Udayachal High School

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Udayachal High School is situated in Vikhroli east, Mumbai, India. Near Godrej Memorial hospital. There is a Udayachal primary school (students from 1st to 4th standard) and Udayachal pre-primary school (from the junior KG to the senior KG) which are also under the title Udayachal schools. The current principal of Udayachal high school is Mrs Rekha Pandey and the principal of Udayachal pre-primary school is Mrs Binaifer Chooga. This school is also a centre for ssc students. The motto of this school is tamso ma jotirgamya, which means light emerging from darkness. This school is currently owned by Adi Godrej. This school is there for almost 50 years. This school has approximately 1600 students and there are children studying from standard 5th to the standard 10th. The annual fee is 30,000 rupees.

History

UHS was first established in the 1960s for the children of the employees of the godrej company as they were poor and could not afford education.During that time only the children were admitted into the school and no other children.The school was made with a lot of effort as previously it was all a forest owned by the godrej family.They gave away their land for the construction of this school.It was due to Navroji Godrej and his family members who started this school for this purpose. The Pragati Kendra and Udayachal Schools were inaugurated on Independence Day in 1955 by Pirojsha Godrej. It was the indomitable will of Mrs. Cooverbai Vakil, the encouragement of Jaiben Godrej and the loving care of Soonuben that shaped these institutions.The Schools were very fortunate in having an experienced and dedicated educationist like Cooverbai J. Vakil, affectionately called 'Aunty' by all in Godrej. She helped the Directors in the early years in taking many a policy decision, supervised the internal administration of the schools and worked with the teachers providing them with practical in-service training. In the early years, it was necessary to persuade a few parents to send their children to school. The children had to be brought to school, washed and cleaned and fed too. The teachers performed these tasks most willingly.

Facilities

Here sports like cricket,football,volleyball,badminton,handball,chess,table tennis,hockey,rugby,etc are played.This school consists of a building,a shantiniketan,a ground,volley ball court,and a lawn.The building has four floors.It consists of a library,chemistry,biology,physics lab,canteen,computer rooms,art room,music room,pottery room,etc.In the ground there are places allocated for playing football,handball volleyball,hockey,etc. Every classroom is eqipped with a interactive board where teachers can show slides and powerpoint presentations.Every student has her/his own desk and chair.

School uniform

The school uniform is usually a grey shirt with lines and grey pants for elders and grey shorts for juniors for boys and for girls it is similar.The houses for sports in this school are Nalanda,Ujjaini,Vallabhi and Takshashila. The colours worn for each house are yellow,blue,green and red respectively.

Student Council

The student council consists of the prefects,the editors of the school magazine called Uday magazine and UHS also has a newspaper called the Uday Times printed every month,the vice captains and captains of every house and the head boy and head girl.

Timings and location

The timings of this school are from 8:00 to 2:55 with a snack break of 15 minutes and a lunch break of 35 minutes.In between there are 10 periods each of 35 minutes.It is located in Pirojsha Nagar, Near Godrej Memorial Hospital, Eastern Express Highway, Vikhroli East, Mumbai - 400083.

Curriculum

There are supervisors for english,hindi,marathi and maths and science.There are approximately 42-44 classes each having 30-36 students with one class teacher and other subject teachers. Students in this school can opt for either hindi-sanskrit or hindi-french or entire hindi after the seventh grade and also have the option of taking either computers and technicals and have the option to also opt for RSP or Scouts.

Achievements

This school is affiliated with British Council and has also won the ISA or the International School Award which is awarded to the elite schools in the world.UHS has a good football team which has won many inter-school tournaments and the volleyball and cricket team follows the same.In the year of 2013 the school topper Bushra Kazi scored a 96.36 percentage score.

Activities

• The school children participate in many other competitions. Some of them are:
• National cultural Talent Scholarship for Drama, Music & other arts.
• Mani Bhavan - The students participate in recitation of poems and passages on Gandhiji in Marathi, Gujarati, Hindi & English languages.
• Ramakrishna Mission - The students participate in recitation of poems and passages on Vivekananda in Marathi, Gujarati, Hindi & English.
• Activities organised by WWF.
• All India Camlin Colour contest sponsored by Camlin Co.
• Maths Concept Examinations.
• N Ward Science Exhibition.
• Commonwealth Essays organised by Commonwealth countries.
• Declamation.
• Inter School Elocution Competition.
• YMCA - Brain Waves Inter School Competition.
• Common Wealth Essay Competition.
• Nehru Science Centre Competition.
• Homi Bhabha Science Talent Search.
• Bal Vygyanik Maths Concept School Exam.
• Maharashtra State High Schools & Middle School Scholarship Exam.