Front cover： Wood work Wild boar
This is wood work that we made during Winter School 2018.
Children got to hammer with a mallet and attach springs for the ﬁrst time!
With help from the instructors in the woodwork class, they made a wooden
Wild boar that represents this year s Chinese Zodiac!

E x p a n ding fut ure pos s ibilit ies

1
Please shareyour ideas!
Hiraku provides useful informationand the latest news related toEnglish and childhood education.

・Your recent interests
・Topics you want us to cover
・New content etc etc…
If you have ideas to contribute,please share these with us!
Hiraku Editorial Department
TEL：06-6135-0150
Mail： hiraku@kinderkids.ed.jp

Published inJanuary 2019 Vol.1
Next issue isplanned to comeat the end of March

Kinder Kids Inc.
TEL：06-6135-0150
Pulala Tenma 2F, 3-1 Ikeda-cho,
Kita-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka. 530-0033

Welcome to Bilingual Education!
Is the future bright for Japanese English levels?

www.kinderkids.com

Japanese Spirit with an International Future. Kinder Kids inc.

Welcome to Bilingual Education!

Is there a bright future for Japanese English levels?

“Hiraku” Published
We have previously shared news about Kinder Kids activities through Head Oﬃce News butin order to build a closer connection to parents, we will cover a range of topics such aspeople

products and services that we hope you will ﬁnd engaging. When we were asmaller group of schools, it was easier to talk to parents face to face, but it has become morediﬃcult as we have grown. That is why we decided to go back to where we started and create
Hiraku , a tool for sharing our thoughts with you. We will be sharing insights in Hiraku not
mentioned on our Website or brochures. Staﬀ members thoughts and reﬂections about ourstudents and recognition of their extraordinary passion for contributing to Kinder Kids school
operations.

This is a free magazinethat connects Kinder
Kids and parents!
N ic e to m e et you !

Kinder Kids ����“Making Kinder Kids connections all over the world”

1

The long awaited Hawaii School will open soon, following
the opening of our Canada School in 2014.
The industry's ﬁrst transfer system enables children totransfer not only within Kinder Kids Japan, but also Kinder
Kids locations overseas. Families who have taken part inthis transfer system loved the experience! We also endeavor
to provide our graduate students with opportunities forinternships in worldwide Kinder Kids locations and will
even give support while they re overseas if they need us,
functioning almost like an embassy. In the future, we aim
to build an environment where children can freely visit any
Kinder Kids in the world and have a cross cultural experience. We are planning to open up another school in Southeast Asia and are accelerating our overseas expansion.
2019 will be the year for realizing a system where Kinder
Kids families can connect with each other all over theworld, anytime.

EF Education First, a company specializ-Research has shown that there is a

ing in study abroad and language train-steady decline in English proﬁ-

ing in 116 countries, published The EF

ciency measured at adult level

English Proﬁciency Index 2018 which(20yrs+) but there are indications

was calculated using test data from 1.3

that the level of 18-19 year olds

million test takers in November 2018.

will improve the statistics when

The index shows Japan was ranked 49ththey mature. In 2020, implementa-

among 88 listed non-English speaking

tion of the English Education

countries and Japan ranked 11th among

Reform Plan means English classes

listed Asian countries. Japans ranking

will start from Grade 3, and En-

has continued to slide, from 14th amongglish will be a mandatory subject

44 countries since 2011 when the survey

from Grade 5 in elementarystarted. Even worse, Japan s ranking fellschools. It will be intriguing to see

signiﬁcantly, by 12 places, in just 1 year

how this reform plan impacts

between 2017 and 2018.

improvements in English proﬁcien-

The number of new entrants into the survey

cy in Japan.

compared to when it began has contributed toDue to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics

the slide down the rankings, however coun-and 2025 Osaka, Kansai Expo,

tries such as India and Vietnam had English

Japan is expected to become an

proﬁciency levels which were low initiallyeven more globalized country. We

but are now average . For many people inwill continue to cover relevant infor-

developing countries, English proﬁciency is anmation and new research in ouressential tool for improving their prosperity,publication moving forward.

and their motivation for learning English isclearly diﬀerent when compared with that ofthe Japanese. It may be inevitable that Japan
will be left behind in international society andlose its standing in the world if JapaneseEnglish proﬁciency fails to keep up.

Kimiko Nakayama
CEO Kinder Kids Inc.

What is The EF English Proﬁciency Index ?
It is based on examination data from the EF SET (www.efset.org/ja) which is a free online
English proﬁciency test published and provided by EF. They publish it every year as abenchmark for measuring English proﬁciency over time in non-English speaking countries
and regions.
2Staﬀ nationality

Understanding

Kinder Kids

40
Approx.

in Numbers
inf

We have staﬀ members of various nationalities from all over the world.
Therefore our children are able to interact with many diﬀerent cultures which develops theirbroad international view whilst acquiring a more global English.

Native staﬀ

263

countries

ographics

peopleas of 2019

Characteristics ofKinder Kids in Numbers.

Founded

2 000

Japanese staﬀ,

Domestic

21schools

Graduatestudents
Approx.
Approx.

OverseasEI23,000 Nschools

O

Hours that Kinder classes learn English

1 200 hours a year

Approx.

,When English becomesa formal subject in 2020,

Grade 5, 6
Class hours

70 hours a year
3OCstudents
students
G

Hours of study
in English

Calculated based on curriculum
time for Kinder 1-3 classes.

They will be well-balanced, learning
the four core skills (reading, writing,speaking and listening).
We have a strong literacy focus and aim
for our students to acquire English
proﬁciency equivalent toa native Grade 2 level, at the time ofgraduation from Kinder Kids.

Writing
Students spend most of
their day in an English onlyenvironment
They acquire proﬁciency throughtheir immersion in English every day.

ReadingKIH

Speaking

469
peopleA

Kinder 3 classes pass rate for Eiken
as of 2017

K3
Class

Eiken Grade-3

65Eiken GradePre-2％

ListeningAR

Eiken Grade 3&4 isroughly equivalent tothe English proﬁciency
level for Juniorhigh school 2nd or
3rd year students.

Some children
passed!

Eiken Grade-476％4

Topic1

Topic2

We held Grad Club Christmas parties again
this year in Kansai and Kanto. More thanXmas Party

300 Grad Club members and their parents
joined in the fun.
The Grad Club Christmas party is an oppor-by Grad Club

tunity for students who continue to study

Newly Open!
in Hawaii

English to be rewarded with a magical end toSantaTime!

the year. Everyone who comes to the party
looks forward to interacting with students
and teachers from other schools that theyrarely see. As always, we played a lot ofinteractive and enjoyable games such as
catch the marshmallows , build a snow-

Scheduled to open in February 2019, the longawaited Hawaii school!
The Hawaii school is the second Kinder Kids school
to open overseas following our Canada school.
We ve been really excited to see the high expectations people have of us and there are already manyenquiries and pre-registrations before we ve even
opened the doors!
Hawaii Kai, where the school is located, is a quiet
residential area on the edge of the beautiful ocean,transmitting a sense of freedom and relaxation.
Children who attend can learn happily in ourcustom designed, spacious classrooms and outdoor
play spaces.

man and a Twelve Days Of Christmas
parody, guided by group leaders dressed likePhooee (a conversation class character)reindeer or elves. All the teams bonded andshowed outstanding teamwork as they triedto win. After playing games and enjoying adelicious meal and dessert, everyone was so
excited to receive a gift from Santa Claus!
We took a fantastic group picture together

Making aSnowman!

in Osakallow
Marshma!
hcCat

feKansai,Hard Rock Ca

Mandy

What is？

5

Staﬀ Training

at the end!

Grad Club is designed to support and develop English
proﬁciency for students who have graduated from Kinder
Kids, as they progress through elementary, junior high andhigh schools. In addition to a variety of English lesson
options, we provide fun events such as summer camps,
overseas study trips, speech contests and more to show ourstudents that learning is more than just reading textbooks.

UOMO &ZASALVATOREC

PIZ
Kanto, GRILL Kawasaki

The teachers here are very
experienced and theirclassroom management skills
are top notch. The planningand the activities are very
well thought out. Seeing how
well the teachers are able towork together as a team, andthe communication they havewith each other is really
important in the classroom .

Kinder Kids Hawaii teachers, Mandy and Keriscame for training in Osaka School for a 2 week
stay in Japan. Typically Hawaiian, they werewarm, positive and friendly when we met them andthey blended seamlessly into the school - the children loved them very much! On the last day of theirtraining, they each led Circle Time in their training classes.
They re really looking forward to using the knowledge and skills
they learnt from Kinder Kids Japan when their classes open inHawaii School.

Keris

There was good teacher control, there wasgood respect for the teacher and for thestudent as well. I picked up a lot of tips,giving examples and showing how to use
words in context and how to keep theconversation going. The techniques and thestrategies we ve seen should be brought
into our classrooms in Hawaii .
6