Events

Frank Anthony Memorial All India Inter-School Debate, 2023

Our school hosted the Frank Anthony Memorial Debate for Category II, on 10^th July, the moderator for which was Mrs. S. Ray (Vice-Principal, WGS, BBG).

The eminent judges were Principals of renowned Kolkata schools, Mrs. Sanchita Biswas, Ms. M. King and Mr. A. Deb Roy.

9 schools participated with their views on the topic: ‘Facebook friends have become more real than real friends’.

St James’ School and Pratt Memorial School were chosen the Winning and the Runner up Teams respectively.

Inter-House Debate Competition, 2023

Held in the Gillian Hart Auditorium on 30^th June. The participants from classes IX to XII used facts, humour, statistics and examples effectively to support their stance ‘for’ or ‘against’ the Motion : ‘Robots will take over human activity’. The judges were Mr. Francis Gomes and Mrs. Delores Ryle.

The Winners’ Cup was lifted by Verghese (Blue) House, with the first Runner up being Hart (Red) House. Anumegha Banerjee was declared the Best Speaker.

The Investiture Ceremony, 2023

Held on the 28^th June, Where the Discipline Squad from classes V to VIII and the Prefects of the four houses were presented with the badges.

On 3^rd July the Captains, Vice-Captains, Games Captains, Assistant Head Girl (Afreen Fathima) and Head Girl (Harshita Chandak) were invested with their badges, after they took oath.

Inter–House Vernacular Elocution, 2023

Welland Gouldsmith witnessed it’s Vernacular (Hindi) Elocution Contest on 26^th June.

The Judges, Mr. Rakesh Kr. Dubey and Mrs. Neeta Sen, were highly impressed with the pieces rendered – motivational and amusing.

Verghese (Blue) House bagged the first position, followed by Verner Grief (Yellow) House.

Elocution and Story Telling

Students of class 3 and 4 eloquently recited interesting and amusing poems for the Elocution contest. Then class 5 students took part in a story telling contest, introduced first time which enthralled the judges and the audience alike. Finally classes 6-8 had choral recitation which brought the stage alive with their energetic and enthusiastic rendition and beautiful and attractive props. Overall Blue house scored the maximum points followed closely by Yellow house.

75th Independence Day Celebration Programme

World Anglo Indian Day Celebration

A short play was put up by the Anglo Indian teachers which highlighted the contribution of Anglo Indians in various fields especially railways. Our Provost and CEO, Dr. G R Hart was felicitated with an award by AHATSI for her contribution in the field of education. Mr. J Hart President of Welland Gouldsmith Educational and Charitable Society, then shared some information about the Anglo Indian community. The function concluded with the National anthem.

Painting Competition

A sit and draw and T-shirt painting competition was organised on 19th July,2022 for students of classes III to V. The theme was ‘My school’ and ‘The Environment’ respectively. The judges Mrs. S Majumdar for drawing and Mr. J Hart (President of WGSCES) for t-shirt Painting gave away the prizes.

Investiture Ceremony

The investiture Ceremony for 2022-2023 was held on 8th July,2022. The Head girl (Sanskriti Mohta), Assistant Head girl ( Suraiya Sajjad), House captains, vice captains, games captains and twelve prefects from each house took their pledge with pride. Mrs. S Ray took the oath as vice principal of WGS, BBG street. The function concluded with the national anthem.

Rabindra Jayanti Celebration, 2022

The annual celebration of Tagore’s Birth Anniversary (Rabindra Jayanti) for 2022 was conducted online. A short video of the song and dance performance and a message from Dr. G.R. Hart was recorded and blended together. The presentation of the song ‘ami chini go chini’ in five different languages was unique.

DEROZIO MEMORIAL SPEECH CONTEST (2017) EXTEMPORE

The Derozio Memorial Speech Contest took place on 28^th July 2017 at Frank Anthony Public School, Beniapukur Street.  A total of twenty five schools participated in the Contest from all over the city.  A total of twenty five schools participated in the contest from all over the city.  The participants were given the topics at 9.00 a.m.  One hour was given for preparation.  Each participant had a different topic.  The topics were selected by lottery system.  If a participant was not confident about the selected topic, he/she was given a second chance to choose another topic but that topic would not be changed.  Several participants took a second chance, some of them got better topics while the others were stuck with a worse topic.  Even the sequence of speech was decided by lottery system.

The participants were instructed not to use the internet, instead, we were given a library for reference from various books.  We were clearly told that it was not necessary to follow the “debate format”.  We were told that most topics would not be debatable and even if they are, we could speak both, FOR and AGAINST the topic.

The contest started with a speech of the principal of Frank Anthony Public School who stated that it was a “REACH FOR THE STAR CONTEST”, referring to the star on the trophy.  The participants spoke on several interesting topics such as, “Ways to a healthier brain”, “Discipline is not bad”, “Manners matter”, “Women are better managers” and so on.  My topic was “Your Personal Robot”.  All the speakers spoke extremely well with full confidence.  Some of them made their speech humorous while the others tried to dramatise it.

We were given two and a half minutes to speak on the topic.  At the end of two minutes a bell was rung to indicate that we have half a minute to conclude our speech.  The audience proved to be patient listeners and helped in cheering the participants.  At the end, the three judges Dr. Sen, Mr. L.W. Hartnett and Miss Raica O’Brien expressed their views on the extempore contest.  They said that they were pleased and happy to see such young speakers delivering speeches in public with confidence.

Ananya Shree Tiwari from Welland Gouldsmith School, B.B. Ganguly Street was given the First Prize. Judged as the Best Speaker, She was given the trophy and an incredible collection of books.  Ananya Dutta from Mahadevi Birla World Academy was the 1^st Runner Up and the participant from La Martiniere for Girls was the 2^nd Runner Up.  Both of them were given a number of books.

In a nutshell, it was an incredible experience that I will cherish for the ret of my life.  Also it helped me learn about new things and increase my knowledge.  All the schools including Don Bosco, Park Circus, La Martiniere for Boys and Girls, St. Xavier’s Collegiate School, Loreto House, Loreto Day, Pratt Memorial School and even the host school Frank Anthony Public School did extremely well.

REPORTED BY:- ANANYA SHREE TIWARI – X -D

THE FRANK ANTHONY MEMORIAL – ALL INDIA SCHOOL DEBATE

The Frank Anthony Memorial – All India Inter School Debate Competition, conducted by the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination (I.C.S.E), New Delhi, Category 1, stage 1, for classes 11 and 12, was held on 17^th July 2017, at the Maganlaal Chaganlaal Kejriwal Vidyapeeth (M.C.K.V) school.  A total of twelve schools had taken part in the competition.  Each team consisted of two members (for and against).  The two students who took part in the competition from our school were, Ankita Saha (for the motion) and Yukti Verma (against the motion).  The topic was given one hour prior to the participants and they were allowed access to the MCKV School library.  The topic was “The Print Media is losing out”.  The participants were asked to speak for 4 minutes (3+1) and were given 2 minutes for the rebuttal.  The order of the debate was decided by a lottery system.

All the participants put their arguments, both in favour of and against the motion very convincingly but the highlights of the competition were the rebuttal rounds.  The participants spoke vehemently and cited logical reasons with supportive examples.  Confidence radiated from the participants’ body language and demeanour and it was a very close competition.  The school which won the Best Team Award was Don Bosco, Bandel  and the runner up team award was Frank Anthony Public School.  The Best Speaker was a participant from Don Bosco, Bandel and the runner up speaker was Frank Anthony Public School.

The debate competition for Category 2, stage 1, for classes 9 and 10, was held on the same day at the Calcutta Public School, Baguihati.  There were twelve schools who participated, each school team consisting of two members.  Meghan Ann D’Souza and Ananya Shri Tiwari were the two students from our school.  The topic, “E-book is here to stay”, was given to them one hour prior and they were allowed to use the Calcutta Public School Library.  The participants were asked to speak for 4 minutes (3+1) and one minute was given for rebuttal.  The order of the debate was decided by a lottery system.

The respective judges for the competition were John Abraham, Principal of Heritage College, Mrs. D’Souza, Salt Lake (C.A) and Dr. Ashish De.  St. James School secured the Best Team position and the Runner Up Team was from our school W.G.S, B.B.Ganguly Street.  A participant from St. James secured the Best Speaker position and Meghan Ann D’Souza, representing our school, secured the Runner Up position.  We wish them the best for the next stage.

The energy and adrenaline of the debate brought out more confidence in us and it enthused a new vision towards education.  There was a great deal to learn from this debate.  We would like to thank our teachers, Mrs. A. Basu, Mrs. B. Mukherjee and Mrs. Kumar for escorting and encouraging us. We would also like to express our gratitude for our Principal, Dr. Hart and Head Mistress, Mrs. Jackson for encouraging us and giving us such a golden opportunity and our Rector, Mr. Calvert for training, helping and believing in us.  We learnt a lot from this experience and hope to get more such opportunities.

REPORTED BY: YUKTI VERMA

THE ALBERT BARROW MEMORIAL ALL INDIA CREATIVE WRITING

The Albert Barrow Memorial All India Creative Writing for the year 2017 was held on 14^th July 2017.  Sri Aurobindo Institute of Education had played Host to the Category 1 students of nearly 22, I.S.C affiliated schools of Kolkata.  From my school I, Ashlesha Singh had been sent for the Category 1 of the competition.  The arrangements made by the host school were efficient and all activities were carried out smoothly.  The participating students were asked to report to the institute by 8.30 a.m. in the morning for registration.  Likewise the Category 2 students had to assemble at St. Joseph’s School, Bowbazar where my counterpart of class ten, Megan Ann D’Souza had gone.  The dress code for both us was formal attire.

The word limit for Category 1 was 750 – 1000 words and the topics given were :-My bank in my smartphone

* My bank in my smartphone
* A brave new digital world
* Write a story entitled  “I met my soulmate through data sharing “
* India is moving towards a corruption free society.

The word limit for Category 2 was 500 – 750 words and the topics given were

* My entire world in a small chip
* The e-wallet; the power in my hand
* Ecommerce shopping
* Candy Crush vs Cricket

We had begun at 9.30 when the respected teachers announced our topics. We were given half an hour for preparation. We started writing at 10.00 a.m. and we were asked to handover our writing sheets by 11.00 a.m. sharp.
Our topics were very relevant to the current scenario of the country as well as the world, relating to the digitization of banking and how are lives, our whole world is getting stored in a small chip. The experience in the auditorium of the suspense palpable, excitement and an atmosphere of nervousness was a reminder to us of the forthcoming I.C.S.E and I.S.C examinations.

Reported by: Ashlesha Singh

INTERHOUSE SPEECH AND DEBATE COMPETITION 2017

Welland Gouldsmith School has set the benchmark for conducting activities in such a way that the students not only enjoy but also learn a great deal from it.  With the same perspective in view, the school organized an Interhouse Speech and Debate Competition on 6^th July, 2017.

The first half of the competition was interhouse speech competition.  The participants were from clsses 9 and 10.  There was one participant from each house.  The two judges were senior English teachers from Welland Gouldsmith School, Patuli and St. Paul’s School.  The four houses had one participant each.  All the four participants had given speeches from famous speeches from different plays of Shakespeare. The fluency and articulation was impressive.  The judges as well as the audience were really “ impressed and enthralled” listening to all the four participants.

The second half of the competition was the debate.  The topic for the debate was “It is a man’s world and it always will be.”  The topic was very good and since we are a girls’ school we could easily connect with the topic.  The girls from class 11 and 12 participated in the debate.  Each house had two participants.  One spoke for the topic and the other spoke against the topic.  For many participants it was the first time that they were speaking in front of so many people but they still managed to speak well.  The moderator for the debate was Mr. Jason Hart.

After the end of the debate, the two judges were asked to speak.  Bothe of them said that they were highly impressed with both the debate and speech.  They said that it was a very enriching experience.  They also shared their views on the debate topic.  They congratulated the participants for having the courage to come up on the stage and speak in front of such an attentive audience.

The results were announced.  In the speech competition, the fourth position was given to Blue house, Yellow house got the third position and the first two positions were given to Green and Red house respectively.  In the debate, Khushboo Chowdhury got the eight place, Unatri Dutta secured the seventh place, followed by Falah Ismail in the sixth place.  The fifth place was given to Ashmita Saha,  Hiral Shah secured the fourth place.  Sufia Hasan was given the third place.  The second position was given to Akansha Livingstone and Yukti Verma came first.  She was also given the Best Speaker Award.  In both speech and debate, Red or Hart house came second and Green house and Yellow house came first respectively.

In the overall championship, Red or Hart house came first, followed by Yellow , Green and Blue .

Competitions like this help the students to overcome stage fright and builds confidence and poise and most importantly to speak and think in English – which will hold them in good stead for the future.

Reported by : Sohinee Misra, Class XII – A

INVESTITURE CEREMONY 2017

The third of July was an important and essential day in the school calendar. The investiture ceremony of the Welland Gouldsmith School, B.B.Ganguly Street, took place in the Gillian Hart Auditorium.

The ceremony began with our honourable School Principal, Dr. Ms. G.R.Hart’s introductory speech followed by a reading from the Holy Bible by our respected Head Mistress, Mrs. L. Jackson. The school hymns, followed by the School motto and the school song were sung by all the students from classes 9 to 12 who were present to witness this solemn occasion.

Our Vice Principal Miss J.Michael initiated the Prefects’ pledge, followed by the Captains, the Vice Captains and the Games Captains.  They were congratulated in anticipation that they would not fail in carrying out their duties and specific responsibilities that they had been bestowed with.

The final announcement of the Head Girl, Ankita Saha and the Assistant Head Girl , Zaina Khan was declared by our School Principal, Dr. Ms. G.R. Hart.  After the announcement was made, there was a lot of excitement and cheers, followed by a round of applause.  The Head Girl and the Assistant Head girl were summoned to take their pledge and promised before God “that they will work really hard to uphold the discipline of the institution in every sphere”.  They would work for the school’s betterment and be an example for the rest of the school to follow in the future.  They also promised to uphold the culture and customs of the institution with the help of God.

The elated and proud students then accepted greetings and congratulations graciously, in turn thanking the authorities and teachers for placing their Trust in them.

REPORTED BY: ANKITA SAHA (HEAD GIRL)

CLASS : XII – A