Welcome back to the class of 2011 to 2012

Darren and Shelley would like to send a warm welcome back to all of the children and their families after a really long summer break. They hope that everyone had a great time with their families and friends somewhere warm and dry during July and August, and are all set for the start of the new school year. The regular morning preschool programme starts tomorrow Wednesday 24th August, as well as Darren's After School Art, Design and Technology classes.

After School tutoring starts on 1st September which is a Thursday and Shelley is looking forward to seeing her "old" students and welcoming some new students.

We are offering a new After School Music class on Mondays and Kanako will be taking these classes. We have information about these classes on our website in the Programmes section

Our first Parent Evening will be held this evening and we are looking forward to welcoming parents

We will be focusing on the meaning of the Journey of Life for the children and families who are enrolled in our school as they travel on a "local train" to the last station "School Readiness".  While we live in a technologically growing world, where the bullet train is the favoured form of transport (especially here in Japan), we have chose to go on a local train.  This train is slow. You can watch the world go by slowly; "stop and smell the roses"; listen; taste; touch; feel and truly experience everything there is. Children's fascination with trains goes back to the first steam train. They love the wheels, the noise, the tracks, the level crossing, the views dashing past the windows etc. And so we chose this train to be our means of transport and will share with you a few of the stations that we will stop at along the way.

While our list is endless we have chosen 5 stations to stop at. They are

Partnership in raising the child

Language

Time

Sensory experiences

Trust and Intuition

These "stations" will be discussed in more detail at the meeting and parents will receive some handouts.

We look forward to a great year with many new beginnings and wish everyone good luck for 2011-2012

Much love always

Shelley and Darren