The dilemma of schooling

So here's a dilemma. A real tricky one.

With the countdown to our return to the UK having begun, a big question is the little one's education.

You may recall weeks spent last year applying for a place in a good Delhi school. The results were 50-50 - four successes and four failures. The little one got through in No.1 (Shri Ram School) and No. 2 (Springdales School) schools of South-West Delhi.

Though Springdales was closer to our place, Shri Ram was where friends from the little one's play-school were. More importantly, it was "the new Harvard" according to a Delhi-based American journalist.

In about two weeks' time, my girl would finish her tenure in the school. She has enjoyed going to the school and made many friends. Her class-teachers adore her and say "she is all her class-mates' best friend".

Each week, she has made sure she carries a "Show & Tell Bag" - sometimes two or three. And if a bag can't be arranged, she needs to know words related to the alphabet she is learning.

Drawing was her favourite activity when she started school. Learning new words - dozens of them every day - is the favourite activity now.

At dinner time, she loves to play the teacher. Mum belongs to the 'Girls' Team' and Dad belongs to the 'Boys' Team'. She chooses the alphabet. The teams come up with related words. You get a point - and occasionally, a high-five - for a right answer. For speaking without raising your hand, you lose a point.

The empty chairs on the dining table are occupied by invisible classmates. Mum and Dad can't hog the answers and credit. The invisible classmates need to have their moment of glory too.

It may just be a fear of the unknown, but her new school is likely to be one that doesn't fare too well in the League Tables.

The admission process in English schools is long over, and places in all the good schools allocated. Our application will be an In-Year Admission To Primary School - which generally results in a place in schools that still have places.

For us, it could very well be Thameside Primary School. The school is within minutes of our new accommodation and has where some of the little one's playmates from Caversham have enrolled.

The Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills or OFSTED reported in 2006 that Thameside is "situated in a relatively prosperous area of Caversham, but mainly serves pupils whose social conditions may not be favourable".

The report gave the school 3 (Satisfactory) on Overall Effectiveness, Achievements & Standards, The Quality of Provision and Leadership & Management. The only 2 (Good) it scored was on Personal Development & Well-being.

Not much has changed since then on any of those accounts. Earlier this year, The Guardian placed Thameside at 25th position (out of 34 Reading schools) in Average Point Score list and 20th on the Value Added Measure. The latter is a measure of the school's success in shaping up a pupil from Age 7 to Age 11.

A middle-of-the-table existence isn't totally bad, but then again it doesn't inspire much confidence either. The Guardian recommends we don't break into a sweat - "League tables show only part of the picture of a school. The Sats tests as a method for assessing schools have long been controversial ".

The newspaper's advice to the parents is to talk to other parents and seek more information before judging and choosing a school.

Unfortunately, we are not in a position to choose. And how Thameside shapes up the little one - and nurtures her desire to learn - is something we will have to wait and see.

As a friend remarked cheekily, "I look forward to hearing your views on moving the girl from a First-Rated School in Third World to a Third-Rated School in First World"!!