I am not sure whether I am qualified enough to write this review. My self-doubt mainly comes from the fact that unlike most other things I wrote review about, the only school of this category(private, reasonably expensive, modern school) I have any experience about is VIBGYOR High, Marathahalli. I have almost zero experience with other schools that charge similar money and target similar parents, hence my dilemma.
So, first a little background. I myself studied in Govt funded free school for secondary and missionary school(again almost free) for higher secondary.Now, my son and daughter both goes to VIBGYOR. My daughter is in Nursery and son in Grade 3. My son is studying here from UKG. Before that, for LKG, he studied in Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in Kolkata( a traditional school).
So, now you get the picture. With that disclaimer, here goes, what I think of the school.
Pros:
The Biggest reason I never thought of changing the school is that both my son and daughter(2 year 10 months) love their school. My daughter would cry in the morning if we say ‘no school today’. My son would protest if I even start thinking of some other school.
Extracurricular activities are integrated with the course work. My son learns Music, skating and physical exercise as part of regular class(no extra fee). Other students have chosen swimming, cricket etc for the integrated extracurricular activity.
Small class size – For my daughter it is 8:1 student to teacher ratio(24 students in a class and 3 teachers), for my son 12:1 ratio( 2 teachers for 24 students)
The school wants every child to get over the fear of public speaking and public performing. Every quarter there is a culmination activity where each student has a part(however small) to play in front of the parents
VIBGYOR does not use normal commercial books available in market, but prints its own material( at least till Grade 3, as I know, not sure about higher classes). This allows them to synchronize all subjects. For example, if universe is taught is social science, then all the maths sums has stars and planets in it, field trip is to planetarium, spellings are for ‘universe’ & ‘galaxy’ etc - the same topic is covered in all subjects at the same time, from different angles.
Safety: My son has had minor cuts and falls in school( at the time of playing) Every time he came home with the wound cleanly bandaged and a note in diary. Once he got sick in class and the school immediately arranged for medical treatment and called me, first to let me know what happened and asking me to be on standby, and next asking me to come and take the child home. I have no complaints in this regard.
School buses are standard, but always has an attendant who makes sure that all the windows are shut and no student is putting hand out etc. They complain to guardian if the student makes some risky behavior(like standing while the bus moves). However, there are no seat belts etc in the bus
. In PTM, the feedback given is really relevant and individual. The teacher really observes the student and gives good feedback
There is some homework given(for my son), but both my son and daughter learns a lot in the class itself. Sometimes I am genuinely surprised in the technique by which the teacher made some complex topic clear to the student.
Surprise Tests: All the internal assessments are’surprise’ and no prior intimation is given about the same. I know some parents do not like it, but I like it a lot, because a) It does not put pressure on the student to mug up before the test b) The student needs to be prepared year-round to do better in the test
Regarding my daughter, she just loves school. No homework, so not 100% sure what she does in school, but I have seen her chant nursery rhymes(mostly English, some Hindi too) all day long. That must be a direct contribution of the school, since we did not teach her those at home.
The school inculcates the habit of library and books to the students. There is a school library that lends story books to the students. In the age of TV, that is indeed pushing a very good habbit.
Cons:
Make no mistake: this school is for profit(unlike the schools I studied as a kid). So, the school is quite expensive compared to similar other schools. Fees are hiked regularly.
In my opinion, the school standard is degrading, as they are getting more and more students. For example, for the integrated SPA(sports and performing arts), there were many choices when my son first joined. There was literally a menu of activities from which the students could choose three. Now the choices have been reduced drastically. Chess is no more(which my son enjoyed and learned in lower class)
A major thing I liked about VIBGYOR was that in sports too, every student was encouraged to participate in the finals itself. No hits, no ‘chosen few’ for the finals. Alas! From this year, that is no longer true. School Management has thought that sports can also be made a money making exercise. Now students have to pay money to participate in their own school’s sports! Now sports is not a single day activity involving the class concerned, but a 7 day extravaganza that closes the school and brings in lots of money for management.
To rake in more money, management takes in student indiscriminately. When my son was in UKG, there were only sections ‘A to E”(or something similar). Now, the sections go all the way from A to Q. With more students, the whole school infrastructure gets strained.
There is significant churning in teachers. I have already seen principal change twice. Other teachers also leave the school regularly. However, this is one area where I think the school has improved. The teacher churn has come down.
‘Customer service’ is not up to mark. I have rarely got answers to my email to school
Sometimes I think VIBGYOR’s study material is too advanced for the class. If I complain to school I get the standard response “its decided in Bombay”. Sometimes the books are not printed and does not come in time(happened only once for my son)
The Music teacher himself admitted that due to the 7 days mega sports+ performance arts event and preparation of the same, he could not teach the students adequately. That is really sad.
Another reviewer mentioned problems with Bus timings. I have observed that too, but it happens every year on the first few days of start of school. That time the bus timings indeed become chaotic. However, the whole things come down to regular rhythm after a few days. This can be very traumatic for parents for the first time, but I got used to it. From the other reviewer’s date of posting(June 6th), it seems she is referring to that time only, I shall be surprised if she still faces the issue. Still, the school mgmt should address the issue.
Because VIBGYOR prints its own books, the books are black and white. Some parents do not like that. However, my children seem to enjoy them, because though black and white, they have a lot of pictures and as I said earlier, the subjects move in sync with each other.
OK.so I guess that is it. I don’t know how VIBGYOR fares relative to other schools, but till now, the ‘pros’ overweight the ‘cons’ for me. If somebody knows a better school in East Bangalore, please let me know, I am open!