Join us for an exciting interview with Recep Doymaz, the Primary School Principal at Horizon Japan International School. Ivan Fedoroff hosts this podcast episode, brought to you by International School Times. First, we dive into Mr. Doymaz’s background. Then, we explore the journey of Horizon Japan International School. The school has grown into a thriving educational institution since its early days. You’ll also learn what makes Horizon unique among international schools in Japan. Finally, we highlight the special qualities that set Horizon apart.
Transcript
Ivan Fedoroff: Well, it’s great to have you here. We are really excited to learn more about you and learning about your wonderful school. I would love to hear about your experience coming to Japan. And I mean, one of the interesting things is as foreigners coming here as educators, we all have our own own story, our own path. You’re now principal of the elementary school at Horizon Japan. So, but you weren’t always principal. you started as a teacher. So yes, so please share with us some of your story.
Recep Doymaz: Yeah, sure. It might be a bit long story though, but I feel free to come whenever you can post. Yeah, let’s get started then. Well, my name is Raja Toma. I’m from Turkey and I came to Japan in 2006. And it’s been a long journey for me actually, because my education started when I was in high school. So I decided to be a teacher. I went to science High School, which is kind of, you know, you take the exams and then you, you, you are selected one of those schools and everyone was, you know, when we wanted to be, an engineer or a lawyer, a doctor, you know, really precious jobs. But when my teacher asked me, what do you want to be? I said, I want to be a teacher and then she laughed at me, you know, it was really a funny moment, but I really wanted to be a teacher. So I decided to go one of the prestige universities in Turkey, which provides English education as well because I wanted to go abroad. I wanted to be a teacher, gain some experience abroad as well. So, then I got a physics degree, you know, and after I graduated, most of my friends went to America, you know, Canada and others, other countries to continue their you know, master’s degrees. And I said, no, I don’t want to continue that way. I wanna be a teacher. Then I stayed a little longer, about four years in Turkey. Then there was an opportunity, one of my friends came over just a year before I came to Japan. And then he said, why don’t you try Japan? That was the time, first time that I decided to think about Japan. Then I came here to learn Japanese because that, that was the way that I can, I could get my visa here. Then started at Horizon as a part time teacher. yes, I was part time science teacher at that time and then I became full time next year, then gave up to Japanese school. Then, you know, over the years, I have done a lot of different positions, different jobs. I left Horizon only for two years and moved to Osaka. There was an opportunity to be a principal over there and then another international school, then I returned back to Yokohama campus again. Then work in Sanai Campus for about four years and then the rest of the time I was in Yoko campus. So you can imagine that like primary related, second related, you know, all different opposition. I have done such a school coordinator, college counselor. I have done college counselor as well. Physics, teaching, physics, science, all the age groups. Yeah, it was a long journey, but I ended up as a an administrator which I’m not really fond of it. You know, you’re a little hard to go back to teaching.
Ivan Fedoroff: You’re a teacher at heart and to, it’s kind of interesting that you mentioned that from the beginning, you were wanting to go abroad and be an international school teacher, I think. that’s, that’s not the case for most teachers. I think most teachers go into the profession. The first thing that they, that they think about is local schools. thinking very much nationally. But where, where do you think that passion to go international comes from?
Recep Doymaz: Well, being a teacher, I think my environment affected me. So two of my brothers are a teacher, their wives are teachers. So I am a teacher, I became a teacher. So by going abroad, I wanted to challenge myself actually because you know, yeah, there are lots of people teaching in public schools in Turkey. But why not to try to gain some extra experience outside of Turkey because there are lots of different programs, different education systems and trying that and finding the best one and actually bringing my experience to share with other people abroad. That was another thing, you know, helped me to think. OK, yeah, why not another country? You know, when you graduated from a university that has English education, you think of the countries that has English spoken environment, right? So America, Canada, you know, other countries. So most of my friends actually went to those countries, but this wasn’t my plan, to be honest, I’m thinking that it was a kind of like maybe, you know, my path of life. So it just took me here in Japan. So I came here and I stuck here, I guess so.
Ivan Fedoroff: So you come here speaking Turkish and English, did you think that you would be able to use English here more? Were you were you surprised at the English level that you found in Japan. Did you start seeing a need for an international school where English is the base the base language?
Recep Doymaz: That’s a good question actually, because I was thinking people can communicate in English more than what I’ve found, you know, after I came to Japan because, you know, Japan is a, you know, developed country and then I was expecting more people speaking in English. But it turned out that, yeah, at school, you can survive with English. But outside of school in the real life, people do understand English. But it is hard for many people to speak or communicate in English. That was a kind of like surprise for me as well. But it also helped me to learn Japanese. You know, it, it encouraged me to push myself to learn Japanese and be part of the community, to be part of the community. I had to learn Japanese. So that helped me as well.
Ivan Fedoroff: Well, I, I believe you also met your wife, your wife here, correct?
Recep Doymaz: That’s right. We met here. That’s a kind of a nice story as well because we graduated from the same university in Turkey, but we didn’t meet. So about three years, we studied together at the same time in the university. Then he, she came 2 or 3 years before I came to Japan. I didn’t know for sure. Although my brother didn’t believe in me. So when I said I’m gonna get married with someone that, you know, graduated from the same university, then my brother said like, no, you, you went after her, right? Otherwise why Japan, you know, you didn’t go to America, you didn’t go to Canada or England, you went to Japan. So that was the reason I, I said no, to be honest, you know, we didn’t know each other but we met at the Horizon. So then after a short dating, so we decided, you know, she’s from Turkey and we have two children. Now, they were born in Japan and they are going to Horizon as well. So I’m really happy that it was a chance that we met here in, in Japan.
Ivan Fedoroff: That’s a great transition to talking about Horizon. I mean, you’ve found your love in teaching, you also found your love of your life there as well. So Horizon is a quite a, an interesting school and one of one of the reasons why I was quite excited about having this conversation with you. I believe the school has just celebrated its 20th anniversary.
Recep Doymaz: Yes. Yes. We have celebrated 20 years. It’s founded in 2003. When I came in 2006, the highest grade was grade three at the beginning, I think a mixture of different age group were enrolled and they decided to go with like only like step by step growing slowly and nicely and the grade three was the highest and we didn’t enroll students from upper grades. And, , you know, I was, I, I witnessed, I had a chance to witness the, the, you know, growth of horizon actually because it was a very small school and small nber of people, , financially challenging, you know, being, , you know, a foreigner in Japan and trying to set a good school in Japan is especially international school is not easy. There are lots of international schools around. But considering that like early learning primary school, middle school and high school, all set schools are very few. I think there are three big schools in Yokohama area. You know, considering that it’s not easy but looking at bank last 20 years. and at the at the level that the school came is a big, big, big success. I think
Ivan Fedoroff: I, I think you hit on the on the right chord here. I think one of the interesting things about the school is that if I had to think of an international school that has come about in the last 20 years and is as has grown and successfully to create a middle school and then a high school and being accredited, I mean, your school has all of them which we can get into that in just a bit. I honestly find it very difficult to think of any others. Recently there’s a few British schools that have opened. But in the last 20 years, I think Horizon really seems to shine as a success story as a school that started very small as there are very many small schools here that start with grade one and grade two and grade three and try to build and, but often they, they falter they’ve, they hit incredible challenges. I know that horizon and you being part of that journey for so long, you must have seen them. There must have been some strong headwinds as well. But the accomplishment of what your school has been able to do and the, and the community that you built over the years. I think it’s quite extraordinary. I think what I’d like to know and I’m sure a lot of people would is how did that come about? I’m sure it wasn’t always obvious that the goal or the the point that you are at right now was gonna be achievable or 100% achievable. I, I I’m sure there must have been doubts at times. Yes, please just walk us through some of that journey from, from the start where you were very small school to, to what you become now.
Recep Doymaz: That’s right. Actually, it’s, it’s a big success, but there are a lot of challenges behind this success and there are a lot of achievements behind it. And as I said, like I witnessed most of them, the, the time that I came, it was very small. And then we didn’t even really imagine that the school will come to this point. Maybe founders have you know, some thoughts about it, but maybe most probably they didn’t even think about that. The school will be this successful level, like they will come in in 20 years. I would say that the you know, the biggest thing behind it is the, the dedicated people, you know, both you know, within this stuff as well as the supporters and the whole community. You know, we had really nice environment over there, you know, when we had the VCIS visit. So one thing they told us that, like, you have amazing family like environment and our question is how can you keep it the same, you know, when the school will grow up? So that was the biggest thing. So it was really nice and family like, I think that made us to be successful and considering that the dedicated people, staff, like teachers, administrators, other people. So all contributed to the school and then it became a good school. You know, we started like, the school started as it like a small early learning center in the first campus area you, you will probably see in hetero, , 1520 minutes from, Sui Station. It wasn’t a good location. It was like in a, , you know, residential area. However, it was far from the station. It not easy to bring the Children and there was no parking lot for like, it’s a small one. Then after three years when I came in 2006, they moved to a new building which is like five minutes walking distance where, where you work at as well. So it was closer to the the main road. However, it was still not too big and far from the station. And in 2019, it’s not that far. 2019, we moved to a beautiful location, amazing place the location that the school is now and students can walk from the station from Yokohama station. It’s amazing, isn’t it? Without even, you know, even if it’s a rainy day, you don’t have to carry an umbrella and go through the Bay area. So it’s an amazing location. And then we feel that it’s a kind of fortune to be there as well. So considering a school 20 years celebrating the 20 years, but coming to a location like that with 500 students and almost 100 you know, staff members, it’s amazing success. So I’m gonna give you a little bit you know, the journey, more information about the journey that we went through. you can just edit whatever you like. So the education was like, we didn’t really have a strong program when I came. So then we start searching about what is the best for our school, you know, because the school started by business people, it wasn’t the educators, it was business people. And then how it started is that the idea, you know, you might be thinking why Turkish people are studying in you know, as international school in Japan. I mean, why Japan?
Ivan Fedoroff: I think that would be the first question many people would ask and, and, and, and the second one would be why not create a Turkish school exactly where Turkish businessmen, kids can go in there and learn of Turkish. There’s certainly schools that are like that. But instead of a Turkish school, a decision was made to say, no, we’re not going to create a, you know, a Turkish school, we are gonna create an international school and it’s not gonna be Turkish, it’s gonna be English.
Recep Doymaz: Exactly. I mean, I wasn’t there at that time when they made this decision but I heard a lot from the people who support the school who started the school. most of them change, most of them, not probably even part of the school. But the idea was be behind this was the the the creating an environment school for those who are far from their country, but want to provide good education. Although they don’t know the Japanese, they can survive in Japan and they can continue their future education for their, for their child, right, for their Children. So contribution of both Japanese business people and Turkish business people, some connections, you know, and then they came up with an idea of creating a school and why not Turkish schools? Because they didn’t just aim to provide this school for the Turkish community. It would be a very limited because there are not many Turkish people around and considering that’s roomy area, maybe it will be just few people or there might be some people who might want to move to the area, right? So it wouldn’t be a really a big school, it would be a just limited nber. So they wanted to give, I think global education rather than just, you know, providing what we have in back in Turkey. So this will allow their Children to be part of the community and to grow and then help other people as well. So imagine that students who are graduating from our school will be going in and contributing to community wherever they will be. So to do that, they need English background, they need international education, they need global minds setting, they need international mind mindedness. So it is not just, you know, providing the education, it’s providing a good education so that they can, you know, be contributory when they grow up. So it started with a small nber of people then they’ve figured out that, ok, yeah, we can contribute more and then more investors, more people came over. I think business people also contributed. First couple of years were challenging for the school, you know, in terms of finding the best education program or financially being stable, you know, probably it took 5, 10 years to settle down. So, but those challenges were not just to turn out, it helped the people to make the school even better. So I think that is what made this horizon stronger. So horizon looked at the challenges as a kind of improvement points, improvements area. OK. This is what we need to work on educational program. Ok. Yes. Japanese society want something and we also have international society, they also want something. So it should be something that meets everyone’s needs, right? There’s, there are Turkish people, there are international people, there are Japanese people at the school. So let’s find something that will make it better for, I mean, a good program for all the students. So we, we started searching a lot. So we hired some people as well, some consultants and I remember one of vice principal who came from Australia. you know, he, he contributed a lot as well, you know, so with this thing, so there were a couple of good programs out there. So we picked Cambridge program. it starts with Cambridge primary program. Then when we started middle school, it became Cambridge middle school program. Then IG CS started for grade nine and 10. And then we became a Cambridge school, a worldwide Cambridge school. And then we provided all the Cambridge programs including a levels. However, there was something that we were always thinking, OK, this is a good program but it is more like content based and there’s a challenging exam. So is there any other program that might help or even better that helps students to develop some skills? Because, you know, education is is changing and people changing the lot, you know, future is changing, we never know what might happen. So we need to provide the best skills for the students to use so that they can use when they grow up. So then IB came up, that was the time that we decided to go with the IBDP program. We wanted to start with an easy program. One of the easiest part is DP by the way to implement,
Ivan Fedoroff: I was gonna say because IB itself is not easy.
Recep Doymaz: It is challenging program, it is very challenging program. And then we started with the DP program, I think it was 2000 12 if I’m not wrong. And then then we got the PYP in 2016. and then NYP program as well, then our school became Continu School, which is few schools only Japan in Japan providing Continu Program, which is Pypnyp and DP, all three programs. So that was the changing point in our school as well. So the nber of students increased, the nber of you know, the quality of education, the environment changed a lot and the quality of staff changed a lot as well. So lots of training sessions, lots of professional development. I think that made our school what schools that we have right now.
Ivan Fedoroff: So just to touch on some of the things that you shared, I’ll get to the IB portion in just a bit. I think it’s quite interesting, especially because there’s, there’s two, there’s two things that, that, that occurred after you had the IB one, you had the enrollment increase, but you also mentioned that the quality of the education and the training of the teachers in increased as well. You also mentioned this kind of global mindedness. And I, I thought that was interesting. And you’ve now been in Japan for I would, was it 17 years, 1818 years will be finishing soon.
Ivan Fedoroff: And I think the, the question a lot of foreign have, especially people working in, in international schools is, well, well, what is your experience in, Japanese society’s views of global mind. Is this, is, is this something that is valued here in, the society, at least to your opinion. , do you think, , do you think that’s why people are want to go to international schools? And do you think it’s, it’s growing, it’s, it’s static. I, I think from, I’ve, I’ve asked this to different people and I’ve gotten different answers. I’m just curious, what are your views are?
Recep Doymaz: Well, you know, I lived in Tokyo Yokohama, Osaka area as well and Sendai area. So I would say that my experience and also thoughts change when I met different people. So if you, if, if you look at the Okamoto area, people are more open or at least the people that we are interacting are more open and they like more global education, international education and having their Children learn English. And because they know that in the future, they will need it and then they can go somewhere or even if they won’t go anywhere, the global is, you know, the the global becomes a unique society that everyone interacts each other, easily, like online. And this, after this COVID, we realize that I think Japanese society also realize that it’s getting a small village, you know, so people are more open minded here in Yoko and Tokyo area, or at least people that we interact, as I said. But when I move to other cities like San area, there are not many people interested in English education or international education. So, however, when you sit down and talk, most of the people believe that it is important and considering they’re giving more opportunity to their Children, they consider it is necessary. However, there are some you know, constrictions like like restrictions. One of them is the mindset, I would say that. So mindset is, is, is the key point. I think that’s gonna take some time to change people’s mindset. So Japan is an island and they don’t need other people, they don’t know. But recently they realized that no, it is necessary to interact people, it is necessary to, you know, come collaborate with other people. So with this, you need to know a language. So global language is English and international language. And you know, that’s really important. I think that is changing. And people, especially after COVID, I realized that many things are changing, you know, it becomes digital, it becomes more, you know, foreign friendly. But there are, there is still time for rural area or small cities that people change their mindset. The other thing is that opportunities, you know, there are lots of international schools in Yokohama Toki area, but there are not many in Sendai or Amo or you know Toho area or if you go to Nagano area, it’s very limited nber of schools over there. will that work to more, maybe, maybe not. But what I see is that Japanese education department, Japanese government is also investing. So they are in touch with IB program and they are trying to implement IB program in certain schools and then trying to find out a solution for certain challenges in Japanese education. So I think this is very you know, happy to see that. So every year it’s growing, it’s more people, more schools, even if they provide Japanese education, they become an IB school, which is great because they know how to be open minded and they gain IB attributes like they, they like international minded people. So I’m really happy to see the difference to improvement because it’s been a long time, 2006 and now we are in 2024/18 years, big change. However, this change is slow. This is what I think the change should be a little bit faster. You know, we had Olympics, we had, you know, COVID situation went over. So I think this could be a little bit faster.
Ivan Fedoroff: The natural. Next question is, and I think I’m always curious because every school has gone through that process differently. And of course, we could have the whole interview about how your students or your teachers and your parents had to adapt to the COVID time while they were there. But just just just for a bit. What, what was that like for, for you personally, for the school, for your community?
Recep Doymaz: Well, COVID was challenging for everyone that, except that, you know, not just schools but also, you know, a any businesses. So there are lots of business shut down and I think international schools got affected as well. So I know that some schools got smaller. they combined the classrooms, they had, you know, they need to change the nber of staff change, you know, working there because financially was challenging. So some foreigners change their country and other things. But I think Horizon went through this stage very well and it was successful as well because one thing is that we were ready, we didn’t know that we were ready, but we were ready because like we implemented, like for example, we implemented ipads like macbooks at the school before COVID. So all the students brought their devices, they knew that how to use the, you know, if you ask a child right now, they know how to use smartphone, ipad and macbook very well, right? But if you go back, you know, 5, 10 years ago, it was challenging. now you had to train the teachers, right? You had to train the students, you have to train everyone to make sure that you can implement properly. And most of the parents actually at that time, complain about having ipads, there are still some parents, they don’t want ipads or Macbooks because they think that it’s, this is not the right way to educate the people because they are using those devices in different ways. That’s not healthy. So we try to explain that having that device or implementing the the technology is not bad how to use it is bad. So if you guide the students, if you teach them, how, what is the best way to do it? I think it will be successful. So we implemented before COVID. So when COVID hit, then people knew that like, OK, there is an opportunity. So we started just using zoom channels or try different, you know, versions and how can we make it more efficient for the schools? You know, I was in Sendai campus at that time. It was, you know, popular population of Sendai campus, main Japanese students. It affected less than Yo Coma Camp campus to be honest. then we start like implementing different version of online education, distance learning, you know, lots of Softwares came out and some programs came out. So it helped us as well to implement certain programs. So I think we went through very well. So we didn’t even think of like making some financial decisions, cut down the salaries or, you know, cut down the nber of people. So it, it really helped us and I think the community believed in school as well. Our parents, we should appreciate that as well. So they believed in the school and they didn’t change the school, most of them stay where they are and then that helped us to survive. And last year it wasn’t really COVID time for us like we didn’t do anything. So we said, ok, just everything back to normal unless certain things happens, like some emergency cases happen. And this year there’s no nothing actually we have done for COVID. You know, it was really smooth year.
Ivan Fedoroff: You mentioned the parents and, and how, and how important parents support is for any schools success. I would say, and I don’t think I’m I’m exaggerating. I would say that horizon was an underdog from the start. how has parents and the support you’ve gotten from parents over the years, through everything from COVID, the earthquakes and how has their parents support? How has that been part of your success?
Recep Doymaz: That’s a good question because, you know, we had lots of challenges over the years, you know, one of them was the earthquake as well, beginning of the time that I came, you know, it was still young school, small nber of people. And the biggest thing is to keep the students at the school. And then you know, Japanese people have different minds settings. So either they want a native level English exposure when their child is young, so especially early learning centers. So they send their child to international school and then for primary, they go back to, you know, because that few years they will help. If they want to learn English in the future, they will help them, right? And another type of parents, a group of parents is that they keep their Children until the end of the primary and then they go back to middle schools if they like j like Japanese environment. I think that is the good decision if they want Japanese education. Ok, not international, but after middle school, it is not easy because the education, the background will not meet, right? So we had lots of ups and downs in terms of nber of students. So some parents were not staying, that was our biggest challenge. We had really, really good parents, good students, you know, genus type students as well when I was teaching science in the the old campus. however, they didn’t know what’s gonna happen when my child is gonna be in middle school or high school? Or most importantly, university. Can horizon students go to universities in Japan? Can they go to universities in another country? America, Europe, Australia, Canada. Can they go? That was the biggest you know, concern and that’s why many parents changed the schools. Even if they love the school, they love the environment, they love the program, they love the teachers, every everybody if like, kids didn’t want to go because their friends are there and some of the students went together, like in a small group, , you know, to the other international schools, they have been here for a long time and until we had the first graduate in 2012 and then went to the university successfully. No problem. Then parents start thinking, oh, yeah, there’s something good thing good happening at this school. So horizon students can go to universities and then we had another student graduated, went to the American University and all horizon students can go to American Universities as well. Then it started increasing the nber of graduates increasing, that made the parents living in school more. So that was the nber one turning point. Let’s say
Ivan Fedoroff: those first pioneering parents
Recep Doymaz: who I appreciate that they were, you know,
Ivan Fedoroff: they are amazing because they are the ones that, that truly have to believe something that they don’t even see yet. Something that’s not even tangible, something that you can’t even prove. because at the end of the day, a lot of schools, sometimes it’s a lot of rhetoric, a lot of words. But where are your graduates? So in, in in this case, seeing those first pioneering parents have their kids go to those higher schools.
Recep Doymaz: I I think that that’s something that schools appreciate that I personally in touch with some of the students like or maybe most of the students who graduated early years and then those parents as well. So, you know, sometimes we see each other outside of school as well. So amazing people and they contribute to school because they believed in the school. Imagine that you have money, you can send it to your daughters international school. Why? Horizon. Right? And they don’t even have graduates, but they believe in this school, they believe in this the school environment will, or school will be successful. And kids also did a really good job as well.