Ayla International School, Tokyo

Website: http://aylais.com
6-14-4-101 Shirokane, Minatoku, Tokyo 108-0072, Japan.
Phone/fax: 03-3448-2585

For children aged 2-6 yrs. AIS offers a secure place for children to spend their days where they are encouraged, inspired and stimulated to learn. This is vitally important especially in their first 6 years of life as it is when their brains are growing rapidly.

Ayla International School (AIS) is a creative quality school with nursery, preschool and kindergarten programs. It is located at a safe and spacious area in Shirokane.  At AIS, children learn to observe, investigate and experiment with things that interest them. The programs are exclusively designed for parents who want their children to be independent, self-confident and flexible learners.

AIS provides a homely environment that makes children relaxed and well focus in their current activities. The goal of the AIS approach is to educate the whole child in spirit, heart and mind, encourage children to use their imaginations and allow them to express themselves in ways other than writing or speaking.

The facilities at AIS, include a wide terrace for gardening, an art space or atelier and a music space where children are introduced to a variety of music, songs and dances from all over the world. Each room is divided into three corners, imaginary, realistic and academic (IRA). The imaginary corner is set up with natural materials such as pinecones, seashells, twigs and more. These materials are freely available to encourage exploration, expression and learning. The realistic corner involves a lot of imitating and pretending plays. The academic corner challenges children to learn numbers, shapes and letters. Games abound that teach pre-reading skills like phonemic awareness and letter and sound recognition, hiragana, basic math concepts; and hands-on science exploration. From preschool classes onwards, Monday~Friday classes are instructed in English and Japanese. This program is a dual immersion approach.

Children will start the day with an assembly and classroom discussion. AIS’ key method is to give the opportunity for each child to be expressive and excited about learning.

Only a small number of children are accepted. The school has easy road and train access from Ebisu, Hiroo, Meguro, Roppongi and Shinagawa areas.