Welham Girls' School

Welham Girls School
Artha shanti phala vidya (The aim of education is to bring peace)
Location
12 Circular Road Dehradun 248001 India
Information
School type	Independent School Boarding School
Religious affiliation(s)	Secular
Founded	1957
Founder	Miss H.S. Olyphant
Sister school	Doon School
Founder Principal	Miss G.M. Linnell
Gender	Girls
Age	10 to 18
Number of students	600
Campus	12 acres
Houses	5
Colour(s)	Blue and White
Mascot	Tadpole
Publication	News and Views Delphic Kshitij
Affiliation	ICSE ISC
Former pupils	Welhamites
Telephone	91-135-2654754
Website	http://www.welhamgirls.com

Welham Girls' School (previously known as Welham Girls' High School) is a boarding school for girls located at the foothills of the Himalayas in Dehradun, India. Established in 1957, it has progressed from being a school for privileged girls to being a school that educates students from throughout India, and members of the Indian diaspora.

History

Welham was named after the little Welsh village from where its Founder, Miss H. Oliphant hailed. A retired English head mistress, Oliphant started Welham Boys School in 1937. She was struck by the lack of schools of similar quality for the sisters of these little boys. She acquired a palatial estate called Nasreen adjacent to Welham Boys School to start a small boarding school for girls. There were no funds, staff, or school buildings. Oliphant recruited another retired English lady, Miss Grace Mary Linnell to run the boarding school for girls. Ms.Linnell became the Founder Principal of Welham Girls School, which started in 1957. Welham Girls’ High School, as it was known then, established itself as a full fledged boarding school. From its initial crop of 10 students, it has grown to over 600 students. The school, since its early years, has kept a very warm, healthy, and stable relationship with Welham Boys School, and this mutuality has developed a proactive emotional atmosphere for the girls against the Welham Boys. The relationship is now established as an extension to the school's prestige and tradition, and is quite evidently befitting the respective school's students' progression towards adulthood.

Houses

The houses—Bulbuls, Flycatchers, Hoopoes, Orioles and Woodpeckers—were named after popular birds that were widespread residents in Dehra Dun at the time Welham was established. There are regular competitions amongst the five Houses, which compete on the sports field and in a variety of other disciplines such as dance, music, debating, quizzing, dramatics. Each house is looked after by a House Mistress and a Matron, and headed by a two student officials - a house captain and a vice captain.

Younger students live in a separate hostel called Holding House (also known as Kingfisher House). Junior and senior girls have separate hostels.

Extracurricular activities

Students volunteer once a week at Cheshire Homes for the Handicapped, Raphael-school for the blind and other charitable organizations. There is also an organized social service program on campus run by campus officials appointed from the student community. The school hosts competitive events amongst the 5 houses throughout the year in the sphere of sports and arts. Students are encouraged to organize and conduct a host of social welfare events and activities in school. Career Counseling and Life-skills Programmes can also be accessed.

Each student is expected to take up two activities each term. These include musical and creative activities such as craft, dramatics,sitar, tabla, vocal music, western music, bharatnatyam, kathak, folk dance and photography.

Sports

These include basketball, hockey, badminton, lawn tennis, athletics, table tennis, karate, cricket and aerobics.

The Basketball team has won numerous tournaments over the years, represented Uttrakhand at National Level and several students have been chosen for the India camp as well.

Clubs and societies

• Nature Club
• Quiz Club
• Photography Club
• English Literary Society
• Debating Society
• Hindi Literary Society
• Music Society
• Young Enthusiasts for Literature (YEL)
• Young Enthusiasts for Art (YEA)

School magazine

The School magazines, News and Views in English and Kshitij in Hindi, are published in alternate months, as well as a science magazine, Delphic, four issues of The Wall magazine and two issues of "The Wall each year. Additionally, the English Literary Society (YEL) produces its own literary publications, Chrysalis, twice a term. The School Annual is published in summer each year.

Exchange program

Welham has an exchange program with the Millfield School in England, a co- educational residential school. This year it started a new exchange program with th St Edwards School, Oxford. These programs are an important part of the school's educational program to expose the girls to different types of cultures.

Notable alumni

• Laila Tyabji
• Aditi Vasudev, Actress
• Madhu Trehan, journalist
• Kavya Agrawal, Design Entrepreneur
• Tavleen Singh journalist
• Kareena Kapoor, Actress
• Vipin Chandel,Music Director
• Brinda Karat, Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) MP
• Subhashini Ali, activist, president All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA)
• Radhika Roy, co-founder and co-owner of NDTV
• Mala Sen, author of Bandit Queen
• Gargi Rawat, NDTV News Reader/Journalist
• Deepa Mehta, film director
• Sanyukta Timsina, Miss Nepal India 2010
• Mandira Lalvani, Times India News Reader/Journalis
• Advaita Kala - Author and script writer - "Almost Single", "Anjaana Anjaani", Kahaani
• Monisha Kaltenborn (Narang) - Chief Executive Officer (CEO) - Sauber F1 Team - Formula 1 Motorsport's first Woman CEO

• 

  Tavleen Singh (Journalist, Class of 1968)

• 

  Brinda Karat (Politician, Class of 1965)

• 

  Kareena Kapoor (Actor, Class of 1998)

References

1. History of Welham from India Times Learning
2. The IPCS Directory
3. [1]
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External links

• Official school page
• Welham Girls Alumni website
• Welham Boys' School Official School Page
• Photographs of Welham Girls School