Frequently Asked Questions

1. Why do we need a curriculum for preschool? It has been identified that the early years from 2-6 yrs are one of the most important time for brain development and learning in a child. It has been proven by experts world over repeatedly that the capacity for a child to absorb concepts and learning is the highest during these years of a human beings life. So, it is very necessary to identify areas of development that need to be focused on during these years of the childs development and ensure that the same is imparted in an effective manner to the child. Blackboard learning and learning by rote does not work during these years. The child learns through experience and repeatedly performing activities that interest him / her. For the 1st to 12th grades in schools, a curriculum is defined by whether the school follows ICSE, CBSE or State boards based on what the school has adopted. But, no such standards have been defined in the preschool segment. Hence, it is extremely important that a clear cut curriculum is defined enabled by materials which can be used to develop a variety of skill sets, interests and intelligences in the child. 2. If I want to set up a preschool, how can Kreedo help me? Kreedo provides a complete preschool solution that enables you to set up a premium, world class preschool that includes the following: a. Developmentally Appropriate Curriculum that imbibes best practices from several established education methodologies. We have identified various intelligences / skills that could be either interest based or need based as the case may be and have identified methodologies, techniques and materials that would develop and enable those skills in the child b. High quality Educational Materials to support the curriculum c. Furniture to create a high class environment d. 2 Day Teacher training workshop at the client site giving an orientation on the curriculum as well as provide training on how to market the schools effectively to parents. e. A multimedia based teacher training software that includes videos on how to present the materials to the child. f. A child evaluation software that enables the teacher to create an Individual Education Plan (IEP) for every child and track the development of the child in the environment by effectively observing and recording information about the childs activities on a day-to-day basis.

Page 1 of 8

g. We also help you with effective marketing strategies that a preschool can adopt to get the parents interested. 3. What is the post setup support that I can expect from Kreedo? a. Kreedo will provide every customer with regular updates on new activities that can be performed in school. These activities will not need any materials and can be devised as individual or group activities by teachers to implement and present various concepts to the child for e.g., a volcano eruption can be effectively demonstrated by shaking a coke bottle b. Every customer will be provided with a special Ask The Expert form that can be used to fill in any problems that the customer may have related to admissions, lesson plans, usage of materials or issues that kids may have (For e.g., getting toilet trained could be a big issue for kids in the environment). Our team of experts will revert to you on the most effective way to handle such scenarios in the environment within as short a time as possible. c. At nominal additional costs, Kreedo will also provide you continuous spare support to ensure that the materials need to be replaced everytime which reduces the total cost of ownership of the equipment purchased. Also, we will undertake repair work from time to time on materials that can be repaired. Replacement sets are also available as and when required. d. Kreedo will also arrange special workshops / training that may be required by your school on topics of relevance. Charges for the same would be communicated in advance. If there are any extra training requirements that your school might require, we could send our trainers to your premises for the same. Charges for the same will be mutually agreed upon before the same is finalized. e. The curriculum will be constantly upgraded. Hence, new ways of working with equipment as well as new materials will be introduced every year or as and when they become available. These will be provided to all franchisees at a nominal cost which will allow them to keep themselves up to date with the latest in the preschool education space. f. For any other special requests, we are always just a phone call away. 4. Which age group is the solution targeted at? The preschool solution is meant for the preschool years from 2 years to 6 years. We have broken up the packages such that the investments can be staggered. The first package is for the age group of children between 2 years to 4 years. The second package is for children between the age group of 4 years to 6 years. 5. Do we provide any school kits like dresses / uniforms / stationery etc.?

Page 2 of 8

No, Kreedo will provide you with guidelines for the above as part of our curriculum. For e.g. stationery items will not be too relevant for children between the age group of 2-4 yrs as they would have just started writing activities at the age of 3.5 yrs and hence, basic notebooks must be provided which the school can ask the parents to purchase. With regards to the 4-6 yrs curriculum, we will provide you with guidelines on purchase of stationery that either the school can procure locally and provide the parents or request the parents to purchase. Also, quite a few activities will be provided with printables as part of the teacher training videos which the teacher / administrator can print and use for classroom related activities / for giving to parents to do at home as the case may be. As regards to dresses / uniforms we again encourage the school not to have rigid classroom uniforms for the preschool and allow the child to dress the way they would like. The main rule that can be enforced is to ensure that the dressing is simple without being flashy and not have too many writings on the T shirts and dresses. Also, ensure that you have an ethnic day as part of the weekly dressing. As regards to items such as school bags / water bottles, again these can be requested by the parents to purchase and the school can just provide guidelines. Again, since the curriculum is not designed to burden the child heavily by providing too much homework, we will not be having heavy schoolbags that the child will be carrying back and forth. 6. What is the methodology all about? How are children taught various concepts? Do we use books to teach children? The curriculum is based on didactic educational materials that have been designed to teach children various concepts. These are learning aids that help the child understand various concepts and develop their skills. Books are a limited part of the curriculum and are not the core. For the age group of 2 yrs to 4 yrs, the curriculum has a few pictorial books that are intended to develop the reading habit and understand pictorial illustrations. Books play a bigger role in the 4 yrs to 6 yrs curriculum, but a majority of the concepts are taught with wooden educational materials rather than books. Books just serve to reinforce some of the concepts and are used as workbooks more than anything else. 7. Is it a traditional classroom concept? Will we have tables and chairs and so on? No, this is not a traditional classroom concept of having benches and desks and having a teacher teaching with a blackboard. The methodology is to have a classroom where the materials are arranged in such a way such that children will work with the materials and while doing so learn and develop various skills at their own pace. Teachers play the role of observers and directors where they present the materials to the child and then allow
Page 3 of 8

the child to play, learn and discover. A majority of the work and presentations are done on the ground where children sit on mats and work with low level tables called Chowkis. The table and chairs (which are limited in number) provided as part of the environment are used only for specific activities which are defined as part of the curriculum. 8. What is the ideal teacher to child ratio recommended? The teacher to child ratio recommendations vary based on the number of children in various age groups. For children between the age group of 2 yrs to 3 yrs, the ideal ratio would be 1:8. For children between the age group of 3 to 4.5 yrs, the idea ratio would be 1:12, and for the age group of 4.5 yrs to 6 yrs, the ideal ratio would be 1:15. 9. What is the area required to run the preschool? The area required obviously depends on the number of students the school will accommodate. Typically for about 30 students, we require a minimum of 900 to 1000 sqft of space and as the number of students go up, the area requirement will increase though not necessarily proportionally 10. How many students can the package materials and curriculum accommodate? The educational materials / equipment provided with the package for the 2-4 yr age group is sufficient to accommodate about 60 children provided there are enough adults / teachers to manage the children. The furniture set up provided with the package initially is good enough for 30-40 children. For the additional admissions beyond 40 children, the school may have to invest in a few additional furniture pieces such as sitting mats, chowkis and so on. Investment in additional material will only be needed if the count goes beyond 60 children. 11. How many of each variety of material is provided with the kit? Most of the educational materials as part of the kit are 1 in number as part of the package except items such as chowkis, sitting mats, working mats, chairs and so on which we provide more than one as per the requirement of the classroom. Please do look at the kit break up sheet to know exactly what is provided with the solution. The idea is that each child will work with different materials in the environment at any point in time. The child is also taught to wait his / her turn when some other child is working with materials of his / her interest. 12. What would be the costs? What would be included in the costs? The costs of the preschool solution range from Rs. 1.2 lakhs to 4 lakhs varying based on the age group, kind of curriculum required and existing set up if any. This is a one-time set up cost and there are no mandatory recurring costs (such as royalties). Please do send us your requirements and we will revert with the best possible solution for your requirements.
Page 4 of 8

13. How will Kreedo help in marketing our school to get admissions? Kreedo will provide you numerous tips on how to effectively market your school in your locality to ensure admissions. We will also review any marketing collateral that you would need to circulate. We will provide you with ideas for events that will captivate the parents. The package includes a 1 day parenting workshop that can be used to either train the administrators / owners of the preschool on how / what and when to talk to parents. We will also conduct this workshop on behalf of the school if required but the responsibility of bringing the parents on a common platform would be that of the preschool. 14. What do I need from my side to set up the school? We require the following as a necessity to set up a preschool: a. Passion to work with children b. Teachers with an educational background preferably in the preschool segment c. Physical Infrastructure Guidelines for the physical infrastructure and number of teachers needed would be given after understanding the requirements of the preschool.

15. How do I get teachers? How do I train them? Kreedo will put you in touch with the nearest teacher training institute or other such resources close to your planned location. We will also provide you strategies to recruit teachers for your preschool. 16. Are there any government regulations / accreditations that are required for a preschool? Currently, there are no regulations / accreditations needed in opening a preschool. 17. Do we need to run the school under the Kreedo brand name? How is it different from a preschool franchisor? Is there any royalty? Kreedo is NOT a preschool franchisor. We believe that you can successfully build your own preschool brand with the tools that we provide you with. We only franchise our curriculum and hence, we request all the preschools that adopt the Kreedo package to mention Follows Kreedo Curriculum on their advertisement / hoarding s. There is no royalty. The major chunk of the investment will be one time as mentioned above in the package costs.

Page 5 of 8

18. How does the Kreedo brand help us? As we will be simultaneously working to increase parent awareness for understanding the importance of preschool curriculum and also the effectiveness of the Kreedo curriculum, we believe that following the Kreedo curriculum will assist the school in building its own brand. 19. If I am running a preschool, how can Kreedo help me? As mentioned above, Kreedo has developed a revolutionary preschool package that can take your existing preschool to the next level in terms of the type of education imparted to the child, feedback to parents on the strengths / interests of the child and also ensuring that there is a structured path for every child to develop skills and interests. Hence, adopting the Kreedo curriculum would help you get better return on your investments as well as providing the best for the child in your preschool. 20. Can we choose selected materials from the package? The package cannot be broken up piece meal as there are a lot of inter-dependencies that ensure the effectiveness of the package. Removing even a single cog from the wheel would result in a dip in the overall effectiveness of the package and its benefits to the school. But, we do provide package options which allow you to gradually upgrade your curriculum. 21. Does this model work in a non-Metro area? The package was developed with focus on semi-urban areas, Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. All these places usually have a high demand for quality education. The parents are less likely to be carried away by fancy brand names, and more likely to attach importance to quality education. The low set up cost ensures that you can provide state of the art preschool education in an effective manner to children in the non-metro areas at an affordable price. Also, the Wow factor for such a premium curriculum would be a lot higher in the non -metro areas which would attract the parents a lot easier. 22. What is the Return on Investment? When can I break even? Kreedo is not a franchisor and hence we do not commit to any return on investment as is the market norm. What we can assure you is that since the set up costs are low, the school would break even a lot faster and the return on investments would be considerably high. Also, since it is not a royalty based model, there are no recurring costs from a curriculum perspective which again increases the RoI. 23. Can I take a basic package and upgrade to the next?

Page 6 of 8

Yes, the investments can be staggered where the customer can adopt a basic package to start with and gradually upgrade the curriculum over a period of time. 24. How will the curriculum be updated? Kreedo will regularly update the curriculum by introducing new materials alon g with training videos and evaluation strategies which the customers could upgrade to. Also, we will be providing regular activities through our website which can be adopted by teachers to apply in the environment.

25. How are we different from a franchisee? Kreedo is a solution provider. We are giving you all the tools you need to run a preschool and for this, we charge a fixed one time charge. There are no royalties. We encourage the customers to build their own preschool brand and we believe that with the tools and expertise we provide, the customer can run a best-in-class preschool. Given our attractive package offering, the investments to start a preschool are quite low and hence the return on investments is much faster. Also, the curriculum solution being provided ensures that the customer does not have to be dependent on Kreedo for ongoing support. This we do through teacher training videos, knowledge base support and other such mechanisms. The curriculum itself is a revolutionary package incorporating methodologies from the best in class theories and practices in the world today (including Montessori, Multiple Intelligence and so on) - and if implemented in the right fashion it will provide a benchmark in preschool education that others will find very difficult to match or achieve. 26. How was the curriculum developed? We have taken inputs from: a. Several early childhood educationists b. Various books related to the cognitive as well as overall development of the child c. Special educators d. Montessorians e. Preschool Owners f. Teachers who work with the children We have taken 2 years to do research in several areas and combined this with our experience with preschools for 20 years and developed this curriculum. It has been
Page 7 of 8

made with a lot of emphasis on the overall well being of the child, but keeping in mind the competitive world we live in today and helping the child adapt himself into this environment. 27. What is the company background? What experience does the company have in this space? We have been working in the early childhood space for 20 years. We manufacture Montessori materials and other preschool aids of very high quality.

28. Do we run preschools of our own in the name of Kreedo? No, Kreedo will not be setting up preschools in our own brand name.

Page 8 of 8