St. Joseph’s International School ( Katsushika-ku, Tokyo-Edogawa area)

Website: http://stjoseph-k.org/

Address: 5-16-10 Shibamata, Katsushika-ku, Tokyo (Access map)

Phone: 03-5694-4550 Mobile: 090-3102-9690 Email

St. Joseph’s is an English environment school with an adapted Montessori curriculum that implements an advanced form of TPR instruction(see below). It is located in Eastern Tokyo (serving the cities of Kasai, Koiwa, Ichikawa and Matsudo). The school’s primary goal is to provide a great little kindergarten for families for whom English is a necessity. One of the most common complaints of international couples is that communication between the non-Japanese parent and their children suffers as the child moves into kindergarten and up into grade school. The school was created to help regular families overcome this difficulty by making a truly affordable international kindergarten (our tuition is similar to local private kindergartens). The school has a little garden for the children to play in, experienced teaching staff and busing is available.

The school offers a full day kindergarten program for kids aged 3-6 yrsand also a part-time programme for kids aged 2 yrs – 6 yrs. English immersion is also offered in an afterschool program for 6-12 year olds. As the children move to the older classes, they take on much more TPR (Total Physical Response) related and begin to move into reading and writing related activities. Each child works according to own ability, memorizing step by step phrases and sentences for activities that will form the base of their English speaking skills. As they progress in the program, they also start a reading readiness program which slowly turns into a full fledged reading programme.