Middle School

Yoyogi International School is proud to announce the opening of its Middle School Program from the School Year 2023-2024.

In line with our school's mission, vision, and core-values, our Middle School is dedicated to providing each student with a warm, safe, and nurturing environment to grow academically, socially, emotionally, and personally. We are committed to fostering a love of learning, guiding children to be open-minded, and developing confidence and compassion to become active members of the global society in the 21st century.

Through our Middle School, we equip our students with a well-rounded academic profile in readiness for further education anywhere in the world, and assist families in finding the best high school to pursue their dreams. We ensure that our students are able to develop their skills, knowledge and understanding and most of all their confidence by exploring the world through an inquiry-based approach, using a concept-based curriculum and ongoing criterion-related assessment.

Subject Offering

Students will engage with all subject areas, including Mathematics, Sciences, English, Humanities, Design, Japanese, Physical and Health Education, Music and Visual Arts following the US Common Core and the UK National Curriculum. See the subject descriptions below for further elaboration:

Advisory

Advisory provides non-evaluative pastoral support and academic advice. Each student is assigned a homeroom group and teacher who is the student’s advisor and meets daily with them. Through this programme, students gain a sense of belonging and build self-esteem so they may become confident, capable young people who accept responsibility for their own actions. It provides students with an avenue for understanding the developmental stages of this unique age, to help students build positive relationships and to provide opportunities for shared decision-making and developing good study habits.

Mathematics

Studying mathematics is more than simply learning formulae or rules. Students should not have the impression that all of the answers to mathematics can be found in a book but, rather, that they can be active participants in the search for concepts and relationships. In that light, mathematics becomes a subject that is alive with the thrill of exploration and the rewards of discovery. Mathematics promotes both inquiry and application, helping students to develop problem-solving techniques that transcend the discipline and that are useful in the world outside school.

English

As students progress through their English language and literature studies, they engage with and explore an increasing range and sophistication of literary and informational texts and works of literature extending across genres, cultures and historical periods. These texts will also provide models for students to develop the competencies to communicate appropriately and effectively in an increasing range of social, cultural and academic contexts, and for an increasing variety of audiences and purposes.

Sciences

Learning science involves more than simply learning technical terminology. With inquiry at the core, the sciences framework guides students to independently and collaboratively investigate issues through research, observation and experimentation. Our sciences curriculum explores the connections between science and everyday life. Scientific inquiry also fosters critical and creative thinking about research and design, as well as the identification of assumptions and alternative explanations, through experiments and inquiry.

Individuals and societies (I&S)

Individuals and societies encourages learners to respect and understand the world around them and equips them with the necessary skills to inquire into historical, contemporary, geographical, political, social, economic, religious, technological and cultural factors that have an impact on individuals, societies and environments. The approach to individuals and societies includes a strong focus on inquiry and investigation. Students collect, describe and analyse data used in studies of societies; test hypotheses; and learn how to interpret increasingly complex information, including original source material. This focus on real-world examples, research and analysis is an essential aspect of the subject.

Visual Arts

Our program values the process of creating, performing and presenting artwork, and gives students opportunities to function as artists and to develop as learners. Students learn to use the arts to convey feelings, experiences and ideas about the world, and in doing so they acquire and develop techniques and creative skills. They learn the value of reflection and evaluation as a means of developing their ideas, their skills and their work.

Design

Design challenges all students to apply practical and creative thinking skills to solve design problems; encourages students to explore the role of design in both historical and contemporary contexts; and raises students’ awareness of their responsibilities when making design decisions and taking action. Design requires the use of the design cycle as a tool, which provides the methodology used to structure the inquiry and analysis of problems, the development of feasible solutions, the creation of solutions, and the testing and evaluation of the solution. Our design programme enables students to develop not only practical skills but also strategies for creative and critical thinking. Our program expects all students to become actively involved in, and to focus on, the whole design process rather than on the final product/solution.

Physical and Health Education

PHE aims to empower students to understand and appreciate the value of being physically active and develop the motivation for making healthy life choices. To this end, our physical and health education course fosters the development of knowledge, skills and attitudes that will contribute to a student’s balanced and healthy lifestyle. Students engaged in physical and health education will explore a variety of concepts that help foster an awareness of physical development and health perspectives, empowering them to make informed decisions and promoting positive social interaction.

Japanese

Our program structures additional language learning in phases so that the complexity and range of language profiles that students bring to their classroom is acknowledged and fostered. Japanese Language acquisition aims to develop a respect for, and understanding of, other languages and cultures, and is equally designed to equip the student with a skills base to facilitate further language learning. As students progress they will move to Japanese language and literature studies, and will engage with and explore an increasing range and sophistication of literary and informational texts and works of literature extending across genres, cultures and historical periods. This is based on the local national curriculum of Japan (Kokugo).

Music

In music, students will have the opportunity to select a woodwind, brass, or percussion instrument to study in a group setting. Students will learn the foundations of playing an instrument and continue to develop their musicianship. The class will inquire into the ideas that music is a creative process as well as an activity, that music is an intrinsic component of personal and cultural expression, and that music is an enjoyable hands-on activity that requires the development of skills.

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