Overview
St. Stephen's School, Sector 45B, Chandigarh is a coeducational day cum residential school affiliated with the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE), New Delhi. Founded in 1982 as a primary school by an Anglo-Indian Catholic principal Harold Anthony Patrick, the school offered schooling from nursery to class V with 12 staff members. Today the school boasts 165 staff members and over 2400 students from class I through class X.
The school’s main focus is on the all round development of the young minds.
Campus
The 4 acre school campus comprises a four storey building that houses the classrooms, laboratories for physics, chemistry, biology, home science, mathematics and computer science, a well stocked library, medical infirmary, bank, bookstore, music room, art room and an auditorium.
The sports facilities include multi-purpose hall with a gymnasium, facilities for indoor badminton, -artificial turf pitches, a basketball court, tennis court, four squash courts, five cricket nets, a field for hockey and football and a pavilion.
Accomodation
The school hostel known as Carver's Hostel, located at Togan, is aesthetically designed with lots of open space and greenery. The rooms are spacious and fitted with modern amenities. The hostel is managed by the wardens who ensure safety, discipline and well being of the boarders.
Academics
The school follows CISCE curriculum and follows a student centric approach to harness the potential of students in an academically stimulating environment. Teachers facilitate learning by helping students’ access information and encourage curiosity, creative thinking and problem solving. Students on the other hand play an active role in the class rooms and take responsibility for their learning and develop independent thinking skills. Each child is encouraged to develop motivation, self evaluation, peer assessment, time management, different forms of teaching like deep questioning, self review, peer review, aims and objectives and collaborative learning. The classroom environment is also made highly conducive to learning with the deployment of various modern teaching strategies.
The school’s assessment technique involves a monthly assessment, in which each student is discussed individually. High performing students are encouraged with monthly awards of distinction and commendation. Low performing students are placed on the house masters/headmasters list and are helped to do remedial work in their weak subjects.
In class X, the subjects offered include Hindi, English literature, English language, computers, mathematics, business studies, accountancy, physics, chemistry, biology, political science, history, geography, economics, art and physical education. The student strength per classroom is 45-50.
Admission
The school’s registration process usually starts in November last week and is open till December first week; selection is on the basis of draw of lots and the list of selected candidates is displayed by January, when the admission closes.
Of the total 225 admission seats, 56 seats are reserved for RTE candidates. The age eligibility for admission to class I is five and half years as on April 1 of the year in which admission is sought.
Fees
The school fee structure for class I is as follows:
Admission Fee: Rs 25000/-
Caution Money: Rs 2500/-
Annual Fee: Rs 9000/-
Consolidated fee: Rs 36000/- (Rs 9000/- per Qtr)
Achievements
St. Stephen’s School’s most notable alumni include Abhinav Bindra, India’s gold medalist in the 10 meter air rifle event at the 2008 Summer Olympics, Uday Singh Taunque, first soldier of Sikh descent to die in Iraq War while serving the USA army and model Aanchal Kumar.
The principal of St Stephen’s School, Harold Carver is a recipient of several awards including the coveted Derozio for exemplary service to school education and human enrichment in 2002, Life Time Achievement award for dedicated service in the field of education for 42 years in 2007 and the prestigious National Award in 2008 from the president of India. Harold Carver was also among the five professionals who were presented the First Friday Forum Award for creative excellence.