STRATEGICINTENTIONS2018
UPDATE
THE

Delivering an outstanding British
education to the international
community of Tokyo for 30 years

BRITISH SC

IN TOKYO

I

n 2014, the year in which BST celebrated its 25th
anniversary, we made a significant start in theplanning process for the next twenty-five years by
publishing our Strategic Intentions document looking
ahead towards 2020. At the time of its publication
we promised that this would be a working documentwith lasting and ongoing impact, and 18 months
ago I shared with you a second brief update on our
progress towards delivering our ambitious goals. As
we now move towards our 30th anniversary, this is
the third such update.

Balanced

TO RECRUIT, DEVELOP AND
RETAIN INSPIRING TEACHERS,BACKED BY A HIGHLY MOTIVATEDSUPPORT TEAM, WHO ARE ALL
FULLY COMMITTED TO DRIVINGTHE SCHOOL FORWARD AS A
GLOBAL LEADER IN THE DELIVERYOF INNOVATIVE, HIGH QUALITY
INTERNATIONAL EDUCATIONAs it must always be, this is our primary strategic
objective: education can only ever be as good as theteachers responsible for its delivery. Our Trustees
are wholeheartedly committed to maintaining
BST’s impressive record of accomplishment in an
increasingly competitive international recruitment
market. We invest heavily in the recruitment process
at all levels and, to the best of my knowledge wecontinue to be the only international school that
insists on seeing candidates teaching in their own
schools before confirming appointments.
The obvious priority for us last year was to identify
and recruit outstanding school leaders to build on
the substantial achievements of Ms O’Connor and
Mr Platts.
The search for Ms O’Connor’s successor led us toSingapore. Before agreeing to join BST, Fiona Read
was Deputy Head of the Junior School at UWCSEA;
a position she held for ten years from 2008 having
previously been Head of Year 6. She brings with
her a wealth of experience in one of the world’s
leading international schools and is already making
her mark here. An enthusiastic life-long learner,
she is currently studying for her M.Ed in Special
Educational Needs and Disabilities with Middlesex
University, having recently completed the NationalAward for SEN Coordination with the same
university. She has made a very promising start andis already making her mark at BST, demonstratingthat her vision for the Primary School aligns closelywith the ethos carefully established here in recent
years.
For the past three years, Mr Platts has worked inclose partnership with Mr Thomas to drive thedevelopment of the Secondary School and, inparticular, to raise standards at IGCSE and A Level.
The success of that partnership, together with theobvious attendant benefits of a smooth transition,
made it a relatively easy decision to invite Mr
Thomas to step up from his role as Deputy Head totake over from Mr Platts. While Mr Thomas may bewell known to many of you, and his appointment
offers BST a measure of much-needed continuity,
he is also his own man with a clear vision for thedevelopment of the Secondary School. He is alreadytaking steps to implement that vision and I knowthat the school will continue to move confidently
forward under his leadership.

The promotion of Mr Thomas left a vacancy for a
Secondary Deputy Head and, from a very strong
field of applicants, we were delighted to appoint Mr
Duncan Grey – previously Deputy Head of Senior
School at the British School, Muscat. BSM is aslightly bigger school than our own (600 secondary
level students) but it has many similarities with
BST and Mr Grey had been in post there since 2008.
Married, with two children, he is a keen sportsman
with a particular interest in rugby and, in April of
this year, he completed his UK National Professional
Qualification for Headship. Again, he has made astrong start here and I have every confidence thathis partnership with Mr Thomas will be a fruitfulone.
More recently, the Board of Trustees undertook
an extensive search to find an experienced
international Head to take over my role when I retireat the end of this academic year after seven very
happy years in Tokyo. That search was successful
and I have already enjoyed working with Paul Toughto plan for a smooth handover in July. Mr Toughjoins us from Discovery Bay International School in
Hong Kong where he has been Principal for the past
five years. I have every confidence that he will be avery good fit for BST, that he shares the values wehave all worked hard to establish here, and that heis the right person to take the school forward at thiscrucial stage in its development.
As numbers at the top end of the school have grownit has become increasingly important for BST to
recruit teachers who can inspire and challenge thevery brightest of our A Level students. It is gratifying
to report that we have been able to bring in graduateswith outstanding academic pedigrees and to recruit
experienced practitioners with a proven track recordin excellent schools.
Given the spiralling global demand for international
school teaching staff, recruitment may become
more difficult in the near future. To this point, wehave been fortunate in that we have been able
to take advantage of the Olympic effect and thecurrent interest in Japan as a destination of interest.
How lasting this might be remains to be seen. It is
important to remember that we are in competition
with a number of regions with very different taxation
systems and may not be able to offer a particularly
attractive financial case for coming to Japan. There
are, however, many other advantages to working at
a school like BST and living in a country like thisone; we must continue to work hard to promote
those advantages.

One further important teacher recruitment issue for
us to deal with is the recent UK Home Office rulingthat the current enhanced DBS service will be limited
to organisations based in England and Wales. Thismeans that overseas schools can no longer request
enhanced criminal record checks on potential
recruits. The UK Department for Education has sentout a directive that British Schools Overseas canapply for a basic DBS check (which records unspentconvictions) or for an International Child Protection
Certificate, which can be obtained from ACRO, theCriminal Records Office. Child safeguarding is apriority at BST and we always apply for the moststringent background checks available to us during
the teacher recruitment process. This Home Officedecision only serves to underline the importance ofour practice of visiting candidate teachers in theirown schools before confirming an appointment.
If the school is to continue on its current trajectory,
it is important that our teachers are given every
opportunity to grow as international educators. For
that reason, we prioritise continuing professional
development for all of our staff. Since my last
update, a significant proportion of our academic
staff have been supported in their pursuit of further
qualifications; six have completed or are in theprocess of completing Masters’ degrees, four havebeen supported through the international PGCE, andwe now have a number of COBIS trained accreditors
and Middle Leadership Programme Facilitators. All
this in addition to a broad range of pastoral andsubject-related training, often delivered here inschool by some of the leading authorities in theirfield.

As has been the norm in recent years, teachers andsupport staff have made school visits, or attended
courses in the UK, mainland Europe, Australia,
China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand, as wellas participating in online workshops and seminars
sharing best practice with colleagues around theworld. It is particularly reassuring to note that
almost all of our academic and support staff have
now completed courses on Child Safeguarding and
Safe Recruitment and have received recent first-aid
training.

5

TO DELIVER A CHALLENGING
AND INNOVATIVE BRITISH-BASEDCURRICULUM WITHIN A CLEARLY
MAPPED 3-18 CONTINUUM,
FOSTERING ALL THE SKILLS ANDATTRIBUTES OUTLINED IN OUR
PROFILE OF THE BST LEARNER
AND EQUIPPING OUR STUDENTS
FOR THE NEXT STEP IN THEIREDUCATION – AND FOR LIFE
Teaching and learning of the highest quality is acentral tenet of BST’s Strategic Intentions blue-print,
and I know that raising academic standards will
always be an important objective for the School’s
Leadership Team and for our Trustees. The broad,balanced curriculum model that we have built up
over the past five years has served us well and there
seems to be little reason to make wholesale changes
at this stage. After all, the outcomes, certainly interms of examination results and placements at
good schools and universities around the world,
have been very impressive.
In the Primary School we adhere closely to thedemands of the English National Curriculum –making some small allowances for Japanese –while in the Secondary School the main drivers
are IGCSE examinations and UK A Levels. In both
sectors of the school we work hard to ensure thatsport and the arts are given the space they deserve
and, particularly at secondary level, we havestrengthened our Wellbeing and PSHE provision.
Nevertheless, as in any school, there are some areas
where we can make significant improvements.
The first of these is in Early Years education. The
limited space available to us at Shibuya is an issue
but with imagination, we believe that we can create
a better environment for this important age-groupand thus enhance the quality of our programme. It
may mean that we have to reduce numbers at thisend of the school, at least until we move to our new
Primary campus, but it certainly does not mean that
we will reduce our investment in these key years.
It is also possible to adopt a broader, moreinternational outlook at Primary level. This does notmean that we should move away from the National
Curriculum; rather that we should be brave enoughto recognise that we can deliver that curriculum
effectively and still have the scope to offer more –particularly in terms of modern foreign languages,
science and PSHE.
The third area for improvement relates to theadvantages we enjoy as a 3-18 through school wheretransition from Year 6 to Year 7 simply involves
climbing (or descending!) a flight of stairs. As things
stand we do not make the most of the opportunity
we have to deliver the continuum emphasised above.
As we move towards the opening of a new Primary
6

campus, we should use the time left to us to ensurethat our cross-phase planning and delivery are as
strong as they possibly can be; that our Primary andSecondary teachers have shared expectations andthat they speak a common language.
With this in mind, a select group of senior staff inboth Primary and Secondary have been exploring
Professor Deborah Eyre’s High Performance Learning
programme. A small number of schools both in the
UK and around the world have already enjoyedconsiderable success with HPL, and BST teachers
and leaders who have spent time looking at the
programme have been excited by its potential. Their
belief is that it will offer us a framework to develop
a stronger whole-school approach to teaching andlearning and that its values are very much in linewith those we articulated five years ago in our British
Learner attributes. We know that we are doing manyof the good things the programme advocates, but amore formal approach will help us to understandwhere we can build most effectively on the excellent
foundations that have already been built.
A roadmap for further exploration and discussion
has been drawn up to take us through to the endof this year and preliminary work involving a range
of Primary and Secondary teachers, led by Ms
Unsworth and Mr Travis, has already begun.
Those of you who wish to know more may find thislink helpful:https://www.highperformancelearning.co.uk/
At the time of writing, we remain the onlyinternational school in Japan offering UK A Levels.
In 2012 when I was first appointed here and there
were just seven students in the Sixth Form, I was
asked if we should consider the introduction of theInternational Baccalaureate, specifically the Year
12/13 Diploma Programme. One of the significant
differences between the A Level system and the IBDP
is that for the latter students take six subjects rather
than just three. For this reason alone, my response
was that we simply could not begin to contemplatea switch to the Diploma Programme until we had atleast one hundred Sixth Form students on roll. Only
then would the economics of such a switch makesense.

TO MAINTAIN THE HIGHEST
ACADEMIC STANDARDS,INCLUDING THE CONSISTENTACHIEVEMENT OF EXCELLENT
EXAMINATION RESULTS, WHILE
CONTINUING OUR COMMITMENT
TO AN INCLUSIVE ADMISSIONSPOLICYThis year almost half (48%) of all subject entries at A
Level, were awarded the top A*/A grades, while 74%
were graded B or better. Remarkably, 1 in 4 of our Year
13 students achieved A*/A in at least three subjects.
To put that into context for those unfamiliar with
the UK A Level system, it may be helpful to point out
that almost all students specialise by studying justthree subjects in their final year.
In recent years our students have won placeson extremely competitive degree courses at awide range of prestigious universities across theUK, including Cambridge, Durham, Edinburgh,
and Manchester. Imperial, King’s and University
Colleges, London have also proved to be popular
destinations.
A change since the last of these updates, one in
keeping with our international outlook, has been
the increased interest in universities outside the UK.
It is certainly the case that today’s school leavers
see themselves as citizens of the world and more ofthem are now looking beyond the UK and their homecountry for higher education. Australia, Canada andmainland Europe seem to be particularly popular
but there is also significant interest in the USA andJapan.

This year’s changes to the GCSE grading systemin the UK make it a little more difficult to provide
a succinct summary of the latest results, theperformance of this year’s GCSE and IGCSE students
was more than encouraging. A*/A grades accounted
for approximately 70% of all entries (up from 66%
last year) and it was especially pleasing to see
outstanding results across the whole spectrumof academic disciplines – in Maths and Science,in Art and Photography, in English, MFL and the
Humanities. In History and Geography, for example,
no fewer than 61 out of a total of 71 entries were
graded A*/A. (It is perhaps telling that in the last
update it was considered noteworthy that in thosesame subjects 28 out of a total of 36 entries attained
these top grades).
We continue to share our updated three-year A
Level and GCSE/IGCSE subject statistics in a table on
our website:
http://www.bst.ac.jp/why-bst/academic-results/

We have now reached a point where we have 110
students in those top two year groups and it is time tolook more closely at our options, particularly as ourstudents now appear to be showing more interest in
studying at universities outside the UK. That said, so
far A Levels have proved to be more than acceptable
to most higher education institutions around theworld, and a move away from the current Sixth Form
curriculum would be costly and time-consuming.
We must therefore proceed with caution.
A Level study remains something of a unique selling
proposition for BST. However, it is only right that
we should explore different opportunities at thisstage in our development, particularly if we are
to maintain the upwards trajectory of our global
reputation for academic excellence.

7

Well-grounded with a broad
range of interests, knowledge
and skills developed both inand beyond the classroom.
Objective, capable ofseeing the big picture,
without prejudice.

Determined and willing topersevere in the face ofadversity. Prepared to set
ambitious goals and work
hard to achieve them.
Resourceful and responsive
to different situations
and contexts

Curious and open-minded,a seeker of knowledge.
Happy to be an active
lifelong learner: to explore, tobe exposed to challenging
unfamiliar concepts and toseek opportunities to enjoy
new experiences.

A friend. Considerate andrespectful of the needs andvalues of others, with thecapacity to focus, to thinkcritically and to see issues froma range of perspectives.
Reflective and keen tolearn from experience and from mistakes.

Capable of orginal thought,
innovative and prepared todemonstrate initiative.
Discerning, with well-developed
research and analytical skills,
and the ability to step aside
from the crowd.

Confident. Prepared to
articulate and share ideas
and personal opinions, to playa part in group and team
activities, and to take the lead
where appropriate. An
intelligent risk-taker.

An example to others.
Self-aware and principled;with high personal standardsof behaviour, great integrity
and a clear sense of rightand wrong.

Resilient

TO BUILD AN UNRIVALLEDREPUTATION AS AN
OUTSTANDING PROVIDEROF HOLISTIC EDUCATION,
OFFERING AN EXCITING RANGE
OF OPPORTUNITIES AND
EXPERIENCES BOTH IN AND
BEYOND THE CLASSROOM, WITH A
PARTICULAR FOCUS ON SERVICEAND GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP
That ‘particular focus on service and global
citizenship’ has undoubtedly become more
apparent in recent years. At the time of the last
update we had just completed the first small scalereconnaissance visit to the Dor Village school in
Cambodia, built by BST in partnership with United
World Schools. There have since been four further
visits by successive groups of Year 11 students,
all of whom have returned with a very different
perspective on life. The opportunity to spend timein a community so far removed from the one inwhich they are growing up has been transformative.

The squeeze on the arts in the UK curriculum iscontroversial and currently the subject of muchdebate. Here at BST the creative subjects are given
the high profile they deserve and have gone fromstrength to strength in recent years. The quality andvariety of so many concerts, drama productions,and art and photography exhibitions is now
frequently commented upon, and I am delighted
that so many of our students – boys and girls participate at so many levels. Talented students are
now being challenged to give of their best in a rangeof different settings and they are clearly enjoying
rising to that challenge. For me one of the artistic
highlights of the last twelve months was seeing our
Choir perform so beautifully in Macau Cathedral,and the rapid development in the arts at BST meansthat there will be many more such opportunities in
the future.
Sport too has continued on an upward trajectory– again with equal emphasis on opportunities forboth boys and girls. Standards have risen, more
sports have been added to the programme and,just as important, many more students have been
given the opportunity to represent the school with
the introduction of ‘B’ and even ‘C’ teams in some
sports.

Last year saw the first BST Operation Wallacea
expedition, a hands-on eco-trip to Fiji which was so
successful that a second expedition planned for 2019,
this time to Borneo, was quickly oversubscribed.
Similarly, we have been able to offer more service
opportunities closer to home, here in Japan.
Alternatives to the summer and winter Hakuba
residentials now include trips to the Moriumius
Project in Tohoku and to a rural home-stay inMiyazaki.

Given that our plans for the Nagasawa sports facility
and the BST 19:20 Project are covered extensively
elsewhere in this document, perhaps it is sufficient
simply to state at this point that we are making themost of the fact that Tokyo will be at the centre of
the sporting world over the next two years!

The BST Outdoors programme continues to go fromstrength to strength, and it is worth noting that
our residential trips from Year 1 upwards are soembedded in our curriculum that their cost is now
included in the annual school fee.

11Inquisitive

TO PROVIDE THE FACILITIES AND
INFRASTRUCTURE REQUIREDTO SUPPORT OUR EVOLVINGEDUCATIONAL AND COCURRICULAR NEEDS, AND THE
ANTICIPATED GROWTH OF THE
SCHOOL TOWARDS A TOTAL OF
APPROXIMATELY 1,200 STUDENTS
At the time of my last update to this Strategic
Intentions document, the school roll stood at 915;
today there are 1,070 students at BST, 471 of them in
the Secondary School.
By the end of the 2013/14 academic year there were
66 students studying IGCSE courses in Years 10 & 11,
while the number of A Level students in Years 12 &13 stood at just 43. We began this academic year with
124 IGCSE students and no fewer than 110 taking A
level courses. Further down the school, Years 7 & 8
are both now four-form entry and at capacity.
To accommodate
thisincrease,from the startof the 2017-18
academic
year,
we took over thesecond floor of
Building 5 on our
Showa campus
andrenovated
the area on the first floor between the entrance
facing the Hitomi Hall and the first stairwell. This
much-needed Secondary School expansion gave
us additional classrooms, more specialist teaching
spaces such as laboratories and a large open-plan
Art/Photography studio, and a spacious library moresuitable for older students and their study needs.
The first floor, with its extensive reception area,gave us the opportunity to develop a much morehigh profile presence on the Showa campus.
In September of this year we completed further
refurbishment on the third floor of Building 5 toaccommodate our flourishing Music Faculty.
All this was only made possible by the signing of
a 10-year lease extension with Showa Women’s
University, guaranteeing our presence on the campus
until at least 2026. As things stand, we believe thatour partnership with SWU offers the most effective
strategy for securing the long-term future of theSecondary School, and we continue to work hard tostrengthen that relationship at all levels. Although
it is sensible for us to keep our options open, theadvantages of maintaining a significant presence at
Showa well beyond 2026 currently seem to outweighany obvious alternatives.

We see the arrival of Temple University on the Showa
Campus, from 2019-20, as a potential bonus, offering
a range of collaborative opportunities for both our
teachers and our students. There may, of course,
be increased competition for use of some sharedfacilities but we believe that this will be limited, andthat it will be offset by the many advantages thatpartnership with such an organisation can bring.
As a result, we have appointed Ms Nora Yamada to
the new position of Director of External Relations,with a brief to explore ways in which we can work
closely with Showa and Temple – among others – toenhance opportunities for our students and staff.
It is important to acknowledge that the temporary
loss of an on-site swimming pool at Showa was asetback and posed some difficulties. However, wehave been able to maintain a strong swimming
programme by using a pool within walking distanceof the campus and the fact that swimming remains
such a popular and successful sport at BST is
testament to the enthusiasm and dedication of ourswimming coaches. We look forward to a brand newpool opening on campus next year.
Staying with the sporting theme, the difficulty ofplaying full-scale team sports at Showa has always
been an issue for our PE and Sports Faculty. While
we recognise our good fortune in having access toa range of excellent sporting facilities on a campus
so close to the centre of Tokyo, we cannot host
11-a-side football, and rugby and cricket can only
be offered in a very limited fashion. I am delighted
to confirm that one of the major events of our 30th
anniversary year will be the opening of an off-site
sports facility at Nagasawa, just 30 minutes’ drivefrom both Showa and Shibuya.
The acquisition of
additional spaceat Showa andtheacquisitionof the Nagasawa
facility has notmeant that there
has been any
relaxation in ourefforts to acquirea central Tokyo site to enable us to bring the Primary
School together on a single campus. We have signed
a memorandum of understanding with a major
Japanese developer, detailed design plans have beendrawn up and we expect to sign a final contract
before the end of this academic year.
Subject to approval from Tokyo Metropolitan
Government, the new five-form entry Primary
School is scheduled to open in September 2023; itwill accommodate more than 900 students aged
3-11. Facilities include two outdoor sports pitches,a gym and swimming pool, and an extensive
auditorium/performance space.
Having planned five years ago for a maximum total
school roll of approximately 1,200 this will give us
the opportunity to grow beyond 1,500 by 2025.

13

Thoughtful

TO MAINTAIN THE HIGHEST
STANDARDS OF GOVERNANCEAPPLICABLE TO INDEPENDENTSCHOOLS, INCLUDING AS A
MINIMUM THOSE RECOMMENDED
BY THE UK ASSOCIATION
OF GOVERNING BODIES OF
INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS (AGBIS),
AND TO OPERATE THE SCHOOLIN ACCORDANCE WITH THE
REGULATORY REQUIREMENTS OF
THE JAPANESE AUTHORITIESThe role of the Trustees is primarily a strategic one.
The Trustees decide the purpose and the overall
goals of the school and set a framework for theirimplementation and achievement. The Board also
acts as a critical friend to the School’s leadership
team.

Three new Trustees joined us just over a year ago,
and three more have come on board this year. Thesechanges are the result of expansion and, in part, theneed to replace Trustees reaching the end of theirterm of office. There have also been some changes
to the subcommittee structure in response tochanging demands, the most notable of these being
the establishment of a Property Committee.
For further details about the governance of the
School and an introduction to the current Board,please refer to the BST website. A detailed summaryof the minutes of Board meetings is now published
via the Parent Portal as soon as is reasonably
practical after each round of meetings.

In addition to appointing the Principal and Bursar,
and playing a significant part in the appointment ofother members of the leadership team, the Board isalso responsible for ensuring that its membershipoffers the range of skills and experience required tosupport both the School’s current requirements andits strategic development. To this end, a regular skills
audit is undertaken and is used to guide Trustee
recruitment. Board diversity and an appropriatebalance of parents and non-parents are always
considered during the process.

It remains entirely voluntary to do so, but the Boardof Trustees is committed to the good practice ofcommissioning a regular external evaluation of
the School and its provision in order to confirm
compliance with the highest international
standards. The next such evaluation will take placein March 2020 and will be carried out by a COBIS
team under the Patron’s Accreditation scheme. This
will be our third formal external evaluation in thepast eight years.

After a lengthy period of unusual stability, inthe relatively short time since the last Strategic
Intentions Update there have been some significant
changes in the make-up of the Board. James Hollow
is now in his second year as Chair. He stepped into
the role in July 2017 when, after five successful years
in the role, Marianne Black returned to the UK. The
transition was carefully planned during the 16/17
academic year and the handover was a seamless
one.

15

Independent

TO IDENTIFY AND ASSESS ON
AN ANNUAL BASIS THE MAJOR
RISKS FACING THE SCHOOL AND
TO ENSURE THAT MITIGATINGACTION, INCLUDING THE
PREPARATION OF CONTINGENCY
PLANS, HAS BEEN TAKEN WHERE
APPROPRIATETO DRAW TOGETHER AND
FURTHER STRENGTHEN THE
WIDER BST COMMUNITY
BY DEVELOPING AND
MAINTAINING EFFECTIVE LINES
OF COMMUNICATION BETWEENTHE SCHOOL AND ALL OF ITSCONSTITUENTS – PAST, PRESENTAND PROSPECTIVE

One of the most important responsibilities of theBoard of Trustees is to prepare a detailed register ofthe major risks facing the school. Each year we must
review their potential consequences, likelihood of
occurrence, and the mitigating action that we canand have taken. In many ways, Tokyo is one of thesafest cities in the world but we are not complacent
and we realise that things can change very quickly
if effective risk management procedures are not inplace.

The most significant step forward in this area since
the last Strategic Intentions Update has been interms of our communication with our alumni –particularly those who moved on before the school
offered IGCSE and A Levels. Our Alumni Facebook
account now has an enthusiastic worldwide
following, and our database of accurate, up-to-datecontacts has grown exponentially.

Reference has already been made to the safeguarding
measures we take during the staff recruitment
process and, clearly, this is an extremely importantelement of our duty of care to your children. Since
the last update to this document we have put inplace a system where all academic staff and most
support staff undertake formal child safeguarding
training and we continue to develop our relationshipwith external agencies such as Tokyo English
Lifeline (TELL) and the relevant ward Child GuidanceCentres. The Education Subcommittee of the Boardof Trustees reviews our Safeguarding and Child
Protection Policy annually.
There is a delicate balance to be found between
the maintenance of high levels of security foryour children and the retention of a welcoming,community ethos at BST; we continue to work hardat this and to seek advice as to how we can safely
achieve such a balance.

The BST website has undergone a significant redesign this year and now allows for much easier
editing and revision here in school. We are now able
to update content, including video, with relative
ease and should be able to ensure that the site isregularly refreshed.
Lowly Norgate and her communications team havetaken on a wider range of responsibilities, including
the provision of an in-house design service. Working
closely with our admissions and data teams,
they have produced a number of high quality
publications, including the much-commented upon
Primary and Secondary School Profiles – the latterbeing so important in support of applications touniversities outside the UK.
We have also been able to open up many more
opportunities for Showa parents – particularly thosewith children in the Secondary School – to spend
more time in school to meet teachers and seniorleaders. This openness has been much appreciatedand Mr Thomas is keen to build on the very
promising foundations that have already been laid.
One area where we are keen to do more is in theidentification and development of collaborative
possibilities between teachers, parents andstudents. A start has been made with the parents
reading group and the cooperation between theparent Green Team and the student e-Cool group,
but we hope that we can take this further over the
coming year.

17Self-assured
TO MAINTAIN STABLE AND
SECURE FINANCES, WITH
SUFFICIENT RESERVES TO
WITHSTAND EMERGENCIES ANDECONOMIC UNCERTAINTIES,AND TO CONTINUE TO SEEKADDITIONAL FUNDING WITH
WHICH TO MAKE MAJOR
IMPROVEMENTS TO THE SCHOOL
It is worth re-stating the fact that BST is run as a
not for profit organisation, and that all income isreinvested into the school. Nevertheless, we aim forfinancial standards comparable to the best and mostsuccessful commercial organisations, with strict
expenditure controls, long term financial planningand an annual financial position verified by one of
the Big 4 audit firms.
Following the retirement of Mr Simon Lloyd as
Bursar and Secretary to the Board of Trustees in
September 2017, Ms Manako Haga was appointed
as Bursar and immediately set about the task of
streamlining our systems and putting in place
more robust monitoring processes. We are currently
reviewing all finance-related policies, aiming for
improved efficiency and more transparency.
School fees remain our only significant source ofincome and, while the Board has approved limited
fee increases in each of the years since the last
Strategic Intentions Update, these have simply
maintained the status quo in the face of the steady,if gradual, rising cost of the quality provision we
aim to offer. It should be noted that our tuition fees
are still below the levels charged by international
schools of comparable size here in Tokyo, and a longway below the levels charged in places like Hong
Kong and Singapore.

One anomaly in the way our fees are structured
at BST is that no premium is charged for students
in year groups where a significant number ofexternal examinations are taken. Now that wehave so many IGCSE and A Level candidates, thecost of examination entries in Years 11 and 13 is asignificant one – and it is a cost that will grow inthe years ahead. Although no decision has yet beentaken, the time has come to review the situationand to consider ways in which these examination
costs might be passed on to the parents of students
actually taking the examinations. This would put
us in line with almost every other independentinternational school.
It is also important that we push forward with plans
to establish a significant development funding
stream. Our bursary scheme is now well establishedand certainly supports our objective to be as inclusive
as possible but, if it is to be maintained and allowed
to grow, it must be supported by funding in addition
to fee income. Significant one-off capital projects
such as the Nagasawa Sports Facility would also
be enhanced if they could attract external funding– perhaps in the form of sponsorship. Similarly, it
should be possible to gather support for specificareas of the broad, balanced education we offer at
BST, such as the arts or the outdoors programme.
There is a Giving page on our school website, and wehave worked hard to re-establish contact with ouralumni around the world, but this is an area where
we must aim to achieve more.

19

TO ENHANCE THE GOOD
NAME OF THE SCHOOL AND
RAISE ITS STANDING ON
A LOCAL, NATIONAL AND
INTERNATIONAL LEVEL BY
PLAYING AN ACTIVE ROLE WITHINBRITISH EDUCATIONAL AND
BUSINESS NETWORKS, AND BY
POSITIONING OURSELVES TO
TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IMMINENT
OPPORTUNITIES FOR JAPAN, AND
FOR TOKYO IN PARTICULAR

Honest

The British School in Tokyo 19:20 Project was
launched during the 2014-15 academic year. The aim
was to take advantage of three major global sporting
events to strengthen links with the local community,
to create additional learning opportunities for all
students and toestablish a lastingeducational
legacy.
Thesethree events are
the 2019 Rugby
World Cup, andthe Tokyo 2020
Olympics
andParalympics.
There were three specific major goals: to extend
our links with the community in Tokyo and further
afield, both in and beyond Japan; to create anawareness of and promote interest in a range of
new sports, including disability sports; and to findand develop an off-site sports facility in order toallow us to introduce more team sports, including
rugby and cricket, and to interact more closely withJapanese schools.
We recognised that these major events offered aunique opportunity to engage with the broader
community both here in Japan and beyond, anddetermined to build a lasting legacy. We also saw anopportunity to play our part in helping to change
the attitude towards people with disability in Japan,
and to increase awareness among our own students.
An inner-city school, we have struggled to findspace to host team sports. With the help of the
British Embassy and the Mayor of Kawasaki City,
we identified a site to develop a new sports facility
within 30 minutes’ drive of our main school campus.
Construction is underway and we expect to begin
using the new ground in January 2019, with a formal
opening in March.
In addition to the development of a new facility,
we saw the Olympics, and Paralympics as a way topromote different sports and to develop links withJapanese sports associations. For example, we are
now regularly able to field more than 50 competitors
in local triathlons and a highly regarded Japanese
triathlete coaches our students.

One year ago we became the first international
school ever to gain affiliation to the Japan Schools
RFU and entered into formal partnership with
Shibuya International RFC, to establish a club
to bring local and international school students
together on the rugby field.
At the start of this year we appointed the current
double European karate champion to lead the 19:20
Project and, specifically, to build on our partnershipwith Tsukuba University to develop educational
programmes enhancing awareness of the needsof the disabled through sport. The early successof this initiative is demonstrated in this response
from Doctor Sawae Yukinori, Associate Professor ofDevelopment Psychology at the university:
It has been a pleasure working with The British School inTokyo and their ‘19:20 Project’ to deliver the Paralympic
Project. From the outset, they had a clear vision, which
was to create practical learning tasks for students tounderstand both the physical and mental barriers thatexist for those with disabilities and to show them thatsport can be inclusive for all. The BST Paralympic Project
really offers a meaningful legacy for the British Schoolin Tokyo, helping their students develop an active voice
towards issues surrounding disability in society. Working
in partnership with BST has also had a significant impact
on our students in the Faculty of Health and Sport Scienceat University of Tsukuba; they have certainly valued theexperience of working with international students.
Our aims for the coming academic year and theBST 19:20 Project are to implement the Olympic
Values Education Programme across the school
to complement and run alongside our British
Learner Attributes, in order to generate interestand knowledge in the Tokyo 2020 Games. We aim
to develop and broaden our partnership with the
University of Tsukuba, to utilise their expertise as
only the second University in the world to offer
the IOC educational legacy sports programme.
Finally, we will continue to take advantage of thefact that so many sportsmen and women, coaches
and administrators are visiting Tokyo to give ourstudents opportunities to gain insights into theworld of elite sport.
COBIS: Before standing down at the end of the lastacademic year, I served for four years as one of eight
elected Board members of the Council of British
International Schools. I sat on the Professional
Development and the Membership sub-committees
and attended three sets of sub-committee and fullboard meetings every year. This gave me a voice inthe most highly regarded membership organisationin British international education and opened up
opportunities to contribute to debate on a number of
the key issues affecting the sector, including teacher
supply, safeguarding and leadership training. It also
gave me the opportunity to raise the global profile of
BST in a range of different contexts.
Although, in anticipation of my retirement, I did notseek re-election at the end of my four-year term ofoffice I am delighted that the school will continue tohave a direct link to COBIS as the current CEO, Colin
Bell, now sits on our Board of Trustees.
21

That completes the third in this series of updates to our Strategic
Intentions document. I hope that you have found it both helpful andinformative. Please do not hesitate to get in touch with me if you haveany observations to make, your feedback is always very welcome. Thankyou for your continued support and encouragement.
Brian Christian
Principal
The British School in Tokyo

Address: 1-21-18 Shibuya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0002
Tel: 03 5467 4321 Fax: 03 5467 4322
URL: http://www.bst.ac.jp