The British School in Tokyo’s New Ultra-Modern Complex: A Hub for Innovative Learning - The British School in Tokyo

On August 28, 2023, The British School in Tokyo (BST) opened its Azabudai Hills campus near the iconic Tokyo Tower. Catering to children from nursery (starting at the age of 3) to Year 6 (aged 11), the new Primary School campus is surrounded by green space, despite being located in the heart of Japan's capital. It boasts world-class and ultra-modern facilities that are ideal for developing each student's own unique potential.

Designed by renowned British architect Thomas Heatherwick, the delightful new campus spans eight floors, including a rooftop garden, and covers an area of 15,000 square metres. It is a hub for innovative learning, which is what BST is all about. Providing a truly holistic education where students learn in and outside the classroom, the aim is to nurture well-rounded individuals. The school's setting plays a key role in that.

Firstly, it's the location. We're in central Tokyo, which is great from an access point of view. We're also part of this wider Azabudai Hills community and that affords us many opportunities. With the support of Mori Building Co. and other partners, we've been able to engage with curators of museums, taken part in activities at Suntory Hall, arranged career related talks for our older students and interacted with the TeamLab art collective and Mori Art Museum. It's wonderful to be part of this wider development and connect with so many different groups.

The classrooms we had before were lovely and had good spaces, but were not necessarily designed for the teaching of digital technologies, and other specialist subjects. Here, we have more extensive facilities, including a digital technology studio that is fully kitted out for green screen video recording and fully equipped for collaborative STEM-based projects and Computer Science lessons. It's enabled an already strong area of the curriculum to be taught in the way we want it to be taught. Whereas previously teachers were teaching an exciting subject but had to be creative in how they structured the lesson, now the resources they need are all there.

Both have developed significantly. We have dedicated music rooms that were previously limited, but now are bigger with far more resources. In terms of P.E., while the last school had a small gym and a shared bigger gym with our parent school, now we have an incredibly large and modern sports hall that can easily fit two classes in and probably more. In addition to that, we have two dedicated sports pitches, one on the ground floor and what we call our sky pitch on the fifth floor. Also, we now have our own swimming pool.

Very excited. When you go from having a quality education in a small facility to then relocate to this, which is around eight times bigger, far more modern and has so many more resources, it just enables so many things to happen. The quality of the provision has naturally been able to flourish. It’s not just the students, though, the teachers are also delighted with the move.

Yes. A big area of focus for us is that we are one school. The philosophy behind that is we want our students to be able to enter here at the age of three in Nursery and then have a seamless education all the way through, until they are 18 before leaving for university. Our Secondary School campus in Sangenjaya also has extensive facilities, so both places are very well-equipped.

We are very much an international school with over 60 different nationalities, coming from very diverse backgrounds. Therefore, while the curriculum is broadly British, the content of what is taught and the discussions within the classrooms are globally focused. We want the students to be able to share their own experiences and bring that into the learning environment. That creates very rich and meaningful discussions.

English as an additional language is an area of the school we cater for. We have students that need some support to access the curriculum, and we have dedicated teachers that work with them either in separate sessions, where they can have intensive and very focused activities, or by working with them in the classroom to support them in different ways. Additionally, it's the responsibility of every teacher to help students overcome any barriers they may face.

Every year group above Year 1 takes annual residential trips across Japan. Usually, in Year 1 and Year 2, they spend one night at a destination not too far away from Tokyo. As they get older, the length and distance of the trip increases. This gives them the opportunity to learn in an outdoor environment and become more independent. Also, we’re a member of FOBISIA, a network of international schools in Asia, and through that there are opportunities for our students to take part in academic, sporting and music events around the region.

We have an extensive clubs and activities programme, with over 200 clubs for students to sign up to throughout the school each year. There’s always a lot going on outside the classroom. For instance, we've got drama performances coming up.

The Primary School students are preparing a play called "The Amazing Adventures of Superstan." And then our Secondary School is doing "High School Musical.” These are always very high-level productions with some sensational acting performances.

Another event we're excited about is the Festival of the Arts, which is a two-week festival with lots of different activities for all the different age groups of the school. It's a lot of fun and, again, there is so much quality on show. The school provides an outstanding holistic education that we are very proud of.

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