Minoh International School (Osaka)

(a.k.a. International School of Kansai)

Minoh International School website: http://www.tokyoable.com/2698.html

Address: For location details (the school does not publicize its location for security reasons and says to) contact the school directly via the following:

Phone: 06-6459 -7505 Fax: 06-6459-7505 Email: E-mail : englishfun@tokyoable.com or minohbabysociety@gmail.com   

Also known as the Minoh Baby’s Society, Minoh offers a preschool program accepting children from 1.5 years old.

Given that there are very few schools that offer an education in French, the unique feature of this school is that it offers bilingual lessons are taught both in English and in French by experienced native speakers. The school emphasizes a “mirror approach” to teaching the curriculum, in that lessons taught in English are identical to those taught in French. The school’s goal is to achieve trilingual children. In addition, the curriculum also offers English Soroban (arithmetic via abacus) and violin courses.

To help improve basic social and motor skills the preschool offers not only indoor activities, but outdoor activities as well, to give children more freedom to engage in active play. In view of recent spate of cases involving child predators, MBS, however, has the advantage of being to offer an enclosed recreational area, on the school premises (see photo http://www.tokyoable.com/2680.html ), to ensure that a child’s security and safety are maintained at all times. . Intimate environment with small class size that promotes trust and respect between students and teachers.

Regular school day begins at 9:00 AM and ends at 3:00 PM but a late program, which ends at 6:00 PM is also offered. Minoh emphasizes giving students as much support and direction as possible to improve their self-esteem and behaviour, by creating a culture of respect and manners.  Students are taught to know that respect can be shown in many ways, such as through words, body language and various actions, and that actions can have consequences.    Respect is not unidirectional, however; Minoh believes that students must also be respected so that they can learn to respect others.  

Why is teaching respect to children so important?  It is a fundamental necessity that children be able to stand and function in society.  Teaching children respect at an early age is a means of helping them to earn respect in the future.  Children that cannot learn at this stage of development will have difficulty coping when entering a public school system governed by strict rules of conduct and behaviour.