When can a child start LKG?

I have had many queries about the age group for Kindergarten children here in Bangalore. Typically, each school has its own cut-off for when a child can start Kindergarten classes. On a broad scale, what I can say is that a child must be 4 to go to Lower Kindergarten, 5 to go to Upper Kindergarten, and 6 to go to First Standard.

The only thing is there are some schools that are extremely particular about their cut-off dates. For example, at Viday Sagar, the child MUST have completed 4 yrs as of May 31st, to start LKG on Jun 1st of any given year. But, there are lot of schools where they are not very particular and take in even 3 and 10 month olds into LKG. So, if you have a Jun born child, you do have to figure out how to go about the admission process; some of the schools may take in your child for LKG even if your child is completing 4 only in Jun and other schools may not.

In our case, our older one was born on Jun 1st '03. One of the reasons we moved in Oct '06 was to start her schooling here from Jun '07. The process in Bangalore is fairly long, what with schools giving out applications as early as Oct/Nov. Most of the schools are done with the admission process in Dec/Jan. And the important thing to know is, it is easier to get seats at LKG level than at any other. All of the seats are available, unlike for other standards when only a few seats are available for 'outsiders'. A lot of the good schools also restrict the number of students per class, so unless some kids choose to leave school, typically there aren't any seats available at higher classes. First Standard would be next bet, since some schools open up another section to accommodate more students. But from First Standard onwards, the kids have to go through aptitude tests etc to "qualify". So, R2Iing for LKG seemed like a sane choice. Please do share your experiences if you have gone through something similar.


PS: I have been so flickred, it is unbelievable! I have avoided flickr for a long time, because I knew how addictive it could be for the likes of me. But, now with the DSLR, flickr is such a default hang out. Sheesh!
I have not been active here, but I will. I promise I will.

Schools for autistic kids in Bangalore

Recently, I have had a couple of requests from readers of this blog for info regarding schools for autistic kids in Bangalore. This is such a co-incidence mostly because for the past few months, I have had an opportunity to meet and interact with a few autistic kids, and the experience has been quite touching, to say the least!

So, when I got the request for special schools, I set out on this task of finding the most recommended school for special kids, here in Bangalore. I discovered that Academy for Severe Handicap and Autism or ASHA for short, comes with very good recommendation. One of the special education teachers that I know speaks very highly of this school and its founder, Ms. Jayashree Ramesh. And when I spoke with KPAMRC*, they too recommended ASHA highly.

1) Academy for Severe Handicap and Autism (ASHA)
L-76/A, (Opposite to L-50) Kirloskar colony,
HBCS 3rd Stage, 4th Block, Basaveswarnagar,
Bangalore - 560079

Phone: +91 80 23225279 / 23230357
Fax: +91 80 22258103
Email: info@ashaforautism.com


On talking to the nice people at ASHA, I have 2 more special schools for autistic kids, recommended by the people at ASHA.

2) Sunshine Autism Trust
280, 6th Cross, Domlur Layout,
Bangalore - 560071

Phone: +91 80 65360892
Email: rao_vanitha@yahoo.com, Sunshineautism@vsnl.net


3) Apoorva Centre for Autism
c/o Lions Club of Sarakki,
21st main, 1st cross, Marenahalli,
J P Nagar Phase-2,
Bangalore - 560078

Phone: +91 80 65710445 / 9243195154 / 9845076140
Email: apoorva@SAIautismcenter.org

If any of you know of other good special schools, please email me or leave info in the comments section and I will add it to this post. I do not want to add schools that I get off of the Internet to this list. If you have a personal recommendation, that will be wonderful. Thanks!

* KPAMRC (Karnataka Parents’ Association for Mentally Retarded Citizens)
Phone: + 91 80 26564608
Email: jpkpamrc@vsnl.net

Pre-schools in Bangalore

This topic is primarily for folks who are interested in pre-schools in Bangalore and who have emailed me for information.

There are lots and lots of pre-schools in all areas of Bangalore. And, there are also lots of pre-schools that are new and have modern, read western, methods of teaching young kids the basics. Typically these newer pre-schools have lots of learning equipments in the classrooms. And the ratio of the teacher to the students is very good. The modern/western, friendlier pre-schools are also the more expensive ones.

Some of the pre-school chains that I am familiar with and those that have branches in Bangalore are listed below:
Please Note: The numbering has nothing to do with their ranking. I am just listing the ones that I have heard of.

1. Eurokids - See my earlier review. Eurokids has about 23 branches in Bangalore.
   
2. Kidzee - One of my friends sent her daughter here for nursery and was pretty happy with the school. Kidzee has about 16 branches all over Bangalore.
   
3. Neev - I first heard of Neev from Silkboard, when he mentioned it in the comments here. Since then, I have also met parents who send their kids to Neev, and they have only good things to say about the school. In my review of Eurokids, the couple of things I said I was not really happy about were the very few hours at school everyday and the number of closed days in a year. Neev is good on both of these counts. They have longer hours and are open on most holidays. This school, however, only has 2 branches. One in Whitefield and the other in Indiranagar.
4. Kara - I personally do not know kids that go to a Kara school. But, from the little I have heard, it sounds good. They have 2 branches. One in HSR layout and another in RMV 2nd stage.
   

Apart from these chains, there are some good preschools that I have heard of. Each of the following seems/sounds very good.

1. Gaia - Comes with very high recommendation from parents who send their kids here. So, I am guessing it is really good. I have known some U.S-returned parents who cannot stop talking about this school. I have not visited the school, and so wouldn't know much personally. The school is in RT Nagar.
   
2. Buddhi - I have been to the campus and it looked pretty good. The school is not restricted to pre-school. The campus is in RMV 2nd Stage. You can learn more about the school and it's programs on the website.
   
3. Prayag Montessori - I know nothing about this school. However, when I searched online for pre-schools in Bangalore, I came across this school's website, and it seems to be a true Montessori. It is in Padmanabhanagar.

Most of the schools that I have already listed here also have pre-schools. If you know of some other good pre-schools, please let me know and I will include them here.

Eurokids - A review

I had mentioned earlier about the pre-school, Eurokids, that our older one is going to in Bangalore. She started almost immediately on coming here. She just completed 3 months there. Overall, we find the school pretty good, especially since their philosophy is, Learning by doing - a child needs to 'touch', 'explore', 'learn' and 'enjoy' to understand the world around him. Our daughter seems to like her school and she has some friends as well. Typically, a class has about 12 students. Each class has a teacher and an assistant. Each class also has a bathroom+toilet. The flooring is laminated and is maintained clean. Kids leave their footwear outside in the shoe rack and are bare feet inside the classrooms. The facility includes a decent amount of play area that has some Little Tikes play structures, a few of Little Tikes cars and the like. Lots of assistants are sprinkled around, and I know that kids are watched over when they are playing outside.

Right now, each Eurokids pre-school has the following class groups:

• Playgroup for kids between 1.8 and 2.5 yrs of age
• Nursery for kids between 2.5 and 3.5
• EuroJunior for kids between 3.5 and 4.5
• EuroSenior for kids between 4.5 and 5.5

At the nursey level, she is being taught a lot of things in a fun and interesting way. She gets to do a lot of things with her hands. And best of all, they maintain a folder for all of her activites through the week and send it home on Friday. All her work sheets are for us to keep, and we need to only send the empty folder back on Monday. The teacher teaches almost everything using props. The kids get to see, touch, and eat the fruits that they are being taught about. They get to use their sense of logic in different activities. For example, there was this work sheet where they had to choose the right kind of transportation for air, water, railway tracks, roads etc. Every child gets individual attention from the teacher while doing the job in class. The sense of satisfaction and pride is evident in my daughter when she explains her work sheets to her parents or to her grand parents/relatives.

In these 3 months, they have already had a few parties like the Diwali party, the Christmas party, a children's day, a sports day, and a few field trips. Overall, I am very happy with all these extra activities, especially the field trips. My daughetr comes home and tells me about the fruit shop they visited and the differnet fruits that they got to see. She also got an opportunity to go see an ambulance van, and visited another Eurokids facility on another field trip. I have met her teacher and she seems really nice. All of their teachers are trained by Eurokids and are given a Eurokids certification before being offered a job.

Some gripes:

1. Our daughter goes to the nursery class and typically has classes for about 3 hours, that includes a half hour play time and some snack break. My daughter can easily stay at school for another hour. She definitely can use some more mental stimulation and challenges.
2. As parents, we are not invited to involve ourselves in school activites within the school premise. We are not invited to their Diwali/X'mas celebrations. So, we don't get to take pics of our children at such events. :( I was used to being very involved at her Montessori in SF bay area and loved seeing my child being on her own outside of her home. The only Eurokids invites we got was for the sports day, which I must say, was nicely organised.
3. Quite a few closed days. They have about 50 closed days for various occasions and are again closed for 2 months in summer.

Typical fee structure for '06-'07:

• Admission fees - Rs. 5,500
• Tuition fees - Rs. 1,350 per month. You have to pay for a minimum of 6 months or 9 months or 12 months. Which means, even if your child is going to go only for 7 months, you have to pay for 9 months. (You pay for the 2 closed months of summer by default.)
• Registration kit - Rs. 1,100
• Books - Rs. 200

Please Note: There has been no additional fees for their Diwali/X'mas parties, sports day celebrations or field trips. Everything has been covered in the fees that we have paid towards tuition.

* I am not sure if the fee structure varies based on the place. I would expect all Eurokids pre-schools in Bangalore to have the same fee structure.

Big reason for this review: Eurokids is a big chain of pre-schools in India and has over 200 pre-schools all over India. The sheer number called for a review.

A list of good schools in Bangalore

Since the start of the blog, the biggest query so far has been about schools in Bangalore, especially by NRIs with kids. I have compiled a list and will be updating this list over a period of time. I welcome all inputs from Bangalore parents.

Please Note: This is not how I want to present this info. I want to include some contact information for every school. But, I have been having tons of issues accessing 'Blogger' and having even more issues with the Internet in general. But, I will make it better over the next few days.

NPS and DPS

• National Public School Indiranagar Phone: 25280611, 25275665
• National Public School Rajajinagar
• National Public School Koramangala - National Games Village, Opp RBI Block, Koramangala Phone: 25705171, 25705172
  
• National Academy For Learning, Basaveshwarnagar
  
• Delhi Public School, South Bangalore
  
• Delhi Public School, Yelahanka, North Bangalore
• Delhi Public School, East Bangalore

Other good schools

• Sri Kumaran Public School, Basavangudi
  
• Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan (of the Chennai fame), 75/A, Hulimavu, Bannerghatta main road, Bangalore Phone: 2648 2901/02, 2550 1050
  
• Sishu Griha English School, 3, HAL 3rd Stage New Thippasandra, Bangalore - 560075
• Vidya Niketan School, 30, Kempapura Village, Hebbal, Bangalore - 560024
  
• The Valley School, Kanakapura Road

New schools off of Sarjapur road

• Gear Innovative International School Phone: 2844 0919/17
• Inventure Academy, Whitefield - Sarjapur Road, Near Dommasandra Circle, Bangalore - 562125. Mobile numbers: 94489 36678, 94489 36681
• Green Wood High School
  
• Prakriya, The green wisdom school - 70, Chikkanayakanahalli Road, Off Doddakannelli, Sarjapur Road, Bangalore-560035 Phone: 28440925 / 57636391

Old Convent schools

• Baldwin Boys High School
• Baldwin Girls High School
• Bishop Cotton Boys School, Residency road
  
• Bishop Cotton Girls High School, Residency road
  
• St. Joseph's Boys' High School P.B. 25003, No.27, Museum Road, Bangalore 560 025
  

Other Convent schools

• St Germain High School
• Stella Mary’s Girls School, Vyalikaval
  
• Bethany High School, Koramangala CA-12, 20th Main, 6th Block K.M. Layout Bangalore 560034 Phone: 25532189, 25531519
  
• Cluny Convent High School, 11th Main, Malleswaram, Bangalore - 560003
• Frank Anthony Public School, 13, Cambridge Road, Ulsoor
  
• Sophia High School, Palace road
  
• Sacred Heart Girls High School
  
• St. Joseph's Indian High School

International Schools

• The International School Bangalore, NAFL Valley, Whitefield - Sarjapur Road, Near Dommasandra Circle, Bangalore - 562125 Phone: 7822550
• Mallya Aditi International School, Yelahanka

International Residential Schools

• American Friendship Residential School, Gudibanda, 84 kms. North of Bangalore
• Jain International Residential School, Jakkasandra Post, Kanakapura Taluk, Bangalore (Rural) District, Karnataka - 562 112. Phone: 7577013 to 44
  

School, the first order of business

Our oldest one was going to a montessori school in the bay area for almost a year when we moved. And since we moved in the middle of an academic year, Oct, school was pretty much our first priority on coming back to Bangalore. Since my parents live in Bangalore and since we were going to be staying with them for a start, I had asked them to look around for schools in their neighborhood even before we left Cali.

I made note of a few schools, but had pretty much made up my mind about the pre-school. She would go to one of the many Eurokids schools. Eurokids is a chain that provides Pre-School education in India. Eurokids website

Our daughter had already done phonics, writing and reading some 3 letter words. In comparison, she was doing slightly easier things at Eurokids. For her age (3+), she was eligible only for the nursery level. So, we went with it. Yep, she was going to forget a bit of her writing and reading, but that's all she was going to get for her age in any school here.

The reason for our move in Oct was also to be here for the application process to Kindergarten for next year into some of the good schools in Bangalore. The process starts now for Jun, next year. She turns 4 on Jun 1 and will be eligible for LKG. Since, we also plan to settle in the Outer ring road/Sarjapur road area, we will be applying for schools in that neighborhood. (Another post :) )

She started school here a couple of days after we landed! So far, she seems to like it at Eurokids. That's all we care right now. :)