How to Choose a Good Preschool for Your Child?
Apr 24, 2023
Choose a Good Preschool for Your Child Consider factors like curriculum, teaching methods, facilities, safety, and staff-to-child ratio to find a nurturing and stimulating preschool environment.
What school is to college, Pre-School is to formal schooling. Welcome to the world of active parenting! Where an important task to be handled at the child’s age of 3+ years is to find a good pre-school for your ward. The one who was just a toddler a few days ago shall be a school going child in no time. Now is the time to flex your network and sift it for more information.
Well begun is half-done and also, being well informed is more than half of this task accomplished. Here are a few very important tips we are going to share with you which will help you zero-in on the right school for the star of your lives.
Distance
Proximity from home is the most important factor for a child’s overall wellbeing. The child should not be spending more than 20-25 minutes in commuting to school. The time spent travelling eats on the child’s stamina and attention required for enjoying all the activities at school.
If you choose to go beyond this travel-time, do make sure that you opt for school-transport. All good schools invest in safe, comfortable and convenient conveyance for children. This will save you as a parent good chunk of time every day.
The School’s Vision
The most important aspect of any school’s successful future is the School’s Vision which translates into making every child reach his true potential. It gives you a clear pathway of how the school functions and what are its core values. These core values will be the ones which you shall witness in your child over a period of your association with the school.
Educators and thought leaders around the globe vouch for progressive, value based, humane and responsible schools who seep in the same qualities in their students.
The school vision also consulates towards placing its students well after schooling. The same can also be found out through the school’s website. After all, the ultimate aim of the entire process is to establish the child’s independence and a good vocational standing in future.
Once you are sure about your choice, visit the school again but this time with your child. Give them a chance to look around and see how they feel in the new environment and how do they react to the environment and the teacher.
It is important to take your child’s opinion too. This would not only express your respect for your child’s needs but will also ensure better adjustment of the child in a new environment.
Choosing a good pre-school for your child is a complete journey of building trust with the child and the prospective new school and it better be a good experience for you both!
The School’s Brand- Value and credibility
Enlist the names of all good schools in your vicinity. Now rate them all in order of their respective Brand-Value.
We shall also discuss where this brand-value comes from. Basis this rating, do a little research online and see how credible that school is when it comes to Parent Satisfaction and Academic stature. Shortlist 3 to 4 schools which you plot down in this manner. And here’s your first cue to the next steps of your treasure-hunt.
Infrastructure
Now is the time to go and visit the schools you have shortlisted and further rate them in order of the forth discussed criteria. A good infrastructure gives you a fair idea on how inviting the school shall be to your ward and how happy your child will be when he spends 1/3rd of his time awake there.
Look for schools which have a formal school set-up attached with the pre-school. This will ensure smooth transition from one phase of learning to the next. This also helps the parents build better trust and rapport with the school for life-time.
Schools are the places where the real talent is spotted, be it academics or sports. Do look for open spaces for games and other exploration activities for children.
Facilities which boast of providing exposure to myriad of physical activities to the children; where there is scope to experience variety of sports; where there is equal emphasis on open spaces and restricted spaces for children. After all education is not only aimed at honing academic skills.
Safe and secure spaces in the school should be the top amongst your priority.
A place which emanates feeling of being secure and protected helps the children focus on learning activities and helps raise confident individuals.
Transport facility which promises cctv access and an adult accompanying the children at all traveling times is an added advantage.
Learning Spaces
Gone are the days of black-board/ chalk and duster/ a few charts and some slides. New age schools promise more and beyond. Colourful, safe and rich in terms of providing the children with varied learning opportunities; inviting enough for the children to explore and learn freely and have play resources manageable by the children themselves, are some signs of good learning spaces.
An eclectic mix of natural surroundings with plenty of fresh air, sunlight and a small wet space within the reach of the children is an appropriate area for the children’s learning. Couple it up with a great colour scheme and comfortable yet flexible seating area, you have an unmatched attractive space for the young learners.
Do go through the testimonies of the previous batches of parents who would have had a good/ not so good experience with the school. The ‘not so good’ experience is also a good reference for a parent to compare it in commensuration with other schools. The ‘Good experiences’ will of course tell you about the credibility of curriculum, types of activities and kind of exposure given to each child.
As clichéd as it may sound, Board Results are the true testimony of how well does the school rate on this criteria. The school which promises good foundation will be the one able to produce good results in higher classes. There’s no two way about it. This also is an indicator of how closely the teachers monitor each child’s progress in academics. Though this shouldn’t be the only thing to look for but it definitely serves as good reference point of teachers’ and the school’s investment in each child’s overall growth. Success stories are never written overnight. Schools have to toil hard for years to reach such a state of excellence and the school which has achieved this is the one to look out for!
The Faculty
One thorough interaction with the facilitators will give you a right kind of a feedback on how well equipped they are when it comes to handling children with warmth and care while providing them with the right kind of opportunities to explore their surroundings with ease.
The facilitators, if friendly and professionally equipped with the right skills, help each child find his/her strengths. Each child is born with special innate abilities and must get a chance to bloom. The facilitators must be energetic, warm and friendly. Gone are the days when the ‘Teacher’ could be authoritative. She now has to be fervent with a child-like energy, with curiosity of a young learner herself and compassionate & patient like a parent.
The School which invests into training their teachers is the one which believes in raising and educating children well. While shortlisting the schools, one must look at the number of professional development programmes conducted for the teachers. The easiest way to find that out is to browse through the school’s website and you have all important information to your access.
Curriculum and Pedagogy
A child goes to school not to just learn how to read and write but to become a better human being and a responsible citizen too. Studies have time and again proven that good and wholesome education right from the entry level ensures good values and a strong sense of responsibility in children.
This comes with the curriculum and activities which are in consonance with an objective of a child’s holistic development. Broad based activities, focus on each child, global standards of learning, exposure to various and varied experiences and the commitment to stand the test of changing times and curricular demands is all what makes any curriculum promising, futuristic and aimed at training well- rounded individuals.
The curriculum which relies heavily on new experiences, sensorial learning and differential instructions and objectives should be your go-to criteria. The new age activities are not those typical generalised things to look at. They are more rooted in the concept of ‘learning as a journey rather than ‘learning as an outcome’only.