The first batch of Lower Nursery students at Loreto House started attending classes in April.
The school introduced Lower Nursery this year for kids who are 3-plus.
Till the last academic session Loreto House had Nursery (4-plus) and Kindergarten (5-plus) before the girls moved to Class I.
Now, there are Lower Nursery (3-plus), Upper Nursery (4-plus) and Kindergarten (5-plus) before Class I.
According to the school authorities, 60 students were admitted to Lower Nursery this year but the number will go up next year.
Loreto House was one of the few schools in the city that was still admitting students at 4-plus.
The school authorities acknowledged that they could not any longer ignore the trend of “early schooling”. Students at 3-plus, a Loreto House teacher said, are “more spontaneous and less tutored”.
This move will also help parents apply at several schools.
For those who are keen to get their kids admitted to Loreto House, it was like taking a risk. There is always a chance that the 4-plus kid might fail to get admitted in the school and by then would have missed the chance of getting admission in other schools. “There was an increasing demand from parents to reduce the entry age and we did it this year,” said Aruna Gomes, principal of Loreto House.
For 60 seats there were more than 1,000 applications.
Parents usually make a beeline for admission to the top schools in the city as early as when the child is two years and six months.
“I have admitted my daughter to another school though my first preference was Loreto House. But I was not sure whether she would get admission there a year later because of the fierce competition,” a mother said.
“Next year, we would add seats to the existing Lower Nursery and Upper Nursery. But from the year after we will only admit students in Lower Nursery,” said Gomes.
The children were very spontaneous during the interactions, said Gomes.
“We have seen that children at four have already memorised numbers and letters. Parents often tell us how much their kids has picked up writing,” a teacher said.
Loreto Convent Entally also admitted children at the age of three this year for pre-nursery class and started with one section only.
Just before the pandemic St Xavier’s Collegiate School had lowered its entry age to 4-plus instead of 5-plus.