I am thinking of enrolling my 3 yr old into karate classes. This is basically to teach her self-defense moves but my friend says that these classes are seldom of much help. In case of an attack, kids will not be able to defend themselves from their attackers. Now I am in a dilemma as to enroll her or not. Is she too young for the classes? Read More...

Hello Parents,

I was trying to find a thread on Play Schools but did not find one and was surprised. Did I miss it?

Anyways is there somebody out there who has an experience with La Petite Play schools. They are run by G D Goenka group and I did not find any feedback on the net. They are the new age schools preaching latest methods of teaching but are they really good? There is a branch which they have opened in Paschim Vihar, does anybody have a feedback on this specific branch? Read More...

While Indian schools have always had large numbers of students, the situation got particularly out of hand in the 1990s where it was not unheard of to have classrooms with close to 60 students. To make matters worse there was only one person playing a mentoring role for 60 students – the class teacher. This created generations of students who suffered from a curtailed amount of personal guidance in their formative years.
International schools brought smaller classrooms into the environment of Indian schools. It became evident quite quickly that students began to develop better in these smaller classrooms. It is quite obvious that the lower student-to-teacher ratio benefited them and here lies the very crux of this article – how can your child gain a competitive advantage from a healthier ratio. Firstly we must differentiate between what we mean by a healthy ratio and a low ratio.
Creating a healthy ratio within the concept of a low number of students per teacher is very crucial towards attaining the benefits of both a good amount of personal time with the teacher and the benefits of studying in a classroom of your peers. Most schools today have a ratio of about 10 students per teacher and while this seems to be ideal in theory it leaves little room to create a dynamic schedule where some students may need more personal guidance than others. RIMS International School and Junior College believes that the ideal ratio is 1 teacher per 5 students. Now we can move on to the benefits.

1. Personalized Learning: While students benefit from a standardized curriculum that is tailor made for the tasks that the world offers them, they also have a variety of skills and ways to achieve their goals. It is important that a teacher can identify these differences so that they ensure that their students derive the most out of their learning experience. This is only possible with a low, healthy ratio so that the teacher can create a balance between the differences and the need to build on uniformity.

2. Mental Strengthening: Students suffer from many forms of stress because of several different factors. Teachers in a healthy ratio environment are able to spend enough time with each student in order to understand their mental strengths and build on their weaknesses while enhancing their strengths. Such mentoring is very important; both for performance in school as well as in their future careers where stress and pressure builds and only the cool and calm survive and do well.

3. Identifying Learning Difficulties: Similar to point one, a teacher in a healthy ratio environment is able to identify more accurately the students that may suffer from previously unidentified learning problems. This will allow them to talk to parents of these students and create an environment where the difficulty turns into an advantage.

4. Competitive Confidence: Every classroom is competitive in some form or another, it's the way that human beings function. While competition is healthy for development, bad performances or unfulfilled personal goals can affect the confidence of students. In a smaller classroom, the teacher is able to speak to each child in order to understand their reaction to their performance and help them understand important character building traits that aid them in recovering from any loss of confidence.

These are but some of the many ways in which a healthy student-to-teacher ratio is beneficial for your child. Ensuring both academic and mental progress and health creates an individual that is both secure in their mental makeup as well as confident in their competitiveness. Read More...

The last ten years has seen tremendous growth in the numbers of international schools in India and in particular, internationals schools in Mumbai. At a casual glance, we can ascertain that the reason behind this was the dissatisfaction with the state and national board schools, many from parents own personal experience of school. While international schools have become a popular choice for parents today, there are still many who are unsure of what are the exact benefits of having your child in one of them.
To truly understand these schools we should look at the many positive things that they bring to the academic environment rather than make a comparison with the state and national schools (though some unavoidable comparisons will appear). The reason behind this is that many international systems have been in existence for a number of years or are following on from older traditions in modern forms. It is important to understand that none of these systems are reactionary systems and have been developed to provide quality education.


1. Universally accepted certification: International schools offer universally accepted certification that ensures that your child does not miss out on any opportunities to study further. The certification boards are prestigious and maintain a high quality level and students that receive these certifications are held in high esteem by universities around the world.


2. A global syllabus for a global world: Thanks to information technology and liberalised economies the world has gotten more familiar with itself than at any time before. This creates a compulsion to make sure that knowledge of the world goes beyond just a hobby. International school syllabuses are tailor made so that students understand the differences and similarities of the world and are able to understand people from everywhere beyond the realm of language.


3. Multi-disciplinary syllabus: International schools offer a multi-disciplinary syllabus so students are under pressure to choose their specialised career paths at a young age. It also helps develop students that are proficient in a variety of knowledge bases that are beneficial in an environment where multi-speciality individuals are sought after in the working world.


4. Low student-to-teacher ratio: International school classrooms are much smaller than classrooms in standard Indian schools. This allows teachers to have more personal time with each student so that they get the most out of their learning years.


5. All-round education: Besides academics, international schools ensure that students also learn from a variety of non-academic subjects and programmes such as sports, dramatics, music and social service. All of these non-academic activities are important for the development of young, well adjusted and healthy minds. Read More...

What kind of gifts do you normally buy for young kids? Do you believe that kids will only appreciate expensive gifts? How do you buy gifts that are not only age-appropriate and enjoyable, but also help in a child’s development?
To read the related article, click here. Read More...