‘Since joining Apeejay School, Panchsheel Park, my son has gained in confidence’

Mrs. Mamta Gaur is a computer science teacher by profession. She is currently a homemaker. Her husband Mr. Puneet Gaur is the owner of Reyansh Construction Company. They are proud parents of Kriday Gaur, kindergarten student at Apeejay Panchsheel Park. In an informal interview, Mrs.  Gaur shares her reasons for choosing the school, her son’s progress and her views about the online mode of learning. Edited excerpts:

Why did you choose Apeejay Panchsheel Park over other schools for your child’s admission?

We are a family of four and reside in Malviya Nagar. Our daughter is a special child. Therefore, our main focus is on her since she can’t include herself with anyone apart from her family members. So, the proximity of the school was a big consideration, so that we could conveniently pick and drop Kriday. Also, my husband has resided in Malviya Nagar since the very beginning and I have also stayed in South Delhi. We had always heard great reviews about Apeejay Panchsheel Park. So, we decided to choose the school for our son.

Please tell us a bit about your child and take us through his progress at school?

Kriday’s sister speaks only a few words. So he doesn’t have any companion as a child to learn from at home. As a result, when he joined the school he was a bit low on confidence and slightly tongue-tied. So his class teacher Shubhani Ma’am recommended that we take Kriday to Sadaf Ma’am, the school counsellor. She took counselling classes for around 2-3 months. She also told me a few exercises to correct the words in whose pronunciation Kriday was facing a problem.

Kriday now participates in all the in-house activities of the school. He now participates with an uncontrollable enthusiasm (laughs). I want to thank Shubhani Ma’am and Sadaf Ma’am for this.

Kriday as a student loves word blending lessons. He loves reading, he can read sentences and even story books. Initially, Kriday did not like to dance. He was a very bad dancer and did not want to participate in the dance classes but his dance teacher Pawan sparked his interest in dance and now he attends his classes regularly. He loves the monthly Show and Tell activities. He tells me “Mumma, teach me some rhymes in English and Hindi both for the activity”.

Are the teachers engaging well with the students?

Shubhani Ma’am was his class teacher in Nursery as well. She made all the students actively participate in all the activities. She even made those students who didn’t adjust well in the class participate by encouraging them to take the class. Since they have been listening to one teacher, they can relate to her and have a direct relation to her and feel free to open up to her like a family member. So we requested Shubhani Ma’am to become the class teacher in kindergarten.  

What is the best thing about the school?

Apeejay Panchsheel Park focuses a lot on extra-curricular activities. The first reason we chose Apeejay Panchsheel Park was proximity. The other reason is that we got such good reviews about the school. The school has a good building and sports facilities, swimming pool and many other activity facilities. It has an excellent track record in academics. Schooling isn’t just about academics. Children never know which field might interest them and open up for them.

What is your perception about the online classes?

In the online classes, teachers are covering the entire syllabus and teaching well. If I rate Kriday compared to his friends who are studying other schools, I feel Kriday is on 9 out of ten. The other schools aren’t doing a lot of activities in the online classes which Apeejay School Panchsheel Park does. It conducts news reading sessions, assemblies and so much more. The teachers encourage children to participate and speak up, they instill confidence in them.  The school is successful in online classes.

Also, as a parent, in online classes we know how the teachers are teaching and we can teach them accordingly. I’d prefer the online classes for even one more year if the pandemic remains. I am happy with the online classes.