Our Journey
Kai started life in 1984 as ‘Vidyaniketan Montessori’ in a charming, colonial bungalow in Cantonment Bangalore, where it remained for 20 happy years. In 2010, the little preschool blossomed into a Montessori + K12 international school – Legacy, and moved to a larger campus in North Bangalore. Five years later, we celebrated our 30th anniversary by responding to parent appeals for our Montessori in Whitefield. Legacy Early Years (better known as LEY), settled into a brightly – lit, homely villa, a few yards down the road from where we are currently located. Over five years, LEY nurtured a gentle preschool environment that engaged curious children, attracted caring teaching professionals, and delighted a discerning parent community. In 2017, LEY was ranked the #1 Montessori in India for ‘Individual Attention to students’ by Education Today and received an award from Education World for ‘Innovation in Curriculum’.
Like children, schools too must learn and grow. To commemorate the mature milestone of our 35th year in education in 2019-20, we gave children, parents, educators and the community that surrounds us – Kai Early Years and KaiCircle – a 2-acre, flagship preschool and community centre, with unprecedented opportunities for early years communities to thrive.
Come visit us at Kai and we promise that you will be enthralled with your experience.
Reflections
Jennifer Sait
Co-founder & Director of Learning
At Kai, we aim to transform early years education for our little ones by building awareness of the early years as the most important phase of development in a child’s life. As 90% of a child’s brain is developed by age 6, we support parents intentionally in their journey and also provide ongoing professional development to teachers within the school and externally for the holistic development of every child.
Kai as an Early Years hub has continued to create excitement and garner significant attention from the Education, Architecture, and Design fraternities, both in India and internationally, for its bold vision to transform the Early Years. It has been such a rewarding experience for us to see how awe-struck and in love with Kai every parent, child, and well-wisher has been as soon as they enter our campus.
It is such a precious and endearing moment for us to see the wonder in our children’s expressions as they experience this unique child-inspired learning environment. With exuberance, they flit around from one beautiful learning environment to the next, independent of their parents. It is rewarding to see our 20 wonder-filled indoor and outdoor environments come alive and be filled with such a vibrant buzz, as our children feel so comfortable exploring safely, playing collaboratively, and learning abundantly with their friends from various backgrounds and across age groups. It is also so gratifying for us to be able to see our children make meaningful connections every day through their learning about the world around them.
Our team is very purposeful in working closely with each family and child to enable a seamless transition from their home to our school and ensure that each family continues to have a wonderful ongoing experience. Our teachers are striving wholeheartedly within our enabling environment to personalize the learning journey for each child, by supporting their development and empowering them to begin to become increasingly independent. Play and inquiry, in a purposefully prepared environment, make up a core aspect of our curriculum to ensure that learning remains engaging and enjoyable. Our team also closely works in partnership with our parents to ensure that each child thrives through an ongoing dialogue.
Being witness to the exhilarating energy of our little ones, the excited voices of our teachers, the happy chatter of parents and the buzz in the education fraternity, affirms that we have truly begun to transform the early years.