We offer our students a wide variety of co-curricular activities such as public speaking, debate and dramatics, creative writing, eco-club, quizzing, astronomy, dance, photography, philately, trekking, film appreciation and even cookery.
It is mandatory for each student at Sarala Birla Academy to be a part of at least one of the clubs.
What happens in and around in the society is just a manifestation of what happens inside the world of individual human beings. We all have our moments of joy and sorrow and we wish to share those with our near and dear ones and we always try to search for other people who share the similar kind of emotional upheaval that we go through at times.
Films provide a very powerful medium where we can see a reflection of our own selves, our own happiness and predicament. SBA has such a platform in the form of Film Appreciation Club mainly for senior students. Every Saturday the group members meet and become part of a movie that is screened. They don’t just watch movies but do critical analysis of different aspects of the movie. Usually English and Hindi movies are screened but at times some regional movies also find slots in the club activity. The core value that the club follows is "Enlightenment over entertainment".
A picture speaks a thousand words. Students in the photography club learn the art and technique of photographing with a single-lens reflex camera. The objective here is to teach them the nuances of focus, shutter speed, aperture, etc. Students are also given darkroom basics to supplement their knowledge.
Visual language is one of the important ancient languages and plays an important role in a student's development. In Sarala Birla Academy, art is an important subject and the Art Department is equipped with ultra-modern facilities, including studio spaces, labs, and dedicated areas for painting, printing, tie and dye, and many more art forms. Students take keen interest in this subject and some of them even pursue it as a career. Students who opted for art as a subject have consistently performed very well in the ICSE and ISC examinations.
Silk screen printing was introduced this year and our students have designed some interesting T-shirts using their ingenuity. The VANS DIY Custom Culture activity provided students an opportunity to design on a paper shoe template using the medium of their choice. Top ten designs were awarded with goodies and vouchers from VANS. All the designs were uploaded on the VANS official page to give each student the opportunity to submit their designs for a global competition.
Six of our students visited the Valley School and attended a sculpture workshop conducted by Mr. Chandan Dawn, ceramics teacher at the Valley School.
This year, the Art department successfully conducted the Art, Calligraphy and inter-class chart-making competitions. Art activities were also organised for the visiting French students and delegates of the Round Square Conference.
The students actively contributed to the Founders' Art and Craft exhibition — a show-window for multi-talented members of the Art Department. These included acrylic and oil painting on canvas and board, water colours, charcoal on paper, sculpture, screen printing, tie and dye and skilfully rendered woodcut prints.
Keeping students' interest in art in mind, we plan to introduce Batik and Sculpture, from the next academic year.
Cooking techniques and ingredients vary widely across the world from grilling food over an open fire to using electricity and baking in various types of ovens, reflecting unique environmental, economic, and cultural traditions and trends. The ways or types of cooking also depend on the skill and type of training an individual chef possesses. Cooking is done both by people in their own dwellings and by professional cooks and chefs in restaurants and other food establishments. is an activity unique to humans. It may have started around two million years ago, though archaeological evidence traces it no more than one million years earlier.
Cooking food follows a pattern which commences with the purchasing and selection of materials, their handling, processing and the ultimate presentation of dishes. There are many methods of cooking, most of which have been known since time immemorial. These include baking, roasting, frying, grilling, barbecuing, smoking, boiling, steaming and braising. A more recent innovation is microwaving.
Various methods use differing levels of heat and moisture and vary in cooking time. The method chosen greatly affects the end result because some foods are more appropriate to some methods than others. Cooking is an essential life skill that can be learnt at any stage of life. When recipes are put together, the kitchen is a laboratory involving air, water, fire and the earth.
At SBA, it is our endeavour to make students learn all life skills and hence, we have a Cookery Club as part of our extra-curricular activities. The SBA Cookery Club is in session every Saturday and the members — our little chefs —are baptised into the world of cooking as we teach them the basic culinary etiquettes. They are familiarised with various culinary tools and appliances as also the distinct styles of cooking.
It is also emphasised that cooking prevents many that would otherwise occur if the food is eaten raw. When heat is used in the preparation of food, it kills or inactivates harmful organisms, such as bacteria and viruses, as well as various parasites, such as and . and other illnesses from uncooked or poorly prepared food may be caused by bacteria which get killed as the food is cooked. The effect of cooking depends on temperature, cooking time, and technique used. Cooking increases the digestibility of many foods which are inedible or poisonous when raw.
This year the members began their journey by learning various cuisines of the world. They were apprised of a plethora of recipes extending from Bhel Puri and cutlets to salads and baked items.
Cooking is an exacting and time consuming art and it was made evident to students that those who cook at home; be it mothers, grandmothers, or servants, do not have an easy task. Students appreciated the effort their mothers put in to feed them on a daily basis and their admiration was obviously visible.
The Cookery Club is a vivid platform where members not only learn the art of cooking but also realise the enormity of task that their mothers have at home and hence learn to value and love them more than ever before.
The Quiz Club in SBA has been quite active and efficient in igniting young minds to consistently raise the bar in Quizzing.
During the SUPW activity every week, the students are motivated to seek knowledge, to widen their horizons, and be confident enough to take on greater challenges in the quizzing sphere.
The students prepare and take turns in hosting a quiz each week. The process has made them avid readers, knowledge seekers, and smart thinkers with excellent analytical skills.
This year the students participated in the IPSC (Indian Public Schools Conference) GK test, KISA (Karnataka ICSE Schools Association) Talent Search examination, and the National Safety Science Quiz. Their performance was brilliant and the exposure proved to be a good learning experience for them. The club also hosted an annual inter-house quiz event in which the students took part with zeal and enthusiasm.
The club intends to continue inspiring the students to develop a passion for quizzing, gaining and sharing knowledge.
Chess is a game of mind and talent and it’s truly a sport for all. Playing chess is a great way to enhance your mental capabilities. Chess club is one of the most active clubs of the S.U.P.W clubs at Sarala Birla Academy where every Friday afternoon and on Saturdays, the student members of the Chess Club along with the teachers-in-charge have informal chess training sessions.
Students are equipped with basic skills and strategies for playing at an international level. Students who have achieved the required standards are encouraged to participate in chess competitions at inter-school and community level. Basic rules and regulations of the game are taught to those students who have had no previous experience of chess.
Through playing chess, students are able to cultivate a hobby which stimulates the mind towards proactive and rational thinking, encourages decision making skills given the challenging environment, and also inspires self-discipline since it's time-bound in nature. The Chess club at SBA comprises of approximately 30 students from grade V to XII and one professional coach. Out of the 30 students, half of them are beginners, learning the basic tactics and techniques of the game.
Drama is a collaborative form of that sees live performers presenting the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through a combination of gestures, speech, song, music, and dance. Elements of art, such as painted scenery and such as lighting are used to enhance the physicality, presence and immediacy of the experience. Keeping these traditions of drama in mind, the students of the Dramatics Club at Sarala Birla Academy meet on Saturdays to hone their thespian skills. The club consists of six students who meet either at the library or the rock garden.
The year 2018-19 began with the students being introduced to drama and the evolution of stage through a presentation. This was followed by lessons on the art of dialogue delivery and the importance of pronunciation while rendering dialogues on stage.
Post the initial introduction to the rudiments of drama, the members of the Dramatics Club were divided into groups, and scripts of the one-act play, ’The Refund’, were distributed. All members enacted roles from this script. The next script picked up by the club was ’Martyr’s Corner’. This script was a tad more complex as it involved scene changes. It provided several learning experiences to the children. The students were also given the script of, ‘The Waiting Room’, and asked to enact the same.
The members thoroughly enjoyed the process of learning about drama, stagecraft and acting. It made them confident and helped them overcome stage fright to a considerable extent. The Department of English, in collaboration with the Dramatics Club was instrumental in staging a one-act play, ‘The Post Office’, written by Rabindranath Tagore, during the Annual Day programme on December 15, 2018.
Just like any other year in the past, there was a huge response from the students to join the Social Service club for the academic year 2016-17. The students were involved in various activities such as live bingo online India cleaning, gathering stationery items for students of Government school, preparation for the social service day, making of paper bags, etc.
Throughout the year, the social service club performed various activities to help the environment, as well as other people in general. The activities included:
The Robotics and Aero-modelling club was started during the academic session 2013-14, with the idea of creating a spark in young minds who were interested in carving a career in the area of aviation and artificial intelligence.
During the current academic year, 28 students from class five to eight enrolled in this club, at the beginner’s level. The club activity is executed under the observation and guidance from experienced trainers from 'Hobby Master'. At the beginner’s level, students were trained to construct wooden planes. They were also taught the technical terms used in aviation, and the functions of different parts of the planes that were constructed by the students. The students were also trained to construct various detectors using basic electronic components. Hobby Fest is an annual event conducted by the Hobby Master and the students from SBA actively take part in the various competitions organised in this fest.
This is a small club of nine students. At the beginning of the session, the students were asked to submit a 'Wish List' naming the books they desired to read during the session. The teachers also suggested names of books and authors that the students could consider reading. After the reading of a book each boy was asked to present an oral review of the same. They also spoke about their favourite characters, important events and incidents in the book. Apart from this, they had to speak out about whether they recommended the reading of the book or not and why. The club also held group discussions about the books that had been read. In this manner, each child not only read several different books, but also learnt to appreciate different genres of writing. The boys enjoyed being a part of the club and exploring the joys of reading.
Model United Nations, also known as MUN, is an extra-curricular activity in which students typically role play delegates of the United Nations and simulate UN committees. This activity takes place at MUN conferences, which is usually organised by the MUN club. These activities build the participants’ self-confidence to open up and speak without hesitation. Students participate at inter-school conferences and get an opportunity to meet other students participating in the conference coming from around the country and world.
The MUN club in SBA sees the new 'munners' being introduced to the procedures of MUN by the experienced 'munners'. The club had a massive participation of 53 boys. To start with, there were few mock sessions to show them what the feel of MUN is. The students, then, researched various agendas and had many mocks sessions throughout the year. The school, then, had the inter-house MUN which witnessed some budding munners debating hard. It was an opportunity for the students to showcase their skills, and get ready for numerous inter school MUN awaiting throughout the year. The school participated in WFUNAMUN (Agra), CISMUN (Bangalore), LMCMUN (Kolkata), CMUN (Mumbai). The school also participated in the TRINSMUN (Trivandrum) where it bagged the 'Best Delegation'. In the Canadian live bingo online India MUN, the school bagged the award of the '2nd Best Delegation '. The MUN club in SBA strives to raise awareness of the role the United Nations plays in world affairs by involving youth in all aspects of the planning process thereby inspiring the next generation of leaders to become more involved in global problems and try to provide some solutions at their level.
