Silver Hills shines in golden glory

Adimali: They shine like gold though they have silver in their name. The Silver Hills Public School, Kozhikode, which was crowned winners in the school-level with maximum points from participating events in the CBSE Youth Festival, is a rare breed, being able to surpass the rest on the art front.

Its sibling, Silver Hills Higher Secondary School, has been the backbone of Kozhikode district in the state syllabus state-level youth festival in bagging the championship several times. According to Principal Fr John Mannarathara CMI, the rich tradition of fostering art is the reason behind this success.

"Our class time is from 8 am to 2 pm and it is devised in such a way to enable students practice art forms in the afternoons without affecting their study. Students with artistic talents are given preference in admission and some of the financially backward students with talent are allowed to study free of cost," Fr John told DC. The school has an arts club called Sargam.

When grade points were added for deciding the winner last time, the Kanhangad Silver Hills Public School won the title. Grade points are added to every participant and the Kanhangad School with maximum participants was able to secure the top slot.

"This time, we have both aggregate winner and the crowning champions who are called the best school. The best school is the one that wins maximum points from the competitions at the state level," said Fr Tomy Nambiaparam bail, the core committee convener of the festival.

Silver Hills Kozhikode has already won major events. These include category III kolkali, group dance, thiruvathira and group song (common category). "We have four dance teachers to train students and apart from that we rope in professionals from outside to train the students. Known artistes like Paul Kallanode and Kavitha Mukhopadhyaya are in our faculty. Students' training starts along with the start of the academic session. Repeated training gives them confidence, retains their energy levels and gives perfection to their performance," says Fr John, who is also an author.

In all 1,650 students study at the school, of which 250 students participate at the Sahodaya-level fest, while nearly 100 go to state-level competitions.

Recognition for DC

Photojournalist Arunchandra Bose receives the ‘Best Coverage’ award for DC in Adimali on Sunday.

Deccan Chronicle has bagged the trophy for the ‘best coverage’ of the CBSE School Youth Festival held at Viswadeepthi CMI Public School, Adimali. There is no claimant to the second position. Among Malayalam dailies, Mangalam bagged the trophy for best coverage followed by Malayala Manorama. The award was instituted by the Kerala CBSE Schools Management Association and Confederation of Kerala Sahodaya Complexes, the joint orgainsers of the second state CBSE state youth festival.