The Bishop's School is an Indian private, unaided (independent) minority school, for boarding and day students between Nursery and 12th grade. It is located in

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million ...

, which is the cultural capital of the state of

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

. It was founded in 1864 by Bishop Harding, the adjutant general of the British Indian Army. The school was envisioned as a self-supporting institution founded for the children of warrant officers and non-commissioned officers stationed at

who, not belonging to Regiments, did not have regimental facilities. The first headmaster was a British Army Corporal, Robert Mansfield. The current officiating principal is Joel Edwin. It is one of India's oldest education institutions. The Bishop's School students and alumni are called "Bishopites" and students, faculty and staff often refer to the school simply as "Bishop's".

History

Origins

The school was established by Lt. Col. Sydney T. Stock on 19 April 1864 to cater to the sons of

warrant officers Warrant officer (WO) is a rank or category of ranks in the armed forces of many countries. Depending on the country, service, or historical context, warrant officers are sometimes classified as the most junior of the commissioned ranks, the most ...

and non-commissioned officers of the

British Indian Army The British Indian Army, commonly referred to as the Indian Army, was the main military of the British Raj before its dissolution in 1947. It was responsible for the defence of the British Indian Empire, including the princely states, which co ...

. The school has since functioned as a Christian Anglo-Indian minority institution. It is located in the

Pune Cantonment Cantt, also known as Camp, is a military cantonment located in the city of Pune, India. It was established in 1817 for accommodating troops of the Indian Army. The cantonment houses many military establishments. It is also known for its shoppi ...

. In addition to its

day school A day school — as opposed to a boarding school — is an educational institution where children and adolescents are given instructions during the day, after which the students return to their homes. A day school has full-day programs when compar ...

, Bishop's has a

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...

. The school has three branches, with the one in

Camp Camp may refer to: Outdoor accommodation and recreation * Campsite or campground, a recreational outdoor sleeping and eating site * a temporary settlement for nomads * Camp, a term used in New England, Northern Ontario and New Brunswick to descri ...

being the first and oldest, and an all-boys school. The school has opened two branches in the

Kalyani Nagar Kalyani Nagar is an affluent, predominantly residential neighbourhood located in eastern Pune, India. It has a population of 25,272 according to the 2011 Census of India. The locality is administered by the Nagar Road-Wadgaonsheri Ward Office o ...

and Undri areas of

. These branches, unlike the flagship camp branch, are

co-educational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to t ...

. In the 2012 Education World India survey the school was ranked 1st in Pune, 12th in the state of Maharashtra, and 44th in India. The school is affiliated with the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (

CISCE The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) is a privately held national-level board of school education in India that conducts the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) Examination for Class X and the India ...

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...

The School Song

We sing our school song, with a voice loud and strong, We chant “Bishop’s” name with a will. It’s the School that we honour, the best school of all ! Let our chorus now re-echo to the hills. The pure Deccan winds waft our theme to the world. We are proud of our past and today, May God bless our dear school and enkindle the flame In each spirit that within her works and plays. The flowers all around speak of beauty serene, And as symbols of strength the hills stand, While the “ Mulla” like progress flows on through the days, Nature’s lessons are before us to command The years will press on, and the cares of the world, May make us forget for a while, But the thought of the School shall inspire us anew, Give us courage, greater strength and peace of mind. When life’s work is done and the past echoes by, And we ponder on days left behind, We shall look back with pride on the School that we love, The Alma Mater that our memories enshrine. And when at long last our life’s course we have run, May the world be aware of us then, That we honoured our School that taught us how to live, To be “THOROUGH”, to be true, and to be men. Let the welkin resound with our loud clarion call, “Play up Bishop’s ! never let our Colours fall !” “Play up, Bishop’s ! never let our Colours fall !”. --- by A.E.Lunn.

Location and branches

The main campus is situated in

, from the Pune Railway Station. It is one of the oldest school campuses in India, and one of the most important landmarks of Pune. Adjacent to the campus is the St. Marys Church built by the British in the 19th century. Following the rapid development of the city, and increasing demand for education, the school opened two new branches at the

and Undri areas of Pune.

Administration

The school is administered by a board of governors. Traditionally many of its members are or were military officers. They formed the Bishop's Education Society. The management council appoints a principal to administer the schools and the society appoints a headmaster to administer the Camp School.

Clothing

Mr. A.E. Lunn (principal from 1947 to 1972) created the all-white school uniform, with a maroon and gold stable belt, which includes a brass buckle emblazoned with the school crest of a Bishop's

mitre The mitre (Commonwealth English) (; Greek: μίτρα, "headband" or "turban") or miter (American English; see spelling differences), is a type of headgear now known as the traditional, ceremonial headdress of bishops and certain abbots in ...

and the school motto "Thorough" embossed on the buckle. Other items include a maroon blazer with the school crest emblazoned on the top left pocket in the individual's house colour. This changed in the 1960s to a gold school crest with the school motto "Thorough" and the date 1864 to that year's date often with personalised information on the owner's status, such as 'House Captain' or 'Prefect'. This was only possible because the school crest was sewn on to the blazer top left pocket. The blazer was initially given to students of class 10 and students of the Junior College only. Beginning with the academic year 2016-2017 it was also given to students of class 9. At some point in the 1970s the school crest was sewn directly onto the blazer pocket, so the title of 'Prefect' now appears on a lapel pin badge. The blazer buttons are silver with a gold school crest on them. The school jumper is a maroon v-neck with two gold bands around the neck and waistline of the garment. The school tie is maroon with gold stripes, while school house captains and prefects wear a maroon tie with the gold school crest emblazoned upon it. After school hours the blues and greys uniforms are worn during free time and recreation. This consists of a blue shirt and grey trousers. For sports and recreational activities individuals wear their house shirts and shorts, which have two stripes of that individual's house colours running along the seams.

House system

The school started with three houses, Mansfield House (maroon), Harding House (blue), and Arnould House (green). These houses were sufficient because there were only 120 boys and seven staff members under the Rev. A.R. Cooper, who was principal from 1919–1946. Mr, A.E. Lunn took over as Principal in 1947. Mr. William J. Wright joined Bishops in 1948 and was appointed the new fourth Bishops House master between 1950 and 1953. There were now four houses: Arnold House (green), Harding House (blue), Mansfield House (maroon) and Bishops House (gold/yellow). Every student on joining Bishops joins one of these houses. Their individual merits are added up with the rest of the members of the house and at the end of each academic year all the points are added up. The house with the greatest number of points is awarded the title "Cocke House". In Bishop's Kalyaninagar there are four houses: Cooper (green), Freese (blue), Roberts (red), and Lunn (yellow). In Bishop's Undri, there are four houses namely: Rae (red), O'Connor (green), Wintle (blue) and Young (gold/yellow).

Grading system

Instead of deriving a student's percentage at the end of a semester there is a point system. For every bracket of marks a student gets, a certain point score is allocated. The student with the fewest points gets to the highest level in class. In the senior classes, students are marked according to the ICSE Board exam pattern to provide a picture of their expected performance on the Board exams.

Academics

The school provides education up to the 10+2 level ( ICSE and

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). The average percentage of the students is 72 percent, with at least 40 boys scoring above 90 percent in each grade. The percentage of students who pass in this school is 100%.

Sports

Sports offered include

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players pe ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

hockey Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

, and

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

. Many Bishop's alumni have played in the

Ranji Trophy The Ranji Trophy (also known as Mastercard Ranji Trophy for sponsorship reasons) is a domestic first-class cricket championship played in India between multiple teams representing regional and state cricket associations. Board of Control for Cr ...

cricket tournaments. The school has won the PSAAA football cup 18 times and has triumphed in the All India Anglo-Indian football cup three times. It has won the PSAAA cricket cup seven times. Other sports offered at the school are boxing (one of only two schools in Maharashtra to have it as part of its regular activities) and athletics. There are long distance runs where juniors run and seniors run .

Activities

Mr. A.E. Lunn, principal of the school, revived the First Pune Bharat Scout Group in the early 1950s, which promoted outdoor activities and community services. The scout troop grew so large, it had to be split into two and the 'B' Troop was formed by Mr. Tommy Thompson. The school also had a troop of Cub Scouts for junior individuals. The Scout Troops were closely allied to the Army School of Physical Training, the

National Defence Academy The National Defence Academy (NDA) is the joint defence service training institute of the Indian Armed Forces, where cadets of the three services i.e. the Indian Army, the Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force train together before they go on ...

, and the State Reserve Police Force, the Maharashtra State armed paramilitary police force and the military ammunition factory in Kirkee. Because of these connections, the First Pune Bharat Scout Troops, had the distinction of using the military and SRPF firing ranges and test firing all types of munitions including LMGs (Light Machine Guns), HMGs (50 calibre Heavy Machine Guns), and 17 lbs 76mm tank guns, mortars and anti-tank weapons. It was not unusual to have 13-year-olds, driving and commanding battle tanks on these military weapons training firing ranges under the command of regular military or SRPF officers. The First Pune Bharat Scout troop also had boats, which included a cox eight racing boat. When the Panshet and Khadakwasla dams burst on 12 July 1961 causing loss of life in Pune, the Bishops School First Pune Bharat Scout Troops were sent into the affected areas to support the clean up operations. Every Friday evening at 21.00 Hrs the school screens a film, which was arranged by Mrs. Corrine Danielles & Mrs. Christina Dunn for all the boarders and dayscholars, a tradition that continues to the present day. The school holds concerts including a joint staff and student play at the end of every academic year that is open to the public, choirs, debates, quiz competitions, essay writing, science fair, art competition, boxing, and gymnastics display.

Notable alumni

* Late Lieutenant General Inder Kumar Chhitwal, PVSM.

Indian Army The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four- ...

Sabeer Bhatia Sabeer Bhatia (born 30 December 1968) is an Indian businessman who co-founded the webmail company Hotmail.com. Career Bhatia briefly worked for Apple Computer, as a hardware engineer and Firepower Systems Inc. He, along with his colleague Ja ...

, Founder -

Hotmail Outlook.com is a webmail service that is part of the Microsoft 365 product family. It offers mail, Calendaring software, calendaring, Address book, contacts, and Task management, tasks services. Founded in 1996 by Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smit ...

(now known as Outlook.com post acquisition by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

) *

Cyrus Poonawalla Cyrus S. Poonawalla (born in 1941) is an Indian billionaire businessman, and the chairman and managing director of the Cyrus Poonawalla Group, which includes the Serum Institute of India, an Indian biotech company which is the largest vaccine m ...

, Chairman - Poonawala Group * Admiral Sushil Kumar, Chief of Naval Staff,

Indian Navy The Indian Navy is the maritime branch of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Navy. The Chief of Naval Staff, a four-star admiral, commands the navy. As a blue-water navy, it operates sig ...

, 1998-2001 * Lt. General

Bhopinder Singh Lt. Gen. Bhopinder Singh (born 30 June 1946) is the former Lieutenant Governor of The Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Pondicherry and an Indian Army officer who has been awarded the PVSM. He was the former military secretary to president K. R. ...

, Director General, Military Training,

, (Retd.)
Lt. General Manomoy Ganguly
VSM, PHS,

Director General Army Medical Services Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...

(DGMS),

Farrukh Dhondy Farrukh Dhondy (born 1944) is an Indian-born British writer, playwright, screenwriter and left-wing activist who resides in the United Kingdom. Education Dhondy was born in 1944 in Poona, India, where he attended The Bishop's School, and obtai ...

, Author of ''Bombay Duck'' and ''Poona Company'' *

Gautam Bambawale Gautam Bambawale (born 2 November 1958) is an Indian people, Indian diplomat and served as the Indian people, Indian Ambassador to China from 2017 to 2018. He had previously served as the List of Indian High Commissioners to Pakistan, Indian High ...

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

diplomat A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or internati ...

and the incumbent

Ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sov ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Dr. Sajjid Chinoy
Chief India Economist,

JP Morgan JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. As of 2022, JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the United States, the wo ...

Ph.D A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

Samir Bodas
Co-Founder and CEO, Icertis Inc.

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Pankaj Sharma Pankaj Sharma is a British professor of Clinical Neurology at Royal Holloway College Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public research university and a constituen ...

, President - The Lexicon Group of Institutes, Pune *

Ken Ghosh Ken Ghosh is an Indian Hindi film Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Boll ...

, Indian Film Director *

Purab Kohli Purab Kohli is an Indian television and film actor, model and former video jockey. Career Television Kohli started his career as an actor with the 1998 television show '' Hip Hip Hurray'' on Zee TV and earned recognition through video jockey ...

, Indian Model, VJ and actor *

Sashi Menon Sashi Menon (born 9 August 1952) is a former professional tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a t ...

, Indian Davis Cup, ATP Tour Pro
Anandamoy Roychowdhary
Director, Technology -

Sequoia Capital Sequoia Capital is an American venture capital firm. The firm is headquartered in Menlo Park, California, and specializes in seed stage, early stage, and growth stage investments in private companies across technology sectors. , Sequoia's total a ...

* Shubhomoy Mukherjee, Director,

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Sushil Nadkarni Sushilkumar Suhas Nadkarni (born 31 May 1976) is an Indian-American cricketer.Sushil Nadkarni

Indian-American Indian Americans or Indo-Americans are citizens of the United States with ancestry from India. The United States Census Bureau uses the term Asian Indian to avoid confusion with Native Americans, who have also historically been referred to ...

cricketer Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

Udit Birla Udit Alok Birla (born 17 November 1989) in Kolkata, West Bengal) is an Indian cricketer. He studied in The Bishop's School (Pune), The Bishop's School, Pune. He is primarily a right-handed middle order batsman. He was picked to play for Pune Wa ...

, Maharashtra & Madhya Pradesh State Cricket Teams and

Pune Warriors India Pune Warriors India were a franchise Twenty20 cricket team that represented the city of Pune in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The team was one of two IPL franchises from the Indian state of Maharashtra, the other being Mumbai Indians. It was ...

* Gaurav Parmar, Maharashtra State Cricket Team and Indian Zonal Cricket Academy (West Zone) -

BCCI The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is the national governing body for cricket in India. Its headquarters are situated at Cricket centre, Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. The BCCI is the richest governing body of cricket in the worl ...

* Sanjay Jha, Spokesperson -

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

References

External links

* , the school's official website
Some images of the school
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bishop's School (Pune), The Schools in Colonial India Primary schools in India High schools and secondary schools in Maharashtra Boarding schools in Maharashtra Christian schools in Maharashtra Private schools in Maharashtra Schools in Pune Educational institutions established in 1864 1864 establishments in India