Our school is a not-for-profit institution and receives no direct public funding. Families and sponsors pay socially-affordable school fees.  You can become involved in the school as a volunteer by investing your passion, energy, expertise and time.

Between May and September volunteer opportunities are available for:

• Art, music, IT and sports: experienced people for a duration of one to three months.
• English language tutors: experienced tutors for a duration of one to three months for two hours per evening, 4.30pm-6.30pm, four days per week, Tuesday to Friday.

If you have experience matching the school's current volunteering opportunities above, please e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.with:
1. your CV/resume
2. an explanatory note of why you would like to volunteer at the school
3. your subject
4. which months between May and September you would like to volunteer.

Due to the large number of enquiries we receive, we will be unable to respond to enquires that do not include the four details listed above. Thank you for your help on this matter.

By offering their time and expertise, and paying their own travel and expenses, volunteers can make a significant contribution to the life of the school and its students.

Nearly all the international support for the project is provided on a voluntary basis, including much of the work of the Arup Design Team.
 

Druk Padma Karpo School is making the transition from traditional to child-centred teaching methods and currently has more than 850 students on the roll.

Due to increased student numbers and expansion of the curriculum and services, Druk Padma Karpo School - known to many as Rancho's School - invites applications for the following posts.

For teaching staff, only qualified and experienced applicants with an intimate knowledge of the Indian education system should apply. Further information about DPKS is available elsewhere on this website.

Applications and enquiries to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

July 2023:

February 2023:

Ways to raise funds

Don’t forget to use easyfundraising.org.uk next time you shop online to raise funds for us.

It's a really simple way to raise money for Druk Padma Karpo School through your everyday online shopping with retailers like Amazon, Argos, John Lewis, ASOS, Booking.com, eBay, Boden, and M&S and it’s completely free! Shopping doesn’t cost you any more.
Every time you shop we receive a small donation from the retailer to say ‘thank you’ and it’s completely free.

Please visit our easyfundraising page at https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/dwls/ and click ‘join us’.
It’s good to click for the Donation Reminder, https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/donation-reminder/ so that when you go into participating online stores the easyfundraising logo pops-up to remind you to “activate donation”.

Please give it a go and encourage others to do so too.

The Donation reminder: https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/donation-reminder/ makes it really easy! Once you have activated this, when you go onto participating stores the easyfundraising logo appears with the message: Do you want to raise up to x% at “store name”. Click the “Activate donation box”
The website page refreshes and the message appears: “That’s great your donation has been activated”. Then shop as usual.

We really would appreciate your on-line shopping support. Many thanks.

Run a race: 5K, 10K, half marathon, full marathon. Get your friends, family, work colleagues and employer to sponsor you.

Hold a cake sale.

Host a coffee morning, lunch or dinner.

Arrange a film night.

Keep a coin box, when it is full count it up and send the amount to us online.

eBay.co.uk, the internet auction site, enables you to buy and sell items online whilst helping fund our school.

Sell for charity

Supporting Druk Padma Karpo School when selling on eBay.co.uk is easy. Not only can you make a difference to our children by donating between 10% and 100% of your item's final selling price, but you also benefit from your listing receiving special promotion within eBay.

Often this can mean more bids and even more selling success!

After your item sells, we will find your donation paid directly into our bank account, along with Gift Aid (if you've ticked the box) and an eBay fee donation.

Buy for charity

Imagine a world where you can shop with the guarantee that your hard-earned money will be donated directly to Druk Padma Karpo School.

When you visit our eBay.co.uk shop you know that every seller who chooses to take part donates some, or all, of their final selling price to a charity of their choice. Thanks to eBay you can rest assured that the money is going where it should – direct to the school where it’ll used to continue development of the project.

How to donate

Donations can be made online or by posting cheques. You can find out more on our Donate page.

Druk Padma Karpo School provides quality education (CBSE affiliated) in an exceptional learning environment for girls and boys (aged four to sixteen years) living in the remote Himalayan region of Ladakh, North India. The school took its first intake in September 2001 and now has more than 880 students with up to 35% living on campus in purpose built accommodation.

The school draws from a wide catchment area within the Leh valley region and offers residential facilities to local families as well as children from remote areas for whom opportunity and life choices are often limited and quality education is unavailable.

Some of Druk Padma Karpo School’s students are first generation learners who now have the opportunity to study through to matriculation exams, at age sixteen, and then progress to higher education and even college or university. Through the delivery of a carefully tailored and relevant curriculum our students can make considered choices about their future and the lives and careers they wish to follow. They can also acquire expertise to bring back to family villages and, in the long term, help keep these communities alive.

An English medium school rooted in traditional Ladakhi Culture

Students are encouraged to excel in a broad range of academic subjects and to attain high standards in examinations enabling them, as Indian citizens, to engage fully in local and national opportunities. Alongside academic pursuits, the school also equips students with skills for life in Ladakh: students are encouraged to take part in co-curricular activities such as sports, chess, archery, and ‘culture days’ when students learn about and practise Ladakhi cooking, art, textiles, history and dance, helping to keep culture and traditions meaningful and alive.

The students are split into four houses: Courage, Harmony, Unity and Wisdom, the house flags are below:

We are an award-winning project, inspired by the vision of His Holiness the Gyalwang Drukpa, a spiritual leader of Ladakh. Our school offers an education that grounds students firmly in their own culture and equips them to thrive in the modern world.

The main school is located in Shey, the ancient capital of Ladakh, which is about thirty minutes' drive up the Indus Valley from the main town of Leh.  A branch school opened in Khachey in April 2010.

Students study Bothi (the local language), English and Hindi languages, plus sciences, social studies, creative arts and sports. They learn life and livelihood skills, including team work, presentation skills, leadership and problem solving through formal and co-curricular activities.

The school is known locally as the Druk Padma Karpo School - Padma Karpo means White Lotus in Bothi - and is named after Mipham Pema Karpo (1527-1592), who is revered as a great scholar.

This unique initiative is managed by the Druk Padma Karpo Education Society, a local non-profit society, with support from Live to Love, Drukpa Trust (UK charity no 1178756 under the patronage of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama), the Drukpa Charitable Foundation (a US 501(C)(3) organization) and Drukpa Humanitaire (France).

The school is split into four houses - Courage, Wisdom, Unity and Harmony