Srimathi Sundaravalli Memorial School

Srimathi Sundaravalli Memorial School has been here in Perungalathur for a while now. If you walk down Meppedu Road, you will find the Montessori Learning Centre tucked away. It is usually pretty busy in the mornings when parents are dropping their kids off. The sun hits the front gate early, and you can hear the birds in the trees nearby before the traffic really picks up. Inside, things are kept simple. There are chairs and tables that fit small children, and the walls have things pinned up that were made during the week. It is not a very fancy place, but it gets the job done. We spend a lot of time just making sure the rooms are tidy and that the fans are working because it gets quite warm in Chennai. The neighborhood knows us mostly by the sound of the bell and the yellow buses that go in and out. Sometimes the street gets a bit dusty, but that is just how it is around here. We have a small staff who have been around for years, and they know most of the people living on the surrounding streets. It is just a regular part of the local area. People stop by to ask questions about the schedule or just to see what is happening. There isn't any big secret to how we run things; we just show up every day and make sure the gates are open on time. That is basically us and how we work.