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24 Jul 2021 |

Staford School

Spread over 2.5 acres, and located amidst green mango orchards on Hardoi Road Lucknow, Staford School is a CBSE school with a difference. The school not only emphasises the importance of academic excellence, but also stresses upon comprehensive, holistic and all-round development of every student.

Involvement: Strategic consultants and advisors since inception in 2012, Marketing and brand strategy, Expansion strategy and feeder school’s creation

Key Contribution: Strategic consulting and planning, Marketing and brand strategy, End-to-end Marketing campaigns (ATL, BTL), Social media management, Lead Management System, Recruitments

Current Status: Ongoing. The school has reached a student strength of 1000+ in less than 4 years. The expansion into feeder preschools in the city is currently underway and 4 new preschools are now operational.

Website: staford.in

24 Jul 2021 |

Pragyanam

Pragyanam is a CBSE K-12 school that been founded by IIT-IIM alumni, same group as Footprints Childcare. In the last six years, Footprints have served over 12000 parents, across 80 centers in India. ‘Pragyanam’ which means wisdom or understanding in Sanskrit, has been founded on the core belief that the objective of learning in the 21st century is to raise mindful, conscientious individuals who root for competence over competitiveness and aspire to live a life of happiness and fulfilment. Pragyanam has developed a “No-Limit Curriculum” where subjects are used as a medium to develop life-skills.

Newton has been engaged as consultants for the development of the school. In addition to guidance on design and planning of the school, Newton has also executed the interiors of their facilities in DLF Phase 2 and in Sector 65, Gurugram.

Project Start Date: 01 Jan 2018
Project End Date: Ongoing

Project details

Website: pragyanam.school

23 Jul 2021 |

New School Project under the Ministry of Defence

Involvement:
Empanelled as consultants to Edcil to prepare a detailed project report. EdCIL Limited is a Miniratna category Public Sector Undertaking in India under the Ministry of Education, India. EdCIL offers management and consultancy services in all areas of education and human resource development, both within India and overseas.

Key Contribution:
Project leads for the primary and secondary research and the detailed project report (DPR) for the launch of a new residential school on over 100+ acres of land. Recommendations included the financial model, the school concept, the operational detail and the final presentation. Our team was also asked to present to the Defence Minister.

Current Status:
The report was accepted by the government and some recommendations have been part of later announcements by the GOI.

19 Jul 2021 |

The PreSchools Opportunity

The preschools opportunity, post pandemic, is large and needs to be explored.

Most of the last 18 months have been spent under lockdown or uncertainty over the future of work, education and normal life. The reopening of the country after the first lockdown and the ensuing second wave has created more uncertainty in the future easing of restrictions for regular business. During this time work from home has been forced upon almost everyone. Schools have also tried online schooling / hybrid schooling. It has been difficult. Parents get to spend more time with their children but they must manage their work and the online sessions of their children.

Need for parents

Beyond a certain time it becomes difficult to manage both effectively and efficiently. It is easier with older children who can sit on their computers unattended. But for preschoolers it has been particularly difficult. They have lost a crucial year of social interaction and education. Parents have seen little benefit in enrolling their children in preschools for a year of online education. It can be very challenging for a parent to get their children to sit at a computer for the duration of a class. Several preschoolers have missed out on school education altogether.

So what now? After the lockdown, working parents will need good preschools, even when they are working from home (Assuming working from home continues for them). In such a scenario the preschool needs to be close to their homes. For preschool education parents will continue to prefer proximity, safety and comfort for their children. That we feel is an opportunity.

The PreSchools Opportunity

Premium preschools that offer engagement, safety and security. More experiential engagement centres than just classroom based schools. We had already seen a shift towards premium preschools before the covid pandemic and we feel it will be more so now. Over the last few years we have overseen the launch of premium pre-schools offering diverse experiential learning. Specially designed engagement zones as opposed to traditional classrooms, that children are raring to explore their spaces. Spaces that are designed keeping in mind social engagement of groups of multiple sizes. Spaces that are flexible to handle multiple use, that can be safe even when special norms such as social distancing or other public health measures are required.

Given the needs of a 21st century education, we have always laid great importance on flexibility, innovation and creativity even in designing schools. Schools of this nature are better able to handle change. Such schools set their infrastructure in place, at the same time they also develop their team. The leadership is highly qualified with experience in imparting a 21st century education. Also a focus on growing the rest of the team with tactical hires that bring their expertise, knowledge and experience. Key roles are assigned responsibilities that meet the needs of the school, ones that build collaborative and constructive relationships.

Over the years, Newton Schools has provided services as project consultants in developing the school concept, marketing strategy and the financial projections. Such engagements begin at the concept stage when the school is an idea and perhaps even the land has not been acquired. We have also worked in already initiated projects as academic/management consultants defining the curriculum, the teacher training and recruitments. Our parent firm, Newton Services has executed projects in civil construction and interiors to make the concepts come alive. And in other projects as management consultants building a bridge between school owners and everyday operations of schools.

8 Jul 2021 |

Premium Pre-Schools: Need and Design

There is a new segment of premium pre-schools or nursery schools opening up in India. These are premium preschools, where the infrastructure is owned instead of rented and a higher investment is made in design, interiors, facilities planning and overall delivery of services. To understand this segment and the design of such pre-schools, let us look at the following:

a. Existing market for pre-schools

Till 2020, the following segments of pre-schools existed:

i. Rented apartments / houses being used as pre-schools: These could be found in almost every neighbourhood. Some of these would be franchise brands while others would be self-started pre-schools. As the facility was rented, minimum levels of investments were made in starting the school and these facilities were not even designed to be child-friendly.

ii. Pre-schools built on dedicated plots: In most states, the govt allowed plots for nursery or kindergarten schools and buildings had been made on these plots. These buildings were then rented out to brands / franchises or in some cases, the owners would themselves run a pre-school operation in the building. While these were better than the rented apartments / houses in terms of space usage and facilities for children, many of these buildings were dated in terms of design and planning.

The pandemic since 2020 has started changing the face of these pre-schools. All the preschools have been shut since April 2020 and continue to be closed as of July 2021. Many of the rented facilities have permanently shut down as it was unviable to keep paying for the premises without knowing when students can officially join the school back.

We expect that in 2022, students will be able to attend preschools again. There is a huge opportunity and a new segment of pre-schools that will emerge when that happens.

b. New segment of preschools

We are seeing a new segment of preschools open up, where a brand new facility is created, specifically designed for a premium experience. These centres, often in a 1000 to 3000 sq mtr plot, are designed to offer large learning spaces, pretend-play areas and other facilities for children in the ages 1 to 4. A significant investment is made, compared to earlier preschools, in ensuring the interiors and correctly planned and executed to cater to parents who are willing to pay a higher price for early education. These pre-schools are usually owned and operated by the investors.

c. Design of premium pre-schools

Premium Preschools will attract parents who are young, used to comforts and want the best for their children. As these schools are created on plots owned by the operators, they can invest a higher amount and recoup it back with returns over a longer period of time. The design of the premium preschools requires a lot of inputs that many architects often don’t have. It cannot follow the standard norms of having classrooms along a corridor. Learning spaces needs to be spread and intermingled with play areas. By creating larger open spaces in the floors, design can allow flexibility to the pre-school teachers to change the look and feel of the spaces based on the themes planned to be taught. From the washrooms to the performance areas, significant details need to be planned while designing such preschools. Parents should immediately see the difference between a school like this and traditional preschools when they visit. The overall ambience of the preschool must reflect premium-ness while still being within a certain investment range.

We expect the premium pre-schools segment to grow rapidly, with at least two such pre-schools being created in most towns / cities within the next 3 to 4 years.

Newton has already been involved in creating such pre-schools as project consultants. From design to construction and interiors, we have teams that can create a unique, premium pre-school. To know more, contact us now.