K. International School Tokyo is a place where people of all different nationalities and socio-economic groups can come together to work and learn. We seek to create an environment where there is a fundamental awareness of respect for the rights and freedoms of every individual. We foster open-mindedness, tolerance and respect toward the beliefs and customs of others, and the acceptance of diversity as something exciting and stimulating, rather than as something to be feared. We encourage students to allow their own beliefs to be challenged by contact with alternatives so that they begin to think beyond the boundaries of any one country or belief system and can achieve a more global perspective on the issues they will face in life.

We view education as equipping students for the challenges they will face in life within and beyond the classroom. As such, we encourage students to apply rational thought to problems. We strive to foster creativity and creative approaches to problem solving.

The amount of knowledge available in the world is increasing at an exponential rate and, as such, we realize that it is impossible to teach students everything we may consider to be of importance in the time they are at school. By selecting themes of global relevance and by encouraging students to develop lines of inquiry into these themes, we hope to achieve three goals: firstly that students will amass a critical mass of significant knowledge, secondly that students will develop a thirst for knowledge and a curiosity which will make them lifelong learners, and finally that students will have the research skills and tools necessary to find information and investigate any area they may have a need for or an interest in.

Today’s world is a place where discreet skills and items of knowledge are not sufficient to achieve success. The world of the future needs people who can be empowered to solve their own problems and who have the ability to do this in a team situation. And so, as our students face the future they will need to be able to combine skills and knowledge from different disciplines in creative ways to perform complex operations to solve problems. As such, we encourage our students to develop their understanding beyond the facts so that they can develop a level of conceptual understanding which is transferable to different situations and different disciplines.

Students should understand that we are not passive observers of events, but can and must make choices in life and that our choices not only affect those around us, but can make an impact well beyond that. We encourage students to reflect upon their actions and make responsible choices based on this reflection. As part of this reflection, we encourage students to look at issues and challenges from a variety of perspectives so that they learn to make decisions in a balanced and considered way.

Each member of the school community is an individual and it is essential that we value their uniqueness. We must also realize that part of this uniqueness involves different learning and teaching styles and so we are willing to adjust our approach to cater for the special needs of each individual student as far as practically possible. In so doing, we provide a maximum opportunity for each student to feel a sense of success in his or her achievements.

We encourage students to express ideas clearly and concisely. We also recognize that there are different modes of thinking and of expressing ourselves and that each of these has its own advantages. In this, we need to recognize the value of all subject areas and their representative sign systems and encourage students to incorporate these into their thinking and expression where appropriate.

We view education as a three-way partnership between the school and its teacher, the parents and the students. As such, we encourage parents to become active participants in their children’s education and in the life of the school. We keep parents informed of our objectives and methodologies and seek their support for these. We also encourage students to take responsibility for their own learning and assessment.

It is imperative that teachers and staff at the school are constantly modeling the behaviors outlined in these aims. We hope that these aims will help produce students who are principled, knowledgeable and well-balanced, who are committed to striving for excellence throughout their lives and who will become responsible, productive participants in the global community.