Heritage School, Jammu

Within a short span of ten years, this CBSE-affiliated K-12 co-educational school has won the plaudits and patronage of Jammu’s quality education-conscious parents  Autar Nehru

Spread over a nine-acre modern campus in the northern city of Jammu, the nexgen Heritage School (estb. 2005) is ranked among the country’s Top 100 co-ed day schools and #2 in Jammu & Kashmir in the latest EW India School Rankings 2015. Within a short span of ten years, this CBSE-affiliated K-12 school has won the plaudits and patronage of Jammu’s quality education-conscious parents by providing rigorous academics, high-quality faculty, enabling infrastructure and a rich menu of extra-curricular and sports activities. A recipient of British Council’s International School Award 2014, the co-educational Heritage currently has an enrolment of 2,500 students mentored by 155 teachers.

Promoted by Jammu-based first generation entrepreneur Vishal Gupta, founder-director of Jammu Castings Pvt. Ltd and Shree Guru Kripa Alloys Pvt. Ltd (combined annual turnover: Rs.150 crore), Heritage School was promoted with twin objectives — a desire to heal the scars inflicted by the partition of India in 1947 through giving back to the community, and a compelling need to establish a world-class primary-secondary school in Jammu (pop. 612,000). The Gupta family matriarch the late Dhanwanti Devi, who survived the occupation of the border town of Rajouri by Pakistani irregulars and fled to Jammu after it was retaken by the Indian army, overcame overwhelming odds to educate her children.

“The inspiration for Heritage School is the pioneering spirit of our grandmother Dhanwanti Devi who endowed the gift of education to her own children as well as many orphans. The Heritage School was promoted to carry forward the flame of her legacy. At the same time, we wanted to set up a world-class school in Jammu so that children didn’t have to go to boarding schools outside the state,” says Vishal who co-promoted the school with his brothers Sunil and Rohit under the aegis of the Dhanwanti Memorial Trust.

To fulfill the objective of establishing an internationally benchmarked 21st century school, the Guptas roped in Delhi-based Vijay Gupta & Associates, which boasts several top-ranked education institutions including the Amity Group among its clients, to design the campus, and enlisted the services of well-qualified educationists. “Apart from hiring a professional firm to design a modern campus, we brought in highly experienced educationists as principal and vice-principal and invested them with full academic autonomy. Our mission is to enable the all-round development of children in an enriching learning environment,” says Vishal Gupta.

The management’s efforts to recruit qualified and trained faculty have paid rich dividends in academics as well as extra-curricular achievements. The first three batches (2013-15) of students who have graduated thus far have recorded 100 percent results in the CBSE class XII board exams. In the co-curricular arena, Heritage students were ranked third in the WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature)-India National Quiz Competition, and #1 in the Bournvita Quiz Contest in Jammu city, while several students have gone abroad on school exchange programmes to Durban and Japan. Likewise school students regularly participate in state-level competitions in football, skating, handball and basketball.

“Our focus is on a holistic approach to education through an optimal mix of academics and co-curricular and sports activities. In our classrooms, children learn experientially and through project-based learning to acquire the skills for success not just in their professions, but also in life. Moreover we make special efforts to inculcate civic consciousness and compassion in our children — we are actively engaged in Swachh Bharat programmes in our school’s neighbourhood and have also adopted an old-age home,” says Jagdish Singh Dhami, an alumnus of Mysore University who taught at The Lawrence School, Lovedale (Ooty) and Shree Krishna Pranami Public School, Siwani (Haryana) in a career spanning 25 years before being appointed principal of Heritage in January 2012.

Its professionally-designed campus defined by attention to detail is one of the school’s big selling points. The 250,000 sq. ft built-up area houses 75 spacious classrooms, two computer labs, three science laboratories, audio-visual and music rooms and art studios, a central amphitheatre and a 500-seater auditorium. Sports facilities include a football ground, an international size skating ring, swimming pool, basketball court, the Sehwag Cricket Academy established by test star Virendra Sehwag, a lawn tennis court, table tennis tables, and basketball and handball courts. The school owns a fleet of 30 buses equipped with the latest safety equipment to transport children and faculty back and forth. Construction has begun to build a new academic block, and upgrade the fully air-conditioned auditorium.

With Heritage acquiring a statewide reputation for contemporary K-12 education, the management’s current effort is on optimising operations and enhancing the school’s public profile. “While progress thus far has been satisfactory, we are not keen on promoting new schools in the foreseeable future. We want to raise the brand and profile of Heritage as one of the country’s premier day schools. But because health is the observe side of education, before we undertake any further expansion in education, the family plans to build a super-specialty hospital,” says Vishal Gupta.