Vansh . 2019 Graduate
Four years ago, when we started looking for a school for our two-and-half-year-old child, we were quite scared and apprehensive. Our kid is a very shy and sensitive toddler. In today's world where loud and vocal beings occupy most of the mind-share, we were worried that our kid will simply get drowned out in the noise. We saw literally dozens of big and small schools across Bangalore including some "international" ones. And then we met Dharini. She heard us calmly and interacted with the child to understand him first. This interaction was completely different than other schools where such discussions were often "sales pitches" without much discussion on the child himself/herself. With great hesitation and restraint, which is perhaps a primal response of protective parents, we decided to trust Dishaa and its teachers.
Fast forward four years... our kid is now a confident and assertive young man who understands the value of his opinions. In the last four years, his strengths like reading, writing, creativity were nurtured while his other areas were worked upon methodically. However, the real contribution of Dishaa and especially Preeti, Bharathi and Dharini was much, much more than mere academic and formal. The all-round development focused on all kinds of skills and behavioral aspects that are infinitely more important in the formative years. Kids are never discouraged or disparaged and that helps them understand the importance of failure, which in my opinion is a lot more valuable than the importance of success.
The learning techniques are astonishingly brilliant keeping true to the Montessori philosophy. Learning is conceptual and not rote. To give a small example: the decimal system is explained by lose beads for the unit's place, a "string of beads" for ten's place and a "cube" of beads for the hundred's place. A Two-hundred-and-thirteen is thus represented as two cubes, one string and three loose sets of beads. The latter makes much for physical and intuitive sense to a kid and even an adult than crytic scrawling of "213" on the paper. The entire learning experience is peppered with such clever and innovative techniques that I, often, am tempted to take admission myself!
The other thing we loved was the open-ended environment. Kids are free to choose the activities that they want to undertake, to make them make choices and define their preferences. Reserved kids are gently nudged to try other activities to broaden their individual comfort zones.
Lastly, they realize the need for a smooth transition from a kindergarten Montessori environment to senior schools and different curriculums. To that end, they have created a separate classroom environment where 6-year old kids spend a small fraction of the day. This prepares them well and provides a seamless segue into grade-I.
We couldn't be happier with the heart and soul Dishaa's teachers have poured in these kids and set them onto a path to become, above everything else, good human beings and without an iota of doubt, would whole-heartedly recommend Dishaa to every other parent.