Front cover: Craft Green Caterpillar and Green Leaves
Our Toddler Class students are becoming more and more independent every day.
Their determination to try things by themselves is growing and they are enjoying
the challenges at Kinder Kids. They drew happy caterpillar's as Spring is almost here!
We hope our children will grow bigger like the hungry caterpillar and then spreadtheir wings and ﬂy like butterﬂies!

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

2Please shareyour ideas!
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Hiraku Editorial Department
TEL：06-6135-0150
Mail： hiraku@kinderkids.ed.jp

Published inMarch 2019 Vol.2
Next issue isplanned to comeat the end of May

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

The era of AI is coming! What are
Non-Cognitive skills andhow can they be developed in childhood?

www.kinderkids.com

Japanese Spirit with an International Future. Kinder Kids inc.

The era of AI is coming! What are Non-Cognitive skills
and how can they be developed in childhood?
In the near future, will AI take over half of our jobs?
Artiﬁcial Intelligence (AI) has become more prominent in the media and is increasingly seenaround us in our daily lives. As AI becomes more advanced, up to 49% of the labor which has
always been performed by humans will potentially be replaced by AI robots meaning half ofall the jobs we know today may disappear in the future.
Associate Professor Michael Osborne at Oxford Uni- The proportion of workers at highversity said: AI systems and robots will free peoplerisk of being replaced with AI
from rote work, just as typists were replaced by word
processors. Jobs that need creativity and sociality
will continue to be performed by people. ＊1
In order to adapt to a new era, embracing and coexisting with AI, instead of fearing it as something thatwill take over our jobs is important, while emphasising and developing our exclusively human attributes
like creativity and social intelligence.
Considering this, what should we do now to improvethese personal skills?

49％＊1
Quoted from Asahi Newspaper special content Asahi World Forum 2016

Estimation for 2025-2035 in Japan

Skills that are necessary to negotiate the AI era
Skills thatcanʼt bereplacedwith AI
Cooperation
Extroversion
Perseverance

1EQ

Non-cognitive
skills

IQ

Skills thatcan bereplacedwith AI

Cognitive
skillsAcademicability

Selfcontrol

Selfesteem

EQ (Emotional Intelligence) is considered to be fundamentally important to various situations throughout one s life.

MemoryWhen should we start developing Non-Cognitive skills?
In the 1960 s, the Perr y Preschool Project
revealed that children who have access to highquality preschool education display a higher IQ,
and a higher EQ (Non-Cognitive skills) and thishad long term beneﬁts for their welfare, happiness and ﬁnancial success into adulthood. The
stage at which a child begins receiving an education ＊2 is important.
As the ﬁgure on the right shows, introducing
high quality preschool education has a higher
return for the individual and societ y more
broadly, and the later that education is introduced, the lower the return and chance of a
successful future.
Developing Non-Cognitive skills is fundamental
to the development of people skills and the ability to integrate and harmonise in the workplaceand in society. Earlier development of theseskills through preschool programs has a signiﬁcant beneﬁt.

HighKindergarten

Image showingthe return on thehuman capital investment
SchoolPre
Schooling
schoolPeriodVocational
schoolAge

Low

Postsecondary
Education＊2
Education includes forming a sense of self, concepts ofbeing healthy and developing a strong body.

How can we develop Non-cognitive skills?
Non-cognitive skills allow the individual to identify a problem, think through possible solutions,and to try the solutions until one ﬁts. At Kinder Kids, if a child is struggling with a task, weencourage them to think of an alternative method and to try again. As they go through this process they accumulate problem solving experience. They also develop conﬁdence and the courage to persevere without fear of failure. Non-cognitive skills can be nurtured at home too but
parents should be aware of how to talk to their children. Did you doyour homework? , Did you brush your teeth yet? We all tell ourchildren what to do don t we? As a parent like you, I understand thefeeling! However, this constant instruction may prevent them fromdeveloping their self-control. In this kind of situation, rather thantelling them what to do, we could let the child decide by what timethey need to complete their homework. Making decisions by themselves will help to develop their sense of responsibility and growindependence. To encourage children to become independent, weshould not always sort everything out for them, we should allow children to handle problems on their own as well. These interactions
with children at home are essential to developing their non-cognitive
Chief Nursery Teacherskills. Let s develop our children s non-cognitive skills together.
Hiroko Takase

Reference:Nomura Research Institute News release on February 2nd 2015 / Heckman,J.J.,&Krueger,A.B. (2005). Inequality in America: What role for human capital policies. MIT Press Books.

2Interview

Higashi OsakaSchoolHPFacebookHigashi Osaka School Manager Makiko Takahashi

3Myrica

2-6-26 Nakashinkai,
Higashi Osaka-shi, Osaka

I hope that our school will remain a place
where each of us acknowledges eachother's strengths and each can express
their individuality freely. Also, I hope that
we can continue to share the joy of seeing
the children s growth, or helping to resolve
parents concerns so please feel free toreach us anytime.

Higashi Osaka school has a homely andinclusive ambience
Because we are a small-sized school, all theteachers know the children individually andthe children are very close to each other. We
make sure that all the age groups can interact with each other and we re like one bigfamily. Everyone, including teachers,
parents and children in this school feel that
our school is the best school (haha)! I see
that our teachers take pride in their workand that makes me very happy. I also feelvery grateful that our parents feel so
attached to the school. A characteristic ofHigashi Osaka school is that there are many
talented teachers. Those talents shine
through at the Christmas concert whereteachers adept at choreography or creating
narratives can help the children sparkle.
Our teachers pass on their knowledge andenthusiasm and that atmosphere gives thechildren conﬁdence in what they canachieve. Children who may have been
apprehensive when speaking in public are
now able to do so conﬁdently and enjoy
playing a role in a play. These outcomes are
a combination of the teachers enthusiasm
and the children s capabilities.

Interview

We asked the kids
in Higashiosaka School!
What is the best thing
about Kinder Kids?
1 There are so many friends
2 We can speak English
3 Teachers are funny/we love our teachers

SchoolHP

Myricahills, 1-23 Senrioka kita,Suita-shi, Osaka

enjoyed school life every day.
I think their outgoing and adaptablepersonalities developed through interactingwith their Myrica teachers and friends. As alocally rooted school, I would like people inthe city to know more about Kinder Kids
and would like to have more opportunity tointeract with parents so please feel free totalk to me anytime.

StaffSpotlightFacebook

Myrica (Suita) Manager Kaori Yamashita

Our school is located in Myrica City which is
known as an international city in the Kansai
region.
Our school opened as the city was being
built and I feel like we have grown up
together with the city. We interact with thecommunity a lot through our internshipprogram, ﬁeld trips to the local schools andplaying at the local park every day so have achance to speak to our friendly neighbours.
We are an international school but at thesame time we are also a classic local school
where the entire city is watching over us.
Many children at our school are Long Stay.
They spend most of the day at our school sowe make sure they feel comfortable and it isa second home for them. Above all, ourchildren and teachers, are bright, cheerfuland full of energy! We always try to describe
each other s feelings when we interact withchildren so many of the children can
express their feelings very positively.
Recently siblings from K3 and Toddler classtransferred to our Canada School for ashort period. Even though it was their ﬁrst
time to be there and a diﬀerent culture forthem, they didn t have a problem speaking
English and they blended in seamlessly andWe asked the kids
in Myrica School!
What is the your favorite game?
1 LEGO
2 London Bridge
3 Dance 4 The train playground equipment

4Overseas School Report
Message from Andy
Grad ClubCEO Grad Club
Andy Usher

Hawaii school
held an Open House!
On January 26th, Hawaii Kai
school had an Open House andAs we approach the end of the school year we would like to take thisopportunity to thank all of our students and take a moment toreflect on another wonderful and exciting year in Grad Club.

more than 100 people from theGrad Club is always excited to welcome back all of the students intoclass and welcome in all of the new students joining from K3. We wereparticularly excited at the start of this school year with the introduction of our new textbooks into the primary level classes. But
Grad Club isn’t just about studying, we love seeing you all having
so much fun and growing as individuals at our Grad Club events.

gave presentations about Kinder

Summer is a particularly fun and exciting season for Grad Club. We
really hope everyone who joined our summer camps had as much fun as
we did. We know many of you enjoyed splashing teachers during waterplay, singing round the campfire and roasting marshmallows.
Summer is also a big moment for those Grad students who join our Australia Tour. Seeing students going out into the world and living in anative English speaking country for 2 weeks is one of the proudest
moments we have. We really believe it is amazing how well the students
cope with living with an Australian family, attending an Australianelementary school and making new friends in another part of the world.
Another event which always impresses is the Grad Club Speech Contest.
To see students standing on stage and reciting speeches in a second
language really does show us how brave, amazing and talented you allare.
It really has been another wonderful year in Grad Club and we
enjoyed seeing you at every opportunity in our weekly lessons andGrad events. Grad Club looks forward to continuing to support all of
your English education and we hope to see as many of you as possibleat all future Grad Club events.

rAndy Ushelocal area came to visit.
Kinder Kids Principal, Wayne,
Kids curriculum and educational
philosophy. Participants listened
attentively and were impressedwith our unique and innovativeeducation system.
During the presentations, the participants children were cared forby the Kinder Kids Hawaii teachersand had a great time talking, playing and making craft together.
There were also balloons, tattoo
stickers and a one-day ﬁreﬁghter
experience! Four local ﬁreﬁghtersattended and everybody was so
excited to see them. The children
were very curious about the ﬁreengine, its lights, siren and equipment. There was also a photobooth in the school where families
could pose with a mock ﬁre engine
and take the pictures home in aphoto frame as a souvenir.
Parents came away with a good
impression and high expectations
for Kinder Kids Hawaii School.
Many of them now want to enrol
and we are really looking forward

5

to having a big Kinder Kids family
in Hawaii too!

6