The missionaries of the Sisters of St Charles Borromeo have been in India since 75 years. In Bhadravathi the mission has been imparting education for the past forty seven years and has been running a full fledged hospital – Nirmala hospital too. St Charles is one of the oldest schools in Bhadravathi. The Sisters of St Charles Borromeo were requested by the authorities of MISL (now VISL — Vishvesvaraya Iron and Steel Limited) to take charge of the Welfare Girls’ Middle School.

Due to administrative problems the sisters had to withdraw their services after some time. Realising the importance of education in this small town, MISL offered fifteen acres on lease to start an English medium school in 1959. The purpose of starting the school was to provide good education to the children of the employees of MISL.

In 1960, a master plan was prepared for the construction of the new town works and the trainee quarters were given rent free to start the school.

In 1960 the Kannada primary school was started to accommodate the poor children from the surrounding areas. In the same year an English medium school and a hostel for boys and girls was opened. The hostel was only for children from the near-by coffee estates.

As schools came up in these areas later on this hostel was closed down in 1987. A high school for imparting education in Kannada medium was started in 1984. Today more than three thousand students are on their rolls from nursery to pre-university.

Vigivelveinn, a small town in Belgium is the birth place of the St Charles Borromeo mission, started in 1684 AD. They came to India in 1929 and started their services by opening a school in Tamilnadu. As per the request of the SCB Commission the sisters of St Charles were invited by Self Help Groups. Today as many as seventy SHG’s are working well, in villages near Bhadravathi. The sisters of this school have also set up nursery schools for the children in these villages.

The school in its sprawling campus has a well maintained garden and looks like a sanctuary for birds. The students have become eco-conscious too. At the district level, the school has won many prizes for maintaining a good garden and ambience.