Lady Andal Venkatasubba Rao Higher Secondary School, Chennai

Lady Andal Venkatasubba Rao Higher Secondary School, Chennai which celebrated its silver jubilee last year has earned a good reputation for providing a free and supportive environment for talented students and for its focus on inclusive education Sited on a verdant 8.5-acre campus replete with shade-spreading trees and spacious playgrounds in Chennai’s upmarket Harrington Road, the Lady Andal Venkatasubba Rao Higher Secondary School (LAVRHSS, estb. 1987), affiliated with the Tamil Nadu State Board of Secondary Education (TNSBSE), has earned a good reputation for providing a free and supportive environment for talented students, and for its focus on inclusive education. Last September, in the EducationWorld India School Rankings 2012, Lady Andal Venkatasubba Rao Higher Secondary School, Chennai was ranked among the Top 10 day schools in Tamil Nadu and Top 40 all-India. More significantly, it’s the first private school in the state formerly affiliated with the Directorate of Matriculation Schools and currently with TNSBSE, to be highly ranked in the EW India School Rankings conducted by the reputed Delhi-based market research company C fore. The history of LAVRHSS goes back to 1928 when Justice Sir M. Venkatasubba Rao and his wife Andalamma founded the Madras Seva Sadan (MSS), a registered charitable and social welfare institution, to protect, teach and help destitute women and children. Under their untiring care, many welfare units were started and currently MSS boasts 14 social welfare organisations including the government-aided class I-XII Madras Seva Sadan Higher Secondary School for Girls (estb. 1930); a women’s home and separate vocational centres for destitute women and children; a rehabilitation centre for women cured of mental illness; a working women’s hostel; Shanti Sadan: a senior citizen’s home and Parivartanalaya, an institute providing  free training to women and children in computer-usage and other skills. To extend education facilities to male children, two schools including the government-aided, co-educational Madras Seva Sadan Higher Secondary School (estb. 1953) and the Sir & Lady M. Venkatasubba Rao Higher Secondary School (estb. 1960) were started on a 13-acre campus in the suburb of Tambaram.  In 1971, another co-ed school, the Sir M. Venkatasubba Rao Matriculation Higher Secondary School, was established in T. Nagar. In 1987, Lady Andal Venkatasubba Rao Higher Secondary School, Chennai was promoted in memory of its late founder Andalamma. The latest to join the MSS stable is the CBSE-affiliated Sir Mutha School (estb. 2012). From the time Lady Andal Venkatasubba Rao Higher Secondary School, Chennai admitted its first batch of eight students in 1987, this preschool-class XII institution has experienced steady growth and boasts an aggregate enrolment of 1,300 students instructed by 62 teachers. “Our prime objective is to create a happy and fearless learning environment for students. The school’s focus is on holistic development of students and we lay great emphasis on sports and games, with our students participating in 23 different sports and winning  laurels in national and international arenas. We also believe in inclusive education and currently 200 students with special needs are studying in the school,” says Prema C. Kumar,…