A Cottonian Experience

Cotton’s History

Bishop Cottons Boys School was founded on April 19th, 1865, by Reverend S.T. Pettigrew, the then Chaplain of St. Mark’s Church who had a vision of starting a school for the education of children of European and Anglo-Indian families. The name Bishop Cotton School was given in honour of Bishop Cotton of Calcutta, under whose stewardship a scheme of education had education had organised for the Anglican Churches in India. It was initially a co-education school but a separate Bishop Cottons Girls school was established exclusively for girls which led to the Bishop Cottons Boys school being exclusively for boys; and the next year will be the 150th glorious year of the prestigious Bishop Cotton Boys school. 

The first five years of the school were turbulent but with the arrival of Rev. G.U. Pope, a Tamil scholar, that the school’s foundation became stronger and stronger. It was he who gave the school it’s famous motto - ‘Nec Dextrorsum Nec Sinistrotsum’. But he left in 1892 and the standard of the school began to decline. Under the stewardship of Rev. Whitehead, Bishop of Madras, and the sincere work of Rev. Canon Elphick, the school began to uplift it’s former glory and has retained it ever since. 

Campus

Spread over an area of over 13 acres, the vastness of the Bishop Cotton’s Boys’ school leaves a first time visitor awestruck. The architecture includes modern as well some significantly historic buildings, owing to its establishment in the mid 19th century. Each building has a uniquely characteristic layout and a specific function to perform in itself. The I.L Thomas K.G Block houses the littlest in the campus, the Kindergarten section, the very adjacent block is the School hall, whose primary purpose is to conduct board examinations. The next building, The Pankenham Walsh Block is the home to the 2nd graders who on passing move on over to the third grade in the Bishop Sargant Block. 

Tower Block holds classes for the 4th and the 5th graders who on graduating primary school go to the Ainley Block for middle school(6th, 7th, 8th). The high school (9th and 10th) block is the Centenary Block. The G U Pope Block also known as the ISC Block

is wedged between the Elphick Research Centre ,which is where the physics, chemistry and computer laboratories can be found, and the Cannon William Elphick Centre is the newest addition to the Cottonian Campus which finished construction only a couple of months ago and will house the batch of 2014 from the following year. 

The infrastructure of the school incorporates everything necessary of an exemplary institution for an all round development. The Sports Complex houses tennis, badminton, squash courts and the swimming pool. The First Eleven field is where the Cottonian Shield is held which is one of the biggest inter-school cricket tournaments. Apart from that, the campus contains two other fields - Second Eleven and Third Eleven field. The Cottons Enclave is where some teachers stay on the campus and the Students Block is where the dorm for the boarders is situated. Their pantry is in the John Dury building. The Pettigrew Resource Center is where the library is located and enabled with complete internet connection. 

One of the oldest buildings is the Administrative Block which is the Principal’s Office and the Conference Room. Last but not the least, everybody is all in praise of the Cottonian canteen, where Babu’s (their head chef) chicken is known to have turned vegetarians to non-vegetarians. 

The auditorium that is built over the Third Eleven Field, has seen the light of some of the greatest events in the history of Bangalore. The Cottons Model United Nations, popularly known as Co-MUN was hosted for the first time last year but is already one of the biggest MUNs in Bangalore. 

Resurgence, Cottons’ very own Commerce fest was conceptualized 5 years ago, and held its 6th edition only few months prior to their currently held and the biggest science and IT fest in Bangalore- SYNCHRONIZE, 2013.

Synchronize 2013, a two day fest, has been one of the most awaited science fests by every science student. It holds over 14 events, testing the very core of the skills of science within each of one of you. “Powered by Science, Driven by IT” is Synchronizes's motto - a very true statement indeed.

Synchronize has many interesting and thought provoking events - we can only hope to describe them adequately: 

EVENT X

A surprise event, whose identity is revealed on the spot. Event X consists of a round of written prelims, qualification and each team is faced with a different challenge- math, debate, all encircling the idea of synchronize as a whole.

SHOW IT OFF

Truly testing your artistic skills and abilities; the first round comprised designing a logo for either Wikipedia or Jabong and a poster making round for a football tournament or a fashion show . 

CLASH OF THE TITANS

An event which tests your improvisation skills, your confidence, and your ability to manipulate words, Clash of the Titans is a debate where each team has a different topic for the first round and they had to deal with an unnerving crisis for round 2 where only the most confident and the smartest would survive. 

QUADDAMAGE

Quaddamage is a gaming event where 27 schools participated. It included a plethora of genres from racing to shooting to football. Call of Duty Black ops 2, FiFa 13, Halo 4 are some of the games which are played. The competitors face many gruelling rounds and will get through only with sheer dexterity. 6 TV screens sponsored by Console make it a fun filled event with house music playing inside to pump the gamers up.

TECHNOKRAT

Tests your skills on programming across various computer languages, and sees how you can get your way around Windows. Different conditions are given and competitors are expected to design a program accordingly. If you get through the first round, you are taught something new which you will have to put to use in the second round on the next day. 

BLOOD WORK

It is a crime scene event. The first round is an audio visual round where a case was played - ‘The Pyjama Girl Mystery’. Her body was found in a farm region, her face was badly disfigured, her body was burnt and her ear lobes was cut off. There was a bullet hole in her neck and under her eye and the participants were expected to determine whether it was a murder or not. 

SPARK

Spark is a space settlement design competition. Teams are given conditions in space and they are expected to make a space settlement corresponding to those conditions. 

ANONYMOUS

The name justifies the event as one related to ethical hacking, programming and computing. The participants were made to run around the campus to find passwords which they are now using to decode the encrypted image.

SPECTRA

Spectra is an event to showcase different science exhibits which have already been made but are being presented here. 

DEXTERITY

A new addition to Synchronize, Dexterity tests the participants abilities to build a pre-programmed robot with a basic knowledge of robotics.

QUEST

A gruelling test of stamina - both physical and mental, Quest wasn’t just a treasure hunt this year. Solving the clue involved a science-based task, which would ultimately test the teams' scientific knowledge and ability.