Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)

-   Shifting gears (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shifting-gears/)

-   -   The School & College Admissions Thread (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shifting-gears/71698-school-college-admissions-thread-72.html)

ICSE is what used to be called Anglo-Indian syllabus in the old days and is based out of India. IB is based out of Switzerland if I remember right.

Usually fee is expensive in IB schools, so you will see a better teacher-student ratio. My son had 1:6 in his PreKG (EYP-1) and my daughter has 1:8 currently on her 8th grade (MYP-3).

It is mostly oriented towards project based learning, presentations. So you'll see research like study from primary (PYP) years itself. The students will be doing it themselves in the secondary school (MYP) years.

There is less focus on 2nd and 3rd language. History-Geography are taught direct, if you are to compare to your own schooling.

You will have Tamil/Kannada/Malayalam depending where you are putting up, till grade 5 (PYP). Seeing across 2 schools, only Hindi is being offered in secondary school, otherwise it is French/Spanish depending on individual schools.

Generally IB is less demanding in terms of homeworks, assessments in the primary and secondary years. I can confirm this is the story till Class 8 (MYP-3) Am told Class 11 and 12 (i.e DP or Diploma Program) changes all that, the workload gets very demanding. Lot more than the board exam years from our school days.

Primary school it should be ok. You have to put effort for 2nd/3rd language. This is what we saw for our son who we switched to CBSE in grade 2. English and Math were a breeze.

Academic workload will increase on switch, you'll see homework-assessments the whole 9 yards on India base boards. Infact IGCSE is also demanding in terms of workload.

One weird thing I found was the usage of imperial system in books. No metric system, no Indian currency :Frustrati This adjustment you'll have to bridge.

Mostly explained above, unless you are looking for something specific.

I've not got that far. But academic calendar is different for IB. Diploma Program is not a direct fit for Indian competitive exams. I believe calculator usage is there in IB in the DP years, Indian competitive exams have an opposite school of thought.

If your kid is just going into grade 1, thinking about board exams or college admissions is way far out.

College admission query for a friend whose son is interested in pursuing B.E Aeronautical engineering in Bangalore. Which are the best colleges offering the course?

My kids did schooling from IGCSE, based on that experience :
Gain : Kids are better prepared for post-school exams since they already have experience with application-oriented exams. IB requires lesser rote-learning.

Loss : If you shift kids to CBSE after 6/7/8th, they will have a tough time with languages. Hindi / Local languages are not compulsory subjects in IB. These subjects are "taught" to meet regulations , but exams are optional. So kids don't pay much attention.

They can appear for all exams that require 10th / 12th like NDA / JEE / NEET.

When you say it is not a direct fit, apart from the "toughness" and adjustment part, is there an ineligibility that will be there to attend any of those exams for an IB student? Are they eligible to attend to those exams just like a CBSE and State syllabus student?

Can you please clarify on what you mean by direct?

Thanks a lot for your insights. This first hand information is truly valuable.

Apart from the toughness, will there be any ineligibility factor to switch to any of the other boards from IB? Or can we just like that apply to other board schools and no questions asked or concerns raised as the kids is coming from an IB.

Now I am contemplating if to go for IB or ICSE.

Netfreak has already covered the eligibility factor. From what I hear, IB gets to use calculators no log tables, which is polar opposite to the school of thought from Indian school boards.

Besides IB-DP exams do not match Indian board exam or college admission timeline.

History is not taught. They learn history from projects. Geography is not a direct subject, but they do learn the concepts.

There is no ineligibility factor. If at all, it will be by virtue of languages. My daughter took French in grade 6, and that eliminated a lot of schools we could switch at grade 8.

No school will take new students no questions asked. Even my daughters' previous school which is easy going at admission, evaluated kids at admission time.

If you are attempting some popular school then they'll make a hue and cry regardless of which board the kid is from.

This is your decision to make.

In my case, both kids needed the transition time. Daughter studied Italian school till grade 2 and son started talking at 3.5 years. Both the kids benefited from easy going nature of IB and smaller classes.

The son has made the transition to CBSE at grade 2 easily, my missus also helped the transition on language side.

IGCSE has more academic rigour than IB. My daughter did IGCSE over the last 2 years and IB now. Its like a relative vacation in IB over IGCSE.

This is a big positive. IB PYP ensures that the primary years are enjoyable, and the early childhood is not lost in heavy academics.

I see that the scene in IB, once in high school is very different – Grade 7 and 8 was more like transition, and now in Grade 9 is full-on, with assignments and assessments. But still, the focus is more on understanding and delivering, and not just exam-oriented.

Thanks for heads up. We have a year to get there.

IGCSE also is not exam oriented, just that academic workload is much higher than IB.

No concerns from eligibility point of view. My son switched to MH board for 11th / 12th since MH board is much easier. He did not study PCM / English at all and only solved last few years of question papers few weeks before exams.

There were some practical issues regarding schedule of results and format of results. Schools are well aware of these in Mumbai, so they provided results in a different format as well (required for 11th admissions in MH).

Tough to say.

My experience with IGCSE that I am extrapolating for IB:

1. Better aligned with mental framework required for some competitive exams (Like Engineering / Law)
2. More flexible, students can drop most of the subjects form 9th standard
3. Needs "Extra" work form 8th so that students can solve problems without calculators
4. More expensive

Bangalore Team-BHPians, any feedback on NPS Sarjapur Road ? It was opened last year I think. And now I could see another NPS coming up nearby, starting operations next year.
If they are operated by franchisees, then wonder if they have consistent quality in education.

Bhpians from Bangalore, any feedback about Brigade school, JP nagar and Euro school Bannnerghatta road. Looking for enrolling my kids and any feedback would help. We stay in JP nagar.

Also any suggestions for good schools in and around JP nagar, bannerghatta road or Kanakpura road?

Don't know much about the two you have mentioned, but I have heard good reviews about PSBB LLA off Bannerghatta Road, this belongs to the Chennai-based PSBB group. My colleague's 2 kids passed out from this school. I was interested in this for my kids, but it's just too far from where I stay.

Quoting myself. Over the past few weeks, we had been to multiple schools in and around JP Nagar.

1. Euro School, Bannerghatta - Very good infra wise and liked the curriculum and approach to teaching. Rejected only due to very high fees.
2. Chrysalis high, Bannerghatta road - Good infra and reasonable fee structure. Allows intra school transfers later. Shortlisted.
3. Global Indian International school, Bannerghatta road - Did not like the infra that much. Fees is very reasonable though.
4. Sherwood high - Very good infra, liked the academics & approach to teaching. Also liked the way the interaction with kids was done. Reasonable fee. Shortlisted.
5. Vibgyor high - Liked everything about the school but the fees was a deterrent. So did not consider in the end.
6. NPS, JP Nagar - New sister concern of NPS opened in 2020. Good infra including for sports. Reasonable fee too. Shortlisted.
7. Brigade school, JP Nagar - Applied and awaiting student interaction scheduled for this friday. Post that will have to finalize.
8. Carmel Academy, Bannerghatta road - Old convent school vibe with a very reasonable fee structure. Wife didnt like it though and so didnt proceed further.
9. Sudarshan Vidya Mandir, Bannerghatta - This is a CBSE only branch of their Jayanagar one. Couldn't see the whole campus as it was raining on the day we went. Rejected though as it was quite far.
10. School of India, Bannerghatta - Anekal road - Owned by DPS management itself, the campus is huge with a very big football/cricket ground. Separate area for swimming too. Very good review of the school by parents (met few parents on the day we went as it was annual day and they had come) and reasonable fee as well. Rejected as it is around 10kms from our place.

We are finalized with Sherwood(ICSE) and NPS(CBSE) for now but in a dilemma about which one to go with. While I have gone through the pros and cons of ICSE vs CBSE still unsure of which one to enroll my kids into. To confuse us further both schools have impressive infra, good reviews and also almost equidistant from our home (<4kms).

Any suggestions/reviews of these schools would surely help.

What is the fees for Euro school (and Chrysalis high) ?

Regarding board, ICSE is way too much work for kids. between these two, I would recommend CBSE + English classes to fill language gap.

Euro school for Jr KG is 120000 and they increase 10% every year. Apart from that they have 30-35% increase when students move to 1st, 6th, 8th and 10th. This makes it ~11l by the time they reach 10th.

Chrysalis high is not high. I believe it was 120000 with 8-10% increase every year.

I’m planning to move to Cochin for my daughter’s kindergarten because my hometown is in a rural area and we’re both still under WFH.

This gives us the freedom to pick any school as we can rent an apartment very close to the school.

I did a lot of internet research and getting in touch with relatives in Cochin, and ended up with some recommendations.

Would any fellow tbpians have recommendations on which kindergartens are the best in their experience?

My current unranked KG shortlist is the following:

• Global Public School
• Rajagiri kalamaasery
• Rajagiri kakkanad
• Bhavans vidya mandir
• Toc H
• Vidyodaya
• St Paul’s
• Choice

A lot of people suggested skipping Choice (including parents whose kids were currently at choice), citing that students there tend to be the children of ultra rich and that it affects the well being of other kids. Not sure what the reality is, any thoughts on this?

From 1st grade onwards, it seems Kendriya Vidyalaya is the best but they don’t seem to have KG. I plan to try getting admission into KV after my daughter’s KG.