Little flower of Jesus High School

Ref: DIR20

Type : School

Website : www.goaholidayhomes.com/littleflowerhighschool

Little flower of Jesus High School, an English Medium school at Naikavaddo, Calangute, Bardez, Goa stands some few meters away from the Parish Church of St. Alex. It is surrounded by guest houses, super markets and money changers on all sides with an easy access to Mapusa, The commercial hub of Bardez and to Panjim, the seat of administration of the state of Goa. TO its north lies Sinquerim, and to its west the world acclaimed tourist centre, the Calangute Beach. The village once upon a time boasted of tall coconut plantations where the natives of the coastal belt mended their fishing nets for their traditional occupation with their children playing on the canoes and the open shores of the Arabian Sea unmindful of the world around them. The village also has to its credit many other schools run by the Government and NGO's

The renowned founder of the school Msgr. Herculano Gonsalves, the son of the soil who took the charge of the Catholic Church of Calangute in 1930 having built a school at Sonapur, Mumbia, for the poor irrespective of caste and creed went round the village with a fatherly concern in search of his flock. Its is to his credit that even at those times he understood the role of education in the shaping of a human personality. His compassionate heart launched into the deep to empower them with the knowledge of Goa and the world behind them. The radicality of his life proved o be a bonus for the people of Calangute in particular to have its very first local English medium school as well as an orphanage for those in dire need of a "home" and for Goa at large, the privilege to boast its first indigenous congregation "Handmaids of Christ" whose charism is to reach out to women and children in distress in order to promote the Kingdom of God.

The school has been catering to the needs of the village and the surrounding villages namely Baga, Arpora, Nagoa, Saligao, Pilerne, Candolim and Sinquerim for the past 75 years. It sis a co-ed school where young girls and boys grow up with mutual understanding of each other and this in turn is a step towards building maturity with which they are able to relate later in their own new homes. Admission in the school is without any discrimination of race, creed, sex, caste, state or social status. Besides admissions from the neighbouring states of Karnataka and Maharashtra there is a great demand for admission from the building with fifteen classrooms in addition to the office, staff room, Science laboratory, library and a well furnished computer laboratory and a spacious hall. The school campus is well demarcated with a protective compound wall with three gates on all three sides. The children have ample space to play freely on the two playgrounds where the students are encouraged to exposure to outdoors.

The School was recognised in 1961 by the Goa Board of secondary and Higher Secondary Education, Alto Porvorim, and is subject to the rules and regulations laid down by the department of Education, Panjim. The curriculum of the school consists of 6 subjects to be a ble to obtain a certificate from the Board at the end of 10 years of regular schooling. The compulsory subjects are the three languages: English the main one, Hindi, the second language and the third language, an optional language, namely Konkani, Marathi and French. The French teachers have a close interaction with "Alliance Francaise" , a French Association with its branch in Goa. This breifs them up from time to time about the teaching methods and other co curricular activities. The other three subjects are Mathematics, Social Sciences and Social Studies with two papers in each subject.

Students are trained to be self-disciplined through seminars, orientation programmes and discourses, etc. by inviting experts on the subject according to the needs of the hour. Awareness programmes on Children's Rights in Goa are conducted annually. Due to the ever-growing exposure and impact of the electronic media on tender minds, the Management is facing the new challenge of bringing to the mainstream the wavering students through counselling for which the staff has been trained.