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Any inputs on Vibgyor in Whitefield?

Did you get a chance to visit the Open Day? I am very much interested to know more. As my kid is just 3.5 now I wonder if I can go for the next session planned on December 1st. If you don't mind can you please elaborate on the major points of discussion on that day?

3.5yrs now is the right time for your child to join the next academic session(2013-2014) as he/she would be on time to reach Class-1 by the age of 6yrs.

Thanks Ranjit! I was thinking that the admissions are open for class 1 only. Do they have LKG/UKG or equivalenet as well?

Admissions are usually open right from nursery.The hierarchy is usually Nursery and two years of kindergarten.Ofcourse all depending on age and how much the child can cope with.My daughter started nursery at 3.5yrs then 2years of kindergarten.We did not put her through any of the so called playschools.We put her in the school directly

Sorry for the delay in reply.
Yes, I did attend the Open Day there. Right now, they have classes 1 to 6 and from this year they are starting a prep. The minimum age for admission to class 1 is 6 years and for prep is 5 years. They don't yet have a huge permanent facility and are running out of a leased one currently.
I discussed with them about their future plans and they said that are planning to start kindegarten/nursery batches also, but they don't have resources for that yet. So that will happen sometime in the future.
Another point to note is that the school has been started by parents from three Waldorf method based nurseries/playschools in Bangalore. So those schools are always an option for smaller children. Two of these are in Indiranagar and JP Nagar, I forgot about the third one.
Let me know, if you have any more questions. Will share whatever I know.

Its that time of the year when I see people all getting harried and worked up over their children' school admissions/sourcing admission forms etc.Thats the reason I thought this thread would be appropriate.Would be a good idea if people in Hyderabad with any information pertaining to school admissions ,school reviews & their own experiences during admission time, can pitch in with their input in here.Shall start with my experience:

We had read about the Waldorf method of education and people all over were speaking highly of it,but little did we know that we have not one but two schools in the city who follow the Waldorf method-Abhaya & Sloka,and both of them are quite old ones in the field (10+years) and apparently have quite a reputation all over the country.Till about a couple of years back Hyd and Mumbai were the only two cities with Waldorf schools,the good news is that now there are Waldorf schools in Pune and Bangalore as well.

Abhaya:www.abhayaschool.org
Sloka:www.slokawaldorf.org

The main criteria for us in downselecting a school was that we wanted a place where there would be no pressure of perfomance.With all this we decided to speak to Abhaya and we were surprised with the response on the phone-Extremely friendly and cordial and no air of formality or haughtiness.

The day of orientation was a good one,where we could talk at length and clear whatever doubts we had in our mind and we decided to go for the admissions.Accordingly an assesment day was decided(days and dates were very flexible).We were so harried and worried as we were seeing parents preparing for interviews,getting kids to mug up rhymes,count numbers etc and here we were going in like people from a different planet and our daughter had no clue of any of these things(we never put her through the playschool grind as we simply felt it was not worth it).

The session was lovely-another talk session with the teacher to understand if the child had/has any special needs and in general about the child.Nothing about us!No questions to the child,they just told us let her be the way she wants to be and so she was busy playing around-whew what a relief.

Assessment done,the next day we received a call asking us what our decision was-whoa wasnt this supposed to work the other way with we calling and chasing schools for the status?

We were pleasantly surprised and we had more or less made up our minds on going ahead with Abhaya.So we went ahead and paid the fees.From thereon the journey has been a wonderful one for both-the child as well as the parents.

This is a link to the post explaining very briefly,the Waldorf method

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shifti...ml#post2906471

Thanks again Ranjit! My kid right now goes to a place called Gurukul kids. They call his group Nursery. I guess the name changes from school to school. Some call it Pre-KG, if I am correct. If Waldorf is starting the Nursery this year then my kid should be fine to join.

Thanks yosbert for the reply! If prep starts at the age of 5 then I guess my kid has to wait for another year. But then again your reply has lot points of concern. Like, are they really committed for long term running? Doing it in a leased place means they can close it down any time right? If they close down in-between then the children will suffer very much to cope up with the main stream schools which is the only other option.

By the way, have you decided for your kid? Are you going ahead or still looking for other options?

Alex, I would suggest that you go through their website or better still, talk to some of the people involved to address your concerns.
The reason they are running out of a leased place is because they are very new (I guess 2011-12 was their first full academic year). They do not yet have the funds to acquire and setup a permanent facility. This can again be viewed as a point of concern. But from my interactions with them, they appeared quite genuine and sincere in their efforts. The school management is more of a group of teachers and parents with interest in making the Waldorf system work for their children.
Another point is that the school is till standard 6 currently and the parents of the elder children and the management are still in the process of finalizing how they want to integrate with the mainstream (read CBSE/ICSE). The did however say that CBSE is a good possibility currently.
Hence, in conclusion, if you are looking for a well settled school with well-oiled machinery running it, this is not the place. Wish they were like the schools in Hyderabad or Mumbai which have a history of 10+ years, but the fact is that they are not. Its still an extremely new setup that is trying to find its way in the big business that is child education today.
I must also clarify here that whatever I have said above are just my opinions formed by interacting with them for a day or two. I would invite you to form your own opinions based on facts and, if possible, share them with us.

Well, my kid is still 2.5 years old now, so I have to wait of at least 2 years for this school. There is of course the option of putting my kid in one of the 3 playschools/nurseries, but these are too far from my home.
Currently, I am planning to go ahead with this when the time comes, but the cynic in me is asking me to hedge my bets and have alternate options ready. Lets see.

How come you guys are getting admissions now?
Out here in Maharashtra, the admission forms are issued around January.

I am planning to go for the open house on December 1st and will try to find out what ever I can and share with you.

Yeah, there always will be pain in your heart saying if you are doing the right thing or not until you start seeing results. Even I am going through the same struggle. There are many 'so called good schools' out there, but when it comes to detail we realize its not for us. May be its regarding the way they treat your child or the fees they charge. And the biggest problem is at this age we don't have the option of asking our children what they want :)

Here in Bangalore October - November is the time most schools issue admission forms and have other admission formalities. More money for them (as you have to submit admission fees immediately on offer of admission). The actual session starts only in June! Gives schools more time to enjoy free interest income!

I am also in the "market" for my kids (would be 3+ years in June next year) nursery admission. There are two chains of thought running in the house right now! One says send her to a kids school (the likes of Neev, Klay etc) for the next three years and then shift her to a proper school after that. The second chain of thought favors getting her into a proper school right away! There are no clear cut answers and we (both myself and wife) are terribly confused. There are two advantages with going for the big school - save on repeat admission fee (about 40k) and its comparatively easier to get admission in Nursery as there are more seats. The two advantages with playschools are better education and location advantages (major schools like DPS East, Inventure etc are so far from civilization and its harrowing to think of sending a 3 year old in a school bus so far.) I'm put up near Marathalli and we are looking at schools in whitefield area primarily.

Anybody wants to help us here! Of course we'd be applying in the likes of NPS Indiranagar and if we get an admission offer from there, then we'd be sending our kid there. Any ideas about Deens Academy?

No inputs from me on the schools info there are enough Bloreans in here to offer that:)

Just wanted to make a generic comment on the school bus part that you would be amazed at how kids take to school transport.The fears and worries are in the parents' minds and the kids are hardly bothered about it,from my experiences and observations kids savour every moment of the bus travel.IMHO,this thing about distance between home and school is something that has crept into the psyche of us parents in the last couple of years.I guess this is a factor which has come in solely due to the number of schools that have opened up,I guess 10years back there were not so many schools so distance was never a deciding factor as there was never another option:)

Different experience here. My son is 3.5 year old.

Earlier school was 4 KM away and my wife would drop and pickup every day. We did not subscribe to the van service.

Now, from July, we got him to another school which is 1.5 KM away from home (new school) and the van service was reasonably priced.

Most kids traveled by van and the van dropped him the last (so he got to spend more time in the van).

Morning drops would be by my wife. But he insisted that his mother come and pick him up.

So, we now stopped van service from October.

It is not that he does not enjoy travel - in fact he loves travel, but somehow the van 'thing' did not work for him.

Wow, its as if you are describing my situation, accurate to the last detail including location! Where are you put up? Perhaps we can share some notes.