English

Introducing Our School

Okinawa Sudbury School is a Sudbury-model school located in Ginowan-city on the island of Okinawa in the south-west of Japan, in a residential house with a large garden. School opening is from nine until four, Monday through Friday. We take students aged 6-19 and operate as a democratic community via the School Meeting.

What is a Sudbury School?

A Sudbury school is a school modelled on the Sudbury Valley School in Massachusetts, USA. It is a democratically-run community of students and staff where there is no set curriculum nor any structured teaching beyond that which the students request. Instead, the students are free to spend each day as they choose, which in practice means a great deal of free play that gradually becomes more structured as the students move into their teenage years. Thus, rather than learning from a prescribed curriculum, the students learn as a by-product of their daily activities. The experience of Sudbury Valley School and similar learning environments shows that this provides a sufficiently wide variety of experience and learning to enable a person to take a meaningful and rewarding place in adult society.

The Sudbury Philosophy

The key points of the Sudbury philosophy are:

1. Trusting children to take control of their own lives – we believe that children are capable of making their own intelligent and informed decisions, and thus do not need to be coerced or controlled.

2. Democratic rule – all aspects of the internal running of the school are decided by the School Meeting, in which each member has one vote.

3. No prescribed curriculum and no testing – we believe that children learn best through their own curiosity and natural learning instincts, and we trust children to assess themselves and their own learning.

4. Free age mixing – we believe that children learn not just from their same-age peers or adults but also from children older and younger than themselves. From this they also learn tolerance and respect for differences, both in others and in themselves.

5. Freedom and responsibility – children learn to take responsibility for themselves and their actions through learning to respect the freedom of others.

Introducing the Staff

Okinawa Sudbury School currently has six staff members.

Simon
Simon is from England and has lived in Japan since 1997. He has worked extensively in education in Japan and England, and believes that Sudbury-model education provides the best start in life for young people. In his free time he enjoys going to the ocean with his family and drawing comics.

Midori
Midori is from Kobe, and moved to Okinawa in 2009. She has a long association with the alternative school movement – she worked with school-refusers at Mie Shure in Mie-ken, her husband worked as a teacher at Summerhill School in the 1980s, and their son attended alternative schools throughout his education. In her free time she enjoys music, football and films.

Oku-chan
Oku-chan lives in Yaese Town in southern Okinawa and works the early shift in a supermarket before coming to Okinawa Sudbury School twice a week. He loves children and nature, and runs a charity called “Okinawa Children’s Dream Charity” which works to provide vacation opportunities for disadvantaged children. He wants to work towards a world where all children can realize their dreams. His favorite quote is “Mind is the Master power that moulds and makes” (James Allen) and his favorite people are Jesus, Mother Theresa and Sakamoto Ryoma.

Hide
Hide is from Nishihara Town in Okinawa. As a junior high school student he spent a summer in a homestay in the US, which inspired him to subsequently attend the University of North Carolina. He has worked in IT and now works as a communication consultant. He enjoys working at Okinawa Sudbury School because the children continually surprise and inspire him.

Sanae
Sanae has lived in Okinawa since moving from her native Kyoto when she was 24. She lives in Ginowan with her husband, two children and four cats. As a child she loved animals and dreamed of becoming a vet, though she is now pursuing a career as a potter. In her free time she enjoys fixing broken things, photography, and walking. She initially heard about Okinawa Sudbury School while considering her own children’s education, and found the philosophy of freedom, respect and trust to be exactly what she was looking for.

Natsuko
Natsuko is a student at Okinawa International University, where she is also a member of the Athletics Club. She has dreamed of being a teacher since her first year of elementary school, and is now studying to be a Social Studies teacher. She enjoys working at Okinawa Sudbury School because of the chance to experience and learn from such a radically different approach to education.

You can find the staff photos on the main staff page here.

Enrollment Procedure

1. If you and your family are interested in enrolling then you should be familiar with and understand the Sudbury educational model. We ask that parents read “Free at Last” by Daniel Greenberg and/or watch a documentary on Sudbury Valley School (both available from us – please ask for details).

2. You should then contact us to arrange an initial visit for your family, during which you can tour the school site and talk to staff and children about the school.

3. Prospective students will then do a Trial Enrollment period. In principle this is ten days, however it is possible to extend the enrollment period up to a maximum of twenty days. At a convenient point during this period the family will also have an Enrollment Interview – this is for both parties to discuss any concerns and to see if the school and the family are likely to be a good fit.

4. At the end of the Trial Enrollment children wishing to enroll must be approved by the School Meeting.

5. The family will then fill out the enrollment forms and pay the enrollment fee and the first term’s tuition.

Fees

Enrollment fees and tuition are set by the Management Meeting and are reviewed on a yearly basis.

Trial Enrollment Tuition: the tuition fee for the trial enrollment is ￥10,000 for five days per child.

Enrollment Fee:There is a one-time non-refundable enrollment fee of　￥150,000 for a single child or ￥200,000 for a family enrollment.

Tuition Payment:
Tuition is payable twice a year:
First term (April~September): 1 child ￥210,000, 2 children ￥360,000, plus ￥60,000 for each additional child, to be paid by the last day of March.
Second term (October~March) : 1 child ￥210,000, 2 children ￥360,000, plus ￥60,000 for each additional child, to be paid by the last day of September.

Enquiries
Please send any enquiries you have to okinawasudbury@gmail.com .