LEARNING ENVIRONMENT (KINDERGARTEN TO GRADE 9)

WELCOME TO NISHIMACHI INTERNATIONAL

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Nishimachi is well known to offer an innovative and international educational excellence in Japan for over sixty years. The main language of instruction is English. Additionally all students study Japanese. Under a dedicated faculty and staff, students reap multiple benefits from the school’s rigorous curriculum, close-knit community, and interactions with a vibrant local culture. Students leave Nishimachi thoroughly prepared, at whatever level, to continue their educations in first-class institutions around the world—as amply attested by generations of alumni. The goal is for all Nishimachi students to become linguistically, culturally, and socially well-rounded citizens of the world, ready to assume a role on the international stage when the time comes.

Where Friendships Flourish and Personalities Develop

Learning at Nishimachi embraces both explicit instruction and student-centered activities. Every stage of the process is important, and individual student needs must be properly gauged and sensitively met if learning is to be effective. The program is calibrated to respond to different learning styles and requirements, as reflected by the student’s gender, age, and interests.
Students in grades 2 to 9 are encouraged to participate in school life through our democratically elected student council, StuCo.

NURTURING ENVIRONMENT

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Our learning environment promotes independence and resourcefulness, combined with tolerance, understanding, and respect for self and others. Faculty members share the responsibility for the care of each student, in order to insure every child is supported, the underlying principle being that “happy students learn.” Given our mission, location, and diverse student body, Nishimachi quite naturally fosters a global perspective in all students, providing them with the necessary tools to understand and evaluate the events and issues of the world they live in—past, present, and future, and across national and geographic boundaries.

REPORTING on STUDENT PROGRESS

Classroom approaches to learning include individual and pair work, small group work, and whole class teaching. Tools for assessment of student learning include teacher observations, cumulative records, reading assessment evaluation, student self-assessment; tests; and quizzes.
The school year is divided into two semesters, and student progress is reported at the end of each semester. There are three occasions per year for formal conferences. At the first of these, held at the beginning of the school year, parents meet with the child’s teacher. This is an opportunity for parents to share with the teacher their perspective on the child, as a person and a learner. A parent-student-teacher conference follows later in the year at which student progress is jointly discussed. Finally, in the spring, the student gets the opportunity, in the presence of the teacher, to lead the discussion, presenting a comprehensive portfolio of his or her work to the parents and reviewing the progress made over the course of the school year.

LEARNING and ASSESSMENT

Nishimachi’s core curriculum follows “understanding by design” principles which focus on teaching and learning for deep understanding. (For more on the understanding by design curriculum, please see Appendix 1.)

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Assessment at Nishimachi is guided by the school’s philosophy and goals. Student growth and learning are evaluated on an ongoing basis by various means which are connected to the learning goals in such a way as to maximize student learning. Using data collected from assessment, we evaluate students with respect to individual academic growth and against Nishimachi’s schoolwide student learning expectations (SLEs), as articulated in the curriculum.
Standardized Educational Records Bureau tests (ERB) are administered in grades 3–9. Further, students studying Japanese as a first language, grades 1 through 9, are given a national achievement, Norm Referenced Test (NRT), which evaluates areas of expression, reading comprehension, and language usage.

SCHOOL-WIDE LEARNING EXPECTATIONS (SLEs)

A Nishimachi education is about much more than academic programs or subject offerings. What makes Nishimachi special is community—and our culture of respect, understanding of diversity, focus on active learning, trust, and communication, and strong commitment to language learning, in both English and Japanese. We try to develop in every student an awareness of, and appreciation for, all cultures.

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Six school-wide learning expectations (SLEs) are at the center of our daily work: at Nishimachi students learn to be good communicators, collaborators, thinkers, responsible learners, developers of quality work, and global ambassadors. We teach students to value these goals, and all teachers assess student progress with these three times a year.
Nishimachi’s intimate community of parents, students, and teachers works in close partnership to make sure each student gets the care and attention he or she needs to develop the self-esteem and confidence fundamental to academic success and personal satisfaction.

STUDENT SUPPORT SERVICES

The student support services team consists of the school counselor, the elementary and middle school principals, the learning support teacher, and the English-as-a-second-language (ESL) specialist. The group meets on a regular basis to review and evaluate students with individual learning needs. It operates in conjunction with home base teachers and advisors, parents, and faculty, and makes recommendations and referrals, as needed, for counseling, general learning support, language support, tutoring, or outside testing services.

NURTURING a SENSE of COMMUNITY SERVICE

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At Nishimachi a strong sense of community service begins in kindergarten. Our philosophy is “to nurture in our students the natural response to want to contribute to their communities, local, global and immediate, and to develop a life-long commitment to community service.” Students have opportunities to contribute to, and participate in, a variety of community service projects. (make link to: http://www.nishimachi.ac.jp/programs/service.html) We have an annual intraschool sports day which brings together elementary and middle school students for a day of healthy competition and fun.

Appendix 1
Understanding by Design
“Understanding by design” is a curriculum framework that draws upon the following principles:
1)It is the deeper understandings underlying a subject discipline that are important for students to absorb and master, understandings they will carry with them beyond the classroom setting and that will have application to a life of learning.
2)Curriculum design, assessment, and instruction, therefore focus on teaching and learning for deep understanding as a way of ensuring better learning and a more stimulating, rewarding, learning experience for students.