82ND BIRTH ANNIVERSARY OF HH THE FOURTEENTH DALAI LAMA

82^ND BIRTH ANNIVERSARY OF HH THE FOURTEENTH DALAI LAMA

6^th July is a very special day and a joyous occasion for Tibetans all over the world as it is the birth day of our beloved leader HH the fourteenth Dalai Lama. The Tibetans all over the world celebrate the day with joy and organize varieties of activities to show our love and gratitude to His Holiness.

TCV School upper Dharamshala started this special day with incense offering ceremony at basketball ground. At 8:15 am, the village Director, Principal, and all the staff members and students below class VIII participated in Sangsol. Executive members of TCV Head office the President and General Secretary also participated in the ceremony.

After the sangsol program, under the guidance of secular ethics committee members’ mass dialectical debate was held at the basketball ground with participation from the teachers of intermediate dialectical class and students from classes V to VIII.

At 10 am, all the staff members and students below class VIII gathered in Herman Gmeiner hall to attend the official school function. The program started with the enthronement of portrait of His Holiness the Dalai Lama followed by scarf offering by the staff members while the students led by the philosophy teachers chanted Gyalwe Shabten. After the scarf offering ceremony, Mr. Sonam Tsering la gave a brief introductory speech on the life and achievements of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

The staff and Students of junior and infant section had an opportunity to watch drama presentations by classes VII and VIII. Class VII students presented drama called “JIGTEN CHIMEN KI SANGCHOE” འཇིག་རྟེན་སྤྱི་སྨན་གྱི་བཟང་སྤྱོད།” and students of class VIII presented “DANGPO DANGSHAK LAMA KONCHOK” དྲང་པོ་དྲང་བཞག་བླ་མ་དཀོན་མཆོག་”

At the end, school principal Mrs. Ngawang lhamo la gave the concluding speech and expressed words of appreciation to concerned staff members and students for making 82^nd birth anniversary of His Holiness the Dalai Lama a great success.

Inter-House Cultural Competition, 2017

Inter-House Cultural Competition, 2017

Th e evening of 4^th July witnessed the Inter-house cultural competition of TCV School, Upper Dharamsala in the Herman Gmeiner hall. The much awaited mega event finally concluded with over 300 participants performing with excellence to get the trophy.

His Eminence the 7th Kyabje Yongzin Ling Rinpoche graced the event as its chief guest. Unlike the last year which focused on the traditional opera, this year, the focus was on the Tibetan traditional dance and song. Due to the limited period for practice, which was only 18 days until the final, the items were limited to 3 each for the houses i.e 2 traditional dances and 1 group song. The perfectionism with which each house performed, the competition was down-to-the-wire neck and neck. However, Trisong house came out victorious.

The annual inter-house cultural competition which was started way back in the 1980s aims at imbibing in our children our rich Tibetan cultural art. This program is one of the most important programs of the school. Since this program involves maximum number of participation, the program also teaches our students team work and dedication.

Tibet Our Country Program concluded in UTCV on 30th June, 2017

Tibet Our Country’ Program concluded in UTCV on 30^th June, 2017

TCV School, Upper Dharamsala celebrated the concluding day of its ‘Tibet Our Country’ Program on 30^th June, 2017. In the morning at 8 am, with pungent aroma emitting out of the smoke of incense powder, all the students and staff members gathered at the basket ball ground and started the celebration by paying obeisance to the almighty gods with prayer offering, followed by a round dance (gorshey) led by the home amalas.

The concluding day function was held at 9.30 am the Herman Gmeiner hall subsequent to the prayer offering program. The function witnessed the presentation by all the sections. The cute poem and the innocence of infant section students, the beautiful and varied items of the junior section, and the humor filled skits of the senior section sent strong moral messages to the audience.

Mr. Sonam Sichoe, the Education Director was the chief guest. Addressing the gathering, he spoke on the aims and objectives and the importance of having this kind of program.  Talking on ‘Secular Ethics’, the theme of this year’s TOC, he said that this should not be the end to the program, but should thus be continued throughout. He further said that education does not only confine to academics, but also include moral values. He also mentioned that the creation of such environment should not only be the responsibility of school, but each individual must contribute in the creation of the environment.  The same, he said, could be achieved through individual realization and putting one’s daily act in all the ten competencies.

Following the function, the chief guest along with the other dignitaries was escorted to the exhibition prepared by all the school children K-11.  The exhibition was later opened to all the school children and visitors.

This month long program initiated in the early eighties has become a yearly program implemented in all the TCV schools. The project aims at stimulating the children to work on topics related to Tibet, thus making the children realize and create a bond with their roots. Every year, a theme is provided on which the students do research and present their topic on the concluding day.

Report on Parent Teacher Meeting, 2017

Report on Parent Teacher Meeting, 2017

24^th June, 2017: TCV School, Upper Dharamsala had its first Parent Teacher Meeting (PTA) for the year 2017 on 24^th June, 2017. Following the suggestions and the resolution made during the 2016 MDC on the need of a PTA meeting before the examination, the function of the first PTA was held on the above mentioned date in Dekyi Tsering hall from 9 am to 10.30 am.

Around 330 parents attended the function.  The School Principal welcomed all the parents and introduced the new changes in the administration to the parents. She then talked about the importance of the PTA meetings and the research based proofs on the benefits of such meetings on children. She stressed on the children being the most important, and thus the importance of need of collaborative team work by the parents as well as teachers due to the constant change in the society. She further requested the parents to keep a close vigilance on the actions of their child, and to further keep in constant touch with the house mothers and teachers. The 3 focus areas for 2017, resolved in 2016 Education Development Council (EDC) meeting, which are a) Promotion of Secular Ethics in Education, b) Strengthening implementation of Basic Education Policy and c) Controlling Substance Abuses, were also made aware of to the parents.

Dr. Sonam Topgyal, from Delek Hospital who especially came to attend the function,  introduced the hospital’s project titled ‘Zero TB in Tibetan Kids’, currently undergoing in the school. Aimed at eliminating TB in Tibetan school children, the doctor explained the types of medication and appealed the parents to take more responsibility.

Finally, the school Principal gave a short workshop to the parents on the CBSE initiative for class IX and X. She explained on how the entire pedagogical machinery gets affected and the changes under the CBSE’s remodeled scheme.

Mr. Passang, the Vice-President of Parent’s Association, through an anecdote of Thomas Edison stressed on the importance of parent’s involvement in a child’s success and urged the parents to use positive reinforcements.

Information and knowledge uploaded, the parents headed to the respective sections to meet the teachers of their child. The whole PTA meeting went from 10.30a.m. till 1.30 p.m. As per the school diary, the second PTA will take place on 18^th November, 2017.

World Tobacco Day

World Tobacco Day

To observe World Tobacco day, Health and Environment Committee members organised an event on May 31, 2017. We have conducted drawing completion on the theme ‘Tobacco’ in advance and students who were selected for top three positions were given prize by Senior Section Headmistress on the day.

After the assembly while students were leaving the hall for class, we have distributed two coloured bands to everyone – purple and yellow coloured bands which has different meanings.  The meanings of the colours were explained to the students:  yellow colour means “I will not smoke in school” and purple colour means “I will help my friends to quit smoking”.  Students were asked to collect the band colour of their choice and stick on their sweater for a day. We have also prepared various charts with information relating to the tobacco day and put-up on different board near senior section.

In the evening, we have requested Kunphen – a NGO working on treating drug abuse in Tibetan community to conduct a talk on tobacco for senior section students at Dickyi Tsering Hall. They came with two speakers who shared their real life experiences to promote awareness among our students. Their talks were followed by question and answer session. The day was concluded meaningfully.   We would like to extend our special thanks to our volunteer teacher Gen Monlam la helping us make this event a successful one.

Health and Environment Committee -2017

Clean Up during His Holiness Teaching to Tibetan Youth

Clean Up during His Holiness Teaching to Tibetan Youth

From June 5 to 7, His Holiness the Dalai Lama gave a special teaching to Tibetan youths at Tsuglakhang. During the three-day teaching, all the 60 members of our school’s Health and Environment Committee did their best to keep the temple courtyard clean.

To start with, we all gathered at one place to carry out the work more efficiently. Then Gen Tsetan la divided all the students and staff into four groups and appointed one group leaders. Groups were sat at different corners of Tsuglakhang courtyard. Once volunteers started distributing bread and tea to public, our student groups started moving to their respective places and collected the trashes after every break and lunch hours.

At the end of each day’s session after public leaves the temple area, we stayed back to sweep the whole area and collect all the trashes at one place. We have requested class nine boys to stay back little more time to wait for the garbage truck and send others back to their homes.

Above routine was followed during all the three days of teaching and we appreciate everyone’s cooperation as we were able to carry out the clean-up work without any complaints and inconveniences.

Health and Environment Committee -2017

WORLD KANGYOK DAY

WORLD KANGYOK DAY

 

18^th June, 2017 was observed as world Gang gyok day in different schools around the world and we the staff members and students of Upper TCV Dharamsala took part in observing world gang gyok day and organized 6 km health race from our school to Asia Health resort and back to school.

It was around 7:45am that the school Principal, headmasters, physical education teachers and the selected students for Kang Gyok (a health race) got assembled on basketball ground. Before the actual race, the school Principal gave a brief introduction of the world gang gyok day followed by physical teachers’ instruction on how to proceed for the short distance course.

At 8:15am with a school banner raised high, the children from classes VI to XI took part in actual race with excitement, zeal and sincere motivation in support of the world gang gyok day program organized by the school administration. All the participants were inspired and motivated by the active participation of the school principal, headmasters and the physical education teachers in the actual race covering the complete race course.

After the completion of race, all the participants returned back to school with lot of joy and satisfaction. All the participants were then told to relax and served a bottle of water and fresh juice sponsored by Nangten Menlang Socio Buddhist Research Charitable Trust.

The Kang gyok program finally was concluded with three minutes meditation on peace and mindfulness with brief and clear instructions from physical education teacher Mr. Karma Dorjee la.

Section Section

Upper TCV