Crest of T.D.B. Central School, Kadakkal

Photo gallery

Photographs of the school at work and of the occasions the year is marked by — reopening day, Independence Day, the food fest, Yoga Day, the tour, and the day the new bus arrived.

The school at work

An ordinary week: the campus at Thevarnada, assembly round the lamp, and lessons in progress.

The school building at Thevarnada, with its name board and flagstaff.
The campus
Students standing at assembly beside the lit brass lamp.
Morning assembly
A mathematics class in progress, the day's work dated on the blackboard.
A maths class
Students seated on the staircase during a school gathering.
On the staircase
Staff and students standing beside the school bus under the portico.
The school bus
A pre-primary class seated at their benches in a decorated classroom.
The youngest classes
Students and staff gathered around the brass lamp in the school hall.
A gathering
A computer lesson in progress, the definition of an operating system on the blackboard.
A computer lesson
Students carrying the school banner and the national flag in a procession.
A school procession

Reopening day

The first morning back. The block was hung with marigolds and a hand-made board reading “1st day in my school” stood in the veranda for anyone who wanted their picture taken behind it.

A welcome-back-to-school poster showing the school block hung with marigold garlands and pupils walking out towards the flagstaff.
The school's welcome-back poster
A pupil in glasses resting her chin on her hands inside the hand-made "1st day in my school" frame.
A young boy in a green T-shirt looking out through the decorated photo frame.
A pupil smiling behind the hand-made photo frame in the school veranda.
A pupil in a yellow and purple kurta framed by the "1st day in my school" board.
Three pupils holding balloons on the grass in front of the school block.

Film of reopening day — 9 MB, nothing downloads until you press play.

Independence Day

The flag hoisted on the school ground, and the morning that followed it.

The national flag flying from the school flagstaff against a clouded monsoon sky.
Pupils crowded round the flagstaff holding paper tricolours after the hoisting.
Pupils and staff gathered along the veranda for the Independence Day programme.
A group of girls in school uniform photographed in the veranda, the flag flying on the ground beyond.
Four members of staff standing together outside the staff room.

The school tour

The study tour south: Padmanabhapuram Palace and its museum, the Vivekananda Rock Memorial at Kanyakumari, and Kovalam on the way back.

Inside the tour bus, pupils standing in the aisle among the seats.
Setting off
The tiled roofs and carved wooden entrance porch of Padmanabhapuram Palace.
Padmanabhapuram Palace
The palace courtyard with hills rising in the haze behind it.
Doorways lined up one behind another down a polished corridor inside the palace.
Visitors at the far end of a palace corridor under its carved wooden ceiling.
A framed painting of a temple ceremony hanging on a palace wall.
A weathered stone sculpture of Bhadrakali on a plinth in the palace museum, its label giving the period as the sixteenth century.
In the palace museum
The teachers on the tour lining up for a group photograph against the palace wall.
Girls on the tour, one pointing something out across the garden.
Pupils waiting in the shade of a tree, a teacher standing with them.
Two pupils standing in a temple courtyard, others barefoot on the sand behind them.
Pupils and two teachers beside a carved stone elephant at the foot of a flight of steps.
Pupils and teachers in orange life jackets aboard the ferry.
The ferry to the rock
The Vivekananda Rock Memorial at Kanyakumari seen up the full flight of steps.
Vivekananda Rock Memorial
The memorial from the landing, visitors climbing the steps towards its doorway.
The party on the sea wall at Kovalam beach, the surf breaking beyond them.
Kovalam

A morning at Kadakkal park

The whole school out together, from the pre-primary classes at the front to Class X standing at the back.

The whole school ranged under the trees at Kadakkal park, the youngest seated on the grass in front.

The food fest

Dishes brought from home, labelled and laid out the length of two classrooms, with the lamp lit and the ribbon cut to open the day.

A guest touching the flame to the garlanded lamp beneath the fest banner.
A speaker addressing the gathering at the food fest, the school's banner on the wall behind.
The ribbon across the classroom door being cut to open the stalls, seen from inside.
Opening the stalls
Pupils and staff setting out the trestle tables in a classroom before the fest opens.
A long line of tiffin carriers and covered dishes down the table, each with a paper label.
Bowls, tins and boxes of food ranged along the tables against the classroom wall.
Two teachers walking the line of dishes, reading the labels as they go.
Teachers looking over the entries, the labelled dishes running the length of the table.
A pupil at the counter beside a large tray of fried snacks.

Yoga Day

Mats down the corridor for the youngest classes in the morning, and the senior classes in PT uniform after them.

Pre-primary pupils standing on coloured mats in the corridor outside the Principal's room, hands at their ears.
Senior pupils in orange PT uniform kneeling with both arms raised.
Senior pupils kneeling on their mats with eyes closed and hands resting on their knees.

The new school bus

The handing over of the school's new bus, garlanded and drawn up under the portico with the school's name across the windscreen.

The bus head-on with a marigold garland across its bumper.
The oversized ceremonial key held up beside the bus for the photographers.
The bus papers being handed over in front of the vehicle, a line of guests looking on.

An awareness class

An awareness session for the senior classes, taken by visiting uniformed officers in the school hall.

The guests seated at a cloth-covered table before the session begins.
A speaker addressing the class, the panel of guests seated at the table behind him.
A speaker with a microphone standing at the table, a uniformed officer seated beside him.
The school hall during the session, pupils at their benches facing the table under the steel roof trusses.
A uniformed officer speaking to the class from between the benches.
Pupils grouped round the visiting officer for a photograph at the end of the class.

The Principal's office

The office is at the head of the corridor on the ground floor. Parents are seen there without an appointment on any working day.

The Principal seated at her desk, the nameplate reading Principal, TDB Central School in front of her.
At the desk