Chairman's Message
On a vacation from the army in Lucknow in 1992, I was moved and saddened by the plight of the parents running around old and famous schools for admission of their children and most of them going almost into depression on rejection of their wards. Without a doubt, the old and famous schools of Lucknow carry an excellent brand value. However, physical limitation of seats in face of the sheer numbers, compels them to set up rejection committees instead of selection committees.
The worst sufferers, I found, were the middle class, who neither had influence nor the extra money to get them seats for their children. I spoke to a number of my friends and relatives who pooled in money and I resigned from service to set up a small high quality day school where the parents will not have to prepare for their own and children’s’ test and interviews. Thus was born Riverside Academy in 1994.
I look back with immense satisfaction not only because of high rate of selection children in engineering , medical and management colleges but that few of the children of our class IV staff have broken out of the lower class. Some are today teaching English language in schools. One has been selected in the officer cadre of armed forces. One of our driver’s daughter has moved up from teaching English in Shahjahanpur on to being an Assistant Manager in a prestigious IT Enabled Services centre in Gurgaon.
The emphasis in the school is on education particularly on a fair skill in spoken and written English and science subjects, rather than in marble floored and air-conditioned class rooms. I firmly believe that classrooms should airy well-ventilated and equipped with fans and not air conditioned which would rob the children with coping up with the ever changing climate and weather of our country. In later years they will have little resistance in their bodies.
With the untiring efforts of our teaching staff, our children have shown excellent results in ICSE and ISC boards. All of them play badminton, basketball, volleyball and tennis and have become good swimmers.