Soniya Donison is founder-director of Petals Montessori School (PMS), ranked among the 20 most admired preschools of Bangalore in the EducationWorld Survey of Preschools 2011. Promoted in October 2010, PMS offers preparatory and upper kindergarten programmes to 60 children between ages two-six, in air-conditioned classrooms equipped with a range of Montessori learning materials, reading and sleeping rooms, and a sand-filled play area in an enclosed terrace among many other facilities, and takes special pride in its programmes for differently-abled children.
Newspeg. PMS recently launched a specially designed ‘mentor a teacher programme’ under which it will train volunteer teachers of the Bangalore-based NGO 3D-Empowerment, which currently runs a preschool for poor children in the garden city. “Beginning June, we will train batches of ten volunteers, each of whom will be assigned one of our teachers as mentor, in best preschool education practices,” says Donison.
Genesis. A travel and tourism graduate of West London College with experience of several airlines including Indian Airlines, Donison was drawn towards early childhood education after her marriage in 2002, and signed up for study programmes with the Montessori Central International College, London, followed by a two-year teaching stint at Maple House Montessori and Royal Russell preschools, London. In 2005, she moved to Bangalore and between 2005-10, served as regional director of OE4U (Overseas Education for You), an international academic counselling organisation.
“When I moved to India seven years ago, finding an appropriate preschool for my children was a stressful experience. Given my background as a teacher, promoting a preschool was the logical option. But to actualise my plan, I had to work for five years and accumulate some capital. In October 2010, I started Petals Montessori School in a three-storied air-conditioned building with an investment of Rs.60 lakh,” recalls Donison.
Direct speech. “In PMS we are committed to following the Mont-essori method which allows children to explore, experiment and learn through varied learning materials. Here children learn by doing with teachers in the role of facilitators. In fact our USP is our highly-qualified team of 15 teachers whose skills are being continuously upgraded through teacher-training workshops held throughout the year,” says Donison.
Tuition fees. Rs.75,000-105,000 per annum
Future plans. With PMS sailing smoothly into its second year of operations, Donison wants to focus on the special needs division. “Our objective is to set new benchmarks in preschool education,” she says, and has herself signed up for a special education programme offered by The Open University, UK.
Wind beneath your wings!
Swati Roy (Bangalore)