About Us
We are a group of around 20 families who have organized English lessons (reading and writing) for our children. Most families have one parent who is Japanese and the other who is a native English speaker. We all have a strong interest in promoting English literacy in our children.
About the lessons
We have hired professional teachers and hold three lessons on Saturday mornings. The class for the 8 - 11 year old children (the 'Bookworms') consists of two 40 minutes sessions with a 10 minute break. The class for 6 - 8 year old children (the 'Bears') is one session of 60 minutes and we have recently added a class for 3 - 5 year olds (the ‘Cubs’). We have three semesters per year, each of 11 or 12 lessons. The class for the older two groups have 10 students each and there are up to 8 students in the Cubs class.
Our experience so far
We have been running for around 3 years and the feedback from all parents and children has been very positive. Indeed, the recent addition of the Cubs class came out of the success of the older children’s classes. There is a wide range of abilities in each class but our teachers are more than able to manage this. Clearly, just one lesson of English per week is insufficient to develop fully the English abilities in our children. We regard these lessons as an important catalyst for further English activities in the home. Although, our focus is the English lesson itself, children and parents alike enjoy the social side of the group.
Future Plans
We intend to run these classes along these lines for as long as the children enjoy them and continue to progress. Having said that, we operate on a semester by semester basis and may change any aspect of the classes in the future. To date we have split the classes by age rather than by ability. Our plan is for the classes to stay together - for example, we do not plan to move a current seven year old Bear into the Bookworms class when he or she turns eight.
Fees
The fees are around 18,000 -20,000 yen per semester for the Bookworms and a little less for the Bears and Cubs. Since we don't make a profit and are committed to paying our teachers, we operate a strict 'no-refunds' policy. If you start a semester but have to stop attending for any reason, we will not be able to offer a refund for the missed lessons.
The venue
Lessons are held in Yoyogi, Tokyo.
Waiting List
The waiting list for the Bears and Cubs classes is now closed and we are no longer accepting requests to be added to these waiting lists. (Anyone previously added to the waiting list is still on the waiting list). The waiting list for the Bookworms is still open. If you are interested in your child joining the waiting list for the Bookworms or would like more information about the classes please send an email to the address below.