Frequently Asked Questions

Three things. First, scale with care — we cap every section at thirty students, so teachers know each child by name, habit and potential. Second, our four creative disciplines — Fashion Design, Interior Design, Fine Arts and Creative Writing — are timetabled subjects with dedicated studios, not weekend hobbies; we are the only school in the region offering them this way.

Third, we are rooted here. Our teachers, our craft partners and our calendar belong to Bhagalpur district: students learn Tussar weaving from Nathnagar's master weavers, exhibit at the district library and graduate with portfolios that carry the Silk City in their threads.

We follow a CBSE-pattern curriculum from Nursery to Class XII, taught primarily in English with strong Hindi and Bangla support. Students sit the CBSE board examinations at the end of Class X and XII, and our results have placed the school among the district's top three for eleven consecutive years.

The creative disciplines run alongside the core curriculum from Class VI, and senior students may take Fine Arts or Fashion Studies as their CBSE skill subject.

Our 68 full-time faculty hold graduate or postgraduate degrees in education, and eleven hold doctorates. Beyond the staff, each discipline hosts practising professionals: master weavers from Nathnagar, a rotating bench of working artists, and our winter writer-in-residence. Every teacher completes forty hours of professional development each year, often at partner institutions in Patna, Kolkata and Delhi.

Please do — we insist on it. Campus tours run every Saturday at 10 am and 1 pm during term time, led by a senior teacher and two student guides. You will see two classrooms in session, the four discipline studios, the library and the dining hall, and finish with tea at the visitor's pavilion with the admissions team.

Write to our office or call +91 62000 00000 to book a slot. Walk-in visitors are welcomed whenever the gate is open, though a booked tour guarantees the full experience.

Applications for the academic year beginning April open every October and remain open on a rolling basis until March, or until a class fills. The process is simple: collect or download the form, submit it with the documents listed on the Apply page, and attend a friendly interaction — an informal assessment for young children, and a short written exercise plus conversation for Class VI upwards.

Everything is gathered on our Key Dates page, including entrance test days and term start dates.

Four things: the child's birth certificate, a transfer certificate from the previous school (for Class II upwards), the most recent report card, and two photographs — one of the child, one family photograph. Aadhaar numbers are collected after admission, as per government norms, and are never a condition of applying.

No — curiosity is the only prerequisite at entry. Foundation Studios (Classes VI–VIII) begin from zero, and most of our best senior students arrived without ever having held a camel-hair brush or written a finished poem. For the Senior Programme (Classes IX–XII), a simple portfolio of anything made in the last year — sketches, garments, models, notebooks — helps us place your child well, but its absence will not count against them.

Yes. The Merit & Means scholarship test is held each December and awards twelve scholarships — six full and six half — covering tuition for the following year. The paper tests mathematics, language and reasoning, and takes ninety minutes. Registration is free and open to every child of the district, whether or not they ultimately join the Citadel. Past papers are available at the school office.

Fees are quoted at admission and held stable for three years for each batch. Tuition is billed termly — April, August and December — and includes studio materials for all disciplines up to Class VIII. Senior students buy a personal kit list (fabrics, brushes, instruments) each year, typically ₹2,400–4,800 depending on the discipline. A one-time admission fee and a refundable caution deposit apply at entry.

The current fee schedule is shared at the campus tour or on request from the office — we prefer to discuss it in person, alongside the scholarship routes that a third of our families use.

We are a day school with extended hours: 8 am to 3:40 pm for the academic day, with studios, sports and the library keeping the campus lively until 6 pm. School buses cover eleven routes across Bhagalpur district — Bihpur, Naugachia, Gopalpur, Nathnagar and Bhagalpur city among them — each with a lady attendant and GPS tracking shared with parents.

Absolutely — most of our students arrive that way. The Foundation Studio year assumes no prior training whatsoever; it begins with looking, noticing and making small things well. What we look for in the admissions interaction is appetite, not accomplishment. Some of our finest graduates first picked up a pencil, a needle or a pen in Class VI at the Citadel.

Wherever their work points them. Recent batches are studying at NIFT Delhi and Kolkata, NID Ahmedabad, the College of Art Delhi, Kala Bhavana Santiniketan, and leading universities' humanities, law, science and commerce programmes. Our careers cell runs portfolio clinics from Class X and hosts admissions officers each autumn.

Just as importantly, every graduate leaves with something made — a collection, a portfolio, a published anthology — which opens doors that marks alone do not.