MT: Schools in Bengaluru (Bangalore)- II

[r2i_hopeful]

We are still finalizing our plans to go on an international assignment in bangalore. I understand some schools start in June (Indian Academic year) whereas some schools start in August (USA academic year). Can anyone has done this checking and have this information handy. We are looking for good schools in Belandur (Marathahalli/Sarjapur road) area. Our preference is to go with a school starting in August. Thanks in advance.

[ronith]

Schools following USA or UK calender in Sarjapur:

TISB ( IGCSE then IB DP )
Indus International ( IB ) was PYP and DP not sure about MYP. Pls check with the school.

I am not aware of any school in marthahalli which follows US calender.
All are on Indian academic year.

Thanks,
roni

We are still finalizing our plans to go on an international assignment in bangalore. I understand some schools start in June (Indian Academic year) whereas some schools start in August (USA academic year). Can anyone has done this checking and have this information handy. We are looking for good schools in Belandur (Marathahalli/Sarjapur road) area. Our preference is to go with a school starting in August. Thanks in advance.

[tejas_ryan]

Hi, we have enrolled our daughter for pre-kg at Trio World School (Sahakarnagar, North Bangalore), the academic year starts from Aug 16th. I guess most of the schools who follow IGCSE/IB (especially in North Banalore) starts in August. Good luck

We are still finalizing our plans to go on an international assignment in bangalore. I understand some schools start in June (Indian Academic year) whereas some schools start in August (USA academic year). Can anyone has done this checking and have this information handy. We are looking for good schools in Belandur (Marathahalli/Sarjapur road) area. Our preference is to go with a school starting in August. Thanks in advance.

[r2i_hopeful]

Thanks Ronith and Tejas. These were the names I saw for August start, but was hoping that there may be others I do not know. Another question, if we did not put our kids in these schools, and choose some other school like Greenwood high or inventure academy would it be difficult to adjust to US schools if we decided to move back after two years? I am novice in this area and hoping to get some feedback on this aspect. My kids are 5th and 1st grades for 2010 academic year.

[ronith]

Hi,

Greenwood and Inventure both follow ICSE. Recently Greenwood announced that they got IGCSE affiliation. But you need to check with the school to verify. But I am not very sure how well these school curriculum correlate to that of US schools.

Schools such as TISB, Indus etc have students from other countries. So usually people migrating to other parts of the world prefer such school with international students. I believe you know these are expensive too.

Thanks,
ronith

Thanks Ronith and Tejas. These were the names I saw for August start, but was hoping that there may be others I do not know. Another question, if we did not put our kids in these schools, and choose some other school like Greenwood high or inventure academy would it be difficult to adjust to US schools if we decided to move back after two years? I am novice in this area and hoping to get some feedback on this aspect. My kids are 5th and 1st grades for 2010 academic year.

[r2i_hopeful]

Hi Ronith,
Thanks.. Yes, I realize they are expensive. I just found out the fee structure for Inventure and it is not cheap either. The total was close to 3 lakhs per kid. Waiting to hear from Greenwood high. Also, looking at other schools like Gopalan international. They are around 1.2 lakhs, looks still high but seem very reasonable compared to Inventure. I read on this forum several people recommending this school. We may visit B'lore in April to get more idea on these school. Since, June is only 3 months away, I was leaning towards the schools with Aug start, but looks like some schools starting in June also may still have openings. Just wondering if you have any other suggestions for schools in the south close to Belandur area?

[ca2ba]

Hi,
I was wondering if any parents of kids going to Primus school give me an honest opinion of the school and their thoughts? We are looking at 5th and 1st standards. Planning on doing the admissions soon. So do reply.

[shpkumar]

We R2I'd in July 2009 and chose Treamis (www.treamis.org) for various reasons - starts mid July, good facilities, connection with US academies, very good PR and website, reasonable rates.

However, with 5 months behind us, we are thoroughly disappointed.
1. The management is unreliable - several teachers were missing the first two months and they kept saying they are sick. The principal resigned recently due to health reasons, now the director is also changing. Still several teachers are absent and either there are no substitute teachers or they do not do anything in class.
2. Staff/teachers are untrained and probably have no clue how to handle the kids (sometimes too harsh, sometimes too lax). The kids spent a lot of time doing nothing in class. The teaching is very orthodox - read from the book and regurgitate exactly.
3. Turnover is too high. As I said earlier, several teachers were missing and even the one that are there do not seem interested or capable of teaching..

Wow, serious? I had narrowed it down to that school since admissions were in July. Did you pull our your kids then?

[r2i_hopeful]

Anyone has kids in Ebenezer International school? One of my friends friend sending his kids to this school and highly recommending it. However, our workplace is near Intel on ORR. From the school website, it says the commute is 25 km and 33min (not sure if this is possible) from Intel office. We are still finalizing on the school and where to live. One option is to stay in HSR layout which is in the middle of this school and office. Any input will be appreciated.

[r2i_hopeful]

ChicagoR2I,
So.. Have you made the final decision on the school? Also, could you send me the spreadsheet as I am unable to send PM.
Thanks,

Hi Everyone,

Last two days our family (a team of 4 - parents, uncle - who have kids same age as our kids, grandparent) went in person to the following schools in Bangalore on our behalf.

[LIST=1]

Greenwood High - Very impressed with the campus and school management. Excellent and clean facilities and they are ready to give admissions in Apr/May. Very expensive - comes out to 3.7 Laks for 3rd grader and LKG (including admn fees, annual fees, uniform, books, bus fees etc).

DPS East - Picked up admn form for 3rd grader, LKG admn not very positive - they asked us to try in March. May 29th they have their last round of entrance tests for 3rd grader, two rounds are already over. Facilities are ok, does not come close to Greenwood or other Intl schools.

Prakriya - Admissions are over in Sep, so the school did not encourage any further talks.

Gear - Did not allow past the school gate, watchman says admissions are over for both grades. Watchman pointed to the school address board and asked them to call the # on it.

Ryan - This is one school that was unanimously rejected by our family. Admissions office is very rude and they did not give concrete answers about fees structure. Also, they would not say whats included in their annual fees. Kids were eating their lunch out in the playground, sitting on the ground. My parents said they did not like that sight.

Gopalan Intl - Excellent facilities, very courteous staff. Admissions officer took them around the campus showing them their impressive classrooms, tennis court, swimming pool etc. Fees is 2.8 laks for both kids including admission fees, annual fees, uniform, books, bus etc. They gave a printed prospectus of the school along with clear fees breakdown. Daycare available for extra fees, this may be useful for LKG kid who only has half day of school. LKG, there are only 4-5 seats available, need to hold the seat ASAP. 3rd grade, they are opening a new section, so we can wait about 15-20 days.
[/LIST]
We are now leaning towards Gopalan Intl, its priced better than Greenwood - still very expensive in our books. We have to put down 100% of the admn fees (70K + 50K = 1.2 L) in the next 2-3 days to guarantee admissions.

Here is our biggest dilemma, if any of you have any thoughts please reply back.

My wife and I are both looking for jobs, with wife trying to transfer internally through her current employer. We only started the transfer process two weeks ago and hence not much movement there. We are looking for schools in Whitefield/Sarjapur area with her employer in mind.

Given that we dont have any job offers in hand, we are wondering if we should wait until Apr/May and risk Gopalan admission and put the kids in Greenwood (which is 1 Lak more, lot of money :mad:) or pay the 1.2 Lak admission fee now and hope that the transfer will go through (again lot of money :mad:). It appears that the normal timeframe for transfer is 8 - 12 weeks and some have taken 3-4 months as well.

Company has agreed for her to physically move to India on unpaid leave and then joining India office once a position is identified etc.

We are also planning to start trying for other jobs in the mean time to be safe.

Yes, we are open for the conf call. I will send a PM.

Regards,
ChicagoR2I