It takes a lot of courage and motivation to hang the boots on a well-paying career and start something from the scratch. However, Sonia Govardhan and Jui Bijapurkar decided to take the road less charted when they set out to establish The Beamish International Pre-School.
Having worked in the education sector for almost two decades the two decided to do something with the objective of shaping young minds and from there came the idea of starting a preschool. This is no ordinary pre-school. It is the only ISO 9001: 2015 certified school in the region and for a reason. There is a lot of thought, research and hard work that has gone into establishing the school. They also have stringent practices in place for security, hygiene and overall atmosphere.
While talking to us Jui Bijapurkar mentioned how the school believes that its teachers are its biggest asset and nurture the talent. All teachers are mandated to take four training a year and steps are taken to make them feel motivated and give their best.
Even from a children’s point of view, The Beamish International Pre-School is no ordinary school. It lays emphasis on learning by doing. Explaining the concept, Jui explained that we know that the major learning for any child happens in the formative year. Therefore we have an added responsibility of moulding them in the right direction. Our tagline is to go beyond numbers and alphabet and we strive to inculcate great values in all the children that are studying in our playschool. The same thought process is adopted for all other aspects of the schools. There is a big play area, the furniture is kept to the bare minimum. The idea is to let children play.
Inspired by Rabindranath Tagore’s Shantiniketan philosophy, the school has a Shanti Niketan time every Friday. As a part of this time, all the students gather under the tree, spend time in nature and have storytime. The idea behind this storytelling session is simple. Stories spark the imagination of young minds. They are magical in their own way and are an effective way to connect with the children and teach them valuable life lessons added Sonia.Even during the pandemic, they continued with this story session via their YouTube channel.
While all this looks well established and settled but the going was not as easy for Jui and Sonia as it looks. They not only gave up their well-paying jobs for this dream but also put in their own saving along with their spouses to bootstrap this school. To make sure that the school is able to start off the right way, the duo devoted about 15-18 months to research. They not only research the best teaching practices but also visited almost 25 preschools. This helped them gain perspective and comprehend the functioning of the School. Having closely observed the way education is imparted and the management styles, they opened The Beamish International Pre-School to make a difference.
Jui shares that the first year was challenging and tested their patience on all levels. They only had 14 students in the first batch. As the word got around, they had more inquiries and more students pouring in. Despite the stiff competition in the space, they were able to have 90 students in their third batch and looking to scale even higher. However, those plans were halted by the pandemic. Talking about the going through the pandemic, Jui states that while the time was challenging but it also helped in a way. Beamish International Pre-School was able to keep things going and there is a far greater demand now that things have gotten back to normal.
Beamish International Pre-School is also all set to expand its wings and looking at capturing newer ground. They are already in the process of starting a new school in Punawale the coming months. There are already good admissions for the current batch at both locations. Along with this, they are also now looking to take this education system beyond Pune to the rest of the country. For this, they are open to collaborating with like-minded people and collaborating to grow. One thing that Jui and Sonia are crystal clear about is that they will not comprise on their philosophy or the quality of the education. They want each of their franchisee or company-owned schools to have the same ethos and essence. Moreover, as they branch out their vision is to build responsible global citizens!
