In Jan, 1957 with a small amount from his personal savings Ch. Puran Singh who came from a distinguished family of landed gentry and who had just started his practice as a lawyer at the district courts Dehradun requested his wife Satyabala to put their own residence at disposal to set up a small preparatory school for boys and girls at Lytton road called ‘The Blue Bird’. This small initiative soon became too big for the premises it occupied and had to be shifted to another location close by.

Three decades later and with some experience of running schools the Puran Singh family entrusted their younger son, Sandip Puran Singh – an environmentalist and an old boy of Doon School to take charge and lay the foundation of Dehradun Hills Academy at its present site on the outskirts of Doon valley close to the Rajaji National Park with a belief that what the city-based children need most, was a school set in quiet sylvan surroundings to encourage a mindful creative approach to life.

Ch. Puran Singh’s philosophy of education was what we have now come to know as a Progressive approach. In a boutique residential school it is vital that each student is given every conceivable opportunity to find activities at which they excel, in addition to what is on offer within the classroom, on the games field and at the Amphitheatre.

The calm and positive atmosphere at the Dehradun Hills Academy results not only from the verdant 7 acres campus with its fruit orchards and playing fields, but also from the meaningful and structured research based learning giving each child his or her own space to grow and blossom.

The learning approach at the Academy is intended to ensure that students fulfill all their potential, developing a diverse range of skills as laid down by the Founding President of the Ch. Nain Singh Education Society.

At DDHA we have seen that children who are encouraged to lead a happy life and be themselves, go on to achieve not only academic excellence but find a purpose and meaning in life. We evaluate our students’ overall growth not just by their academic performance but by level of each child’s effort to get along with his/her peer groups, the bonding within each other in the dormitory and the whole school in general.

Our USP is a mindful approach where by igniting the self learning process in each child, using creative methods like cooking, gardening, social networking, storytelling and other similar activities we provide an environment in which children from varied backgrounds and age groups come together, mingle and amicably learn from each other.

Some of our alumni fraternity includes professionals from IIM Bangalore and Kolkata, IIT Roorkee, University of Birmingham City (UK), NIFT, the Indian Armed Forces and Banking Services to mention a few professions they have chosen after completing their higher education.