Strategic Plan

NISHIMACHI STRATEGIC PLAN 2022-2025

To share, to live and learn together and yet keep a special identity... that is Nishimachi. –Tané Matsukata, Founder (1918-1989)

Since 1949, our school has been sharing, living, and learning together... and keeping that special identity our Founder, Tané Matsukata, referred to in those early days. Still relevant in the world we live in today, more than seven decades later, a Nishimachi education strives to bring young minds together under one international umbrella in order to build lines of communication and understanding.

Doing so has required that we adjust with the times, which means reflecting on our practice, looking forward to our future, and strategically planning our way ahead. This Strategic Plan represents but the most recent iteration of that process, identifying the priorities that will focus our school development efforts for the coming three years.

Our Mission

To develop learners and leaders who know, care and take action to bring value to others and to make a positive impact on the world.

Nishimachi Learner Expectations

All members of the Nishimachi community, including students, teachers, support staff, parents and the larger community, are part of the continuous process of growth and learning. We are all learners; we all realize the value of the following expectations for learners:

We make connections: We cultivate meaningful connections between people, cultures and ideas.
We take ownership: We take initiative, we explore our own questions and accept responsibility for our actions.
We pursue challenges: We take risks and persevere.
We act ethically: We respect differences, are empathetic and work to find solutions on a global and local level.
We are creative: We use multiple processes to think, innovate and reflect.

STRATEGIC INTENTS AND GOALS

Strategic Intent 1 - Pillars of Learning

Define the approach to realizing our guiding statements - “The Nishimachi Way”.

Goal A: Conduct a Kindergarten - Grade 9 review to develop “The Nishimachi Way”
Goal B: Align our learning and teaching practices to the identified “Pillars of Learning ”

The Plan identifies two Learning and Teaching intents that the Learning Leadership Team and faculty will drive forward over the next three years. We will begin with a year-long research project that engages our entire community; current students and their families, our faculty and staff and our alumni, to better understand what our community values in learning, teaching, curriculum and assessment. We will extend our reach regionally and globally with other international schools to study innovation in education. This work will culminate in a set of clearly defined Pillars of Learning that embody our approaches to learning and teaching, and contribute to the wider vision of “The Nishimachi Way”. In our second year, we will enter a phase of implementation to align our whole-school practices to embody the Pillars of Learning. This work will extend beyond 2023-24 and will require additional resourcing, including time, funding for professional learning and specialist training from experts and external thought leaders.

Strategic Intent 2 - Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Global Citizenship

Develop our practices around diversity, equity, inclusion and live our definition of global citizenship.

Goal A: Craft an organization-wide diversity, equity and inclusion policy
Goal B: Create a plan to promote opportunities for our community to explore their “special identities”
Goal C: Improve provision for learner diversity through differentiation
Goal D: Extend our reach globally and locally to create, collaborate, connect and share

At Nishimachi, being a global citizen means understanding ourselves, embracing diversity and taking action to create a peaceful and sustainable world. We strive to do more as a school to support and embrace diversity, inclusion of others, and ensure equity across our constituents. Moreover, “to share, to live and learn together, yet keep a special identity” can be fully achieved through mutual respect, self-exploration, and celebration of our community’s many identities. Furthermore, to maximize all students’ learning, we aim to improve how we support and differentiate for learners at all ends of the continuum. Finally, as part of our global citizenship, we want to connect with others within and outside Japan to leverage learning opportunities. This work will entail, professional learning, time for collaboration and planning, input and support from internal and external specialists, including Lead Teachers and Student Services, and marketing/communication support to extend our reach.

Strategic Intent 3 - Long Term Stability & Risk Management

Enhance long-term sustainability and risk management.

Goal A: Clarify, achieve and sustain an optimum level of enrollment
Goal B: Optimize resources and align with strategic intents
Goal C: Diversify revenue streams
Goal D: Ensure school-wide compliance with the revised APPI (Act on the Protection of Personal Information )

For Nishimachi to continue to deliver its exceptional educational program and to enhance it in the future, it is imperative that we prudently manage our resources (human, physical, technological and financial). The School will therefore engage in a process of reviewing our operations to ensure we are optimally resourced to deliver on our new strategy, within the context of current and future enrollment, and that we are mitigating risk through ensuring revenue streams are sufficiently diversified. We will also engage in a whole school initiative to enhance our policies and procedures around the protection of personal information, in line with Japan's privacy laws.

Strategic Intent 4 - Nishimachi High School

Develop a Nishimachi High School.

Goal A: Clarify pathways to achieving regulatory approval
Goal B: Determine current and potential funding availability
Goal C: Complete the feasibility study for the high school project

The Board is determined to build on lessons learned, and forge ahead to find a path to add a Nishimachi High School which meets our community needs. Firstly, we will continue our work to understand regulatory requirements and the restrictions within which we need to fit. In addition, we will further investigate all options available to us for funding our new school. We will take these findings and apply them to specific options that we find, with a view to successfully creating a concrete plan to add a Nishimachi High School. This work will mainly be driven by the Board, but it requires the support of the entire community to achieve.

Background

A strategic plan defines the direction an institution chooses to take, establishing a few priority strategic intents and goals that will serve as beacons for the school in the coming few years. Our Strategic Plan focuses on two areas, Learning & Teaching and Growth & Sustainability, with two strategic intents prioritized in each.

Our Strategic Intents set the direction we are taking, using action verbs like “define,” “develop,” and “enhance.” These statements describe the school's strategic priorities for the next three years and provide overarching guidelines for planning and operations. Describing the direction rather than fixed endpoints provides flexibility when conditions change.

Arriving at the Strategic Intents was a consultative process. The Board of Directors and the Head of School affirmed the school’s guiding statements and established a Strategic Plan Steering Committee to receive and review stakeholder input. Using a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) a wide array of views were collected. These were supplemented by the CIS survey results and insights from the accreditation report. Strategic intents with goals were drafted by the Steering Committee for review by the Board of Directors. The Board’s adoption of the intents and goals establishes the strategies to be employed, gives guidance for action planning, and indicates the scope and depth of the plan.

Throughout, the Head of School and Board of Directors will monitor progress, report to you periodically, and as needed, the Board will approve adjustments accordingly. Annually, a strategic review will be conducted to ensure ongoing validity of these priorities. Action Teams will now be established and tasked with developing plans that achieve the goals for each intent. Those action plans will be developed over the coming months.

This Strategic Plan provides a blueprint for continued implementation of our mission, and we are confident that this plan will further help us fulfill our core purpose of nurturing each student’s growth and learning.

Timeline

Glossary of Terms

The Nishimachi Way

‘The Nishimachi Way’ is a new term we have used to synergize our guiding statements with our approach to learning and teaching. To date, we have employed a range of approaches to learning and teaching, but we have not yet identified or aligned any particular approach to our values and beliefs. Our work to define ‘The Nishimachi Way’ will result in a clear vision for learning at Nishimachi.

Global Citizenship

Special Identities

Inspired by our Founder’s Statement: “To share, to live and learn together and yet keep a special identity…that is Nishimachi.” ‘Special identities’ refers to the unique identity each of us has, that incorporates our citizenship, race/ethnicity, linguistic background, family composition and more. The term refers to honoring and maintaining our individual uniqueness, while fostering collaboration and learning as a community.

Learner Diversity

Learner diversity or Learning diversity is a term used to describe the range of attributes that a learner brings to their learning at school and beyond. In the context of our strategic plan, improved provision for learner diversity through differentiation is a priority to ensure all students maximize their learning potential. It is also focused on celebrating diversity and ensuring growth for all students. Examples of attributes might include but are not limited to cultural background, socio-economic factors, learning needs, exceptional ability and physical, cognitive, social and emotional or sensory needs.

Differentiation

Act on the Protection of Personal Information (APPI)

The Act on the Protection of Personal Information (APPI) is Japan’s data protection law and was initially adopted in 2003. It has seen a series of revisions since then, the most recent of which have brought it into line with the well-known GDPR in the EU. The latest amendments to the Act came into force on April 1 2022. Changes include strengthening of the rights of individuals who share data with organizations; enhanced requirements for the way in which organizations contract with and transfer personal information to 3rd party vendors, including those overseas; increased requirements around data breach reporting; and the introduction of sanctions that include imprisonment or fines of up to 100 million yen. Ensuring compliance with the APPI is a whole school effort including documenting the personal information we collect, assessing compliance risks, putting in place risk mitigation policies and procedures and implementing staff training.

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