Sapphire Nursery School

Sapphire Nursery School
H-46, Sector 51, Noida, Uttar Pradesh 201307, India

Sapphire Nursery School, established in 2006, occupies a secure, leafy campus in the heart of Defence Colony, New Delhi. The single-story building was designed with early childhood architecture in mind: every classroom opens onto a shaded, rubber-matted courtyard that doubles as outdoor classroom and play zone. Arched windows are placed low enough for pint-sized students to watch seasonal butterflies, while sensory gardens—lavender, lemongrass and peppermint beds—line the walkways so that learning about textures and smells begins the moment children step outside.

The school follows an amalgam of the British Early Years Foundation Stage and India’s National Education Policy 2020, delivered through project-based and multilingual immersion. Teachers function as co-researchers; weekly provocations (“Why don’t umbrellas have windows?”, “How does music travel across the room?”) spark inquiry cycles rooted in storytelling, block play, puppetry and loose parts exploration. Literacy and numeracy are woven naturally into projects rather than taught discretely. Hindi is used conversationally and English is the primary instructional language, while optional after-school Mandarin and Korean mother-tongue clubs serve the multinational families who comprise 28 percent of the cohort.

Inside, the interior palette stays calm and purposeful: matte birch ply furniture, soft Nordic-inspired lighting, and display boards low enough for children to curate their own exhibitions. Wet-play zones called “Splash Labs” encourage experimentation with water flow and buoyancy. A beehive library with swing-out reading nooks stocks 2,000 picture books across seven languages. The Centre for Creative Expression houses a mini-auditorium with floor-to-ceiling mirrors, where children rehearse annual dance dramas; an Atelier Reggio corner invites clay, wire and woodworking under the guidance of a resident artist who rotates every quarter. Technology is used sparingly—an overhead projector converted into a light table, loose circuit boards for Grade Prep, but no tablets before age 6.

Admissions open each November for only 90 seats spread over three levels—Toddler, Pre-Nursery and Nursery—maintaining a strict 1:6 adult-child ratio. A half-day programme runs 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.; Day-Boarding (till 3 p.m.) includes naps in teakwood cubicle rooms supervised by trained caregivers. The school is the first in Delhi to hire a dedicated early-childhood nutritionist; sample lunch boxes undergo monthly audits, while seed-to-plate gardening sessions supplement the organic kitchen garden.

Parent partnership is central. Instead of reports, families receive bi-monthly digital learning stories capturing a child’s thinking through photos and audio reflections. Saturday morning parent circles alternate between tea tastings with a child psychologist and “documentation exhibits” where parents annotate display panels using coloured sticky notes. Fees range from INR 1.85 to 2.35 lakh annually, but the Sapphire Foundation annually subsidises 12 percent of seats for meritorious children from MCD feeder anganwadis.

Check on Google Maps