Apeeyjay is one of the highly reputed old schools in this small town and even though it lacks the glitter of some of the young schools like Lotus Valley, Greater Valley, Mayoor, Step By Step etc, its still one of the favorites among admission seekers.

My daughter has also applied here. Here are some details.

Location - Sec 16 A (very close to Delhi-Noida border, very well located for people residing in Mayoor Vihar, Eastend apartments, Vasundhara Enclave and some of the sectors of Noida)

Age – Between 3 and 4 on 31st March 2009. (This is for admission seekers in 2008)

Location – There is no location constraint but I would assume that they would give preference to kids who live close-by.

Dates – Forms were available from early september and last date of submission is Sep 16,2008

Process.
1. They meet every kid so unlike DPS and some of the other schools, you definitely get first chance. In my case the interaction date is 27th Sep. But I know someone who went through this.

It was a 4-5 minute interaction where they asked couple of questions to parents viz.
(i) Why Apeejay ?
(ii) How do you balance/manage your work and home. My friend is working and probably for a home-maker, there would be a different question.

Kid was also in the same room and she was asked to recite a poem first. After that she was asked to walk on a set of bricks/blocks which were lying a little apart. Kid actually got down, moved the bricks so that there is no gap and stood on that

They are awaiting results.

I have heard that Apeejay relies more on lottery and less on actual interaction.

Update on 27th Sep
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We had our first interaction today. It was pretty well organized from what we have seen so far. We were asked to wait in a room. Later we along with the kid were taken to a room where there was a lady who interacted with us. Kid was interacting with another teacher on the next table. I could not observe clearly but they had some sort of puzzle.

We were asked
- Why Apeejay
- My wife is working so how does she manage her time
- What do we expect from school

5 minutes odd. It seemed that we were meeting a junior teacher (and I sometime wonder that whether as part of their teacher-training, were they ever taught on this aspect but anyway). It was not evident whether she was impressed or not.

Results would be out on Oct 2nd.

Update on Oct 6th, 2008
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We made it in the first list. Today morning, we had our first interaction. It was a 2 minute interaction. Principal first confirmed our names , then our salaries from the form which we have filled (he confirmed that its indeed a monthly figure), asked for our schools and bade us bye. My daughter was invited to a table side by and was asked to recite a poem. I am not sure whether she was asked anything else later.

I noticed that Principal had this register on which he was writing marks against each name. I dont think that those 2 minutes are going to decide. Also our schools are not too great or flashy

Anyway, its over. The results would be out in a week.

Update on Oct 16th, 2008
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We called school on Oct 13th and were told that results were not yet out. On Oct 14th, they said that results are out but we didn’t make it. We found a contact and he told us that the list is not complete. We called again on Oct 15th and we were told that we made it. We were lucky to find a contact otherwise we had planned to take admission in Vishwa Bharti and that would have made us poorer by 16 K odd. So please ensure that you visit the school and probably do it few times. Their front-office system needs a lot of improvement. Unlike Amity, DPS and some of the other schools, they have no infrastructre to publish results on their website.

Today we took admission.

DPS is one of the reputed schools in Noida and as per the school website which is here, during 2007, they received 30 forms for each single seat. DPS uses more of a lottery system to select candidates, this is what they sort of say. I know few parents who validated this since they could not figure out a reason for their ward’s selection or rejection.

Anyway, lets move on

Website – DPS Noida
Location – Sector 30. Its on Atta-NTPC road. Very well located.
Infrastructure – Good
Reputation – High
Recommendations – Very good (first hand recommendations which I got)

For 2009 session, one could fill Online forms by Sep 4th. Thats the only way to fill forms. There is no fee for filling this online form. The website is very tacky so keep clicking on the home page to get rid of that irritating flash animation.

We filled the form. Results for some of the cases were out on Sep 10th as per schedule. One of my friend got in and they have been called for ‘first interaction’ on Sep 12. I would update on what I hear from her.

I am not yet lucky and for my daughter, the website shows “Under Process”.

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Update on 12 Sep 2008, through a friend who made it to the list.

There were 30 parents in one batch. Two batches were scheduled for 12 Sep, 2008. First a form was given, a simple one page form, personal data sort. After that you get prospectus against a payment for Rs 400.

Then another paper was given and that had two subjective questions viz.

1. What the milestones or landmarks during your child’s development in life ?
Answer – She answered it by mentioning things like
- when the child started walking, speaking
- her first day at school
- first eating , first x and first y

2. What efforts do you make the bond the family together ?

Kids Interaction Rounds

1. During this time, they started taking kids away to a room where there was a teacher. Kids was asked to do coloring while parents were busy answering questions. Her kid was asked to fill a duck. Then parents were asked to be with the child.

2. There was a puzzle where different pieces of a butterfly was to be assembled, jig saw puzzle. Not very difficult since a pic was there. To practice at home, take a large page and then draw a butterfly on it, paste that paper on a card-board and then make 4-6 pieces and ask Kid to put them together so that it looks like a butterfly.

3. In another puzzle, there was a strip of wood which had dots of colors of a particular sequence. Kids were give a string and beads and they were to put the beads in the right sequence. Its a little tricky for a Kid to hold the string and the bead but it seemed that Teachers gave kids enough time.

Parents were allowed to interact with the during this but I think they dont expect you to help them do this.You can hint or give verbal instructions.

4. There was a paper on which they had blue color at the bottom, then brown, then black and then light-blue. Kids were told that blue is water, brown is grass, black is road and they were to guess the meaning of ‘light-blue’. As per my friend, those colors were not looking like real water or road or grass (no gradient or shade or texture difference in terms of colors, dont know but someone should tell them that color has meaning if its of one single shade). So difficult for a kid.

Then they got some items from a box like flower pot, boat, car, dog etc and one has to put those things correctly. There were funny things like a man having a parachute. How many kids have seen a Parachute in real life.

5. Finally there was this Poem round. Kid were asked to recite with action. They asked two poems. Then she was given a toffee (eclairs and Kids HATE eclairs because it sticks) and were expected to say ‘Thank You’.

Another thing which my friend noted was the energy level of the teacher, that energy level also decides how the Kid does.

Whoooooooooooof. And they say that they select randomly.

Parents Round 2
Parents were called in a group (10 parents) along with kids in a hall. They then asked parents to introduce themselves. People generally talked about their qualification and their job and all. Funnily, neither the Principal nor anyone else form the school introduced themselves. There was no session from school where parents were told about the school, its education system etc.

Results would be out on 15 the Sep, 8 PM. Keep tuned. Feel free to ask anything or post any comment.

Since these results are out on 15th Sep, I am assuming that they might call some more kids and I hope that I get called.

Wish me luck and comment.

update on Sep 16 morning
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My friend’s kid did not make it. The language which was their on the site was pretty rude. I haven’t got a call so far and I don’t think that I would get one now. Anyway.

DPS Management – If you ever read this then here’s a request from a parent. Make your process transparent and publish it on your website. If its lottery then have it in presence of select group of parents. If its interaction then please assign marks and publish merit list.

one more update
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My Kid didn’t make it to even short-listing . It took DPS five days to come out with that status. The website says that the shortlisting is based on random-selection and I believe them

Pihu is now 3+ so we join the game of trying our luck and use our skill in getting her admitted in a good school. We just had the counseling at her pre-school and we were told that we must apply in at least 7-10 schools.

While me and my better half are into this, I thought I would try to capture my experience and any information which I gather so that it might be useful for other people in the boat and may be for future aspirants.

I would try to update this blog post every now and then, so that there is a single post on this subject. If you visit this and have things to add then I encourage you to comment and I would add that info in main post.

Lets go school wise.

1. DPS, Noida
Website – www.dpsnoida.org

Click on ‘Admissions’ and then proceed.

You can apply only online so no alternate methods. Available From 1st Sep – 7 Sep. After that shortlisted candidate would be called for assessment from 10th – 16th Sep.

It seems that they dont accept applications from Indirapuram residents because there is a DPS in Indirapuram as well. Children residing with-in 8 KM radius would be accepted and age should be between 3 and 4 as on 30th Sep’2008.

2. Amity International School

link – http://www.amity.edu/aisadmission/

Fill the form online, pay Rs 300 through credit-card and you would get an invitation for ‘first interaction’. We have been asked to be there on Sep 8th.

3. Lotus Valley School

Forms are out. Link is – http://www.lotusvalley.com/download_form.htm

Unlike Amity and DPS, you can’t fill the form online. So take a print and submit it in school. I didn’t see any end dates on the website.

4. Greater Valley School.

Its in greater noida but me and my wife were very very impressed by their Principal, Sangita Chima, who was there in the counselling session at Pihu’s pre-school. So we would probably try this school. If we shift to Gr Noida, this admission would come handy.

link – http://www.greatervalleyschool.com/

Its run by the same organization which runs the famous ‘Vasant Valley School’. I also think that a women principal is a better principal then a man principal .

5. Somerville School, Noida
Forms were out on Sep 4 and there was this 10 KM line. We skipped that yesterday, today it was like a breeze. They only accept candidates from Noida and form is free. Once I fill the form, I would update on what happens next.

I would add more as I learn more. If you have any queries, then dont hesitate to ask, I would try to find an appropriate answer.

Noida has only two Bowling alleys. Yeah, read it again. Even though Noida has seen tremendous growth in terms of Malls and ‘BPO Call Centres’, there are just two bowling alleys. Out of this two, one of them just opened a few months back at ‘The Great India Place, Opposite Sector – 18′ and the other one which is been there for some time is at ‘Shoprix Mall’, Sector – 61 and is called ‘City Bowl’.

There are four lanes and if you go on a week days there is a fair chance that you would find a lane for yourself. The charges are Rs 100 for a game in week days and Rs 125 in weekends and that includes Fridays. If you are 12 or more then you get a 10% discount or a free game.

The quality of the lanes is decent and the infrastructure is also ok. It is not very uncommon to ask for help (pins not being picked by the picker, the system just get stuck , whatever) once for one game. But thats fine.

Apart from Bowling, they also have two pool table, an ice hockey table, couple of video games and snacks to munch. Its not very big but usually its not crowded as well. So all in all, a decent neighborhood joint to enjoy a game or two.

Here’s contact info. citbowl@airtelbroadband.in and contact no is 0120 – 4334477

A country which has more phones then water hand-pumps or clean toilets or almost every other thing really needed a ‘Do No Disturb’ registry. This is effective from Sep1,2007 and all telecom service providers need to maintain this registry. If you are registered and you get a call then you can complain and there are fines for first fault and greater fines for subsequent faults.

So far so good.

There is no single registry so its a sort of pain, more so when in future we are talking about no portability and so on, but better then not having any thing.

So why I am writing it all here, we all know it, whats new. Well, couple of weekends back I was driving at about 100 KMPH on a not so great highway, between Ambala and Zirakpur, the other important thing was I was driving a big car and the power-assist of brakes were not working. Which means that I was much more alert and tired because it used to take lot of effort to stop the car at times. It was early morning, other passengers were either sleepy or dis-interested, so amid all this a bulb flashed and I thought that why not have a ‘Do Disturb’ registry. Instead of asking everyone to get added, we would rather do the opposite. It would be nightmarish for tele-callers since the default would be NO, and I doubt how many of us would take the pain to add them selves to ‘Do Disturb’ registry.

Noble thought.

The other aspect of this could be that there could indeed be folks who do not mind an occasional call for a bargain-deal or about an exciting housing project. And probably by adding some inducing-factor, we can actually motivate people to get added. This inducement could be in the form of
- Get added to ‘Do Disturb’ and get 15 SMSes free
- Or Get added and receive three caller tunes free

Once such a database is up then we can give access to this DB to telemarketers for a service fee. Also mechanisms could be put in place such that a subscriber to DoDisturb doesn’t receive more then 3 calls a month or a some golden no. To scale this system, we can have ip-telephony software and one can call only using that s/w so we also rope-in telecom providers. I am sure if I create such a registry today, we would definitely get some good ideas and can evolve and refine this.

But I think its a decent thought to be pondered more.