Cities / Chennai / Alphabet International School
Alphabet International School
A full IB continuum school in Palavakkam, on the East Coast Road stretch south of central Chennai, running all three International Baccalaureate programmes from early years through to the Diploma.
In brief
A full IB continuum school in Palavakkam, on the East Coast Road stretch south of central Chennai, running all three International Baccalaureate programmes from early years through to the Diploma.
Founded in 2009 by Kavita Saraf, who still leads the school as Head, Alphabet was authorised across the PYP, MYP and DP, with IB World School status dating to 2018. It draws a student body of around 950 across a 60,000 square foot Palavakkam campus that sets aside a large share of space for sport and open ground, and runs a separate younger-years campus at Alwarpet. The student to teacher ratio is kept low, and the school positions itself as one of the more accessible IB options in the city.
Fees are not published in a consistent official schedule, and directory figures vary widely, so families confirm current annual costs and the application fee directly with admissions. Independent commentary is limited, which makes a campus visit the most reliable way to read facilities and fit.
Reviews
What surfaces about Alphabet is mostly the teacher side of the building, and it pulls two ways. Staff describe a school that invests in the people who stay, with structured professional development, free meals on a campus close to the seashore, competitive pay, and a fee waiver for teachers' own children, and several say it opens doors for those willing to grow with it. The recurring complaint runs alongside that: a hire-and-fire feel, a long notice period, a pay cut for taking leave once notice is given, and internal politics that staff say management lets run. On the parent side the school turns up on serious IB shortlists in the city rather than in detailed write-ups, and the warmer read tends to land on individual teachers and the close-knit, small-campus attention rather than on the wider organisation, which still reads as a young operation finding its feet administratively.
Positives
- Teaching and personal attention. The strongest praise lands on individual teachers and the personalised attention a small campus allows, and staff point to real professional development, a fee waiver for their own children, and competitive pay that keeps committed teachers in the building. The school shows up on parents' genuine IB shortlists for Chennai.
Considerations
- Staff turnover and management. Teachers repeatedly describe a hire-and-fire feel, a long notice period, a pay cut for taking leave during notice, and internal politics that they say management tolerates rather than damps down. Churn at that level tends to read, from the parent side, as faces changing more than families would like.
- A young, small operation. Warmth toward the close-knit scale sits next to a sense that the wider organisation is still maturing, with administrative and operational processes that feel less settled than the classroom teaching. The picture is of strong people inside a structure that is still being built out.
Leadership