On Friday 29th July 2011, the CEO of HCL , Mr. Harsh Chitale, visited the school. As the school has install Digital Interactive Board of HCL in all its classrooms, he wanted to see how they work and also get feedback from the staff and students. He went around the school, to the classrooms, listened to the suggestions of teachers and students. In his interaction with the school management, he talked of the company’s future plans in the field of education. As the school is one of the foremost in introducing technology in teaching, he was hopeful of a long and enduring tie-up with the school.

Udgam introduces School Cinema-the reel way to learn

Udgam becomes the foremost institute in Ahmedabad to introduce School Cinema. It is a film based learning module for children, teachers and parents encompassing the various spheres of a child’s holistic development. It will help students to effectively deal with ‘real’ life challenges and issues and equip them with the necessary life skills, values, attitudes and morals. It will facilitate interactive learning on topics ranging from environmental awareness, to nationalism and to personal issues through fun and exciting films. We are going to bring in this from Class 1 to class 8. Every film has a corresponding worksheet with activities. The activities are so interesting that children become totally engrossed in doing them. Thus value education is imparted in an interesting manner.

Following students participated in a Declamation competition organized by Income tax department on 24/07/2011 as part of the ‘Closing Ceremony of 150 years of Income Tax in India’. The topic was ‘Taxes are Essential for Growth.’ Each one has received a memento and certificate.

Varsha Iyer Std. X
Aashna Bhatia Std. X
Riddhesh Nadkarni Std. XI
Aanchal Tewary Std. XII

SCHOLARS TEND TO CREATE ACHIEVERS

This statement is brought to practical life at Udgam School For Children. School is proud to have scholar as educators.
Here are a few achievements of our teachers.

Teacher shines– Cooking is a passion and love of almost every women on earth – especially in India and in Aapnu Ahmedabad. One of our faculty member Ms. Shilpa Akhani participated in IIHM Teacher Chef India Schools 2015 – a competition for teachers from schools of Ahmedabad, who love to platform their culinary skills and reached the top 10 Finalist. The participants were provided resources and had to make a full meal within a stipulated time. She managed to clear two rounds competing with more than 150 participants and reached the list of top 10. Congratulations !
HENA PRASUN ON THE KBC HOT SEAT– Our teacher Hena Prasun made it to the much coveted Hot Seat of KBC show, the show with the highest TRP ratings ever!
For Hena it was a ‘dream come true’ as like so many others across India, she had been trying hard for no less than 3 years to get through to the show.
She was the fastest in the Fastest Finger First round and made it to the Hot Seat.
She was face to face with none other than Amitabh Bachchan.
Hena answered the questions with confidence and elan.
She is a true winner!

G.Vijayalakshmi – Is excelled in History subject while pursuing her Masters and received a Gold Medal for securing highest marks.

Jashvanti Dadhania – Is appointed as a member of Gujarati Subject Committee in Central Board of Secondary Education. She has also authored a reference book for STD X Gujarati subject.

Computer knowledge is common now a days. But to teach growing generation computer as subject is a challenge in itself. USFC has Champions as computer teachers.

Ms.Yogini Pathak – One of our Computer Faculty Ms.Yogini Pathak stood first in B.Sc. in the year 1990 and also bagged first position in Post Graduate Diploma in Computer Application in the year 1991.

Mrs. Arathi Kellogg – Apart from being an educationist, a teacher/woman can have other social hobbies . One such example is our own faculty for English at Primary level Mrs. Arathi Kellogg took part in First Ahmedabad marathon inaugurated by Honorable Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the year 2010 and successfully completed 21 kms marathon in 2 hour and 54 minutes. She was also awarded a medal for her outstanding performance.

–> One more feather was added to the colourful cap of one of our faculty members – Mrs. Arathi Kellogg. She enthusiastically took part in Ahmedabad Marathon on 6th January, 2013 and managed to complete Half marathon of 21 kms in 2 hrs and 50 min. She stood 11th in the veteran category. Congratulations!

Mrs. Chetna Kavta – is a multi talented personality in herself. She followed her passion towards teaching and made it her profession. Along with being a Hindi Teacher, she has a hidden talent of composing poetry specially humourous poems.
Taking her talent further she took part in Hindi self composed Shayari programme organized by Sab TV Channel. She presented a poem on “Computer and Me”. She gained appreciation and applause for her performance along with a trophy, certificate and cash prize as a gesture of encouragement. Congratulations!!!

Krupali Sanghvi – bagged 3rd rank in the university while pursuing her BCA from Saurashtra University in the year 2003-04. She was conferred with a silver medal for her commendable efforts.

Shri Morari Bapu visits Udgam…

Ram Kathakar, Shri Morari Bapu visited Udgam on 24^th April. He was welcomed by our tiny tots. Shri Morari Bapu had a look at the school premises. Bapu visited classrooms, computer lab as well as the extended wing of the school. He was also introduced to the Homoepathy clinic run by the school.

Honor By Ex-President Mr.APJ Abdul Kalam – 2012

“When mother is happy, family is happy. When family is happy, nation is happy.” These words of Dr. Kalam left an impact on YUVA Unstoppable. YUVA organized an essay competition on the theme of ‘Make Your Mother Smile’. Students from various schools of Ahmedabad participated in this. Out of 22,000 entries, 10 best essays were selected from each school. The writers of these essays were invited to attend the programme on 11th Nov. 2011 at Rajpath Club where Dr. Abdul Kalam awarded certificates to the top 5 writers. Mr. Manan Choksi, the Executive Director and teachers of Udgam attended the programme along with the students.

Astha Johri, a student of Class 12 of Udgam School, won the first prize. She was awarded a Certificate by Dr. Kalam for her essay.

 

The following girls have been gifted cheques of Rs.5000/- each from Chief Minister Girls Education Fund for their performance in the Board exam of March 2008 :
S.S.C.
Priyanka Alurkar	1stposition in Taluka
Ravina Patelp	2nd
Deepti Chopra	3rd
H.S.C.
Mitali Tilwani	1st
Brinda Panchal	2nd
Jainee Patel	2nd
Jesica Shah	3rd
Election held at school by the student for the student

 

Aiming to sensitise children towards the cause of environment protection, the school has come up with interesting ways to save water, power, fuel and paper  –  JIGNESH BAROT

While there has been a lot of debate in the academic circles about the educating students on the importance of going green and getting them to mitigate the impacts of climate change, very few schools are actually walking the talk.

One of these is Udgam School for Children. The school has prepared a five-year plan to become the finest environment-friendly school in the city. By making some simple changes in the infrastructure, they plan to not only save the environment, but also reduce costs.

The wait is over. After a month-long competition, the Ahmedabad Mirror has zeroed in on the sabse cleanest office, school and street in the city. And, the winners are Udgam school in Thaltej, Wagh Bakri office in Ambawadi and AMC Staff Colony at Ellisbridge. The runners-up are St Xavier’s Loyola Hall in Navrangpura, ICECD office in Bopal and New Suryanarayan Nagar in Ghatlodia.

WHAT AN IDEA

THE EXECUTIVE director of the institute, Manan Chowksi feels that the ‘green’ building principles are not new. For years, they’ve been called sustainable or energy-efficient. Now, the popular term is ‘green,’ and dozens of green-building programmes have sprung up in the past decade.

We were aware of this concept but in 2007 we were inspired by Al Gore’s movie, An inconvenient Truth. And decided that we should switch to green standards and save the nature,” he said.

SAVING ELECTRICITY

WITH LONG-TERM energy costs rising, “green technology” is the future, feels experts.

Udgam School has replaced electric appliances with powersaving tubelights and light bulbs. They are minimising on the usage of power by allowing the classrooms to be sufficiently sunlit. For this, the authorities have installed sun-control films on window panes. Also, outdated and powerconsuming devices have been replaced with new ones.

In our day-to-day operations we are striving towards saving power and water. We have introduced power-efficient LCD monitors instead of the conventional ones,” said Chowksi.

COLLECTING RAINWATER

ANOTHER HALLMARK of green building is the water-filtration system. “With the underground water level depleting day-by-day, we have constructed a bore and installed a filtration system in such a way that 70 per cent of the rainwater will be re-used. This system cost us Rs 2 lakhs. Autoshot flush tanks and taps are also being installed in toilets, to save water,” he added.

PAPERLESS OFFICE

THE SCHOOL is using state-of art-technologies to implement some innovative ideas to protect the environment. To minimize the use of paper, school has refrained from publishing any brochures or leaflets. Most of the internal communication is done via e-mails. Their newsletter has gone online in order to cut down on paper and ink. The parents are also encouraged to use the internet. Notices, circulars and photographs are flashed on the LCD monitor installed on the notice board.

This year the entire admission process was done online,” Mr.Manan Choksi said.

This news can be read online at : Times of India

MIRROR TELLS YOU WHO' S THE CLEANEST OF THEM ALL

Udgam School, Wagh Bakri building and AMC Staff Colony at Ellisbridge adjudged the best

TEAM AM

The wait is over. After a month-long competition, the Ahmedabad Mirror has zeroed in on the sabse cleanest office, school and street in the city. And, the winners are Udgam school in Thaltej, Wagh Bakri office in Ambawadi and AMC Staff Colony at Ellisbridge. The runners-up are St Xavier’s Loyola Hall in Navrangpura, ICECD office in Bopal and New Suryanarayan Nagar in Ghatlodia.

The winners will be felicitated at a functioned to be announced soon.

Four streets, five offices and 14 schools took part in the Sabse Cleanest Kaun contest that began on February 1. Kosha Thaker, manager (documentation and communication) at WASMO and Madhu Menon, director of Anala Outdoors, were the jury members. The marks given were out of 100.

TAKING TO STREETS

THE JUDGES started off by visiting the AMC Staff Colony, New Suryanarayan Nagar, Kadva Pol and Keshav Baug — all contesting for the title of sabse cleanest street. The AMC Saff Colony at Ellisbridge won with 55 points, followed by New Suryanarayan Nagar which bagged 45 points. “The AMC staff quarters had a percolating well for rainwater harvesting. They had a green area and residents were very enthusiastic about maintaining the standards of cleanliness here,” said Menon. New Suryanarayan Nagar had carpeted their street from wall to wall to keep the area clean and dust-free, said Kosha. She said, “The awareness level of residents regarding cleanliness is very low. There usually is a group of people dedicated to the cause.”

LESSON IN CLEANLINESS

NEXT, THE judges visited 14 schools across the city. With 60 points, Udgam school was adjudged the cleanest, followed by St Xavier’s Loyola Hall with 51 points. Judging schools was the toughest of all. “There were small buildings and large ones. Some had just primary sections. So the level of awareness among kids were not similar,” said Kosha According to the judges, Lotus School deserves a special mention for its students — mostly from middle/lower middle-class families — showed tremendous interest in the cleanliness drive. “The enthusiasm of students amazed us,” said Menon.

IN GOOD OFFICE

THERE WERE six contestants for the ‘sabse cleanest office’ title. This included corporates like Wagh Bakri and Claris, government offices, an NGO and a small set-up like Dwiti Travels, too. Wagh Bakri won the title with 73 points. ICECD followed with 65 points. “Wagh Bakri had exploited sunlight — the natural source of light — beautifully. The construction material and design of the building ensured that it stayed cool during the day without the help of external devices. Most of the offices, however, need to focus on increasing their green area.”

CRITERIA

Some of the parameters used to judge contestants were:

Green zone

Litter-free area

Participation of students, residents, officemates

Reduce, re-use and re-cycle principles

Level of eco-friendliness practiced SABSE CLEANEST OFFICE: WAGH BAKRI

Construction material used in the Wagh Bakri building helps it keep the temperature under control

The garden surrounding the building is a balm for sore eyes

The building design ensures that sunlight, the natural form of light, is exploited to the fullest

SABSE CLEANEST SCHOOL: UDGAM

Enthusiasm of students ensured that Udgam School scored 60 points, making it the contest winner

  SABSE CLEANEST STREET:AMC STAFF QTRS

A percolating well to collect rainwater at Ellisbridge AMC staff quarters speaks volumes of eco-friendliness practised here