dance performed by the students and choreographed by Mr. Pradyut Dutta, one of the judges for the event. The Sequicentennial Anthem was also sung by students of the School Choir. The MC on the occasion was Mrs. Manju Cecelia Gomes, one of the senior teachers of the school. She introduced the Chief Guest, who was felicitated with floral tributes and a special memento issued to commemorate the occasion. The Co-sponsors of the event were Dr. Devedra Pandey and Mr. Noor Mohammed, both parents of students from the senior school. Mrs. Dutt took the podium and spoke eloquently on dance and its significance in people’s lives. Her speech was followed by a guest performance by Ms. Priyanka Ghosh, who performed a scintillating Bharatnatyam number. 

Then began the main event, the contest. The participating schools were Meghmala Roy Education centre, Loyola High School, St. Mary’s School and the host school. The contest was divided into two categories- solo and group. The theme for the solo contest was the music of maestro A.R. Rahman and that for the group performance was Seasons. The students demonstrated their dancing skills to pitch perfection on the stage keeping the audience enthralled with one performance after another. Transcending styles, age and gender, the young dancers performed with finesse and élan. The group performances were a mixture of co-ordination, innovative choreography and sophisticated execution. After the contest was over it became apparent that choosing a clear winner would be a gargantuan task for the judges. The winners in the solo category were Mazhar Mannan, who stood first and represented the host school, Ayushi Chowdhury from Meghmala Roy Education center, who stood second and George Vincent Samuel of Loyola High School who took third place. Meghmala Roy Education center was adjudged best in the Group performance and they lifted the Championship Trophy for an outstanding performance. St. Anthony’s High School Placed second and Loyola High School came third. Vignesh Pillai of St. Mary’s School earned special commendation for an excellent Kathak Performance. 

The Headmaster thanked all the participants and accompanying teachers and gave out the certificates of participation and the winners’ trophies. The programme was concluded with the school anthem.

 

MAIDEN EVENT OF THE SESQUICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION - ORATIO 2013

The first Inter School event to commemorate the 150^th year of the foundation of St. Anthony’s High School was held in the new annex building of the school with twenty schools participating in an overwhelming contest. The elocution contest, that was christened Oratio last year, was the first in a series of inter- school competitions to mark the Sesquicentennial Anniversary celebrations of the school. The topic for the contest was “Conserving our Heritage is as Important as Building our Future”. The conference hall was temporarily converted into an auditorium to facilitate the hosting of the contest. Girls and boys from St. James School, Don Bosco School, Calcutta Boys’ School, Frank Anthony Public School, St. Augustine’s Day School, Birla High School, Loreto Day Schools, Entally, Dharamtalla and Eliot Road, Ling Liang School, Saifee Hall Public School, St. Thomas Day School, St. Mary’s School, St. Aloysius Day School, Meghmala Roy Education Centre, South City International School and Chowringhee High School in addition to the host school participated in the three hour long competition.  Apart from the contestants and Anthonians, a large number of teachers and students from participating schools comprised the audience. H. E. Mr. Sanjay Wadvani, OBE, British Deputy High Commissioner for Eastern India, was the Chief Guest on the occasion. The judges for the contest were Prof. Tapati Gupta , former Head of the Department of English at Calcutta University and prolific writer and critic, Prof. Sobha Chattopadhyay, the former Head of the Department of English at Jadavpur University, and Dr. Sheila Niyogi,  Associate Professor in the Department of English at Jogmaya Devi College. Mr. Murli Punjabi, an ex-student and benefactor of the school, sponsored the event.

  

The program was begun on a solemn note with the lighting of the ceremonial lamp by the Headmaster, Fr.  

Devraj Fernandes, the Chief Guest, the judges and the sponsor. The Chief Guest, Mr. Wadvani eloquently addressed the audience and the participants in particular about the difficulty posed by public speaking, but at the same time emphasized the importance it holds in today’s world. The Headmaster encouraged all the participants and impressed every one of the young speakers of the importance of participating rather than considering victories and losses. The students passionately spoke about the balance between the need to conserve our heritage while maintaining sustained development for the future. It was very heartening to hear so many young people taking the dais to speak vehemently on conserving the glorious past of our country and doing all we can to keep its traditions and culture intact. The maturity displayed by the speakers belied the tenderness of their age. In the final analysis it was difficult to make a judgment to determine the best speakers.

Before announcing the winners Mr. Murli Punjabi expressed his pleasure at hearing the young orations speak so eloquently on a topic of such gravity. He congratulated the speakers as well as the school authorities for organizing such a wonderful contest. 

The first prize was awarded to Ujaan Ganguly of St. James’ School. The second and third places went to Oishik Bandhopadhyay of Calcutta Boys School and Sparsh Agarwal of Don Bosco School, Park Circus respectively.  The Championship Trophy was lifted by St. James School. All the participating schools were thanked for their role in making the contest a success and were also invited to participate in the next Inter- School contest, The Groove, in June. The programme was concluded with the school anthem.

SESQUICENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY INAUGURAL FUNCTION

The inaugural function of St. Anthony’s High School’s Sesquicentennial Anniversary Celebrations was held in the school campus on 20th April 2013. Dr. Sudarshan Ghosh Dastidar, Minister of Environmental Affairs in W. B. Govt., graced the occasion as Chief Guest. Dr. Dastidar lit the inaugural lamp and cut the sesquicentennial cake.

 Mr. Michael Shane Calvert, Anglo-Indian MLA, was the Guest of Honour and he planted a seed, which is to be nurtured by the school, and the grown-up sapling presented to the Bishop House at the closing ceremony of the Sesquicentennial Anniversary Celebrations next year. This symbolic gesture heralded the launch of a number of social welfare and environmental projects like Care for the Aged, Care for the Orphan Girl, Switch-Off Campaign and Save Water Campaign. A number of Inter-School Events that are to feature throughout the year-long celebrations were also announced.

 The cultural programme included the Welcome Dance, the Rainbow Dance and the Sesquicentennial Dance all performed by the students of the school. The Sesquicentennial Dance was remarkable because it mirrored the progress of the school over the years. This was also the occasion when the Sesquicentennial Anthem, specially composed for the occasion, was sung by the school choir in front of all the guests and dignitaries.

The occasion saw the official launch of the school’s website by Fr. Moloy D’Costa, an ex-student and currently the Inspector of the Diocesan Schools. A number of ex-students attended the function and the most prominent among them was Mr. Raju Jagtiani, former National Billiards Champion, who was the Guest of Honour when the school celebrated its 125th Anniversary of Foundation twenty-five years ago.