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Primary schools in Chennai: What a dilemma

Hi All,

My wife and I are moving from New York City to Chennai in May/June Protected content we are thoroughly confused about finding a proper school for our daughter turning five this August. Based on the comments posted on InterNations, we looked into several choices:

a) The American School is simply too expensive. Shucks!
b) The German School might be more affordable (though couldn't find tuition rate online) but seems to provide KG education in German for three of the five days (a German language class is one thing but to do several activities exclusively in German may be a bit extreme). Don't blame them though, it is a German school after all.
c) The French School within the Sishya school seems to teach the entire curriculum in French. Please let me know if I have misunderstood this from their site.
d) Then we started to look at the Indian schools in Chennai (my wife and I are Americans of Indian descent and feel that our daughter will have difficulty assimilating to an Indian school but because she is still very young, she might find it easier than what we are imagining):
i) The Sishya school is ranked highly on several sites but admission seems next to impossible since most people are talking about registering for the KG program while the child is still in the mother's womb.
ii) What other choices do we have? Montessori schools?

Where in Chennai we live will depend on several factors but we believe the primary factor will be the proximity to our daughter's school. I did read on this site that Besant Nagar is a good neighborhood and seems to be close to several good schools.

I plead for your comments and suggestions with respect to schools and/or if you faced complexities during the admissions process. The fact that we won't get there until May or June may work against us and the whole admissions process is pretty intimidating as is.

Are there any good agencies that help with schools/admissions? I would really appreciate it if someone could recommend such an agency as well.

Sincerest regards,

Raj Kathuria

Chennai Forum

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