Sherwood Public School: The four decades of excellence

Born in Jhansi a year before India’s independence, Gurwara chose to teach, a passion that kindled into a full-time profession and grew to span half a century. Having worked with reputed schools like St. Paul's School in Darjeeling, Daly College in Indore, and Sherwood College Nainital, he laid the foundation for the Sherwood Public School in 1984 with the support of his wife Jyoti Gurwara, who shared his passion for teaching.

Unlike many teachers who befriend books in their solitary confinement, Yogendra Gurwara is not just a mathematics teacher, but a ‘keen musician’ and a badminton player. He is enthusiastic, and youthful who believes in doing above and beyond rote learning, a notion that focuses on helping students achieve beyond academics.

Having realized the financial problems of teachers of his day, Yogendra Kumar Gurwara brought about several radical improvements for teachers at his school. Unlike most educational institutions where academic excellence is prioritized, teachers at Sherwood resort to unique methodologies and creative techniques. “Our focus is equally upon nurturing the emotional, intellectual, and physical fortitude of the students”, he says.

With a 4-acre campus in the heart of Secunderabad, this quadragenarian institution is built state of the art, enabling indoor and outdoor games like cricket, football, basketball, table tennis, and badminton among other activities. Inside its classrooms, The school has dedicated al fresco Mathematics and Science parks. There are interactive installations on Geometry and Trigonometry for Mathematics, and illustrious models that help students understand the concepts of Physics better.

This academic lineage has rubbed onto his son Anuj Gurwara. “We believe in celebrating the progress that a child makes. Sometimes, there are children who are slower in academics or with physical disabilities. They too are equally encouraged, and without any discrimination,” he says.

An alumnus of Sherwood School, Anuj Gurwara has a rare flux of many talents. An accomplished singer with a highly successful stint in Telugu playback singing to stage performances in nearly a dozen international locations, Anuj Gurwara has co-produced award-winning theatre shows and even did curtain raisers for Sony TV, including for Kaun Banega Crorepati, Dus Ka Dum among others.

Having rendered his voice for famous character Sam Wilson in top-grossing Hollywood movies like Captain America, Avengers, Ant-Man, and Finn in Star Wars movie among others, Anuj wears many hats often shifting profiles from a full-time Master of Ceremonies to a playback singer, a stage performer, a voice artist and a script-writer. He has garnered both accolades and awards as a Radio Jockey, and Television as well.

He made his singing debut with SS Rajamouli's Magadheera, for ‘Panchadara Bomma’ song, that won nearly a dozen awards including the ‘Best Telugu Playback Singer’ and set new benchmarks for Tollywood songs. Apart from many things, he translated Eega, the telugu original to Makkhi and was the dubbing director for it.

But that does not undermine his passion for education. “This is something that runs in our family for generations. My maternal grandfather late, Krishna Dutt, founded the Hindi Mahavidyalaya, South India’s first Hindi University and my maternal grandmother was the first Headmistress of Keshav Memorial Girls High School”, says Anuj.

Celebrated singer Kaala Bhairava, whose Naatu Naatu song in RRR movie won the Best Song Award at the Golden Globes and landed an Oscar nomination in the ‘Best Original Song’ category is another notable alumnus. There are many others who have become successful entrepreneurs and even more have met with roaring success in their careers, notes Anuj talking about the alumni of the school.

“My father’s vision was to help students gain knowledge with experiential learning and not rote learning. This has helped thousands of students in more ways beyond academics than we can express,” says Anuj. Despite his many responsibilities, Anuj keenly commandeers the school ensuring a ‘stress-free’ learning and teaching environment.

His parents, now married for almost 50 years, continue to be the driving force behind Sherwood Public School. `Akshar’, an exclusive pre-primary curriculum at Secunderabad and established the Heritage Valley - The Indian School at Shadnagar in 2005 that have a combined strength of over 1500 students.

Sherwood Public School will complete 40 years in 2024.