Enjoy this short video snippet about KAIS International School from our 2024 Expo.
Transcript
KAIS International School
ISTimes Global: (00:00) Hello, we are here with Justin talking about uh Kais uh Academy. Uh nice to uh see you and welcome to uh the Expo.
KAIS International School: (00:10) Great, great. Nice to be here.
ISTimes Global: (00:11) We were actually just talking about your uh uh school before. We had uh talked with one of your colleagues about KA. But uh but today I’d like to focus on the international school.
KAIS International School: (00:23) That’s right.
ISTimes Global: (00:23) Tell us uh a bit about the history and uh what uh makes it uh stand out.
KAIS International School: (00:28) Yeah. Kais International School was created uh by some pretty passionate educators that actually worked at KA. And we were we got the opportunity to create an international school based on, you know, the the the values and the kind of philosophy that we thought was kind of lacking in the community. Uh so all these years later, it’s been since 2006, uh we find ourselves with, you know, complete preK to grade 12 international school, follows the American system. And uh it continues to grow, continues to get better and better. Uh but it’s because of KA initially that we’re able to to create this little or what used to be a project, now it’s a full-on school.
ISTimes Global: (01:12) Well, that’s great. And actually usually schools start out with grade one, kindergarten, maybe but you had a different approach.
KAIS International School: (01:21) Uh that was at the time when I wasn’t there, but it was the opposite. We started with a high school. It was a high school focused on, you know, art and creativity, um independence, giving students a lot of independence and create also creating an atmosphere, uh maybe kind of like a family-like atmosphere. Smaller classes, uh capped at around 18. And uh generally a friendly atmosphere between the students and teachers. Uh at that time and especially now, it’s a place where you can go and uh not everyone’s a a mister and and and misses. It’s uh the students call us by our first names. Oh and it’s just generally a very positive, um I think a caring vibe at the school. Um that’s what we’ve always tried to do.
ISTimes Global: (02:08) I think uh one of the things that I think about when I think of uh uh your school as well as um K is just the growth and um I mean, I have to ask what what draws families to your school and to your organization?
KAIS International School: (02:23) Yeah, it’s a great question. I think um asking the parents and looking at the survey data, the things that draw parents to Kais, I think is the personalized learning, the personalized education that we offer, uh especially with the small class sizes. As the middle school principal, I know all the families in the community. I’ve met with them face- to- face. I know all their students, I know their needs, um and their strengths. And I think it’s that connection, it’s that understanding that oh, if I send my child to this school, they’re not just going to be like a number amongst thousands. Uh the whole experience is tailored and designed for their own kids. I think that draws a lot of people. That and uh we have especially like a caring atmosphere. Um like I mentioned, uh they call us by our first names. A lot of effort is put into creating an atmosphere where um the students are managed in a positive way, behaviors managed in a positive way, learning is done in a fun and creative way. All these things create the the building blocks to I think our school. Um and um like one example of that, sorry if I if I don’t go too long. One example of that is in the middle of the week on Wednesdays, um we don’t have a normal schedule. We have an elective schedule where all the hobbies and interests and the requests from students, we try to we try to create a a huge menu of elective classes from cooking to chess, to table tennis, right, to uh there there’s there’s sports, there’s art, painting and uh there’s also academic classes from philosophy, robotics, engineering. Um it just we go completely off curriculum every week and we then that five-day work week monotony. So there’s this really special day in the middle of every week. Kids love that. Parents love it. They learn a lot of skills that you don’t really get in the normal curriculums. I think that’s a huge a huge point that keeps kids at our school.
ISTimes Global: (04:28) Oh, that’s great. And thank you. Actually, I was about to ask you about all the activities, but you uh definitely filled in a lot there. So, is there uh any uh you had mentioned uh philosophy and things like that. Uh is there also within the classroom academically, is there uh any area that you feel like uh your school particularly focuses on or concentrates on or uh do you try to keep everything balanced and sort of.
KAIS International School: (04:56) You said the word. Uh from the beginning, uh balance has always been the, I guess what what has underpinned our approach. We didn’t we’re in Japan so we have to absolutely do academics in in a really, really well. Uh we have to ensure that students are not only meeting the average uh international standards but surpassing that. So the academics is done really well. But if it’s just academics it caters to a certain type of child, but balance is the way to go. So we also make sure to implement a lot of fun, a lot of creativity. One example is we do a lot of literacy and numeracy in the morning. They have that morning brain, they get all these like, you know, language arts classes, math, Japanese done. And then in the afternoon, we focus on project-based learning classes. Uh these are bigger classes. These are classes that are driven by projects, not just uh not not just literacy learning. Uh so they work in groups, they produce things, they show it off. There’s a public dimension to it. Uh so every day even has this uh has this um this balance.
ISTimes Global: (06:03) Is there some opportunities for the kids to go outside of the school, outside of the classrooms?
KAIS International School: (06:09) Uh do you mean like on trips and stuff?
ISTimes Global: (06:11) Trips or any projects.
KAIS International School: (06:12) There’s trips across the board. Uh absolutely, there’s trips across the board and there’s special events. We just got back from uh Hakuba two days ago with a multi-day trip. Uh our high school goes on an experienced Japan trip every year. Um they do volunteering overseas, there’s stuff like that. Um there’s also at the high school on a more daily basis, the emphasis on independent skills. So we allow the students to leave campus in the middle of the day for lunch. They go to designated areas, but they can they can branch out uh off campus. We give them like incremental freedoms like that so that they learn how to be responsible with it. So there’s there’s trips and there’s also the small things. Yeah.
ISTimes Global: (06:57) That’s great. And now you’ve had many graduates over uh over the years. Yeah. Uh what do you think is something that they walk away with once they graduate from from your school? What’s what’s the impression or something that you really want them to carry throughout their life?
KAIS International School: (07:15) I’ve been lucky to see a lot of the high, even though I’m at the middle school, I’ve been lucky to see a lot of the high school graduation speeches. All of our students when they graduate, they are given time to give uh a reflective speech on their experience at Kais and what’s coming up. Um I’m blown away by this every single year. Like honestly, it’s just really, really nice and personable speeches from students who seem like holistically like very complete. Uh really cool kids, really smart kids, really capable kids, kids that um when they graduate, what we want them to have and what they do have is this ability to make things work in a society that we’re not really sure about. When they start school at like the elementary middle school, the society in which they come out at high school is not necessarily the society of which they were envisioning all those years ago. So we need students that are able to be competitive and also happy and self-fulfilled and self-actualized after education. That’s not so easy to to teach, but it’s through this balanced approach that that’s what they demonstrably had. And I think that’s what we want them to have is um in our vision of the school, it’s students that are self-fulfilled individually, students that can interact with the local community in really positive ways and then ultimately global citizens that can go into any country and have the skills and the mindset to like just be good people. Just be really good people. Um and that’s what we do. Yeah.
ISTimes Global: (08:56) That’s excellent. I think uh everyone should visit Kais. I think it’s uh great program and I love the way that you speak about it as though it’s you you speak about community first and uh it uh sounds like the kids really uh leave with a very strong impression.
KAIS International School: (09:14) Yeah, I think so.
ISTimes Global: (09:15) Thank you so much.
KAIS International School: (09:15) No, I appreciate it. Thank you.
About KAIS International School
- Founded in 2006 by passionate educators from Kikokushijo Academy
- PreK to Grade 12 American curriculum international school
- Small class sizes capped at 18 students
- Personalized learning approach with strong teacher-student relationships
- Unique Wednesday elective program with diverse options (cooking, chess, robotics, etc.)
- Balanced approach combining rigorous academics with creative project-based learning
- First-name basis between students and teachers fosters community atmosphere
- Emphasis on developing global citizens and independent thinkers
- Regular field trips and experiential learning opportunities
- High school students gain incremental independence with off-campus privileges
