PSBB Learning Leadership Academy ( PSBB - LLA )

One of the best schools in Chennai, the PSBB started its Bangalore branch in collaberation with the Brigade Construction Group. A few years back, they split and Brigade started its own school. Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan (PSBB) Millenium schools have been set up in collaboration Learning Leadership Foundation and PSBB Group of Schools in Chennai.

Syllabus: CBSE
Location: PSBB Learning Leadership Academy ( Pre - Primary Campus)
# 75/A, Hulimavu Gate, Bannerghatta Main Road,
Bangalore – 560 076
Phone: 080–2648 4901/ 2648 4902

PSBB Learning Leadership Academy (Main Campus)
# 52, Sahasra Deepika Road, Laxmipura Village,
Near Tulip Resort, Off Banneratta Main Road,
Bangalore-560083
Phone: 080–110329119

email: psbblla@gmail.com
Website: http://www.psbbmillenniumschool.org/PSBBSchools/about_us.aspx

Languages offered: Hindi , Kannada, Sanskrit
Activities: Music, Dance, Karate Yoga, Craft. Sports: Cricket, Volleyball, Basket Ball, Foot Ball, Hand Ball, Table Tennis.

 Admission: In the first week of November 2008, application forms were issued for Rs.300. Admission based on written test and interaction.
Fees: I consider fees to be nominal considering the hike in fees by all other branded ones. Fees is 11,500 per term for three terms. That's going to be about 35K per annum. I guess the bus fees is around 15K per annum. Admission fee of 40K which is non-refundable.

Remarks: Due to the popularity of PSBB Chennai, many from there would consider this school here. I don't know how far this is on par with the Chennai branch. Initially on splitting, Brigade school fared better, but PSBB Bangalore has caught up now. They have wired digital "Smart" Classrooms.

Anyone wishes to share their personal experience, do comment so.

Delhi Public School

One of the branded schools having locations in the three corners of Bangalore is Delhi Public School. The Bangalore schools come under K.K. Educational and Charitable Trust. The 130 schools in India and the 14 abroad come under the DPS Society. The first school (Naveen Bharat) was started way back in 1949. DPS has an established trademark.

Syllabus: CBSE
Location:
Delhi Public School - Bangalore South Campus
11th K.M., Kanakpura Road,
Konnanakunte Post,
Bangalore - 560 062
Phone : 2666 8582 / 83 (Front desk)
Website: http://south.dpsbangalore.net/default.asp

Also South campus has DPS Bangalore Kids World started in July 2009
Website: http://kids.dpsbangalore.net/Index.html

DPS - Bangalore North School
Survey No. 35/A, Sathanur Village,
Jala Hobli,
Bangalore-562149
Phone: 080 - 22796281,080 - 22796300, 28478041/42
email: north@dpsbangalore.net
Website: http://north.dpsbangalore.net/default.asp

DPS Bangalore East
Survey No.43/1B  45,
Sulikunte Village, Dommasandra Post,
Bangalore - 562125
Karnataka, India
Phone: 080- 2782 2260, 2782 2261
email: east@dpsbangalore.net
Website: http://www.dpsblr.com/

Head Office:
Delhi Public School, Bangalore
#3/2, 4th Floor, Al-Ameen Apts,
Petallama Temple Street, Basavanagudi,
Bangalore - 560004
Phone:  +91-80-657 0314, 6570346

Classes: Nursery till 12th(only in South and North campus)
Activities: They have lots of activites, horse riding, swimming, mini tennis etc. Do check out the individual schools for particulars. They have hobby classes and club activities.
Language options: French, German, Hindi, Kannada
Class Strength: About 30 students per class. Classes extend till H sections also.
Home work: Moderate amount of homework is given.

Admission: For Kindergarten, based on observation/interaction. You have to fill in a registration form(about Rs.600 for brochure), then you will be initimated by email, for a school visit.
For 1st till 11th, there will be written test and after that interaction.
They take into consideration your address, DPSite earlier, siblings in DPS etc.

Admission starts on the last week of November (it was 20th last year and this year too.) and it is followed uniformly in all the DPS Bangalore schools.Registration form can be downloaded from the site ( still the old form has been put up).

Admission tests have been carried out from November till March. Interviews have taken from April first week and results announced till May.
You can post your queries in any of the DPS sites you are interested. Be it admission or transport.
 
Fees: In 2007-2008 the north campus charged 25K per annum(Excluding bus; including tution, magazine,activities, misc) Check out here.
A report in Mid-Day suggested that the fees for 2008-2009 was 4900 per term, then they increased it to 6150 per quarter in 2009-2010.So the tution fees must be around 25K.

(Updated on 22 Oct, 2009): I asked around and was told the admission fees plus refundable deposit comes to around 50K. Annual fees is around 25K (primary classes).
The DPS site might state the fees in a few weeks time, so I hope to update then.
 
Remark: The DPS schools have installed Lyceum, so all the classroom activities, homework, assignments are updated online.
A parent had changed the school for the simple reason that the uniform was white. So I am just updating the school uniform colour here.
A friend of ours had their son admitted in 1st in DPS South, they shifted to Singapore in the middle of the term and it was easy to secure admissions in DPS Singapore for them.
Also more equal importance is laid on extra curriculars as well as studies. No undue pressure and parents need not sit long with their wards for coaching them.

Hope to hear what others have to say. Do share in your views.

Hobbies, sports, dance and lots more

Since I intended this site for school goers in Bangalore, it just felt appropriate to post about I site I came across recently. I was searching online for hobby classes, music classes in particular. One such site is
http://www.aptclasses.com/. It has listings for classes in Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Ohio in US.

I could find so many different categories listed, be it instruments, art, cooking, sports, yoga, languages, mehendi and lots more. Each has a sub division, so you can look up violin, veena, piano, guitar, flute, kanjira etc. and even something I have not heard of like "konnakol" under instruments. There are lots of categories and you might be sure to check it out.

Sri Kumaran Children's Home

One of the schools in Bangalore West to start admissions early for Nursery is Sri Kumaran's Children Home Nursery. I found out only yesterday, so here goes about the school. I have heard about the good academics of this school from a relation who lives in Bangalore West. Though no one I know goes to this school, I have seen the school figure well in public results. This school has been around for 50 years and you may want to check it out.
The School has a nursery section and offers State Board, ICSE and CBSE in different campuses.

Section: Nursery Section
Location: Sri Kumaran's Childrens Home - Nursery Section
Tata Silk Farm
Basavanagudi
Bangalore – 560004

Phone:  080-26760478
email:  nursery@kumarans.org
Website: http://kumarans.org/nursery/index.aspx
Admissions: Will start on 9th September 2009 and end on 12th September 2009. To look up, more on this here.

Remark: This was the first school started with a noble vision by the founder Late Smt. Anasuya Devi.

Syllabus: ICSE
Location: Sri Kumaran Children's Home - ICSE section
Old address: Tata Silk Farm, Basavanagudi,

Bangalore – 560 004

New Address: from June 2009, in the same location as the CBSE school
Mallasandra ( Near Purva Highlands)
Kanakapura Road, Bangalore – 560062
Phone: 91-80- 26761191/ 26771598

email: icse@kumarans.org
Website: http://kumarans.org/icse/Glance.aspx

Language offered: Hindi,Kannada, Sanskrit

Admission: Vacancies will be known in November and admission will be done only if vacancies are present for 1st to 8th. For 2009, there were 130 vacancies for class 1 and about 35 vacancies each in 2nd to 8th.

Fees: During admission, you have to pay the full fees for the year. From second year onwards you can pay quaterly or half-yearly.
For the first time: about 80K
For the second year: about 40K per year
Transport ( paid at beginning) : about 11K
Books and uniform: 19K + 17K

Syllabus: CBSE
Location: Sri Kumaran Children's Home - CBSE
No 28/ 4, Doddakalasandra, Kanakapura Main Road

Bangalore – 560062
Email :  cbse @kumarans.org
Tel No : 080-26321077/ 26322921

New Campus (from June 2009)
Survey No. 44 - 48
Near Purva Highlands
Off Kanakapura Main Road
Bangalore South Taluk

Website: http://kumarans.org/cbse/Index.aspx
Language options: Second language : Sanskrit/ Hindi/ Kannada/ French
Third language: Hindi/ Kannada / Sanskrit / French/ German (from 5th)

Admission: For primary and secondary, the CBSE site says, you have to look out from August itself, whereas, the other sister sites say it is done from November. Last year there were no vacancies.

Fees: For the first year (paid yearly or quaterly): about 81K
From second year(yearly or quaterly): about 41K
Transport(paid full annual): about 10K
Books and uniform: 2000 + 2000

Syllabus:State Board
Location: Sri Kumaran Children's Home - SSLC
Campus I
Tata Silk Farm, Basavanagudi

Bangalore – 560004
Email : sslc@kumarans.org
Tel No : 080-26763381/ 080-26765965.

New Campus (from June 2009)
No 28/4, House List No 140
Doddakalasandra
Uttarahalli Hobli
Kanakapura Road
Bangalore 560 062
Webiste: http://kumarans.org/State/Glance.aspx

Remark: A blog I got to read, gives an idea of the selection process for Kumarans' nursery. Read it here. Also has a section of how he narrowed out the schools of choice. An enjoyable read for would-be school hunters.

The website of the school is well-informed. So you can gauge most of the details in the "At a glance section".

Sri Kumaran Children's Home

Admission Notification for nursery in Sri Kumaran Children's Home:

Application will be available online only: from September ,9th (10am) till September 11,2009 (5:30 pm).
The filled in applications have to dropped in the drop box located in the nursery building between 12pm till 4pm on September 12th,2009.

No vacancies for LKG and UKG.

Refer: http://www.kumarans.org/pdf/nursery/preKGadmission2010.pdf

Cambridge Public School

One of the schools to have two branches in HSR layout itself is Cambridge Public School. The older campus in HSR layout was started in 2003. It started its new and larger campus in June 2009. There seems to be the oldest campus which functioned in Koramangala and later relocated to HSR.

Syllabus: ICSE, (not sure if there is option of 8th to 10th in State Board also)
Location: Cambridge Public School, (New Campus)
17th Cross, 24th Main,
HSR Layout, Sector - 1
Bangalore
Phone: 080-25723839, 25727335

CA-28,11th Cross, 28th Main,(Old Campus)
HSR Layout, Sector - 1
Bangalore -47
email: cambridgepublicschool@yahoo.co.in
Website: www.cambridgepublicschool.com/home.htm

Classes: Pre-K till Xth
Fees: The fees is about 40K for a year for primary (excluding transportation). I don't know how much is the admission, registration fees. If anyone knows, do update by leaving a comment.
Admission: For primary classes and above, there is an entrance test. You can get dates for attending the tests. Admissions start by October. For primary class, I could get exam dates even in May.

Activities: Swimming, Dancing, Horse Riding. (After school hours, after 2:30pm).
Remark: I found the school to be more academically oriented.
They have only cyclic tests every Monday and only a half-yearly and final exam. Lessons are very well revised and not much effort on the parents side. This was my neighbours opinion for their child from UKG studying in 2nd now.

Update: Admissions have started for 2010-2011. For more details , see here.

Zee School

Some months back I had the opportunity of attending to the introductionary session of Zee School (not in Bangalore though). The Zee TV network had earlier started their playschool and kidergarten network titled "Kidzee". They have started primary and high schools in the name of "Zee School" all over India. It is franchise based network of schools. The school in Sarjapur was started in 2009 and I'm yet to know more about the school here but here are the inputs.

Syllabus: CBSE
Location: Zee School
No. 14/15, Jubilee Layout,
Near Lake Shore homes
Kasavanahalli Main Road, (it branches off from Kaikondrahalli bus stop)
Off Sarjapur Road
Bangalore - 560035
Phone: 080 - 65468341 / 9008556161-64-66
email: sszhigh@zeeschool-southbangalore.org

Classes: Presently from 1st to 4th
Admission: Based on oral test for 1st and 2nd. Written test for 3rd and 4th. You can apply online or contact in person to fill in the registration form.

Website: http://www.zeeschool-southbangalore.org/default.htm

Remark: This school uses the white-board based teaching methods, i.e. they use computer with projectors in all classes for teaching. This is followed in all thier network schools. They have continuous assessment and parents can review the child's activities online.
If you get transferred to another place, they give preference in admission for their network educated student.

Hope this helps to some extent. Do put in your inputs.

Update (15 Oct,2009): Enquiry forms for 2010-2011 have been putup online in their site. To know more, see the notification.
I had been to the school to look at the premises.The school is functioning from a house at present. It was disappointing in the sense that, there is no room for expansion in their present permises. If they are expanding for more classes, they sure have to relocate the school.
The adjacent plot serves as their school ground. I could see a handful of students playing.
In my opinion, the school is suited for those nearby and looking only for primary education at present.

Update: You can read about the new school campus in the updated post.

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