Chennai

In the 2013 league table of this southern port city’s most respected preschools, Vruksha Montessori,  Alwarpet has ended the three-year reign of  Vaels Billabong High-Kangaroo Kids, Neelankarai

The Three-Year (2010-12) Reign of Vael’s Billabong High-Kangaroo Kids, Neelankarai (KKN) as Chennai’s #1 pre-primary school has ended. This year’s sample respondents comprising 276 parents with preschool of children and 62 principals/teachers in this southern port city (pop.4.5 million) have awarded the premier slot in the EW Chennai Preschool Rankings 2013 to Vruksha Montessori School, Alwarpet (VMS, estb. 2002). Consequently the Top 3 pecking order has changed — KKN has been pushed to second position with Bambino Kindergarten, Raja Annamalai Puram ranked #3.

Promoted by Nandini Joshi and Jayashree Radhakrishnan, VMS has steadily moved up in the EW Chennai preschools league table rising from #4 in 2011 and #3 last year to #1 in 2013. Chennai’s informed respondents sample has also awarded VMS top rating

on the critical parameters of teacher competence, leadership quality and teacher welfare and development. “The support we have received from the parents’ community has been pivotal to our success. Vruksha’s greatest stren-gth is our pedagogy which allows children to be children and learn at their own pace in a secure and joyful environment,” says Joshi, an alumna of Pune University and Indian Montessori Centre (IMC), Chennai, and coordinator of VMS which has 250 children nurtured by 25 teachers on its muster roll (tuition fee: Rs.36,000 per year).

Adds principal Jayashree Radhak-rishnan, a Madras University and IMC Chennai alumna: “The top rating under the parameters of teacher competence and teacher welfare and development is especially satisfying. All teachers are Montessori trained and attend regular in-service workshops. They have help-ed us build a stress-free environment which facilitates holistic early develop-ment of children. Moreover we admit at least two children with learning disab-ilities in every class and our teachers are trained to attend to their special needs.”

Further down the 2013 league table  Srishti Montessori, Nungambakkam, has retained its #4 position, and SEED, Anna Nagar, is ranked #5, a great leap forward from #13 in 2012. “SEED’s USP is our commitment to providing quality education and delivering more than we promise. We encourage active, hands-on, explorative learning which is customised to suit the varied needs and abilities of our children. It promotes their all-round development in the social, emotional, physical, language and cognitive areas,” says Jaya Sastri, founder-director of SEED (School for Enrichment in Education and Development) schools in penin-sular India. An alumna of Bombay and Trenton State (USA) univ-ersities, after a stint as director of programmes at Headstart in the US, Sastri returned to India in 1998 to promote the first SEED school in Adyar, Chennai (ranked #7), in 2004. Currently there are 23 SEED franchise preschools in Chennai, Bangalore, Coimbatore and Mad-urai. SEED, Anna Nagar, was promoted in 2009 and has an enrollment of 70 children and six teachers (tuition fee: Rs.30,000 per year).

As in the Top 5, the seating has been re-arranged in the Top 10 as well. Vanilla Play School, RA Puram has improved its ranking to #6 (from #9 in 2012) while Bamboola, Raja Annamalai Puram (#8) and Learning Tree, Adyar (#9) are ranked one step lower than last year. But Alphabet Play School, Alwarpet — ranked #15 in 2012 — has stormed into the Top 10 league table.

And still further down the table, Little Cubs, Alwarpet has moved up to #11 (from #12 in 2012) while EuroKids, Anna Nagar has plummeted from its #5 position in 2012 to #12 in 2013 followed by Kangaroo Kids, Velachery (#13); VVM-Little Millennium, Anna Nagar (#14) and Kidzee, Anna Nagar (#15). Two previously unranked preschools have debuted in the Top 20 league table — Kang-aroo Kids, Nungambakkam (#16) and iDiscoveri XSEED Preschool, Mylapore (17) — while Little Angels, T. Nagar (18); Arise ‘n’ Shine, Anna Nagar (19) and T.I.M.E Kids, Anna Nagar (20) have retained their Top 20 ranking.

To read Chennai's best preschools league table visit http://www.educationworld.in/rank-preschool/chennai/2013.html