Moving to a different city with a new job? Kids approaching 5 yeas of age and getting ready for grade school (class I and above)?. If the answer to either of the questions is yes and if you are anything like me, then the first thing that comes to your mind is SCHOOLS!!!
Finding a great school is very important: Finding good schools is probably one of the top worries of all parents these days! And very rightly so. School is a place where the basic foundation of learning is laid for your child. This is where your child learns to make the first independent decisions, interacts with a different environment without the cover of parents and is exposed to a barrage of knowledge, information and tools that he/she will rely on for the rest of the life. It is thus, extremely critical that we find the right schools.
Finding good schools is very difficult: However, finding a good school, like most things in life, is easier said than done. We are faced with multiple questions when choosing a new school for our kids. Such as
- Should we go for a newly established school that offers shiny new buildings and talks about using technology or should we go for the prestigious, 60 year old school in the centre of the city?
- Should we go for CBSE/ICSE boards with all India presence or will it be State board for ease of local assimilation and access to local universities or should we try out the IB with their innovative new teaching methodologies?
- Multimedia equipped class rooms, future advanced curriculum, child friendly classrooms, bag-free curriculum - what does this all mean? Is it even important? Why and how will it benefit my child?
Step by step approach to finding good schools: There are enough schools and more than enough information and jargons available to drown us all. So here, we will lay out a step by step approach to help parents find the best schools for their children
1. Decide what will you look for in a new school: First and foremost, it is important to get a clarity on what are the important aspects that a school must have. This is a combination of intrinsics that every school must have (e.g. good teachers) and specifics (e.g. distance from your place of residence). You can find more information in our article Most important things to look for when finding new schools
2. Create a short list of top schools that meet your criteria: Once you have your criteria, you need to scan through the list of schools in the city and create short list of 10 schools. This will involve gathering names and information on schools, discussing with your peers and fellow parents etc. You can find more information in our article How to create a short list of top schools for your kids
3. Gather details through school visits and select schools to apply: In the final step
, you need to gather more detailed information about schools through school visits, online searches etc.
and then select 3-5 schools that not only are best for your kids but also offer a good chance of accepting him/her. There are specific things that you should observe when you make a school visit. You can find more information about this in our article How to gather details and select 5 new schools for your kids
Hope this has been informative. Tell us how you chose schools for your kids? Did you follow different steps? We would love to hear your thoughts and experien
ce.