Review- VPMS, Lohegaon, CBSE School, Pune

By Madhurie Singh, June 11, 2010

Today I went to VPMS, Lohegaon, to drop my sons as due to rains the bus was delayed by 15 minutes.

Also as now its so much relief to get both my sons to same school at the same time,  I can go on a walk with my hubby 🙂 after sending the kids.

The bus is obviously not crowded. The driver waits and gives a call if he is early. The bus timing is 7:45am for pick up for all classes. 8:30am school starts. Nursry, LKg, Ukg kids are back at 12:30pm. And Std 1-above kids by 3:30pm. M There are 4 bus routes. For Lohegaon-Dhanori, Viman Nagar, Kalyani Nagar, Kharadi.

The school has metamorphed from under construction to a lovely spacious one.

I loved the circular building which allows light to pass through the top to the assembly. The Kg kids have to sit on the vinyl floor and use colorful tables. The rest of the bigger classes had chairs and tables. I sat and felt the chairs were small for me, and forced me to sit upright!

Also their rule of changing from shoes to crocs is not very happy thing but its not a big deal.

The green board was a a folding one, and I saw it for the first time in my life. The classes had a platformed area all around the two walls with a shelf running through the entire room, which was meant for keeping the books. The rooms had four fans and very bright rooms lit with natural light. It was a pleasure to see big rooms.

The kids have compulsory activities every day. This week they did Art, Karate, Music, Dance, Gymnastics and Skating .

Since all the books are same as DPS, there is not much change in the studies.

The maths is of same standard. EVS (science) is also same. The english seems easier but with more written work book, like DPS has, and hindi is way ahead of ICSE.

The homeworks are very less and there is not pressure.

But Maths, science , english are not my concern at all, as we take all these subjects at a much more practical way with real time experiments at SuperIndianKid. I have now taught the concept of tables and multiples to even my younger one 5.5 yr using blocks and tiles on the floor. Science, they know what is electricity, motion and magnetism in a way that I wish some one had taught me when I was in school.

So the point that like I always try to make is that the concept and facts behind what is taught in each chapter must be clear, is a parent's responsibility. The school will give provide us with the curriculum and the guidelines.

Yes the locals will be more as the school is new, but the high fee (Rs 30k-35K) which is at par with DPS will also ensure some filtering for the benefit of those parents who have difficulty in sending their kids to an all inclusive like environment.

The road to the school is still a nightmare. The  Nagar Road route takes only 20 minutes (9km) is awful (This is a small road which open right next to Aman Setu. Then while driving back we took the airport route and again it took us 30 min but was 17km!!!!!

The principal of the school Mrs Mrinalini Bhosale is very cheerful and was very excited to show off the development. I can very easily understand the enthusiasm as I am going through the similar feeling with my new venture SuperIndianKid.

The kids are from all kinds of inclusive society and slowly high starta people are also filtering into it.

I respect teachers who take any suggestion and implement them. All teachers I have interacted are down to earth with no air that will suffocate you. I have seen complete change in two teachers in just one month and feel, we parents should also give time to teachers, when we expect something. I was concerned about my sons handwriting. Both teachers suggested that I have to make them practice everyday as somehow their writing was not upto the mark. (hereditary I guess :)). I tell you ever since I bought the Mc Millan handwriting practice booklets as suggested by the teachers, and started to sit with them till they finished one page per day, they have changed from crabby style to stylish style. I did have to wack them and erase till the perfect alphabets were reproduced by them. They understood mumma will not be happy with chalta hai handwriting. I did take the pains to sit with them for hours initially. Now they know what is expected.

Teachers are the most important investment for a school that will make or break its name.