Ursuline Convent School

Ursuline Convent School
Ursuline Convent Sr Sec School Class Room, 72, Block E, RHO I, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh 201310, India
http://ursulinegreaternoida.org/
Ursuline Convent School traces its origin to 17 February 1859 when the first group of Ursuline Sisters arrived in Ranchi at the invitation of the Jesuit Bishop of Calcutta. The land for the school was granted by the local maharaja on a wooded 12-acre hillock overlooking the Subarnarekha River. Initially a primary parish school for the daughters of railway and military personnel, it grew rapidly: by 1890 it already offered matriculation examinations and a boarding house for tribal Christian pupils. The red-brick Neo-Gothic main building was erected in 1916 and, despite earthquakes in 1934 and 1988, has retained its characteristic cloistered corridors, arched windows and the chapel bell brought from Lyon.

Academically the school is affiliated to the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (ICSE for class X and ISC for class XII) and serves roughly 2,200 girls on a day shift and 600 sisters, boarders and staff on-site. The curriculum places equal emphasis on humanities, science and commerce, and for the last three years the average ISC scores have hovered at 93 percent with thirty-three national merit ranks. Specialist programmes include Classical Languages (Latin as well as Sanskrit), Social Entrepreneurship and an annual “Science for Tribal Development” module in which senior girls design low-cost technological solutions for neighbouring villages.

The wider campus houses separate preparatory, middle and senior wings, five science laboratories modeled on German safety standards, a multimedia language resource centre opened in 2018, and a 1.2 lakh-volume library endowed by the Class of 1970. The Sisters preserve the 1870 convent archives, including 4,000 photographs and an early ethnographic collection on Chotanagpur tribes. Boarders live in four pastel stucco houses named after Ursuline saints—Angela, Marie, Teresa and Brescia—each paternalistically guided by a resident Sister yet run by elected student prefects. In sports, the campus holds a turf hockey field, an athletics track certified by the Athletics Federation of India, and a mini-forest used for orienteering competitions. A deliberate note of empowerment accompanies co-curricular life: the debating and quiz societies have reached national finals seventeen times, the all-girls brass band plays at the annual Independence Day march-past at the Governor’s residence, and the Interact Club funds a free Saturday literacy clinic for nearby slum children.

Ethos remains centrally Catholic, yet liturgy is voluntary and girls of every faith participate; Mass in the Radhika Chapel is sung alternately in Latin, Kurukh or Nagpuri according to the liturgical calendar. The school motto, “Lux Mariae, Serviam,” is illustrated by older girls running peer-counselling services, leading eco-clubs, and founding start-ups such as the Adivasi-Looms cooperative which markets tribal weave. Alumnae, affectionately called “Ursulines,” hold prominent positions as Supreme Court advocates, molecular geneticists at Johns Hopkins and tribal-rights activists; each December they return for the Candlelight Carol Service, renewing on their alumnae wall the pledge begun in 1859: Ursuline Convent School, Ranchi.

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