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Evaluating Bethany, Koramangala for my toddler daughter (turns 3 in Feb next year) Any feedback on the school, ease (or otherwise) of admission etc?

Thanks

Would you guys know if Bishop Cottons, Bangalore follows any 'maximum distance' concept - i.e. the student should be within a maximum of "X" kms away from school?

No specific knowledge of the school in question but *why* would you want your kids to do a longish commute that too in a traffic clogged city like Bangalore? I have colleagues who send their kids halfway across town because "Oh that's a good school!". Well these days you can find "good" schools pretty much anywhere if you look hard. Save those poor tykes an hour or two better employed in playtime! :)

My kid is currently in nursery at Kidzee & I may continue her at Kidzee for LKG & UKG as I'm quite happy with Kidzee.

However I do want to find out if there are better options. Does anyone have feedback on some good pre primary schools in & around Malleswaram? Other play schools such as Jumbo Kids, Poddar Kids, Heritage Kids, etc may be similar to Kidzee, so no point evaluating them (in fact I wouldnt recommend Heritage Kids). There's also Little Millennium & Neev in Sadashivnagar. Neev is said to be expensive. How is Little Millennium (formerly Roots to Wings)?

I very much doubt that you can find good schools pretty much everywhere especially in Bangalore. Also definition of good is very person specific. Cottons is definitely one of the best schools in Bangalore. There is a chance of shifting your residence too after getting admission.

We have also applied to Bethany. I believe they have a strength of 90 and our application number was over 1000 :). I think they are still taking applications and the list will be out on 18th Jan. The school is quite an old and established school.

I always wondered about this. I mostly attended average to bad schools, including rural government schools. So I don't understand what really happens when somebody attends a great school like Cottons or Bethany or Joseph.

Can one of the alumni from these elite schools shed some light on this. Only famous place I attended was National College [Jayanagar, Bangalore], but I can't say it helped me in any way, then or later.

Some of the things I learned from the schools I attended that directly impact my life today are:

1. Openness to new and unconventional ideas - challenging the norm
2. The ability to form and defend my own opinions regardless of what the popular "groupthink" might be
3. Meeting and getting along with different kinds of people

Now I can't offer definitive proof of why and how these skills were imparted by the school etc. but I feel it does make a difference at the end of the day.

Are you sure got this from attending a famous school? The only famous college I attended, actually shunned the first two ideas. They were very close minded and promoted conformance. I managed to get the third from regularly changing schools as my dad kept getting transferred. Between 1st and 10th grade, I attended 5 schools in 4 different towns.

Therefore, I thought famous schools were all about discipline, conformance, traditions, etc.

Hmm... I attended two schools - The Valley School (KFI) and Mallya Aditi Int'l - both in Bangalore. I don't know if they were famous (at least at the time I attended them). They were also fairly new back then and thought to be unconventional in some respects. Both had very limited class sizes (25-35 as I recall), both had extremely "interested" teachers who took the trouble to engage individually with each child and not really lump us together as one class or group.

I remember Valley School, I had classmates in 84 who came from there. Yeah, that is an unconventional school. But my original question was about traditionally famous schools like Bishop Cottons or St.Joseph's.

Hi Anand,

I would highly recommend Nisarga Play home in Malleswaram. It is located on 9th cross, near margosa road. Here is the full address. My son went here and absolutely loved the school. Very good attention on overall child development and teachers are very caring too.

I attended neither of those schools. But I give my perspective. These are full fledged schools in that they teach from grade 1 to undergrad. So there is always of the option of consulting a higher school faculty in case the teacher or student needs any help. They have playground (and pool) & generally encourage sports. There are in existence for a long time and most of the administrative process & procedures are standardized. Probably teaching meets certain standards. Lastly, they in the center of the city and can be reached by travelling few KMs.

I am in same boat as you are , typical Bangalore south upbringing, MES Jayanagar ->Vijaya College->Malnad College ( Mysore univ.) -> Xaviers MBA. Sure that I dont qualify into the elite educated league except for Xaviers (may be) , but my take is , old colleges and reputed one among them have a good alumni and networking traits. This would be one of the biggest ( in my opinion) strengths as it helps in your career and be part of the 'Old Boys Club'-
eg.: Doon, Stephens, Cottonians etc etc

So you are just guessing like me.:)

I don't see much value in this, but will await to hear from an alumni.

Fortunately, all schools I attended had medium to great playgrounds. When I see current groundless schools in Bangalore, I cringe. In fact, the worst school (government high-school) I attended, had the best sports record in Coorg district, and I learned a lot of sports there.

Don't see how it affects the students.

This I want to hear about.

I always walked to every school, except when I was too young. So, local schools are actually better in this respect.

My simple criteria for an academic institution at school level are: are the kids happy? And do the teachers care? You will find out answers to both by talking to the school management and other parents. Curricula are fairly standardized these days and you really can't go too wrong with an ICSE or CBSE board. In fact my nephews attend the same SSC school that I attended and they seem to be coming along fine.

As far as the question about how beneficial schools are, there are certain ones like Doon that have well developed old-boy networks that you can tap into but beyond that I sincerely believe it's the relationships you develop as an adult and through your career that will benefit you more eventually. The kids will be 17 or less when they attend these schools. How many of your current meaningful relationships-personal or professional- were developed that early?