St. Joseph's School, Darjeeling, popularly called North Point or N.P. (as it serves as a landmark for the North Point locality in

Darjeeling Darjeeling (, , ) is a city in the northernmost region of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of West Bengal. Located in the Eastern Himalayas, it has an average elevation of . To the west of Darjeeling lies the Koshi Pr ...

), is a private

Catholic school Catholic schools are Parochial school, parochial pre-primary, primary and secondary educational institutions administered in association with the Catholic Church. , the Catholic Church operates the world's largest parochial schools, religious, no ...

primary and secondary school for boys located in

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. Originally called St. Joseph's College, the school was founded in the year 1888 and is owned and managed by the

Jesuits The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

History

St. Joseph's School, Darjeeling was founded by Fr. Henri Depelchin with 25 students on 13 February 1888, at Sunnybank, Darjeeling. It was shifted to its present location in 1892. North Point celebrated its 125th year anniversary on 10 November 2013 which was graced by the presence of the then President of India, Shri

Pranab Mukherjee Pranab Kumar Mukherjee ( ; born, 11 December 1935 – 31 August 2020) was an Indian statesman who served as the president of India from 2012 until 2017. He was the first person from West Bengal to hold the post of President of India. In a pol ...

School system

The school is divided into four divisions: * Primary DivisionClasses 3, 4 and 5 * Lower DivisionClasses 6, 7 and 8 * Upper DivisionClasses 9 and 10 * Senior DivisionClasses 11 and 12 The Primary division has eight captains, the lower division has eight head boys, the upper division has eight prefects, the senior division has eight beadles.These are the student representatives and leaders of the school from both the boarding and day scholar sections of the school, appointed on leadership, academic, and sportsmanship abilities. Also all the classes in the school have two monitors, one from the boarding section and other one from day scholar section. The school provides facilities for various games such as

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

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 (appro ...

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 ...

table tennis Table tennis (also known as ping-pong) is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the Tennis court, court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of ...

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

; and also engages in co-curricular activities such as

quiz A quiz is a form of mind sport in which people attempt to answer questions correctly on one or several topics. Quizzes can be used as a brief Educational assessment, assessment in education and similar fields to measure growth in knowledge, abil ...

, debate, music and drama. Over the years of its long history, the school has developed a competitive rivalry in Inter-School Tournaments with the other Anglo-Indian schools of Darjeeling and

Kalimpong Kalimpong is a town and the headquarters of an eponymous district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is located at an average elevation of . The town is the headquarters of the Kalimpong district. The region comes under Gorkhaland Territo ...

, particularly St. Paul's School, Darjeeling, and St. Augustine's School, Kalimpong.

House system

The school has four houses: #Depelchin House (Red) #Fallon House (Blue) #Laenen House (Yellow) #O'Neil House (Green) Northpointaerialview

Publications

The school has a number of publications, which include the ''North Point Weekly'', the ''Among Ourselves'' (monthly), and the ''North Point Annual'' (yearly), all compiled and edited by the students' Editorial Board.

School rankings

In 2020, St. Joseph's School, North Point ranked second among boarding schools in Darjeeling and West Bengal and, in 2021, eleventh in India according to the Education-World India School Rankings. The school has consistently been regarded as among the most prestigious boarding schools in

Notable alumni

* Admiral Ronald Lynsdale Pereiraninth Chief of Naval Staff * Erick AvariHollywood actor * E J AnthonyFounding member of Group Analytic Society and child Psychiatrist * Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Devformer King of Nepal * Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Devformer King of Nepal * Paras Bir Bikram Shah Devformer Crown Prince of Nepal *

Lawrence Durrell Lawrence George Durrell (; 27 February 1912 – 7 November 1990) was an expatriate British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer. He was the eldest brother of naturalist and writer Gerald Durrell. Born in India to British colonial pa ...

poet and novelist * Michael Ferreiraworld billiard champion * William John Harper—Rhodesian politician * Jamyang NorbuTibetan activist and author *

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

Lawrence T. Picachy Archbishop of Calcutta * Kasit Piromyaformer Foreign Minister of Thailand * Frank Ryanfirst-class cricketer * Tsoltim Ngima Shakabpainternational banker, activist, writer and poet *

Jigme Singye Wangchuck Jigme Singye Wangchuck (, ; born 11 November 1955) is the fourth Druk Gyalpo ( Dragon King) of Bhutan, reigning from 1972 to 2006. He is the father of the present King of Bhutan Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuck. He is the only son of five ch ...

former King of Bhutan * Yeshey Zimbaformer Prime Minister of Bhutan * Brian Hayes - Australian KC and co-producer of the movie "Hotel Mumbai" * Jeremy Bujakowski - Polish–Indian alpine skier * Pratapaditya Pal - Art-historian

References

External links

School Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Joseph's School, Darjeeling Jesuit primary schools in India Boys' schools in India Catholic boarding schools in India Christian schools in West Bengal Boarding schools in West Bengal Schools in Darjeeling district Jesuit secondary schools in India Educational institutions established in 1888 1888 establishments in India