Welham was named after the little Welsh village from where its founder, H.S. Oliphant hailed. A retired English headmistress, Oliphant started Welham Boys' School in 1937. She was struck by The Lawrence School, Sanawar and lack of schools of similar quality for the girls around Dehradun. She acquired a palatial estate called Nasreen adjacent to Welham Boys' School to start a small boarding school for girls. There were no funds, staff, or school buildings. Oliphant recruited another retired English woman, Grace Mary Linnel, to run the boarding school for girls. Linnel became the founder principal of Welham Girls School, which started in 1957. Welham Girls’ High School, as it was known then, established itself as a full-fledged boarding school. From its initial crop of 10 students, it has grown to over 550 students.
Houses
Like British boarding schools, Welham follows the house system. The school has 5 houses named after the popular birds found in the Doon Valley: Bulbuls, Flycatchers, Hoopoes, Orioles and Woodpeckers. There are regular competitions between the houses in disciplines such as sports, dance, music, debating, quizzing, dramatics. Each house is looked after by a house mistress and a matron and headed by a two student officials — a house captain and a vice captain. Junior and senior girls have separate hostels.
Extracurricular activities
Students volunteer at local charities, such as Cheshire Home for the Handicapped and Raphael, a school for the blind and other charitable organizations. There is also an organized social service program on campus run by campus officials. The school hosts competitive events amongst the five houses throughout the year in the sphere of sports and arts. Career counseling and life-skills programmes are offered. Each student is expected to take up two activities each term. These include musical and creative activities such as craft, dramatics, sitar, tabla, vocal music, western music, bharatnatyam, kathak, folk dance and photography.
Sports
These include basketball, hockey, swimming, badminton, lawn tennis, athletics, table tennis, karate, shooting and aerobics. The basketball team has won numerous tournaments over the years and represented Uttrakhand at the national level. Several students have been chosen for the India camp as well. The Duke of Edinburgh's Award scheme is a programme that the school offers to its students.
Clubs and societies
There are multiple opportunities for girls to explore. Being involved in activities is an essential aspect of being a Welhamite. Students get involved in these activities from their first day in school. The activities on campus are:
Nature Club
Quiz Club
English Debating
Hindi Debating
Music: Indian Classical, Sitar, Western Vocals, Western Instrumental
The school newspapers, News and Views in English and Kshitij in Hindi, are published every month, as well as a science magazine, Delphic. A technology-based publication, 'The Tech-Key' is also published 4 times a year. It is the newest addition in school, having started in April 2019. Two issues of the magazine The Wall are published each year. Additionally, the school publishes an English literary and art publication, Chrysalis, twice a term. The School Annual is published in summer each year.
