St Patrick's Academy Bangalore reviews: Why did we choose St Patricks Academy for our children


We started our research about 2 years ago for the best schools for our kids. In this post, I will discuss the criteria we had for choosing a school and why did we chose St Patrick's Academy, Bangalore.

We started talking about returning to India about 3 years back. Our initial tentative plan was to return during summer in 2010. However, we did not discuss the specific details to anyone since we were prepared to give an extra year to work out lot of things including the school for children.

Our plan was to move to Bangalore (instead of our home town Kochi) so that we can provide better education for children. We started looking for schools in Bangalore. While choosing the schools in Bangalore, some of the criteria we had in mind were:

1. We wanted to send our kids to the best school for them and not to the best school in the city.

2. We prefer a Christian school for the value based education they offer.

3. We do not want a school where only the top layer of the society goes. We want our kids to see children from various levels in the society. We wanted them to learn to deal with different types of people in the society.

4. We do not want a school which offer extra comfort for the kids like air conditioned class rooms and school buses. We want them to learn to survive anywhere they go.

5. We want a school where majority of the students are non-local people. This was highly important for us not because we do not like locals, but because we wanted the kids to speak English as primary language in the classes. Also, having a lot of local people in the classes would affect the discipline of the school.

6. Reasonable fees: We did not want to spend all of our savings for the primary education for the kids. Rather, we would save them for their higher education.

7. Syllabus: Our first preference was CBSE syllabus since we were afraid that our kids may not be able to take the challenge of ICSE syllabus.

8. Location: We preferred Sarjapur road area in Bangalore since that area of the city was less congested and was close to prime IT destinations like Whitefield and Electronics city.



When we started our research for best schools in Bangalore for our kids, we very well knew we cannot find a school that meet all of our expectations. But continued our efforts to find a good match that meet most of our expectations.

St Patrick's Academy, Bangalore


One fine day, we heard about a new school coming up in Sarjapur Road, Bangalore. The name of the management - "Patrician Brothers" made us look in the details. I started doing a lot of research about the management. We studied details of other schools managed by the same management. We were very impressed reading about the other great schools run by them, especially the St Michaels Academy, Chennai.

I spent several weeks researching for more information about the upcoming school. I kept an eye on the satellite view of Google Maps for the area to see the construction progress. I read about their future plans for a school in Bangalore in one of the newsletters of Patrician brothers. We were keenly watching the progress of the building construction. In less than a year, they built a huge building for the school. By this time, we had almost made up our mind that this will be the school for our kids. (In the meantime, we considered moving to Kochi in Kerala as well, but we finally ended up in Bangalore itself, probably because of St Patrick's Academy).

Did St Patrick's Academy, Bangalore meet our criteria for the best school for our children
We were really excited to find St Patricks Academy in our search for best schools in Bangalore for our kids. To our surprise, it met almost all of our criteria for the future school for our kids after we return to India.

1. Best school for our kids but not the best in city: So far, we do not regret. St Patrick's just look great for our children. Of course there are better schools in Bangalore, but they do not meet our other criteria.

2. Christian school: St Patrick's Academy is a Christian school, offering Christian as well as value based education. Whether you are a Christian or not, the school offers great value based education to build a better citizen for the country and a better member for your family.

3. Children from all layers of the society: A good number of children in the school are Malayalees, which does not really influence our rating for the school. But what we rate high for the school is, it has a good mix of kids from all levels of the society and from various cultures in the country. Also, there are several NRIs who returned to India similar to us.

Overall, children are from good families who want a great value based education for their children, which is really important. If a kid is not disciplined, school can easily train him/her and tune according to the rules of the school. However, if parents do not have a similar culture, this is going to fail. No matter how much efforts the school puts in, the kids will remain the same. So, choosing a school were most parents expect their children to have good manners, culture, education and values in life are very important.

If most kids are from very rich families, kids can be easily spoiled. If most kids are from low-income layer of the society, it may become hard for the school to convince the families to spend money for various events and extra curricular programs. Also, you could experience the expectation problem. Many poor families have a different expectation from kids. Many of them just want to prepare their kids to somehow complete the education and go for a job to feed the family.

But Patrick's is really good in this aspect. Most families who send their kids here are from IT field or with some other decent earning jobs. They can afford to spend money for extra curricular activities. They have great expectations from their children.

There are children from poor family background as well. The school is giving lot of scholarship to such children so that their low income do not affect their study in the school.

4. No extra comfort for students: St Patrick's is a normal school offering reasonable comfort for students. There are no air conditioned class rooms. There are no indoor games. Kids have to attend the sports outdoors in the sun and rain like all of us did in our schools long ago. They spend hours in the play ground, get tired and sometimes faint. If a kid faint in the assembly or during sports events, they would simply sprinkle some water on their face, make them feel comfortable and push them back to the ground. (Unlike US schools, there are no 911 calls, no school nursing rushing to the scene and no alarming phone calls to the parents. I am sure this is same in all other schools in India, except were the really posh schools were the kids were grown up like fish in the aquarium with regulated air and water)

5. We wanted a school where majority of the students are non-local people. St Patrick's have a good mix of students from all other parts of the country. I think majority of the kids are from Malayali families who generally prefer Christian schools for the value based education.

6. Reasonable fees. The fees at St Patricks is very reasonable (about 30,000 per year, but varies slightly based on the class). In fact, I felt like suggesting the school once to increase the fees a bit and provide more infrastructure. Later I learnt, it is not the lack of funds, but it is just a matter of time they are building up all the infrastructure.

7. Syllabus: Even though we preferred CBSE due to the relatively lower work load, we ended up choosing the ICSE syllabus since this school offer only ICSE syllabus. This is the only criteria we could not meet in St Patricks.

8. Location: St Patrick's Academy is located in the best location I can think of in Sarjapur road in Bangalore. It is away from the dust and pollution in the city, but still very easily reachable. The school is located on the side of the Sarjapur main road itself, with a beautiful view of the huge building from the road. There are several other schools in the area, but none of them are in the prime location like Patricks Academy.

Summary: St Patrick's Academy is the best school for our kids


Overall, St Patrick's Academy met 7 out 8 criteria we had in mind while looking for the best schools in Bangalore. This is really great. We were very happy that we found St Patrick's Academy. The school came up just in time when we were planning to return to India from USA.

However, meeting the criteria to choose the school is very different from meeting our expectations from the school after joining. I have a lot to share within the first few months itself, but I will keep it for another post.

The best school for our kids may not be the best school for your children. If you are searching for schools, I suggest you define your criteria first. Then make a chart of various schools and see which one matches your criteria best.



Meanwhile, if you are in this page looking for information about the school and have any questions, feel free to post your queries here. I will be more than happy to share any information I have. Also, the St Patrick's Parent Group will be a good place to learn more about the school. Another great place to see some photos is, St Patrick's Parents Facebook page.


Article by Tony John
Tony John is a professional blogger from India, who started his first Weblog in 1998 at Tripod.com. Tony switched to blogging as a passion blended business in the year 2000 and currently operates several popular web properties including IndiaStudyChannel.com, Techulator.com, dotnetspider.com and many more.

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Comments

Guest Author: N Bobby05 Oct 2011

Hi Tony,
Thank you for sharing the details of St Patrick's school from a parent's perspective. In fact I couldnt find detailed info regarding this from anywhere else.
Please answer my following queries on the school.
1. As you mentioned we are also ina confusion of Syllabus Vs School. But as we observe all our preferred institutions(Christian, not-profit-making) follow ICSE syllabus. At the same time we dont want our child to be over burdened with heavy syllabus. Can you please share how do you experince about this. I mean how tough/easy will it be for people like us(both are working)to support our child's day to day activities in an ICSE school.. Let em be clear on something I dont want to sit with her and spoon feed for all the learning needs, but I am asking about a reasonable level of help/guidance in her daily activities.
2. What are the other type of expenses we have to meet other than the admission fee. Will uniform, books expenses come under the specified fee.

Thanks
NBobby.

Guest Author: Tony John22 Oct 2011

Bobby,

Thanks for your feedback.

My wife spends about an hour with my 3rd grade son and that really helps. During exams, she end up spending about 2 hours with him teaching and fighting! It is hard to manage 3 boys!

We were really worried if our kids would be able to do well in the ICSE schools especially after attending the US Schools until now. But they are adjusting well now. He just got the results from the first term exam and did rank very good in the class. Looks like kids can adjust to any situation pretty well.

In most cases, both parents are working. I think no matter which school you send the kids, you will need to spend about an hour everyday to follow up with homework, help with projects etc.

One thing I don't like in St Patrick's is, alternative Saturdays are working days and they pick the Saturdays adjacent to the long week ends and holidays! This might have happened accidentally because they overlooked it when they prepared the school calendar during the beginning of the academic year.

2. St Patrick's management is not really money minded. There are no other extra fees other than bus fee. Occasionally, you will have to spend some money to buy paper, coloring papers, crayons, paint brush etc. Uniform and books are included in the fees.

Guest Author: anselm pinto01 Nov 2011

Are some of these schools putting too much pressure on children with a heavy syllabus? Further, the emphasis is on rote learning. Daily homework takes all the free time and leaves little or no time for play. 60 students in a class - where is the personal attention that you would expect your child to have, for a good education?

I am told that there are schools where children do not have any homework till the seveth grade and the kids love it.

Another side to the discussion is that we Indians have been brought up with such focus on academics and thats why we out shine our foreign counterparts.

Points to ponder on....

Guest Author: 15 Nov 2011

Anselm Pinto,

You are right...there is homework for kids at St Patrick's. One of the complaints we heard while considering this school was, lot of home work and heavy syllabus. But the other side of it is, as you said, one of the reasons we returned from USA to India was to give the Indian method of education to our kids.

It has been more than 5 months our kids going to this school now. We do not find any difficulty yet. Or, in other words, we are adjusted to the system. My 3rd std son sometimes complain that school was much easier in USA, but then we remind him that he was in 2nd grade in USA and 3rd grade in USA wouldn't have been fun at all. I think he buys that argument!

But personally, school in USA was fun and easy for kids, atleast in lower grades. Parents never had to bother about homework (except for some projects), we never had exam pressure, and so on... However, my wife used spend the same hours with kids teaching Indian syllabus at home to prepare them for the Indian schools. The extra work really helped when we came back to India. Except for Hindi and Kannada, kids did not feel any difficulty in coping with the syllabus. Kids actually like the extra curricular activities in the school and St Patrick's has a lot of activities.

I don't think tough syllabus is anything specific to St Patrick's. Any other school in India would have the similar syllabus, except schools like "Prakriya" and other true international schools where schooling is fun!

My petty complaints about the school are:

1. Low fees attracts people who are really looking for cheap schools rather than people who look for quality education. This is lowest fees private school in the area.

2. Every month, two Saturdays are working days in the school, which is Okay for me, but school has not used any sense at all in picking which Saturdays are working days. Unfortunately, if any Friday or Monday is a holiday, it is guaranteed that, the Saturday is a working day, making it impossible to enjoy any long week end! (I am not complaining about a single occurrence, but many such cases were there.) I would not miss to talk this to the management next time I visit the school, who usually pay attention to the parents, unlike many other schools.

But overall, I still rate the school very high and it matches very close to our expectations than any other school in town.

Guest Author: Tony21 Aug 2012

Hi All,

I am planning to put my son in SPA. Just wanted to know if there is any improvement at SPA based on the complaints registered so far.

Tony

Guest Author: Edwin Rajan02 Mar 2013

Hi Tony ,

Thanks for the feedback . You have written this in 2011 and Is your blog still hold good for this school , as we are planning to put our kids here .

Guest Author: Robin13 Oct 2013

hi tony, i also want to come back to india and send my kids in st patrics accademy sharjapur. whats your opinion about this school now?

Guest Author: Ganga19 Oct 2014

Hi Tony,

Your blog is really good and given good details about St.Patrick. Since you posted it in 2011, I would like to know your recent reviews. Is there any negatives other than what mentioned above, you find later? In higher classes how is work load? Is teachers good enough?(are they teaching in a way kids can understand things or they just mugg up)?. How is English pronunciation there?

Expecting Reply

Guest Author: 19 Oct 2014

Ganga,

We moved to another city last year, after sending our kids to St Patrick school for 2 years. But I am still part of their Google group for parents and in general I get very good feedback. There are some complaints here and there that teachers beating kids etc etc. Overall, qualifications of teachers are just average and that is one area the school needs to improve.

They follow ICSE syllabus. Now we moved to CBSE syllabus. Before we came to St Patrick's, my impression was ICSE syllabus is very challenging but is good for the future of the kids if they are ready to take the challenge. But after going through CBSE, I realized ICSE syllabus is just "tough" to study but they are sort of outdated. I lost all respect for ICSE syllabus after seeing it for about 2 years.

If I return to Bangalore, I would choose this school itself unless I can find a CBSE school from a similar non-money focused management. I am impressed with their discipline, care for students and focus on extracurricular activities.

Guest Author: Anil Joh16 Mar 2015

Thanks Tony we are planning to send our son to this school (3RD) from this academic year, waiting for your valuable advice

Reg, Anil john from KSA

Guest Author: SN12 Aug 2015

Mr. Tony,

I got to your blog from google search because I have been researching on the R2I to Bengaluru(my hometown) from US topic.

I liked your first article about moving back to India and was keen to read your input on the schools. I did not read further than point 5. in your article.

We want a school where majority of the students are non-local people. This was highly important for us not because we do not like locals, but because we wanted the kids to speak English as primary language in the classes. Also, having a lot of local people in the classes would affect the discipline of the school.

I take offense to this statement. Bengaluru became the silicon valley of India starting with the locals. What makes you think having locals in school disrupts the discipline? you talk about value based education and yet I do not see any value in this statement. Would you have made this statement in the US? Yes, people in Bengaluru are welcoming in nature. An auto rickshaw driver will give you directions in Malayalam not because THAT is his native language but because it is YOURS, so you understand it better. I am glad you moved to another city. We need more people who respect the culture and the locals in Bengaluru, does not matter where you are from.

Guest Author: 18 Jul 2016

I am just considering this school for my 3.5 year kids in the next academic year. So want to get the real review from the parents whose kids are actually student of this school. I just want two three point.
1.Academic
2. Safety
3. Extra curricular activities.
Just want to know how is the school as this is the ICSE BOARD school I have heard from many people that very pressurized homeworks are there in this school because I am also from missionary school product so I am looking for the same for my daughter. looking for the reply
Please help me regarding same

Guest Author: Tony John18 Jul 2016

Ruchika,

My kids were going to this school but we moved to Kerala 2 years ago and our kids are no longer going there. This school is very academic and at the same time have a lot of sports etc. School has excellent infrastructure. However, this is not a pampering kind of school. Kids will get a pretty rough environment. Lot of homework is there. Also, the ICSE syllabus by itself is very challenging. I feel CBSE is a lot better with more up to date curriculum.

Guest Author: Radhin Das22 May 2017

Hi Tony,

Could you tell me the fees structure for UKG and 3rd std?

Author: Tony John22 May 2017 Member Level: Gold   Points : 2

Radhin Das,

It has been about 3 years since I left St Patrick's Academy, Bangalore. I suggest you contact the school directly and enquire about the fees structure.



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