Enjoy this short video snippet about Chuo International School from our 2025 Tokyo Expo.
Transcript
We spoke with Kimberly Gatti (Principal) and Shazia.
ISTimes Global: (00:00) Hello. I’m at the Chuo International School booth with Kim and Shazia. Welcome to the Expo.
Chuo International School (Kimberly): (00:07) Hello, thank you.
Chuo International School (Shazia): (00:08) Hi. Thank you.
School Launch Info
ISTimes Global: (00:10) I hear that Chuo International School is launching in September. Can you tell us more about it?
Chuo International School (Kimberly): (00:14) Yes, I’d be glad to. Uh, we are having our uh opening in September this year. Um, our school year is running September uh until mid July. Um, and we are currently uh enrolling students for grades one, two, and three. We have plans to open in 2028 our uh four, five and six grades. Um, and we are just very excited to have our school officially in Chuo, um, and in Chiba to welcome students that are matriculating from our uh Sunshine Kids Academy program, as well as area schools that uh students are finding that they can’t um relocated to an English-speaking elementary school. And so we’re filling a need in the market for for students that are looking for an elementary school.
Curriculum Goals
ISTimes Global: (01:04) Okay, that sounds great. And uh, what are your plans for uh, like the curriculum that you’ll be using for the school?
Chuo International School (Kimberly): (01:10) So, right now, we run a Montessori Plus curriculum in our Sunshine Kids Academy and that is going to be our driving curriculum into uh Chuo International School. We are also in the process of applying for the Cambridge International program. And we are about 90% there with our application and our process and we just need to finalize those details. And so hopefully we will be a an endorsed Cambridge school by September.
Pathways to Chuo International School
ISTimes Global: (01:37) Okay, sounds great. Um, the children who are graduating from Sunshine Academy, I understand that you’ve uh seen that these children are looking for an international school that they can go to after they’ve graduated from your preschool. Can you tell us more about the school that you want to build for them to like enter as they come out of Sunshine Academy?
Chuo International School (Shazia): (01:57) Well, the school was actually built based off uh family values. Uh, when we first started, we started off with like six months old in Sunshine Kids Academy. Um and continued on until we were able to build our kindergarten that was about roughly six years ago. After that, uh we’ve had parents on and off. This is every year when I we have uh a batch of um kindergarteners that graduate, uh parents still request or ask for recommendations to other international schools and Chuo was born from that. Uh we’re hoping to basically build the Montessori Plus curriculum uh values into continuously into Chuo International as well, that can support the students there uh growth, their development from the very beginning that we put um the into milestones and hoping that this continues on until they grow up to become even not only just junior high school but high school students. And hoping that um the independence and the the love of education that this program offers, it grows with the students together with them until they graduate from Chuo International with us.
Affordable Education
ISTimes Global: (03:08) Sounds amazing. Um is there anything else you’d like to add about your school?
Chuo International School (Kimberly): (03:13) Just I think that we are um a fully immersion English program. And a lot of the parents have been asking uh what level of English at both Sunshine Kids Academy and Chuo International School is required. Um and what I share is that the students that are turning six, um there is an entrance English exam, but we encourage parents that if they are uh interested in our education to reach out because we will offer some uh help with the English language acquisition as needed and in order to facilitate their entry into first grade.
Chuo International School (Shazia): (03:49) I would like to add to one thing is uh our uh Sunshine Kids Academy as well as Chuo International School, both of these programs um are affordable uh to those families that are looking for international schools that actually cannot any families with more than three students, three children in their house uh and are looking for uh an affordable school that basically will help uh uh raise these three kids all at once um in an environment where they can actually uh uh basically raise all of them together at the same level of quality of education as well as as um you know, not put uh a lot of burden on their finances and things like that. So I would like to welcome parents that are looking for these kind of schools, please come and visit us. Um so we can give you a little bit more details on what our school offers and what sort of programs as well as the tuition fees that we offer that are in comparison to any other schools, uh we are um at a at a level where it’s actually uh decent that would not put too much of difficulty with finances and things like that. So, thank you so much.
ISTimes Global: (04:56) Thank you so much.
Chuo International School (Kimberly): (04:56) Thank you.
ISTimes Global: (04:57) And good luck with your launch in September.
Chuo International School (Kimberly): (04:58) Thank you.
Chuo International School (Shazia): (04:59) Thank you. Thank you.
About Chuo International School
- New international school launching September 2025
- Located in Chuo, Chiba
- Starting with grades 1-3, expanding to grades 4-6 by 2028
- Montessori Plus curriculum with the Cambridge International program application
- English immersion program with language support
- Affordable tuition model for families with multiple children
- Continuation school for Sunshine Kids Academy graduates
- Focus on family values and student independence
- Plans to expand to junior high and high school levels
- Designed to fill the need for accessible international education
