Xaviers Hazaribag Times

October 2012

Dear Xaverians, During the past year I have had opportunities for interacting with many of you in Hazaribag and elsewhere. The Diamond Jubilee Reunion was indeed a privileged occasion. More recently, the three meetings in the US and one at Gurgaon had been memorable. Such meetings do have an impact on the ethos of the school. Many of you have spoken or written to me in appreciation of the regular updates you receive from the school. That encourages us to present once again this quarterly newsletter to you. in veritate et caritate, Fr. P.J. James, S.J

The Principal's US Visit

On 13 July Fr. Principal left for the United States to attend the first ever International Colloquium on Jesuit Secondary Education, organised by Boston College High School and hosted by Boston College (Jul 29 Aug 2). The theme of the colloquium was: The World is our House. The goal of the colloquium was to strengthen the global network of Jesuit educators by providing a venue to share ideas and resources and to discuss the strengths and challenges in the light of the mission and identity of Jesuit schools. Fr. James used this opportunity to connect with HOXAns living in the United States. Get-togethers were organised by S. Lakshmipathy (1962) and Ram Mohan Seshan (1962) at San Francisco, Amal Mukherjee (1961) at Dallas and Tom Mundakel (1978) at New York. Fr. James appealed to the old Xaverians to return to their alma mater and interact with the present students to help them develop a deeper sense of belonging and ownership and to make judicious choices of future careers. He also advised them to consider ways to give back to the school, by way of help for economically needy students and by supporting various improvement projects in the school. Fr. James also visited his relatives and friends at different parts of the US and returned to Marquette University where he had completed his Ph. D. in 2007. Meanwhile Fr. Vincent Hansdak held the fort admirably exhibiting great leadership and social skills. The Principal returned on August 7th and took up his work the very next day.
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Loyola Day 2012

L o y o l a D a y Celebration was wonderfully organized by the members of the Loyola House. A group dance competition for the Middle School was held on 30th July. The senior school students had duet dance competition the next day. The Chief Guest on 31st July, the actual feast day, was Fr. William Dwyer, S.J., former principal. In his f message Fr. Dwyer shared a brief biography of St. Ignatius of Loyola and urged all to keep up the spirit of excellence as St. Ignatius did. The celebration concluded with a table tennis competition for senior and junior boys.

Traffic Safety Awareness

On July 25 th Mr. Alok Agarwal (1989) of Khaitan Automobiles along with a team from TVS Motors conducted a seminar for the students of classes X-XII on traffic rules, signals and their importance. Booklets on these matters were distributed to the students. Two weeks later, on July 7th the new S.P. of Hazaribag, Mr. Manoj Kaushik spoke to the senior students on traffic rules and road safety. This was a wonderful opportunity for our students to dialogue with the S.P. He rewarded the students who answered his questions during his interaction with dictionaries and mathematical instrument boxes.

Farewell to Fr. Vincient, S.J.

Fr. Vincent Hansdak, S.J. who efficiently served the school as both Vice-Principal and Treasurer since June 2009 was given a short farewell by the staff on 8th August 2012. The staff acknowledged the generous contribution made by Fr. Vincent for the welfare of the school and expressed their best wishes for his higher studies at Boston. During this function it was announced that Mr. Cyprian Surin would succeed Fr. Vincent as the Vice Principal, while Fr. Leo Savarimuthu will be the Treasurer of the school.

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Vicariate Tournaments
T h e a n n u a l Hazaribag Catholic Vicariate tournaments were held on 1012 August. Twenty-six schools participated in the matches for Kho-Kho (junior girls), Volleyball (senior girls) and Football (senior& junior boys). Of the 1200 students who participated, half were accommodated at St. Xavier's. The events for the senior boys and girls were hosted by St. Robert's boys and girls schools respectively. All the finals were played at St. Xavier's. Mr. Manoj Kaushik, IPS, the Superintendent of Police, Hazaribag took the salute at the colourful march-past following the final games. Besides distributing the prizes for the winners, he encouraged the participants by providing each school with a cricket bat, a cricket ball and a football with the promise of more such articles for those who would approach him.

October 2012

Kevin Grogan Memorial Football Tournament

The School Football nd team participated in the 32 Kevin Grogan Memorial Football Tournament held at St Xavier's School, Bokaro from 31 st August to 1 st September 2012 and won the Champion's Trophy. Sujit Kispotta of class XII was declared as the best player and the highest scorer of the tournament. The trophy returned to the School after five long years. The coach Mr. Murari and all the team members truly deserve all the adulation that they have received.

Mr. Gomes, The Snake Catcher

On 4th September 2012 just at the start of morning recess a 4-foot long Russell's Viper appeared on the concrete floor outside the accounts office. It was raining and the floor was wet and the reptile struggled to move. Mr. Deepak Gomes stepped out, grabbed it with his bare right hand by its neck while stretching it with his left in full view of hundreds of students and staff. The students, who had in the past listened to him about his exploits of catching and keeping snakes in his living room, could see that their much loved and admired teacher was indeed not bluffing them. The students and teachers who witnessed his adventurous act applauded him enthusiastically. One of the teachers called up the NGO, Neo-Human Foundation, whose representative took away the snake to be released in the forest.

Independence Day
Independence Day was celebrated with much enthusiasm on August 15th. Avinash Narayan, the School Captain, hoisted the national flag. Steffi Sebastian, Vice Captain, delivered a short speech. Mr. Dhiraj Jain (1991), the treasurer of HOXA, gave away the medals (sponsored by HOXA) for the toppers of each class for the academic year 2011-12. The scouts and guides of the school who organised the function gave a spectacular performance of pyramid formations.

Teachers Day
Teachers Day was celebrated separately by the students of the Middle School and Junior School before the main function on Sep 5, meticulously organised by the school captain, prefects and other student leaders. The students performed a graceful and respectful cultural programme in honour of their teachers. Sr.Marinne SCN, the special guest of the day delivered the Teachers Day message and appealed to the teachers and the students to for greater commitment for the pursuit of wisdom. She also released the latest issue of the verian school magazine, The pressions

Inter Jesuit Schools Elocution Competition

Anshul Arya (XC), Satya Prabha Ranjan (VIIA) and Ramsha Rizwan (XB) represented the school in the Inter Jesuit School Elocution and Speech competition held at Loyola School, Jamshedpur on 1st September 2012. The contestants were from 10 different Jesuit Schools of Jharkhand and West Bengal. Anshul and Satya Prabha won third prizes in their categories. Overall, St. Xavier's, Hazaribag was placed fourth in the final ranking, which is one of its best performances in recent years.

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Ex-Xaverian IAS Probationer
Mr. Rahul Kr Sinha (2000), who is now posted in Hazaribag as probationary IAS officer visited the school on 7th September 2012 and addressed the students during the morning assembly. He proudly recalled his experiences in the school and remarked that the atmosphere of the school has promoted his all-round growth. He exhorted the students on the importance of developing a sound personality and learning to communicate habitually in English. He plans to return to the school to the school to offer career guidance to the senior students.

October 2012

AIS Programme in Gurgaon

The Association of Independent Schools (AIS) of New South Wales, Australia organised a two day (14-15 Sept) International conference on Leadership, Pedagogy and Innovation at Suncity School, Gurgaon. The objectives of the conference were to enhance leadership, improve classroom practice of teachers, and place a focus on innovation to maximize positive outcomes for students. Outside of Delhi and NCR ours was the only school to receive an invitation to participate in the conference. Fr. James and Mr. Debabrata Mitra attended. The insights gained by them from internationally acclaimed resource persons will surely add new dimensions to the teaching- learning processes at St. Xavier's. Mr. Anuj Bhushan (1991) organized a get together for the HOXAns living close by on 14th Sept 2012. Braving rain about 50 turned up. The Principal, Fr. James, made an appeal to young and old HOXAns similar to the one he had made in his meetings with the US-based HOXAns.

Inter School Competitions

An English Elocution Competition was organised on 11th August in honour of late Fr. Phil Hosking, S.J. for the local schools. Shreya Sambhavi (IX) and Sahaj Kaur (VIII) of St. Xavier's got the first prizes in their respective sections. Mr. Sunil Rana, the DGM of BSNL, Hazaribag, and a former student of Fr. Hosking paid him glowing tributes and gave away the prizes. Life Insurance Corporation of India, Hazaribag Division sponsord interschool quiz and debate competitions at St. Xavier's to mark the 56th year of LIC. The contest was efficiently conducted by Mrs. Amrita Sahay and Mr. Abhishek Mitra of our school with technical support from Mr. Sanjiv Kumar. Mrs. Soma Choudhary organised the debate. The first and the third prizes for quiz were taken by our two teams. In the debate competition we were placed second. An Inter school debate competition was organized in the school hall by the Rotary Club of Hazaribag Valley on 15th September 2012. Dr. Manish Ranjan , the Deputy Commissioner of Hazaribag was the chief guest. Steffi Sebastian and Aishwarya Raj (XII) represented the school in the English debate competition and won the third prize. Divya and Sarthak Sinha (XII) of our school won consolation prizes in the Hindi debate competition.

Teachers Workshop
A workshop on teaching was conducted on the 20th and 21 s t of September by Mrs. Deblina Chakraborty and Mrs. Zulekha Lakhani of the Educational Initiatives who conduct the Assessment of Scholastic Skills by Educational Testing (ASSET) annually. Question making and lesson planning were the central themes of the workshop. The seminar was enriching and eyeopening for all the teachers and challenged them to be open to creative ways of imparting knowledge to students. A review of the ASSET 2012 results of the school was done toward the end of the workshop. The analysis of the results showed that English learning in the school has remained an area of concern over the years.

CBSE Cluster II Football Tournament

10-13 October 2012
Inauguration: 9:00 a.m., Oct 11 Final Match: 3:00 p.m., Oct 13
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