This year has seen the South block of Residence 4 constructed, from the foundations being dug through to completion, accommodating 44 students and including a latrine block.

The two-IT suites pictured below have also been completed, and facilities for the School Managing Committee are being built on site too.

In order to landscape the school campus and create gardens, the site needs irrigating. A drip irrigation system is being installed that requires digging trenches throughout the site for the main water pipes. The JCB has been invaluable for this work.

The final components of the 1km long defence wall are finished, this has been a huge undertaking and taken two years to complete. The wall averages 3m high.

The JCB digging foundations at the beginning of the construction season in April.

Students take part in many extra-curricular activities. A few senior students performed in a cultural programme organised by the Ladakh Buddhist Association to celebrate the birth anniversary of Dr. B R Ambedkar as seen in the photograph.

The school also took part in the Buddha Jayanti procession organised by Ladakh Buddhist Association and various students participated in the cultural programme.
The students of Class 9 were taken to see a Science Exhibition organised by Bharatiya Vidya Niketan (BVN). There, the students saw different models and exhibits illustrating various scientific concepts and theories.

The House competitions continue every Saturday at school.

The school participated in the Secondary Sports Tournament in May, organised by District Youth Services and Sports. It was held at the Boys’ Higher Secondary School, Leh. Thankfully the conditions were better than during their winter sports events. The following awards were won:

• Girls Football (Winner)
• Girls Handball (Runners Up)
• Boys Relay (Gold)
• Girls Relay (Gold)
• 100m race Girls (Gold)
• 100m race Boys (Gold)
• 400m race Boys (Bronze)

The 2-day annual Kurman Gyalmo Inter-school literary festival was organised by the school in May. This is held every year to encourage budding literary talent among the students of Ladakh. There were different events such as creative writing, drama, dramatic reading, art, and a quiz. The festival was themed “Child Rights”.  Among the participants were 13 schools including Lamdon, Moravian, Kendriya Vidyalaya, and a few government schools. The best school award for the Junior category went to Druk White Lotus School and the senior award was taken by Lamdon School, Leh.

In April the entire school observed Plantation Day. Different areas of the school campus as well as the staff quarters were allocated to different classes for planting. Many trees were planted all over the campus.

On Independence Day, 15th August 2013, Sumita Sinha, Executive Director of Charushila led a workshop at the school with the residential students. Charushila is a small charity focusing on the empowerment of the individual and the community through participation and engagement.

Charushila engages in projects, research and events connected with the creation of public spaces using sustainable and local resources, knowledge transfer and community engagement. Charushila believes that in particular, engaging with children and youth encourages their potential and creativity through positive interaction with the built and natural environments. The Sanskrit word 'Charushila' is made from Charu meaning 'Beautiful' and Shila meaning 'foundations'.

The children were asked to draw their vision of Ladakh's future or their environment (school/home) on long sheets which became 'horizontal tangkas'.  Each group collaborated, debated, negotiated and finally drew their ideas on paper.

It was a fascinating process and the drawings themselves provided very revealing insights into what attracts, focuses and engages children into the built and natural environments. In particular, children were very close to the spiritual environment which is very dominant in the landscape and culture of Ladakh. Some significant themes emerged and could indicate further how children can become active citizens and responsible for future of Ladakhi society.

Reserve your free tickets here for Tuesday 26th February 2013 to hear a talk, in London, on Buddhist gardens by a world expert on the history of western as well as eastern gardens.

Tom Turner will be giving this free talk in London from 6.30 - 8.30pm. Tom visited the school in summer 2012 and is helping to create a landscape design for the DWLS campus.

Joining Tom will be Simon Drury-Brown, a landscape architect, who will talk about his visit to DWLS last year and his plans for the DWLS landscape programme in 2013.

The Sustainable Landscapes Research Group, School of Architecture, Design and Construction at the University of Greenwich is hosting the talks which are free to members of the public. The venue is:

King William 315 Lecture Theatre (LT KW315)
Old Royal Naval College
London, SE10 9LS

Tuesday, 26 February 2013 from 18:30 to 20:30 (GMT)

Tickets have to be reserved in advance through the link below. We look forward to seeing many of you there.

Click here to reserve your free tickets

We wish to create a lush garden landscape for the school community. We started this year in April with a volunteer landscape architect, Yiannis Baltagiannis, creating planted areas along the central residential spine of the campus, see below:

Yiannis started a plant nursery to nurture seedlings for additional planting, see below:

Yiannis also got the greenhouse in use again following the winter, see below:

After three months, Simon Brown, another volunteer landscape architect, took over from Yiannis.

Simon developed the plant nursery concept with a specialist from the University of Greenwich, London, Tom Turner. A new planting area in front of the greenhouse has been created for growing vegetables, see below:

Drip irrigation of the campus is planned for 2013, allowing controlled watering and efficient use of water.

We are creating a landscape strategy with help from specialists at the University of Greenwich. Tom Turner, spent two weeks in Ladakh to help with this process, see below:

The students enjoyed the summer gardening competition in which they worked on garden areas outside their classrooms, see below:

2012 was a busy year. Two IT-enabled classrooms were built, plus the North block of Residence 4 which will accommodate 44 remote area students. The masonry work on the mudslide defenses was also completed, the wall now being about 1km long and up to 3 metres high. A huge congratulations to the Construction Team.

Below: IT-enabled classrooms being painted and completed.

Below: Residence 4 under construction.

Below: The defensive wall to protect from any future mudslide event.

Below: The local Construction Manager (right) and UK Development Manager (left).

The students worked hard on designing, planting and nurturing their gardens over the spring and summer. The landscape architecture volunteer Yiannis Baltagiannis awarded certificates and trophies to the winning class in each section.