United School of Tokyo

Japan with its culture, convenience, public health system and public safety is often regarded is one of the top places to raise a family, however high costs of living usually stand in the way of that. Particularly, the high costs of education often preclude families from sending their children to international schools. Many foreign families, especially long-term residents, struggle to find a viable school option for their children because the only two options available to them are Japanese schools or mainstream international schools.

Japanese schools, while being very affordable, are not always a viable option for foreign families who prefer to give their children an education that expands beyond the boundaries of Japan. Historically, most international schools available in Japan have largely catered to the expat community supported by companies that offered generous school allowances. However, the notion of a "privileged expat life" as we know it has changed significantly in the past five years. An increasing number of foreign families now pay for their children’s education without the assistance of their employer.

UST strongly believes that access to a good education should be a right, not a privilege. Families in Japan should have viable options of schools and educational systems available to choose from, without having it become a financial burden. This choice becomes especially important for international families that are raising their children in Japan, away from their countries, their extended families and support systems. At UST, we truly understand the challenges of raising a family under these conditions. In fact, we have gone through the very same experiences first hand and that is how the idea of uniting families and educators to build a school that serves this very community was born.

At UST, we feel the purpose of education is not only to ingrain basic skills required for participation in modern society but also an avenue to allow a child to develop in a multitude of facets. Education can encourage students to become positively contributing members within an ever-expanding global environment. A need for increasing ingenuity and creative problem solving skills has never been more prevalent in the world market more than now. We believe it is important to start the development of these skills as early as possible to provide the greatest chance of success in later life.

As part of UST’s Experiential Learning approach, we like to take learning out of the classroom and expose our students to a progression of age-appropriate experiences to help them take ownership of their learning, develop confidence in their physical abilities and build confidence in themselves in their relationships with others. Outdoor education offers opportunities for children to enjoy first-hand experience outdoors, whether in urban green spaces in Tokyo or in Japan's countryside.

Some examples UST outdoor education program include building teamwork and interacting with nature of an overnight ski trip or camping trip; learning science through gardening or going insect and bird watching; researching a social studies project on a field trip; doing art sketches in the park or having a math class, while using fallen leaves or acorns as manipulatives; learning about social responsibility and environment preservation by going on neighborhood clean-ups; learning about compassion and making a difference by preparing rice balls for homeless people … the possibilities of active learning outside of the classroom are endless.

Creativity is often utilized in the arts, where the notion of a “right” answer can be disputed with justification. The arts tend to promote the higher cognitive domains: analysis, synthesis and evaluation. The visual, performing, and writing arts help students to develop their ideas through active thinking and problem solving. Each step in these areas requires a student to analyze not only what he or she is doing currently, but the previous steps taken as well as future steps. UST applies these steps in the thinking process so that they can be applied to the subjects outside of the arts.

At UST children are encouraged to cooperate, collaborate and brainstorm, work in groups to come up with a best solution, as well as to support each other. One of the most important features of collaboration is that it not only creates more holistic results than individual work, but it also creates knowledge for a greater number of people. Collaboration in an international school setting becomes even more powerful as it brings culturally diverse perspectives into learning.

Finally, we feel that a school should provide a safe place for children to take chances. That means a child should not be afraid of failure but should look for the opportunities in it. Often times, students are afraid to take chances for fear of being wrong and this inhibits their learning as well as their self-development. Students need to learn when they do not accomplish a task how to reevaluate concepts that they might have had and build on them. When learning occurs in any form, there is no real failure at UST. UST provides a safe environment for social and academic growth on individual level!