Everyday once our child is born we plan for so many things which will keep them happy. Give them everything best for their development, choose only nicest of the clothes based on our affordability and think of all those superior options which may give them a great future. Choosing schools is one of the important ones of all. Parents list an array of options which would be decided based on the factors like fee structure, proximity, the curriculum they offer and the secured atmosphere which goes hand in hand with great facilities for the overall development of the child. A school is a second home for a child who spends a big chunk of quality time at the premises by learning new things every minute. It is a place filled with so many things to learn and grasp that the child shapes him/herself to be a part of the organisation and mould as a torch-bearer of the school’s success and quality.

The best school is recognised by varied characteristics which distinguish them from the other significant contemporaries. Be it old or new, a school builds its reputation by nurturing the stature of their academic excellence through providing necessary resources like the best of teachers and the finest of the facilities, which aide the educational provess of all the students, without being biased on any socio-cultural grounds. Thus factors that represent a good school are not very difficult to understand. But the concept on how to increase the student’s appearance percentage in each school differs due to many given reasons. Each year, the school charts out plans and strategies to increase their number of students’ admission which in turn brings them funds to provide the vital running force – the resource of the facilities assured. But how far are the effective methods to increase the students feasible? Let us discuss on all those points which may bring in clarity on the same point:

Make your School Visible:

It is only when people start talking about a place, is when you get noticed. Get them talking about your school for some positive things. Organize an event open for public at your school. It can be a literary festival or an environmental friendly activity like “Plant a tree in your locality”. Jam up with some like-minded people on some wacky innovative dates like these. Arrange a play, a karaoke weekend or even a tech talk which could be interactive. Let them indulge in these eye-catchy arrangements and engage themselves with other parents with whom they can share and discuss the ideas to make the school a better place for learning. These ground-breaking sessions can actually create a spark when the parents would seriously try to consider such an institution which is so creative and efficient in bringing up some real great ideas on board. The success of this includes a good planning and execution team which have to be monitored by keeping the parents perspective spectacles on.

Focus on the Fee:

Fee being one of the prime criteria of school admission, it is important for any school management to roll out a fee structure which is a doable figure for the set of target audience they would be focusing on. A long list which has innumerable “Subject to Change” hash tags next to them does not provide justice to your claimed philosophy of a good school. Transparency and legibility are the two essential elements to be followed when it is the parents’ hard earned money which has been involved. Money might not come easy for everyone but it does not mean that those who can afford a huge fee cheque will not be bothered to shell out some extra money as and when the school asks for. Keeping all the expenses in mind, not giving room for any last minutes fee or expenditure, it is always advisable to make a fine document which comprises of a legible, practical and reasonable list of all those things for which the parents will be paying as a school fee in one shot either annually or half-yearly.

Work towards your appearance:

We make sure that our child grows up in a suave, safe environment and this is why we baby proof our house and keep all those things like broken glass and rusty iron rods away from our little buddies to make them room to run and play around. It is indeed the same expectation of any parent who visits the school to make sure that the school in which their child studies will be atleast close to what they expect it from their own house. Neat and tidy indoors and spacious, secure outdoors with well organised campus facilities with the help of the support staff is the bare necessity which will welcome more of the tiny little guests each year. The first appearance makes big difference. Keep the surroundings soothing to eyes; maintain a serene ambiance, which the parents for sure will consider an apt place for quality education.

Media and Advertising – Go the digital way:

A well made website with catchy colors and well crafted, comprehensive content will win several votes to your school. Keep them updated with all those activities of your school. Maintain your official pages in all the major social media platforms by adding some multimedia creatives which are the in-thing now. Reach the best possible audiences through proper PR techniques and Voila! You would soon be the talk of the town.

Stay calm and go easy:

Explaining about your school to each and every parents or taking up enquiry calls can prove time consuming and extremely taxing on your patience levels. Take charge of your mind. Tell yourself “All is well” and ‘this too shall pass’ with the due course of time. Keeping cool is very important. Rude and irresponsible behaviour towards the queries will fetch negative scores. Timely mail responses and humble phone conversations can make never ending positive remarks. Explaining the whole process to get admitted in the school and the benefits they get out of their institution for their children are the points which have to be patiently followed.

Still not convinced with your approach? Then it’s time to contact the experts. Edustoke it is! The pioneers in the field of school search and education institution research, Edustoke provides an efficient digital platform for all your admission lead generation and other vital information. Everything comprehensively served in one single platter.

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How many kids today are avid readers? How many students go sit in library for hours and spend time on binge reading a book? How many of us, yes we parents take our children to book clubs or book sharing forum which was pretty popular at our times? We could hardly find any kids who would ask Santa for a nice book for Christmas or it’s a rare sight where a toddler wishes that the tooth fairy would get a book which contains beautiful poems or stories. Digitization has captivated not just the economical status of the country but also has impacted this young generation. The excitement for “Ipad” has masked the “My Bad” situation for not being able to enjoy the flipping of pages and slipping into the island of thoughts where one would love to lose oneself.

Children today are more realistic and believe in what they see and they are the facts explorers. The fairy fantasy world is so old school now. Inspite of that the elements like animated superheroes and the supernatural characters attract them due to the magnetism they possess. The vibrant representation of these has uprooted the traditional formats of spending time productively in a day. Kids find happiness in singing with the digital assistant or seek solace in playing games on their Digi tabs which contains shooting criminal and vampires or running over the railway track and getting points by heroic sprint – risking lives. These are skill games which require lots of strategies and planning. But what’s on stake? Nah! Nothing much. It’s just their tiny brains and bright eyes which are getting hurt. Not there much on the losing side… Sounds disturbing? It’s we who are leading them to this century. Spending time with them might not have cost you this.

Lifestyle Changes – Edustoke

Schools today boast about the digital learning and the smart board boards which they flaunt to us when we go to have a look at the institution which might be the prospective school for our kids. Huge plasmas or projectors are kept where the concepts are explained the way that are easier to reach to the children. The concepts to be explained are digitally modified which is a great hit with the students at school because of which many schools have adapted this method in their academics. But what else would make the kids be attentive in the class? What are those things which will be like an “Out of the Box” activities which aides in better concept understanding or helps students concentrate effectively over the chapters being taught?

Here are 7 activities that can help our buddies at school to keep up a good pace in their learning:

1. Going the Indian way: Indian practices like meditation and yoga are the proven methods of improving the concentration and their concept retention. Going the old school way which were inculcated in the Gurukulas, where the students chanted Omkara and practised some breathing techniques, helped them grasp the elaborate Vedas and Vedantas with much ease. Devoting a small chunk of time to practise the same everyday in the class would definitely prove beneficial on the long run. Starting the class with a pranayama or ending a lecture with Omkara chanting will ease the built up stress on these young scholarly brains.

2. Its Quiz time! : Conducting a quick quiz on the chapters learnt in the previous classes will keep the students on their toes. Be it a group activity or an individual one, oral quizzes can extract more excitement from them. This is a best format of revision. Keep conducting the quiz every week to keep them away of getting exempted by a reward. Reward can be either a star on their collar or giving chocolates or even the luxury of borrowing 3 books from the library. Being innovative is the key.

3. Promoting group activity: The peer group relationship is one of the strongest kinds of relationship the children hold during their school days. Things which are not even shared by the parents are revealed in their comfort zone which is to their friends group. Making a group project or teaming them up for a group discussion is a very promising learning activity. The team spirit brings out better result in place of individual attempt. Assigning a project for a group every week that shall be responsible in explaining some chapters or enacting a Shakespearean play which is a part of the English syllabus – evokes ample interest from the class.

4. Say what you say, mean what you mean: Curtailing ambiguities, making a meaningful hour. A Q&A session after each class in a unique way like “Listing out 10 points of today’s class”, “Preparing something like a Minutes of the Meeting about today’s purpose of a discussion” so on. An interactive approach including the students gives prominence on giving them the prime importance by applauding for any unique ideas and knowledge sharing in case of a negative response, builds their confidence and in turn is a thumbs up when it comes to you gaining their trust. A humble eye to eye contact or even making some positive affirmations together on making classes better will act like the building blocks of a constructive learning environment.

5. Your own rules, your own texts: Studying should all be about fun induced learning. Not bound to any particular pattern or a particular template of teaching. The understanding of the concept and application of the same must be held as the prime focus and not mere scribbling something called “Notes”. Reference sake jotting down and then reinventing and rekindling the skilful person in you should hold more value in a development aided learning environment. Bring out those artists and writers; bring out the debater in them. Unveil the actors who could recite the William Wordsworth’s poems with ease like how they easily enact a soliloquy. Unleash their talent in innumerable ways that give them a satisfaction that they are in the safe, kind hands. This is also an activity that promotes individuality and independent attributes.

PTM – The Do’s and the Dont’s – Edustoke

6. Tell me your dreams: “The virtuous man contents himself with dreaming that which the wicked man does in actual life.” ― Sigmund Freud. The Interpretation of Dreams. Dreaming is an amazing experience for children. They dream in colours so unknown which is yet to decipher. Their dreams carry so many of their wishes, demands, sorrow and the cruel saga which are all hidden in the sub-conscious corner of their tender minds. Things or actions which cannot be expressed to this real, practical world will attain its totality over their dreams. Studies show that those children who are asked about their dreams find their way out of any mental dilemma they are going through. A weekly activity about talking about their dreams, the ambitions, their goals and all those they desire to achieve will boast their efficiency in learning. A better retention of concepts and recalling them on a regular basis increases memory and results in a complete, satisfying learning procedure.

7. Up together down together, leave your seats! : A mundane math class, a boring biology lecture… languages sing me a lullaby, chemistry makes me cry! Why be regular when you can do so much better?! Standing at one place and blurting out all those which you had prepared for the class will just fetch you the children’s physical attendance. But are they really with you? The point is to make it an effective classroom environment where there is any kind of learning happening. So first- Loosen up, pull your socks down and be at ease. Walk down to their temperament. It’s not easy to be a student. A perspective that mere textbook teaching is enough- can bring you no gain. Step in to their shoes and try to adapt a tone which is pleasing, one with them. Affectionate versus authoritative in simple language. Sailing the ship with a firm grip – being strict and stiff with the rules is natural but being sensible and crisp with the content will attain more likes. Try to utilize the classroom space by roaming around so that their drooping eyes pay attention to the direction you are moving. Make them stand up and sit down every time you utter a particular word like “OK” or “Did you understand?” This way they try to focus on what you talk and you then can focus on what you have to make them listen to.

Mirror mirror on the wall. What does a best school need at all?!

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That time of the year at your child’s school when you have no clue about what to expect. A sense of happiness or the timidness which is prevalent in every parent’s face that day. The PTM! The day when the teacher unfolds the unseen or the unheard side of your little buddies. It is indeed normal for anyone to contain an anticipation about this Parents Teachers Meeting, as this is the only forum where the parents can discuss their concerns with the teachers in a  systematized way with proper details and reports pertaining to the student’s performance in a given semester or a term. Not just the curriculum based performance review but the overall behaviour of the ward will be considered a point for discussion during these sessions.

What is the necessity of such meetings? What value does this hold in the academic year of a student? What difference does this make in the mind of those parents who leave no stone unturned to see their kids reach all heights of success?

PTM encourages a close link between the parents, teachers and the students. It builds a strong working relationship among the above mentioned 3 elements in support of the satisfactory student life tenure which fails to work smoothly if one of these three fails to reciprocate satisfactorily.

Let us today discuss this amazing platform of performance oriented meeting called PTM in a 3 dimensional perspective.

1. Teacher
2. Student
3. Parent

TEACHER:

A teacher is not just a person who teaches what is written in the books or what is mentioned in the curriculum.  Children spend their huge chunk of the day in the school. During this time, a teacher is the one who is always surrounded by the students who depend on her/him for many things. A preschooler needs a teacher to wipe her tears in the absence of her mother, a 5^th grader needs help to know about his conflict of the mind to follow both his passions of science and sports or it might be a 10^th grader who would hesitantly approach her teacher to talk about the issues between her parents. A teacher can be supportive and destructive if given either less or no interest towards the concerns of those students who approach them with a lot of trust and confidence.

• Staying calm and composed during the meetings by expressing the problem areas as the concerns and not the complaints is a task by itself.
• Not loosing cool and at the same time not accepting abusive behaviour coming from the parents is really important.
• Each parent is different or they might be same and repetitive. Patience is the only weapon. They might ask questions so unfair and irrelevant. Try to convince and console them that their children are in safe hands. Do not ever jump into conclusions by judging the kid’s behaviour based on the parents’ conversational patterns.
• If any concerns about the child, chart out the remedial methods together instead of always suggesting something about the parenting or the upbringing skills. That might sound offensive.
• If a child is doing well, acknowledge the parenting capabilities of the parents. This will for sure help to build a respectable relationship. The parents will also feel that they and their child are moving together in a same direction.

PARENTS:

• Teachers are humans too; they do not possess super powers to change things overnight. Kindly enter the school premises with this thought. If any problem persists, expressing that in a civil manner and having a healthy discussion about mending some unpolished skills of the child will fetch long time victory.
• School does not function just for a single child. It is a collective effort of many students to adhere to the rules and regulations of the school no matter how different these rules are from what is followed at home. Never expect to change them for the sake of your child. The discipline and the decorum have to be considered.
• Instead of pondering over many things and beating around bushes killing time, make a list of those concern areas about your child. This will save time on the parents who are behind you waiting for their turn.
• Being good at studies and seeing A+ although the report card should not be the only agenda. Ask about your kid’s upcoming school day dance performance or the football match which is round the corner.
• Your children, who are the way you think, might not be the same at school. Listen to the teachers patiently about any behavioral changes which were unnoticed by you.
• Ask for steps taken for improvement in some shady areas. Suggestions of the teachers definitely come handy as they have seen many children like yours and all you know is just your sweet little child.

Building Trust : Edustoke

STUDENTS:

• Both your parents and the teachers love you. PTMs are just a simple meeting to know your performance at school. Not a complaint box which would be presented to you which just says – “Lack of Improvement” or “Scope for Improvement”. DO NOT PANIC.
• If there is a PTM coming up and there are any concerns from your side which has to be addressed, kindly reach out to either your teacher of your parents depending on your comfort level. There is nothing in this world that cannot be solved. Talking and sharing things can solve half the problems. During the PTMs your concerns would be attended confidentially and with utmost dignity.
• Losing hope and lack of trust in both your parents and the teacher will fetch no results to the demon you are struggling to fight inside you all alone. Speak out! There will definitely be a shoulder next to you.
• Take charge, act responsibly. When your teacher and your parent try to convince you about the possible areas of concern about your behaviour or the studies, never give up on them. Always remember- your parents were the ones who clapped with a teary eyed joy when you laid your first step without a help. It was your teacher who beamed with pride and happiness when she saw you getting a 45/100 as compared to your usual 30 or 32. Any problem small or big…listening to them with an assuring look of positive improvement will make no harm. Your win is their victory.

Accepting Criticism and Overcoming them!

So PTMs can prove different to each one of us. But the final motto is the same – To build an effective student life and maintain a healthy equilibrium for a smoother functioning of an educational institution. A parallel march of ideas and ideologies can get many things to track. A unidirectional thought process can create an irreparable dent in the mind of parents who give up on their child, the student whose levels of frustration will reach an intangible height or the teacher who makes a baseless effort to mend and bend the innocent mind which succumbs to a lack of effective communication.

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