Birla High School

Co-curricular activities

The school gives the option to students to chosse from ACM (Art Craft or Music), including vocal and other instruments like Spanish Guitar, Violin etc.

P.E Classes

The school provides 3 periods.

Games

Students have the choice from choosing between basketball, table tennis and volleyball.

Yoga/Karate

Students have the choice from choosing between karate (VI-VII)or yoga.

Skates/Drill

Alternate days the students are taught drill (March past, exercises etc.) or skating.

School events

Chess Club

Founded in 2005, the Chess Club has emerged as the largest club of the school. Coached by Mr. Bipin Shenoy, who has coached Indian National Champions and Junior World Champions, also has been a National Level Arbiter - All India Chess Federation certified, and is the national chess correspondent for The Telegraph newspaper.

The Chess Club is recognized by Grand Master Dibyendu Barua Chess Academy, a nationally recognized chess academy. The team has done tours to International and National Grand Masters’ workshops, and has participated in numerous tournaments all over the nation. In an initiative by Harish D. Gupta in 2008, the Chess Club organized Inter-School and Inter-House Chess Tournaments which are now organized annually. The Chess Team has participated in a number of national and state level tournaments both individually and as a team. The top members of the team are registered with the FIDE, the All India Chess Federation and the Bengal Chess Association.

Grey Matter

Founded in 2000, the Quiz Club of the school, "Grey Matter", was started by Priyodorshi Bhattacharya and Shreyo Sadhu, who took over as president and vice president in its initial year.

The club has produced several top-notch 'quizzards', some of whom have featured in the national arena. Laurels earned by the club members include the ESPN Star Sports Quiz, the Calcutta Boys' School Quasquicentennial Quiz, Vibes Brain Storm 2003, and MP Birla Smarak Kosh Quiz 2004.

Inter-school and inter-house quizzes for classes 6-9 are held.

Computer Club

It is only for students of class VI-VII. The Computer Club comprises nearly 40 members. Activities include computer programming, website development, multimedia, presentations and quizzes on computers.

Social Service Club

The motto of the Social Service Club is "Coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress and working together is success". The club helps its members by developing the virtues of compassion, empathy and fellow feeling in them. Members visit old age homes, sell cards, raise funds, organize walks promoting communal harmony, run cultural shows and conduct literacy programmes.

Nature Club

Instituted in 2004, with members from the senior secondary section, the Nature Club promotes environmental awareness among the members by activities like excursions to parks, field trips to forests such as the Sunderbans, and campaigns against pollution.

Heritage Club

This Club helds an annual exhibition called the "Parampara".

The All India LN Birla Debate

Like every year, the school paid homage to its founder leader, Shri L.N. Birla on his birthday, the 11th of July, by hosting the L.N. Birla Memorial Debate. The day, preceding the finals, had 38 participants from 19 schools in and across the city fighting it out on the topic, "Modern day celebrities make poor role models". The eight teams who made it to the finals included St. Xavier’s Collegiate School, Ashok Hall Girls' Higher Secondary School, The Heritage School, Modern High School for Girls, La Martiniere for Boys, Birla High School, Loreto House and Don Bosco, Park Circus. Two students from each school spoke for and against the topic, "Moral policing of the media in India is injudicious".

The Chief Guest for the occasion was Mr. Dean R Thompson, US Consul General, Kolkata. The judges were:

It was a moment of glory for the host school when amidst strong contenders engaged in a verbal battle, Soumya Sekhar Gangopadhyay of Birla High School lifted the prestigious trophy for the best speaker. St. Xavier’s Collegiate School was adjudged the winning team and Huisha Ganeriwal from Loreto House was declared as the runner-up best speaker.

The debate was moderated by Mr. Ashok Viswanathan, an actor and a filmmaker.

The Tenth Odyssey

The Tenth Odyssey turned out to be one of the best fests the city has seen this year. Students of the class 12 section of Birla High School presented this inter-school cultural fest in the city of Kolkata after months of elaborate preparations. This year the fest broke all barriers and transcended all expectations. Eleven reputed schools of Kolkata participated in the festival that extended from 23 July to 1 August 2015. There were 9 offstage events and 11 onstage events that took place.

This year, the star attractions were the famous quizmaster, Barry O’Brien, Master of Ceremony, Shane Hyrapiet and to top it all, the Indian Pop Band, Sanam who proved to be a hit with the audience.

Last Odyssey, a new social service event named Spreading Smiles was introduced. This event requires students from participating schools to co-ordinate with a social service organization to stage a performance put up by their representatives. The aim of the event is to promote social service among students. This year too, the event Spreading Smiles saw an overwhelming response.

In the off stage events, Birla High School secured the first position in Treasure Hunt, Pool, Basketball, Rock Climbing and Tug of War. The school was placed second in Table Tennis, Lawn Tennis and Bowling and bagged the third place in the Carrom competition.

In the onstage events too, Birla High School was placed first in most of the events like Western Dance, Groove, Band, No Strings Attached, Turncoat Debate, Half A Minute, Sixty Seconds To Fame and Spreading Smiles. Birla High School bagged the second position in Fashion Show and Quiz. The host school was represented by Indranil Bagchhi, Uday Jhunjhunwala, Chirag Basu and Soham Chakraborty in the Quiz. Ritojeet Basu represented the school in the Turncoat Debate, and Varun Agarwal in the Half A Minute competition. The special prizes were as follows:

Ritwik Bhawsinghka (Birla High School) - Best Representative

Ayushi Saraogi (Modern High School) - Best Representative

Aditya Pathak and Ayush Agarwal (Birla High School) - Star of Odyssey

(On the basis of winning in the maximum number of events)

Naman Madhogarhia (Birla High School) - Star of Odyssey

(On the basis of organisational and leadership skills)

The overall winners in the fest were:

Birla High School: First Position

Modern High School: Second Position

Sushila Birla Girls’ School and Shri Shikshayatan School (tie): Third Position

Many distinguished personalities were present as judges. Ms. Vibha Mitra, Ms. Shuktara Lal and Ms. Suman Sood were the esteemed judges for Sixty Seconds To Fame. In the dance events, Mr. Tito Dey, Mr. Anuj Parekh and Mr. Satish Rout were the judges for Western Dance while Mr. Sudarshan Chakravarty, Ms. Bhavna Himani, and Ms. Dorothy Shaw judged Groove. Mr. Ashok Vishwanathan chaired the Turncoat Debate and Ms. Chitra Bhaskar conducted Half A Minute. The judges for Fashion Show were Ms. Vandana Paul, Mr. Saheb Chatterjee, Ms. Jessica Gomes Surana and Ms. Nirali Ganatra. The Band event was judged by Mr. Pradyumna Manot, Mr. Akash Rohira and Ms. Rila Banerjee.

Spreading Smiles was judged by Ms. Sujata Chatterjee, Ms. Indu Gandhi and Ms. Sangeeta Bapuli.

The brilliant performance by the band, Sanam left the people wanting more. The success of the entire fest is evident in the unanimous opinion that ‘The Tenth Odyssey is the best fest in town’. Birla High School has indeed made it to "The Next Level", surpassed "The Zenith", ascended "Infinity", attained "The Eighth Degree" and made "A Voyage Beyond Nirvana". This year, they have set "A Paradigm Of Perfection."