Gurgaon School Admission Experience for Pre-Nursery

It’s August 2012 and our son will be 2 in November. And though we found schools which “admitted” children as young as 9 months, we’d made up our mind to send him to school (pre-nursery) once he is 2+. And thus began school hunting. Admissions in Gurgaon begin as early as August-September even though the academic session only starts in April the following year!

The internet is the first source of information - Google…Google and more Google – for list of schools, schools close to our home, reviews, fee structure and anything else that comes to mind. Then come acquaintances and neighbours with who could provide relevant information on schools they had considered for their child. You tend to ask every kid who you see while strolling in the evening – “Which school do you go to?” Most of them would answer LKG A or UKG B. And then we’d have to clarify – “you’re telling your class ‘beta’ …we’re asking for your school”.

We are putting up at Gurgaon Sector 49, near South City 2 - D Block market and preferred to have a school close by. After doing quite some research on the internet we were able to shortlist and the ones which we visited are marked as ‘(Visited)’:

      Lotus Valley  - Nirvana Country (Visited)

      Shalom Hills – Nirvana Country (Visited)

      FasTracKids – Golf Course Extension Road (Visited) – Wunder Kinder, if I remember the name correctly, is opposite to FastTracKids but we did not visit this school neither was this in our shortlist.

      La Petite – GD Goenka – Malibu Town, Sohna Road (Visited)

      The Shriram Early Years (Near Vipul Greens, Sohna Road) (Visited)

      I Play I Learn (Though not keen, we tried to visit it but could not find this school and so came back home!)

      Xseed iDiscoveri (Though in our list initially, we left it out as it was relatively farther from our house compared to the schools mentioned above)

We also had Pathways play school in our mind as it was walking distance from our home but a relative who had been to the school said that it was too expensive specially for pre-nursery and thus it went out of the list (The relative I am talking about have admitted their younger kid in Shriram The Early Years and their elder one is in Scottish High).

FasTracKids – In absolute terms, the school was okay. It is a franchise of a US school. The teaching methodology was theme based. They had a smart (touch screen) board in some classes and had day care facility and meals. Fee was the most reasonable amongst all schools. The centre coordinator was pleasing and took us around the school, showed us classes even when they were going on. Quartery Fees ~14,400

GD Goenka La Petite – The school became operational in July 2012 only and looked promising. It deals in classes from toddlers to KG. The school follows a Montessori way of teaching. Class rooms were spacious, well lighted and aesthetically pleasing. Also offered a day care facility and meals. Since this is a new school, it offered an inaugural discount on one of the components of fees. But the admission would not be directly transferrable to the main branch of GD Goenka World school. We did not consider it further as it was only till KG and admission blues will still come to us after KG + the quarterly fees was almost as high as Lotus  Valley’s. Quartery fees ~20,000 Annual Fees ~15,000

The Shriram Early Years – The school only offered classes till Nursery which meant ‘admission issues’ would come again very soon. We were not able to see the classes as they were going on. But the school would give admission anytime you would go to them – which means they do not strictly follow a ‘session’. We did not consider it further as it was only till nursery and there was no direct transfer from this school to their main school. Quarterly fees ~Rs.19,000/-

Shalom Hills, Nirvana – The head mistress was pleasing and took us around the school. We visited the school when the classes were about to be over. She seemed to remember names on many kids in the school. The advantage with this school was that it is till 12^th. But it was written on the internet somewhere that the school follows a conventional teaching methodology. Though KG and above do have smart classes. Quarterly fees ~ 13,000/- Annual fees ~14,000/- Admission fees ~15,000/40,000

Lotus Valley: The school campus and building is nice, centrally AC. Classrooms are spacious. The school has various activity rooms like dance room, crafts room, music room. But these are more useful for grown up children. For the kindergarten students, these activities are done in their classes itself. But the fee for classes Pre-Nursery to 5^th is the same! The lady at the reception took us around the school building/floors and was very cordial. Overall, the school is good – in fact the best of all the schools that we saw.

We were also thinking from the perspective that we’d admit our son in a school which goes all the way to 12^{th –} the reason being that we’d most likely and preferably be in Gurgaon. Only Lotus Valley and Shalom Hills had this advantage. Though Lotus Valley gave us a feel good factor when we visited the school, the fees was considerably higher compared to Shalom Hills, Nirvana.

After considering most factors, we finalized Lotus Valley International School as it perhaps the only “international” school in our vicinity and within our budget!!!

Another blog: “Gurgaon School Admissions – My Two Cents”