Looking for schools?

Of late, I have been seeing too many inquiries on various schools in and around our apartment.So, I thought, I'll put this up here in case someone wants to use it .....

We had gone through the admission process for our daughter, for the academic year 2009-2010. She was to be enrolled into nursery(the class before lkg for age 3+). The schools we had an eye on were - Delhi Public School, Freedom International, Greenwood High and National Public School. All these schools started issuing the application forms after the pooja hols, that is October-November time frame. I wanted to pick a school which follows the CBSE sylabus and nearer our place.

1) DPS has a website, from where you may download the appln forms. Since this link is active throughout the year, check the academic year mentioned in the form before you start filling them. Click here to access their website. You will have to take a DD(Rs500 or 600 forgot the actual figure) while submission.

After the screening of the admission forms, they will ring you up for interviews & other formalities. What I have generally observed is, they will ring up on a Wed or Thrus & ask us to appear, with the child, on that Sat. So, if you have plans for sending child out-of-station, it wouldn't be a good idea. And, rescheduling generally doesn't work.

There are two rounds of interviews - the first is named the 'observation'. The teachers will take the child(the child alone) into a classroom & observe how he/she behaves. Since we are not allowed inside, I have no idea what actually happened in the classroom. After much coaxing, my child left a couple of hints - Casually, they asked questions like, your name, dad's name etc. Inside the room, there will be some toys, color pencils & other activity items. They observer how the child responds to each of these items, whether the child knows to hold a pencil, color pictures, how the child interacts with other children etc.

Luckily for us, our child went with the teacher after we introduced the teacher as 'the teacher' and not a stranger.

If the child clears the first round, theres a second round, which is basically for the parents.

Anywayz, my child goes to DPS now. I picked it up mostly because there are lots of children going to DPS from our appartment. The kids from her day-care goes to DPS. And, two of her friends parents are teaching there. There are three buses dedicated to our appartment :) That left very little room to feel lonely.

2) Freedom International, you just walk-into the school & ask the lady at the front desk. She will be able to give you the precise dates on when they will be issuing the forms. The lady there was very friendly.I don't have any further details on the admission process there, as our child had already cleared DPS by then.

3) Greenwood(its in koramangala). This schools has the most hassle free process of all the schools. The results will be out in 10mins of the interview. They had done it professionaly - the lady in the reception was very friendly, the interview slots were well space so that there are not more than 3 families at a time. If you have the enough cash balance in your bank account, the entire process will be over in an hour or two.

Interview was fairly simple. The Kindergarten principal will ask the typical question - sing a rhyme, identify colors, vegetables, sizes. When the Pricipal asked our child to sing a rhyme, she gave a stright NO. Again, luckily for us, the Principal found it ammusing. Oh! yea, she answered all the other questions correctly O:-)

Our child did clear the interview and my husband wanted to enroll her in this school. But, I was intimidated by the fact that Greenwood has only a/c buses. I wanted her to travel in a regular bus, with lesser comforts & have her own episodes with the bullies in the bus.


4) NPS ...... well, heres a tough nut. There won't be any updates other than the ones on their notice boards. I got the info from our office forum. Some parents saw the info in the school notice board & they had posted a thread in the office groups. So, you will either have to be in touch with some NPS parent or personally go & check the school notice boards religiously.

I have no clue on what their screening criterions are. There are a whole lot of rumors going on like - they prefer siblings, their own teachers' children, kids with one non-working parent. But, I have heard a teacher's child being rejected and one child of the non-working parent get into the school but not the other.

Now, if you ask me, why I applied here, just for the heck of it. I wasn't too confident whether I will be able to handle the pressure of this highly academic school. Yes, am not talking about my child, but myself.

Theres also a general opinion that the school fees are high. Yes, the school fees are high, but there are no concept of 'donations' either(at least, not when we tried last year).

Location Maps : DPS BLR-EAST , Freedom International , Greenwood High , National Public School