St. Arnold’s Godhra

Vision

To transform our world into a just, equitable and harmonious place, where God reigns.

Mission

To provide holistic and integral development to students enabling them to grow as person of character, competence, conscience, compassion and commitment and who will take their rightful place in the society as agents of change ushering in a new world order that is open, inclusive and sensitive to the poor and marginalized.

Objectives:

1. To contribute to Nation Building.
2. To impart life skills.
3. To preserve unity in diversity of religions and to teach the students to appreciate & respect other faiths.
4. To promote communal harmony and mutual trust.
5. To promote Gender Justice, Equality and Equity.
6. To promote special concern for the Girl Child.
7. To promote concern for mother earth, cleanliness, simplicity and to avoid wastage and pollution.
8. To promote faith formation of Catholic students.
9. To heal the broken & fragmented world and restore the integrity of creation.
10. To promote the culture of Love and Justice.

How it all started:

Godhra is a town and originally the name came from “Gou” which means “Cow” and “Dhara” which has two meanings: one in Sanskrit which means “Hold or Land” and the other in Hindi which means Flow. So, identically it means The Land of the Cow, a municipality in Panchmahal district in Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Panchmahal district.

Godhra is also one of the religious places in the India which has four bethaks (temples) for Vaishnav Sampraday (Vaisnal Community). Two bethaks are of Lord Gokulnathji, and one each for Lord Gusaiji and Lord Mahaprabhuji. Godhra is the only city in India that has all three bhaitaks of the Mahaprabhuji, Gusianji, and Gokulnathji. Godhra also has three beautiful Jain temples. The main idol (‘Mul Nayak’) in the main Jain Temple is that of Tirthankar Bhagawan Shantinath. Godhra is widely known in India and internationally for being the eye of the storm, which began with Godhra train burning on 27 February 2002, near the Godhra railway station, where local Muslims burned alive a train of Hindu pilgrims. St. Arnold’s High School is situated on the Godhra Ahmadabad Highway, barely 2 km from the centre of the town. The school conducts classed from 1^st to higher secondary in English and in Gujarati Medium in the same premises for boys and girls. It is recognized by the Education Board of Gujarat State.

The school was established in 1983. It is administered by a group of Fathers, Brothers and Sisters of the Roman Catholic Church, witnessing to the life and teaching of Jesus Christ. The Provincial Superior of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD) Regd. Indore is the proprietor of the school. It registered under Catholic Church Trust, Godhra. The duly appointed parish priest or any other appointee of the proprietor usually represents the management of the school. In 1976 Fr.  Wilhelm Lenzen SVD, doyen of education in Mhow and Indore on his retirement from St. Paul’s Indore, moved to a new frontier, the civil headquarters of Panchmahals Mission, Godhra. A parish church and two Higher Secondary schools named after St. Arnold Janssen have come up here. They take care of 150 Catholics and educate nearly 2800 students. The Mission Sisters of Ajmer are working with the SVDs in Godhra from the inception of the schools.

Our Goals

1. To be intellectually competent, open to growth, loving all and committed to do justice by generous service to others with a clear sense of conduct.
2. To develop the quality of mind and heart or competence and compassion.
3. To cherish community values and learn to live harmoniously in the society.
4. To be a leader in the struggle for a better human world and a community of love.
5. To love and respect all religions, cultures, and castes.
6. To grow in respect for all forms of life especially human life.
7. To develop a spiritual vision of the world in the face of materialism, concern for others in the face of egoism and simplicity in the face of consumerism.

Co curricular Activities

Students are divided into four houses. The elected/nominated school leaders and captains share the responsibility for discipline, assembly, environment, language and food for thought etc. Besides, they encourage health competitions in sports, cultural and literary activities. Prizes and certificates are awarded to the winners.

Thirty students of the first batch of St. Arnold’s High School, Godhra sat for the Gujarat State SSC Board exam in Gujarati and in English medium in April 1994. 86% of them passed as the results came. Thus the dream of several SVD and SMA educationists who worked hard in Godhra during the past 12 years has become a reality.

March 1992 Annual Day at St. Arnold’s school, Godhra: A bi-media (Gujarati and English) School which was started in 1983 with K.G. classes has graduated itself into a high school there are 920 students in the Gujarati Section and 580 students in the English section this year the annual day functions were held on 20^th February for the English section and 21^st February for the Gujarati section.

Science lab takes shape in Godhra:

After securing excellent results at the SSC State Board Exams consecutively for the past three years. St. Arnold’s English Medium School at Godhra took the courageous step to start the Higher Secondary Science classes from this academic year. 1996 without any government grant. The well furnished science laboratories, library and computer room were inaugurated on 22^nd august 1996 in the presence of a large crowd of about 3000 parents students and well-wishes. The students added colour to the occasion with a cultural programme Rangoli and also held a science Exhibition Mr. D.B. Patel the District Education Officer while inaugurating the Science Labs acknowledged the service of the SVD Fathers and SMA Sisters with their dedicated staff in imparting excellent education to the students of Panchmahals.

Campus

Library:

We have a nice Library Room. The students are free to go to Library to read or to refer the books. This year the Government of Gujarat distributed around 300 books under ‘Vanche Gujarat’ project. We will be encouraging our students to read all these books.

Eco Club:

The Government of Gujarat encourages all the schools to establish ECO club. Interested students can join the club and promote environmental activities we have in our school Arnold Eco Club. One teacher has been appointed as the coordinator of the ECO Club. He organizes activities/projects/field-trips etc so that the students can be trained to protect the environment.

DNA Club:

It is a club that promotes Natural Resources Awareness among the students, promoted by Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, New Delhi. Our Regional Resource Agency for DNA Club activities is the Gujarat Council of science City, Ahmadabad. The main aim of this club is to protect the natural resources (bio-resources) and promote Bio-Technology. We have senior group and a junior group of Arnold DNA Club. Our Target is to do one activity in a week.

GSP: Global School Partnership Programme:

We have established partnership (school link) with St. Paul’s School for Girls. And our primary school is linked with John Bosco Catholic Primary school – UK.

This programme help us build a global curriculum. The students of our school and our partner schools exchange projects. The teachers from our partner school visit our schools and encourage our students. We are global citizens. We are the world. GSP trains the students to build a better world where equality, Justice, Love and peace prevail.

St. Francis Xavier Catholic Primary school, UK has played a vital role in promoting this school linking programme. We are very grateful to Mr. Mark Hinton and Mrs. Mary Simmons for their full support and encouragement to have this programme in our school.

The British Council- Mumbai promotes this programme.

December 1, 2006 The District Education Officer (DEO) of Panchmahals has ordered a private school here to repay Rs 1.17 crore that it had collected as excess fees during the past five years to the parents of its students within 30 days. The payment was taken from students under the head administration fees, besides the usual tuition and term fees, the DEO V J Shah said. Mr. Shah said ”The St Arnold’s School had been charging fees that were not in accordance with government rules. An administration fee was being charged along with the usual tuition and term fees, which was illegal.” He said the school was charging the fees in the range of Rs 800 to Rs 2,400 per year, depending on which class the student was studying in.

He said instead of spending it on the school, the authorities were diverting the extra funds thus collected to the Catholic Church Trust of Godhra, which managed the school. ”All the fees paid to the school have to be used for the development of the school only, so I have asked them to pay the money back,’’ he said. Mahesh Sundarani, a parent of a student, had lodged a complaint in this regard sometime ago with the Collectorate. The District Collector had asked the DEO to investigate into the matter.

Gujarat Reads! 30 October 2010 – The entire Gujarat reads on the same day at the same time.

 A Mass Reading project was organized in Lal Bag, Godhra on 30/10/10 as a part of Vanche Gujarat Project in view of Golden Jubilee celebration of Gujarat State. Students from St. Arnold’s High School took part in it in big number. The purpose of this project is to inculcate reading habit among all people. Respected District Collector & the District Education Officer were present in this project.

Teenager from Godhra designs kites for festivals

TNN Jan 10, 2011, 10.32pm IST

VADODARA: Flying kites may be a passion with most in the state, but only a few have an inclination to design them. A schoolgirl from Godhra has developed a passion for doing this and the kites designed by her are set to soar high in the kite festivals across the country.

Naisargi Ghadiyali was good at drawing and her uncle Digant Joshi, who is a kite and aero modeling enthusiast spotted the talent in her. Joshi, who has participated in several kite festivals, asked Naisargi (14) to make designs for the kites.

“Children at this age have a very good understanding of colours and with a little training can make good designs for the kites. Naisargi made some interesting designs from which we developed kites and even flew them. She will now join us for the kite festivals too,” Joshi said.

Naisargi said her kites were used at events in Vadodara, Ahmadabad and Udaipur. “I am having my exams and was not able to attend the events. I will now go for the kite festivals in Bangalore, Goa, Belgaum, Nashik and Pune,” she said.

The class IX student from St Arnold School in Godhra is planning to take up a career in architecture. “I will continue working on kites as far as possible,” she said. Her designs have revolved around the themes of Lord Shrinathji, Goddess Mahakali, peace, saving animals and Swarnim Gujarat.

Interschool Science Quiz Competition

15 December 2010 – Lok VigyanKendra-Godhra organized an interschool science quiz competition in St. Arnold’s School.

Special Event – India Visit

February 2011       During the February half term, Mrs. Finnegan, Miss Joyce, Miss Ellicott and Miss Parkes all travelled to the Gujarat in India to visit our Partnership schools, St Arnold’s, St Stephen’s and Muvalia Tribal School.

Before embarking on our journey from Mumbai to Godhra, we had the chance to do some sightseeing. We visited the Gateway to India, Gandhi’s House and the biggest launderette in India: and a little time for shopping of course!

Once in Godhra we received a wonderful welcome from all the staff, Governors, parents and all the children, who blessed us with a true Hindi blessing, which involved candles, prayers and wonderful dancing. During this visit, we stayed with Fr Paulraj SVD, Fr Charles  Amritraj SVD and Fr.  Rayappan Chinnappan SVD  in the Church House. They made us feel really welcome.

We had the opportunity to observe lessons in English and Gujurati, which gave us the opportunity to look at different teaching methods used in Kinder Garten, Primary and the High School.

We also had the opportunity to visit the teachers and children at Muvalia Tribal School, who have very limited resources to support their teaching and learning. Miss Ellicott presented the money raised from the St John Bosco’s Got Talent to Fr and Sister, who expressed their gratitude to all who supported them. Miss Ellicott’s father also donated £100 to the Muvalia School. A big thanks you to him too!

We also had the opportunity to visit the SAHAJ- an Organization for Women’s Development, to meet with the director and set up a business link buying Fair Trade, handmade crafts. Miss Ellicott and Y5 will be running this project as part of their Maths lessons in class, converting Rupees into Sterling, profit and loss and recording all their work using Microsoft Excel. The children will be selling the Fair Trade crafts during the Summer Term and all the proceeds will be sent to the Muvalia Tribal School to enable them to purchase teaching and learning resources.

Whilst waiting to travel from Mumbai to Vadadora, we met the England Cricket team, who were involved with the ICC World Cup Cricket in India. Miss Ellicott knew them all by name and asked for us to have our photos take with them. Mrs. Finnegan hadn’t got a clue who any of them were!

In an assembly in school, staff has shared their experiences with all the children and the photos are displayed in the Welcome Area for all to see.

On Wednesday 9th March we will be welcoming Fr. Paulraj SVD from St Stephen’s to St John Bosco. He will be spending time with the children in classes and taking a tour of the school. He will be having lunch with the Prefects and discussing school issues with the School Council. We welcome him to our school.

Confreres who worked so far