The origin of St. Montfort School, Bhopal, an unaided Christian Minority English Medium Co-Ed School, is unique in more ways than one. 25 years of our glorious journey dates back to 2nd April 1997 – A humble, simple and unnoticeable beginning in the remote corner of the city of Lakes, Bhopal, on Raisen Road, far away from the hubbub of city life in the peaceful lush green lap of bountiful nature, in an expanse of pure green serenity of 4.69 acres, is laid on the strong ideals and philosophy of our great founder and patron, St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, promoting eternal love and universal brotherhood to humanity through education, wisdom, service and sacrifice. He has been the fountainhead of all the thinking and action and this spirit has been the motivating force.
Montfort Bhopal embarked onits journey on 1st May 1997, with only 150 students inclasses K.G. 1 to Std.IV and an amazing visionary Rev. Bro. Philip Thadathil, Provincial Superior of Delhi Province of Montfort Brothers of St. Gabriel, as the first principal with many Committed sisters and teachers.
In the year 1998, Rev. Bro. Philip passed on this ingenious dual baton of Provincial and Principal to Rev. Bro. Jose and Rev. Bro. Joseph Stephen. Since its opening, the school’s dynamic educational environment has continued to evolve – in just one year the enrollments doubled.
Under Rev. Bro. Stephen’s leadership, with thesupport and cooperation of the FCC sisters, Montfort School galloped covering many milestones like the 1st Installation Ceremony, 1st Annual Sports, exemplary performances in interschool meets, excellent results of 1st batch of 5th board students, release of school magazine Montfort Echo, activities of Cubs and Bulbul, Scouts and Guides movement and finally the affiliation to Central Board of Secondary Education, New Delhi, maintaining an impressive growth trajectory in a span of 4 vital years from 1998 to 2002.
A short period of one year was enough to know a man with integrity, insight, and inclusiveness as a great leader and the next Principal, Rev. Bro. Mani V.J, exposing Montfort School to a new dynamic educational environment which continued to evolve with a plethora of academic and non-academic activities and marked the era of change for the best. 2002-2003 saw the birth of the Montfort Hindi Medium second shift - an extension of the selfless charity to uplift the underprivileged children in the vicinity of the school, through education.
The ship got a new captain Rev. Bro. Cyriac N.T. ready to translate vision into reality in 2003 when the Brothers of St. Gabriel were celebrating its 100 years of Service to Society as a Centennial celebration in the year 2003. To mark this momentous occasion Montfort Villa was inaugurated, defining our five pillars of academic excellence, community and service, leadership with values, integration of art, culture and sports, and holistic development. In 2006-07, we broke ground on phase one of our new Middle and High School Building, a new abode of 6.44 acres – a little away from the place, easily approachable via a makeshift road, as the school grew enormously in number and strength. The building became functional in the year 2007 with 27 classrooms, a 600-seater auditorium, well well-equipped laboratory, music, dance, and art rooms, and 2 libraries housing 10829courses& reference books. We joined our entrusted duty to serve and empower society through education forming clubs and committees for science, language and literature, sports, art & culture, counseling, yearly inspections, seminars and workshops for teachers, winning in Sahodaya group competitions and first outgoing batch of class 12. In July 2003, the school achieved another milestone and became a full-fledged higher secondary school. Continuing the mission to impart education to rural children, the Hindi Medium wing took a head start towards the national mission of ‘Education for All’.
Montfort School navigated and gushed out of the challenges and setbacks of managing a higher secondary school and bringing together the two campuses to achieve the mission. Digitization of academic and administrative work and excelling in academics were a few challenges led by a decisive leader and a visionary who believed in improvising through experiments, who took care of standardized curriculum, assessed teaching methods, monitored students’ achievement, abridged the gap between students, parents, and teachers - Bro. Thampy Alex took care of the Montfortian garden for the next 10 years from 2008 to 2018 as it inched towards the Crystal Anniversary. By his innovative methods of introducing the quarterly magazine “Montfort Mirror”, starting of Annual Feature of Interschool Competitions. (Montfort-Cup Inter K.G. Talent Search (K.G. 1 & 2), Inter-School Music Carnival (Class 3rd to 5th), Quiz Quest – Encuesta (Class 6th to 8th), Debate Competition (Class 9th to 12th), Basketball Tournament (Boys & Girls) and the Girls’ Cricket tournament, ) the school progressed leaps and bounds. Innovative activities like Funday, Summer Prince & Princess, 100% participation of students in Cultural Celebrations (Mother-Child Activity Day for Nursery & K.G., 100% participation of students in Annual Cultural Celebrations and Sports Meet, St. Montfort Kindergarten Graduation Ceremony, Traditional Day, Sharing Fellowship Meal on Thanksgiving Day etc.) These were some of the ways to encourage student involvement and active participation in all-round activities.
The school has played a vital role in the fields of Bharat Scout and Guide. 13 scouts and 20 guides have been honoured with President awards and 21 scouts and 11 guides have been graced with Governor awards.
In his 10 year tenure, the school flourished massively owing to infrastructural developments including the extension of the main Secondary building from an L shape to square shape, construction of Stage in the Senior Secondary block for cultural events, 2 national-level basketball courts and a skating court, language lab, second computer lab, 2 halls, in both primary and senior secondary blocks, state-of-the-art and renovated new administrative block in both primary and secondary buildings, a new Library, staff rooms with ample amenities, water dispenser installed in the outward parking lot, assembly arena, colourful toy-train and playground with joy rides for toddlers, installation of massive rooftop solar panels to promote the use of non-conventional source of energy, CCTV surveillance in the campus for keeping the safety and security norms, transformation of the makeshift road to a solid, metalled road connecting both blocks, digitization of teaching learning process via TATA CLASS EDGE and residential house for brothers.
In 2013, the school adopted the St. Francis community centre under St. Montfort School, to extend support and help to the needy ones. The community centre has 4 Balwadies, 2 tailoring Centres, a Computer Education centre, a Dropout Centre, 2 Adult Education Centres, and a Beautician Centre.
In June 2018, Rev. Bro. T. Alex handed over his responsibilities to Rev. Bro. Monachan K.K. who was welcomed as the new Principal of the school.
Under his able leadership and guidance, our school started walking the glorious path of accomplishing phenomenal success in the City - the first one being ranked 6th in Bhopal City,12th in MP and 149th position in India - under “The annual Education World India School Rankings (EWISR) 2018-19" award, the second one by ‘Brain feed Educational Magazine, Hyderabad’ as one among ‘The Top 500 Excellent schools of India’ for the year 2020, the “Education Today” award wherein our school ranked No.1 in Bhopal among Top city CBSE Schools.
The legacy of achievements continued in session 2021-22 when St. Montfort school, Bhopal ranked 8th in the city, 18th in the state 182nd in India 14th Educational World India School Ranking for academic excellence, 15th in the Annual MHW School Rankings 2021 according to PAN India Survey and last but not the least, 2nd in Bhopal and M.P. and 9th position in India for Steam Education Excellence in Education World Grand Jury India School Rankings 2021-22, Education Excellence Award 2020-21 at the EEA Conference 2020-21 for being Best School of the Year for excellence in teaching, International Education Award for being the Best School of the year to provide quality education with K-12 and committed staff at 3rd Edition of International Education Awards.
In response to COVID-19, under his able leadership, the school was quick to take action to ensure that the quality learning process was not affected despite the arduous tasks that came along, by adapting to learning via virtual classes through MS Teams. As part of infrastructural development, another milestone was the inauguration of the Annex Building and the completion of the ramp in the Primary wing for easy accessibility.
Under Bro. Monachan’s direction and orchestration, Montfort School, Bhopal continues to offer education to 3394 students studying through Nursery to XII in English Medium, 209 students in the Hindi Medium wing (2nd shift), and 450 students, especially girls, trained in various skills through our community service programmes.