Sharon English High School is delighted to celebrate 2017-‘8 as its Golden Jubilee year, a celebration of 50 years of growing in wisdom and excellence. To make this occasion a memorable one various events were planned for the academic year that began in June 2017. There was a great amount of enthusiasm and zeal seen in each and every member of the Sharon family while planning the events. When we finally decided to turn these celebrations into an inter-school event, the enthusiasm doubled. We decided to name the festival ‘Zest’, to share our zest of celebrating 50 with other schools in T-ward. We invited them to participate in competitions, thereby giving students in T-ward a platform to showcase their talent and further their creative and performance skills.
Various committees were formed to ensure smooth planning and proper execution. The teachers were divided into five committees, namely, the managing committee, the decoration committee, the food committee, communication committee and the prize committee. Each committee put in over a month of hard work to get the act right in time for Zest. A decoration committee reminiscences, “On the first day when we were divided into groups to plan for Zest, we had no clue what to do. Later, once we all sat together and brainstormed on ideas, each one of us accepted a core responsibility and worked towards fulfilling it. Finally, when we pooled in all our ideas and art work, we realised how beautiful everything looks. We transformed how the school looked and felt on the days of the event. That’s when I realized that teamwork really counts to make an event memorable and successful.”
As a communication committee member says, “Though initially we felt that everything could be done easily, we later realised that it was indeed not so easy! We learnt that a well coordinated team can do wonders with meticulous planning and research. The responsibility thrust upon us enabled us to travel through new paths and explore many things which we were unaware of. Not being tech-savvy was one barrier for us. But the timely support from our colleagues helped us to achieve our goal well. By the end of it we had colourful invitations and circulars for distribution. It was an exhilarating experience!”
Zest was a two day event held on 12 and 13th of December, 2017 in the school premises for std. I-X and at R.R.T. Road school for the pre-primary section. Two hundred and eighty five students from eighteen schools competed in the various competitions that Sharon School had organized. Every day, the celebrations kick started with the lighting of the lamp by dignitaries, followed by a welcome address by the Principal, Ms. Annie Thomas. A slew of competitions were conducted across three venues in the school, these included Declamation, Duet Dance, One Act Play, Elocution and Science Quiz among others. The enthusiasm and spirit of the talented participants was commendable. We were lucky to have really experienced judges amongst our midst to judge every event. The audience benefitted from tips and tricks some of our judges shared during the prize distribution ceremony.
The school wore a festive look for almost a week with every staff member actively contributing to make the event a grand success. The thoughtful & tasty care packages made by the food committee kept everyone refreshed and energized on both the days. As teachers, there were many firsts for us in the build up to the actual event. We learnt so many things about planning an event, organizing things and working in one single team through this exercise. We now feel energized and active like never before and feel ready for new challenges that lie ahead for us. It was a heart warming journey of learning for us and we look forward to such events being organized time and again.
Contributed by
ZEST, Managing Committee with inputs from other staff