Welham Girls' School is a private
boarding school for girls located in Dehradun, Uttarakhand,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
.
History
The school was established in 1957. Welham was named after the little
Welsh village from where its founder, H.S. Oliphant hailed. A retired English headmistress, Oliphant started
Welham Boys' School
Welham Boys' School is a boarding school located in Dehradun, India. The school is a residential school for boys and is affiliated with CBSE. It is ranked amongst the top five boys' boarding schools in the country as per the Education World ran ...
in 1937. She was struck by
The Lawrence School, Sanawar
The Lawrence School, Sanawar, is the oldest Co-Ed boarding school in the world near Solan city. Established in 1847, its history, influence, and wealth have made it one of the most prestigious and oldest schools in Asia.
It is located in the ...
and lack of schools of similar quality for the girls around Dehradun.
She acquired a palatial estate called Nasreen adjacent to
Welham Boys' School
Welham Boys' School is a boarding school located in Dehradun, India. The school is a residential school for boys and is affiliated with CBSE. It is ranked amongst the top five boys' boarding schools in the country as per the Education World ran ...
to start a small boarding school for girls. There were no funds, staff, or school buildings. Oliphant recruited another retired English woman,
Grace Mary Linnel, to run the boarding school for girls. Linnel became the founder principal of Welham Girls School, which started in 1957. She was later awarded a Padma Shri for her contribution to education of girls. Welham Girls’ High School, as it was known then, established itself as a full-fledged boarding school. From its initial crop of 10 students, it has grown to over 550 students.
Extracurricular activities
The school hosts competitive events such as sports, craft, dramatics, music, dance and photography.
Sports
These include basketball, hockey, swimming, badminton, lawn tennis, athletics, table tennis, karate, shooting and aerobics. The basketball team has won numerous tournaments over the years and represented Uttrakhand at the national level. Several students have been chosen for the India camp as well.
The Duke of Edinburgh's Award
The Duke of Edinburgh's Award (commonly abbreviated DofE) is a youth awards programme founded in the United Kingdom in 1956 by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, that has since expanded to 144 nations. The awards recognise adolescents and young ...
scheme is a programme that the school offers to its students.
Publications
The school newspapers, ''News and Views'' in English and ''Kshitij'' in Hindi, are published every month, as well as a science magazine, ''Delphic''. A technology-based publication, 'The Tech-Key' is also published 4 times a year. It is the newest addition in school, having started in April 2019. Two issues of the magazine ''The Wall'' are published each year. Additionally, the school publishes an English literary and art publication, ''Chrysalis'', twice a term. The ''School Annual'' is published in summer each year.
Notable alumnae
File:Brinda Karat.jpg, Brinda Karat, Politician
File:Kareena at LFW16.jpg, Kareena Kapoor
Kareena Kapoor Khan (; '' née'' Kapoor; born 21 September 1980) is an Indian actress who appears in Hindi films. She is the daughter of actors Randhir Kapoor and Babita, and the younger sister of actress Karisma Kapoor. Noted for playing a va ...
, Actor
File:Meira Kumar.jpg, Meira Kumar
Meira Kumar (born 31 March 1945) is an Indian politician and former diplomat. A member of the Indian National Congress, she was the Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment from 2004 to 2009, the Minister of Water Resources for a brief per ...
, Speaker of the Lok Sabha
The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-p ...
File:Tavleen Singh - India Economic Summit 2011.jpg, Tavleen Singh
Tavleen Singh (born 1950) is an Indian columnist, political reporter and writer.
Biography
Singh was born in Mussoorie in 1950 in a Jat Sikh family. She studied at the Welham Girls School. She did a short-term Journalism course from the New D ...
, Journalist
File:Deepa Mehta (Giza Eskubideen Zinemaldiaren Saria - Premio Festival Derechos Humanos) (33879458355).jpg, Deepa Mehta, Film director
Politics
*
Meira Kumar
Meira Kumar (born 31 March 1945) is an Indian politician and former diplomat. A member of the Indian National Congress, she was the Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment from 2004 to 2009, the Minister of Water Resources for a brief per ...
, ex-presidential candidate and First Lady speaker of the
Lok Sabha
The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-p ...
*
Brinda Karat, Member of Parliament,
Communist Party of India (Marxist)
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)/CPIM/CPM) is a Marxist–Leninist communist political party in India. It is the largest communist party of India in terms of membership and electoral seats and one of the na ...
*
Subhashini Ali, activist, president
All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA)
*
Priyanka Gandhi
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (''née'' Gandhi; born 12 January 1972) is an Indian politician and the general secretary of the All India Congress Committee in charge of Uttar Pradesh. She is the daughter of former Prime minister of India Rajiv Gandhi ...
, politician
*
Malavika Rajkotia, lawyer and activist
*
Neera Yadav, IAS officer
*
Renuka Chowdhury, MP
Rajya Sabha
The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...
*
Pooja Elangbam, IAS Officer
Film
*
Nitya Mehra, director and screenwriter
*
Kareena Kapoor Khan
Kareena Kapoor Khan (; ''née'' Kapoor; born 21 September 1980) is an Indian actress who appears in Hindi films. She is the daughter of actors Randhir Kapoor and Babita, and the younger sister of actress Karisma Kapoor. Noted for playing a var ...
, actress
*
Deepa Mehta, film director
*
Advaita Kala
Advaita Kala is an Indian author, screenwriter, and columnist. She has written screenplays for films such as the romantic drama ''Anjaana Anjaani'' (2010) and the thriller ''Kahaani'' (2012). Apart from writing for films, Kala has also written t ...
, author and screenwriter
*
Priya Seth
Priya Seth (born 1975) is an Indian cinematographer, best known for her work in Indian feature films, advertisements, and underwater filming and photography. She is among a handful of women cinematographers currently working in the Indian main ...
, cinematographer
*
Alankrita Shrivastava, screenwriter and film director
*
Aditi Vasudev, actress
*
Nivedita Basu, film producer
*
Shivani Rawat, producer
*
Sukhmani Sadana, actor and screenwriter
Journalism
*
Madhu Trehan
Madhu Purie Trehan (born 1940s) is an Indian journalist. She is also the co-founder and editor-in-chief of a digital media portal called ''Newslaundry''.
Education
Trehan studied at Welham Girls' School in Dehradun, graduating in 1962. In 196 ...
, journalist and co-founder of ''
Newslaundry
''Newslaundry'' is an Indian media watchdog that provides media critique, reportage and satirical commentary. It was founded in 2012 by Abhinandan Sekhri, Madhu Trehan and Prashant Sareen, all of whom earlier worked in print or television j ...
''
*
Tavleen Singh
Tavleen Singh (born 1950) is an Indian columnist, political reporter and writer.
Biography
Singh was born in Mussoorie in 1950 in a Jat Sikh family. She studied at the Welham Girls School. She did a short-term Journalism course from the New D ...
, non-fiction writer, journalist and columnist, ''
Indian Express
''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932. It is published in Mumbai by the Indian Express Group. In 1999, eight years after the group's founder Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split be ...
''
*
Radhika Roy, co-founder and co-owner of
NDTV
New Delhi Television Ltd is an Indian news media company focusing on broadcast and digital news publication. The company is considered to be a legacy brand that pioneered independent news broadcasting in India, and is credited for launching t ...
*
Iva Dixit, staff editor at ''
The New York Times Magazine
''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. ...
''
*
Gargi Rawat, news anchor and environment reporter,
NDTV
New Delhi Television Ltd is an Indian news media company focusing on broadcast and digital news publication. The company is considered to be a legacy brand that pioneered independent news broadcasting in India, and is credited for launching t ...
Sports
*
Jyoti Ann Burrett, footballer
Art
*
Smriti Morarka, hand-weaving revivalist
*
Laila Tyabji, co-founder
Dastkar
Dastkar is an Indian non-government organisation working with craftspeople across India, for promotion and revival of traditional crafts of India. It was founded in 1981 in Delhi, by a group of six women, including Laila Tyabji, its current chai ...
*
Mrinalini Mukherjee, artist
*
Mala Sen
Mala Sen (3 June 1947 – 21 May 2011) was a Bengali-Indian- British writer and human rights activist. As an activist, she was known for her civil rights activism and race relations work in London during the 1960s and 1970s, as part of the Brit ...
, writer and activist
Advertising
*
Devika Bulchandani, Global CEO,
Ogilvy
See also
*
Grace Mary Linnel
References
External links
Official school pageWelham Girls Alumni website
{{Coord, 30.3163, 78.0564, type:edu_region:IN-UT, display=title
Girls' schools in Uttarakhand
Boarding schools in Uttarakhand
Schools in Dehradun
Educational institutions established in 1957
1957 establishments in Uttar Pradesh
Private schools in Uttarakhand
Girls' schools in India
Girls boarding schools