Enjoy this short video snippet about ASCOT International School from our 2024 Expo.
Transcript
ASCOT International School
ISTimes Global: (00:00) Hello, I’m here with Mr. Mosser, uh, headmaster of ASCOT International School here in Japan. Um, I’ve uh come to visit your lovely booth and uh I would love to know more about your uh school and some of your school culture as well.
ASCOT International School: (00:17) Okay. So our school has been around for six years. We are near Sanda station at a place called Kanakodai in Kita Kobe. Um, our school’s mainly meant for science and math. That’s our big push. But we also do a lot of SDG, uh, yeah, SDGs in our school. We do recycling of coffee. We grow a lot of things in our farm using recycled coffee into our composting. And we also have a seven acre uh forest where we take students and they learn about the forest area because we have a nature school for kids three years old all the way through high school.
ISTimes Global: (00:49) Do do kids uh commute to to your school or is it a uh or do they
ASCOT International School: (00:54) So, we have about 40% of our students drive to our school from from home. And then the rest come from all around because we have buses that go to Kobe, Takarazuka and Sanda.
ISTimes Global: (01:04) Okay. That’s great. And uh how would you describe the school um school culture? It seems like you’re very surrounded by nature and fields.
ASCOT International School: (01:14) Yeah, we try to be a family school. Everybody cares about each other. We want to do things to help each other. We have a lot of students that have come from other schools that have really they they need somewhere where they’re actually thought of as as great people. We really try to push our students to a higher level, make them understand that uh that all students are are special and that they all have greatness inside of them and can be really good in the end if they really wanted to. We also don’t push college, we push jobs. Where do you want to go for your profession? Does is college part of that? Then we need to get you into a good college, we need to go there. If not, then we go right into the profession. So we have some students that are making uh their own cafe at our school, making different goods. Uh we have a student run area that they’re trying to make a farmer’s market and invite all the outside area people that that do, you know, building of uh like hand goods, sewing and things like that, so that they can have a place to sell. So we’re trying to do a lot for our community too.
ISTimes Global: (02:13) And now does that also involve uh community service learning?
ASCOT International School: (02:18) Yep. For us community service learning just it comes natural because when they go out to the community, they just start wanting to help. And that’s what’s most important is for them to try to help, not just each other, but help our school, help in our community. When I walk out in the community, everybody knows who I am. They all know, they always call me Kocho. And that’s uh that’s the how the environment is. And they see our students, they say, oh, Ascot student. Yeah. And you know, just makes it great for our whole community to be like that.
ISTimes Global: (02:48) You you mentioned that you uh have a strong focus on math and science. Uh how do you do that?
ASCOT International School: (02:54) Well, from a young age, we have experiments every week for every student from age six on. And so we we don’t just teach science, we have them do science. And that’s also with our nature school. They go out and they do science with that. And then the mathematics comes with that also because they do measurements, they learn about physics very young to see if like how would a tree fall, what kind of uh carbon would be inside a tree, things like that that connect to our SDGs.
ISTimes Global: (03:20) That’s awesome. I I uh I was very um uh impressed by the fact that uh you seem to be uh focused on things like composting and growing things that tends not to be what you see in some schools that uh kids tend to be very much consumers…
ASCOT International School: (03:38) Right.
ISTimes Global: (03:39) …and not necessarily producers. So I I find that uh quite interesting. If when uh when a child leaves your school or graduates your school, what do you hope that they uh leave with?
ASCOT International School: (03:48) Well, right now, a lot of our students know that they’re leaving with a good good head on their shoulders with science, a very good understanding of English language. Uh, we’re looking at schools like Waseda for our students to go to for engineering. And also maybe some German schools for also the same thing. So engineering is probably our main focus right now, but we have some students coming down the pike with biology. And that connects to our all of our growing. And then our growing connects to our our uh cafe because students take the food and they make it to food for themselves to eat. So we actually do that.
ISTimes Global: (04:21) Well, I would love to visit that…
ASCOT International School: (04:22) I would love for you to come and visit
ISTimes Global: (04:23) …cafe.
ASCOT International School: (04:24) Yeah.
ISTimes Global: (04:24) sometime it sounds it sounds lovely and lots of fun.
ASCOT International School: (04:25) Lots of fun. Food’s great there.
ISTimes Global: (04:29) And uh I I love the fact that the um children themselves participate and are very much engaged. That’s excellent. Well, thank you so much. uh Ascot Ascot International School here in Japan. Thank you.
ASCOT International School: (04:40) Thank you.
About ASCOT International School
- Located near Sanda station in Kita Kobe, Japan
- Specializes in science and math education with hands-on experiments
- Strong focus on sustainability and SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals)
- Features a 7-acre forest and nature school for environmental education
- Serves students from age 3 through high school
- Emphasizes family-like school culture and community involvement
- Unique programs include student-run cafe and farmer’s market
- Career-focused approach with pathways to engineering and biology fields
- Approximately 40% of students commute directly, others use school buses
