Events
Towards holistic education of the children the school encourages them to participate in non-academic activities such as sports, drama, music, debate etc. A few of them are summarised below:A Fancy Dress Competition was held for K.G. Kids on 6th January 2024. The children were dressed up in different forms, such as fruits, vegetables, animals, birds, and people who help others (police, teachers, traffic policemen, doctors, etc.). Both the parents and students enjoyed the event.The children organised Pongal celebrations on 14th January – this event had enthusiastic participation from 9th and 10th standard children. The school was festooned with colourful kolam, and the sun god was worshipped with fruits, vegetables and sugarcane offerings.Students from 6th standard onwards recited verses from the Kural with meanings at the Tamil Literary Association meeting on 14th February.
Spoken English Sessions
Since September 2022, a group of volunteers has been conducting one-hour weekly interactive virtual sessions for the 9th-standard students of GKV. This was started as a pilot intending to offer this long-term, starting from lower grades, as a complement to the academic curriculum.These sessions are conducted through Google meetings to help build spoken English skills and develop confidence in communication, articulation, asking questions and thinking differently for these students. The session’s content is non-academic and usually involves each student making one or more sentences in English through a structured activity. The class of 60 has been divided into 3 batches of 20 each, with 1-2 volunteers facilitating the session for each batch. The feedback from the teachers and students has been positive. The teachers felt that the students had opened up to a large extent(in some cases more so than in classrooms) and looked forward to these sessions. The students found many sessions enjoyable and requested more than one weekly session. The volunteers have also enjoyed the sessions and found the children very eager and enthusiastic. As per the volunteers, the number of children who were hesitant to speak and express themselves has reduced significantly since the start of the sessions.The sessions are now being conducted for the third consecutive year, starting June 2024. Through this initiative, we hope that in addition to doing well in academics, the students passing out of 10th grade will be at least as good in speaking and understanding English as children from cities schools.
Sporting Excellence
GKV students, supported by dedicated teachers and trainers, have enthusiastically embraced sports. They achieved notable success in inter-school zonal sports conducted by the state education department in September 2023: Vanaja (class X) and Akshaya Selvi (class IX) secured second and third place in the 100m race.In the 400m relay, Vanaja and Sivaneshwari (class X), and Akshaya Selvi and Santhiya (class IX), achieved second place.Muthuram (class VIII), with a personal best time just 4 seconds short of the state age record, claimed the third spot in the 400m sprint.The girls’ handball team, composed of 11 students from classes 8 to 10, emerged victorious at the zonal-level competition and advanced to the district-level tournament. In the Tirunelveli district handball tournament held in January 2024, the GKV team competed with 12 other teams in the senior category and won the gold medal. The icing on the cake was the recognition of our student Sandhiya as the extraordinary player of the tournament for scoring the maximum number of goals.Sunil Kumar, the top student of the class of 2023 and now in class 11 at Sri Jayendra School, triumphed in the 3000m race.
Laurels at Kalai Vizha
Tamil Cultural Yoga and Sports Trust organised a South Zone ‘Kalai Vizha’ for students from 30 schools at Kovilpatti on 25 February 2024. More than 75 of our students from classes 6th to 10th participated in Carrom, Silambam, and Yoga competitions, and several of them got 1st and 2nd places in Silambam and Yoga. We are proud that the school won third place in this Zonal-Level competition.
Alumni update
Raja Selvi, from the GKV class of 2022, did the school proud by standing 3rd in her class in Jayendra School in the 12th standard public examination. Raja Selvi, who comes from a low-income family in Sankar Nagar, whose father worked as a security guard in a private company, joined GKV in L.K.G in 2010. A soft-natured, friendly and helpful student, she proved to be excellent in academics.She graduated from GKV in 2022 at the top of her class with an aggregate of 95% in the 10th standard public examination. She stood first in the 11th standard board exams at Jayendra school. Her ambition is to join the Indian Civil service. She is now pursuing a B.Sc. degree. We wish her all the best in her endeavours. Raja Selvi with the staff of Jayendra school, GKV school and her father International scholarships awarded to our students Two outstanding girls, M Pathrakali and B Aruna Selvi, have been selected as Hemlata Impact Scholars, an incredible achievement of which we are immensely proud. Both girls joined GKV in 2009 as little kindergarteners. The H-Impact Scholarship, offered by the Hemlata Foundation, covers the entire spectrum of their tertiary education. This includes tuition fees, boarding facilities, nutritious meals, a tablet/laptop, and a stipend for miscellaneous expenses. Moreover, it provides valuable mentorship from a professional living outside India, along with guidance for life skills and career development. Scholars are selected from across the country through a rigorous screening process. Pathrakali, hailing from a humble background, exemplifies the resilience and determination we often witness in our GKV students. Her father is a lorry driver, and her mother works as a daily wage labourer for a local mining company. Pathrakali graduated with a remarkable 93% aggregate, securing the 2nd rank in her class. She is now pursuing a BE (Printing and Packaging) program in the University departments of Anna University Chennai (CEG Campus). Aruna Selvi’s story is equally inspiring. Her father manages a small farm and works in a private lorry company to supplement their income, while her mother is a dedicated homemaker who also contributes to the family’s farm work. Despite no parental guidance, Aruna Selvi consistently excelled academically, graduating with an aggregate of 90.6%. Aruna Selvi is pursuing a B.Sc. Agriculture program at The Agricultural College and Research Institute (AC&RI) in Killikulam, Tuticorin. Her ambition is to clear the highly competitive UPSC examinations, join the Indian Forest Service, and work tirelessly towards conserving our precious forests and the environment. Both students have diverse interests. Pathrakali won numerous prizes in drawing and crafts throughout the school. Aruna Selvi excelled in athletics, winning prizes in inter-school competitions and dabbling in reading, dance, and origami. Pathrakali and Aruna Selvi’s journeys exemplify the resilience, dedication, and potential of every GKV student. We are incredibly proud of them.
Class of 2023-2024
All 57 (21 boys, 36 girls) 10th standard students who appeared in the Tamil Nadu board public examinations in March/April 2024 passed it. Of these, 51 students have scored an aggregate of over 60%. Further, 27 students scored an aggregate of over 80%. Congratulations to N. Gomathi, M. Shajina and D. Vinoth the top three performers of the class!! 33 of these students have been admitted in Jayendra School for their higher secondary education, while the remaining are pursuing further studies in other schools/colleges.
Summary as of 2023-2024
The first batch of students passed out from the school in 2019 upon completing the Tamil Nadu Board SSLC examinations. With the latest batch of students to complete the Tamil Nadu Board public examinations for the 10th standard in 2024, five batches comprising 257 students (132 boys, 125 girls) have passed out of GKV. Of these, 12 are now working after completion of their 3-year polytechnic diploma, and most of the others are pursuing further education. Several 2019 graduate students are expected to join the workforce in the next few months after completing their 3-year degree program.