Addis Ababa for dummies – Part 6/ Playschools

When we moved to Addis, Vihaan was 18 months old and the baby of the whole extended family. The decision to start sending him to Playschool was definitely controversial but I definitely didn’t have too much choice.Reading,Riting and Rithmetic

It is probably easier for other expats to make a decision regarding the school to send their children to because they are either diplomats and have oodles of experience in country hopping or working for international aid agencies like the UN or USAID which have dozens of employees in the same position and official guidelines to help you settle down. When we arrived we were the only foreign employees of a small private Ethiopian health care concern and our only contact was our employer. In short, we were completely at sea. My intensive googling and obsessive blog reading threw up a few names and I decided that the best approach would be to visit each of the play schools and see which seemed a good fit with safety, distance and expense being our primary concerns. Since Vihaan was still a teeny-tiny baby boy with a proven track record for self injury, it was paramount that the baby:caregiver ratio be very low and there would be someone keeping a hawks eye on him all the time. And obviously the less time he spends commuting and the more time on the playground, the better. We don’t get an education allowance and would have to pay ourselves, so the expense was a definite consideration.

Vihaan joined his first play school in May 2012 and he changed to a new school in Jan 2013. So I have insider experience of two schools and have personally visited the others. However, all opinions expressed are personal and parents with more experience with other schools may disagree completely. I am just offering a primer to playschools in Addis with basic contact and fee information and you can take it and run from there. There are a number of non-English playschools as well, chiefly French,German and Italian, but I was obviously not interested in those. Note that the fee structure given is accurate at the time of posting but may change frequently. The fees are stated in Dollars but are payable in Birr at the current exchange rate. And of course, feel free to contact me for further information or to rant.

Head to Toe  

I heard about Head to Toe from a few expat discussion sites and it was personally recommended by a parent who was absolutely thrilled with it. Most importantly they take children from 6 months onward. Most playschools in Addis are located on leased residential premises which have been re-modelled to function as a playschool. Head to Toe is also hidden away in a residential neighbourhood and the high gates give no clue to what lies beyond. When I crossed those gates for the first time, I fell in love at first sight.

Open air class!

The huge lawn with the swing, slide, climbing apparatus and numerous bikes, trikes and what-have-you were enough to convince me that I needn’t bother looking any further for Vihaans first school ( Even though the fees were definitely cause for a pause ). In addition to the playground, however, they have well equipped play rooms crammed with enough innovative activities to send any self respecting toddler into a hyperactive frenzy.

The small window before chivalry is needed.

Head to Toe is owned and run by Jane Pyecha and her husband Teddy. Jane is an American with years of experience in early childhood education who set up Head to Toe as her dream school after working at ICS for a time. When you meet Jane and Teddy, you realize they are following their passion and not running a business. The teachers and teaching assistants at Head to Toe are well qualified, but more importantly genuinely love being around children.

Vihaan joined Head to Toe for mornings, three days a week, last May. His nanny went along with him for the first couple of months, after which he started going alone. He took to playschool like a duck to water. He couldn’t tell me exactly what he got up to but his general state of happiness was evidence enough that he adored the school. Some morning he would actually jump out of bed saying “ Skool”. He spent many happy hours messing around with paint, clay, water games, costumes to name a few and invariably returned home exhausted but happy. I will be always grateful to Jane and her staff ( Salem, Hannah and Babush in particular ) for giving Vihaan such an excellent introduction to the education system. The weekly e-mails, term end reports and photos were also much appreciated both by us and his grandparents.

It took him time to get over his "dirty" phobia.

So, WHY IS VIHAAN NO LONGER AT HEAD TO TOE ? There are two reasons for that. The first is that most of the arterial roads in Addis are currently under construction, with four lane highways and flyovers in the mix. In this process, however, the Wolo Sefer road which we took to reach the school has been cut-off from Bole. We were forced to take a circuitous route via the Ring Road which extended our 15 minute commute to 45 minutes. As the deadline for the road opening is May 2013 before the 50^th mega AU meeting, this means six months of being stuck in uncertain traffic, twice a day. The other reason is that I now wanted to shift Vihaan to a five day a week schedule and the hike in fees this meant made me green in the gills. After much soul searching and trans – continental debates, I decided to shift him to a new school. But first, the relevant information on Head to Toe.

Session structure – Two terms a year. Children can attend 2/3/5 days a week.

They take children from 6 months to 5 years. Head to Toe is one of the few places where they take children younger than 2 years. They have a special Infant and nanny program ( 6-24 months) where the nanny is also taught techniques to interact and play with the child.

Duration – Mornings 8.30 am to 12.30 pm. Afternoon sessions available on request.

Vacation School – Summer school is in June-July and Christmas session is for two weeks in Dec-Jan

Fees – 5500 USD / year for five days a week.

Location – Kera ( near the International Clinical Laboratories )

Contact – Jane Pyecha ( 0930012351 )

E-mail headtotoe.addis@gmail.com

Flipper Playschool

In December 2012, when I started looking around for an alternate playschool, I revisited Flipper on the recommendation of a friend of a friend. Flipper is a very popular school with two branches in Beklobet and Casanchis both of which always seem full to overflowing. Flipper was on high on my list the first time around because they take children from 18 months onward and it is much more economical. I visited the Casanchis branch in May 2012. The school is not very impressive and appears a trifle shabby. Though they have all the required trappings, slides, swings and toddler sized toilets, everything looks a little old. The grounds are also small and rocky with no grass or artificial turf to cushion the falls. The classrooms seemed warm with a low toddler: caregiver ratio. I reached there at lunchtime after battling a traffic jam and most of the children seemed in the 3-5 year age group, much older than Vihaan who had just finished 18 months. The office informed me that they could take Vihaan only in the next semester, starting September , so that took the decision out of my hands.

I visited the Beklobet branch in December 2012 because I had heard it was larger and better equipped than the Casanchis branch. The school is located in a residential area behind the Global Hotel. The grounds are much larger than the Casanchis branch with a well equipped play area. I cannot really fault the place in any way except to say that it felt like a school and not a play-school. The classrooms appeared to be traditional with a teacher standing and talking to a bunch of orderly toddlers on the floor. Also, this sounds petty but a lot of the class room conversation seemed to be in Amharic and I was afraid Vihaan would feel left out. At 18 months, he had started to understand Hindi and even speak a few words before we Ieft Delhi. After reaching Addis, his verbal skills had definitely declined and I was afraid that putting Amharic into the mix along with Hindi and English would just confuse him further. I realize that this is purely a first child-neurotic mother syndrome but it is a thought I had at the time. I  put Vihaan on the waiting list for the January session although my heart wasn’t in it.

The details :

Session structure : Three terms per year. Age group 18 months- 5 years.

Contact : Beklobet branch – 0114167895

                 Casanchis branch – 0115548095

Fees : For the Nursery class (2-3 years )

900 USD / year for 5 days a week

 650 USD /year for 3 days a week

Paintbox Playschool

Paintbox is probably the oldest and most reputed of the English language playschools in Addis. It is run by Jane Malone and is located close to The Sanford International School. In fact, most of the students have older siblings studying at Sanford. It was earlier located within the British Embassy premises but has now shifted to the current location. It can be frustrating to get any information on Paintbox unless you know a parent whose child is a student. It has practically no internet presence which is surprising considering its years of existence and sterling reputation. I got the contact info from a parent whose daughter is my patient and currently attends Paintbox.

I visited Paintbox during my first cycle of pre-school visits. It is located in another residence converted to a playschool. The yard area is not much but has a couple of slides and swings. The interior is divided into the usual playrooms, snack area etc. It was nice but not outstanding. I don’t remember exactly how much it costs but the fee structure is very reasonable. I had heard that Paintbox is notoriously hard to get into and has a long waiting list, so I paid the registration fee and registered Vihaan for the Jan 2013 session in May 2012. He had already started going to Head to Toe and I figured I could take a call 6 months down the line if I wanted to shift him to Paintbox. The pros for Paintbox was its reputation and the reasonable fees. The cons for me was that it is located rather far away and the fact that I wasn’t very impressed after seeing it.  

As my knowledge is limited, I am giving only the contact details below:

Contact-

Jane Malone 0911233083

janeaddis2003@yahoo.co.uk   

Jacadi

Jacadi is a new after school activity centre as well as day care which is located on Churchill Road near Lycee Gebre Mariam school. I have heard good things about Jacadi on the expat network but haven’t gone to see it because it is across the town for me and not practical with the current state of road construction. Here is an article giving more details-

http://www.capitalethiopia.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=478:jacadis-open-space-provides-education-outside-the-classroom-&catid=44:arts-and-culture&Itemid=50

Contact-

Ruphael (0911214705 )

Fee structure – Approximately 2000 Birr/ 108 USD/per month for daycare for 5 days a week

Brana International Playschool

We had pretty much decided to let Vihaan continue at Head to Toe and to suffer the commute, when I saw an ad for Brana and decided to check it out. Also, this blog post was brewing in my head and I wanted the information to be as complete as possible. Brana is located in a dusty by-lane behind the Gothera condominiums with only its orange gate a clue to its being munchkin central. What can I say, for me it was love at first sight, again.

Note the giraffe-friend.

Brana has a wonderfully equipped, shady playground which Vihaan refused to leave on our first visit. And they have a mini merry-go-around with horches ! And Vihaan has a humoungous horch fetish. We have to go to Africa Park every Sunday just so that he can moon over the horch there for an hour. 

Africa Park Horch

Brana Horch(es)

Plastic horses aside, Brana has bright, well equipped playrooms and a number of innovative activity areas including art, computers and gardening. Great attention has been paid to tiny details when renovating to make the school child safe. I especially appreciate the padded driveway considering my son trips and stumbles every two steps. And they have tiny toddler sized toilets everywhere which Vihaan has not yet graduated to using but I live in hope. While we are on the cuteness meter, their classes are called Teddy bears (2-3 yrs), Brown bears (3-4yrs) and Polar Bears (4-5 yrs). Awwww!

I am done gushing now. Vihaan has joined Brana from the January semester and couldn’t be happier. I was mildly worried about the transition to a new school but it has been completely smooth. I am sure the horches helped. He takes one or more of his stuffed toys to school each day which he used to do at Head to Toe as well initially. This may be a sign of insecurity or maybe, he just wants to share the school experience with his friends. Either way I am thrilled to see how joyful the school experience continues to be for him and for that alone I am glad to have shifted to Addis.

Brana also encourages the inclusion of differently abled children. This is not only on paper as one of the Teddy Bears is a toddler with mild Downs Syndrome. Kudos for that. The school is run by Jeanette Reyes de Throp and Etsegenet Asamere, both of whom are very hands on. Brana has an informative website for further details.

http://www.branaplayschool.com/

Technical details:

Session structure – Three terms a year. Children can attend 2/3/5 days a week.

They take children from 2 to 5 years. Sometimes they take children from 18 months onward.

Duration – Mornings 8.30 am to 12.30 pm. Afternoon session is till 3.30 pm, most of the older children attend full day sessions.

Vacation School – Summer school is in July and Christmas session is for one week in Dec. They also offer a variety of after-school activities for older children including art, gymnastics and martial arts.

Fees – Very variable depending on number of days and number of afternoon sessions. We are paying approximately 4000 USD / year for five mornings a week excluding the holidays.

Location – Gothera ( near NIB Bank )

Contact – Jeanette ( 0930033536, jeannettethrop@gmail.com )

                 Etsegenet ( 0911726276, etsegenetbranaplayschool@gmail.com )

This is my longest and most technical post as yet and represents a lot of research on my part. So, now I can rest for about a month.Hope this is helpful, I know I would have been delighted with this info when I was blindly net surfing in Delhi last year. Cheers.