Reviews

Dear FAMILYBIZ,

Thank you for taking the time to share your individual perspective of KIST. We do appreciate your feedback and this opportunity to clarify some of the points you mentioned.

You are correct that KIST is an academic school. We are proud of the academic success that our students attain each year and view those accomplishments, and others, as evidence that we are meeting our school mission.

With regards to our grading practices does not use a bell curve when appraising student performance. Our diagnostic testing is appraised against published performance criteria which are made accessible to all KIST families via the community portal of our website. Also, it is not ‘the school’ that attains the exceptional scores that contribute to KIST’s high DP average; these results are reflective of the hard work of our students and the quality of support our teachers provide to them. You state that such ‘grading starts from an early age – specifically in science subjects’, yet as per the regulations of the IB, PYP schools are not able to teach, nor appraise, science as a stand-alone subject.

You state that our students are unable to access universities due to our science restrictions. This is simply incorrect. All students in Grades 6 through 10 study Chemistry, Biology and Physics each year, with ALL students attainting the ‘Triple Science Award’ upon completion of the IGCSE in Grade 10. From there, students enter the IB Diploma Program where they choose from Chemistry, Biology, Physics or Environmental Systems and Societies as their required Science course for the DP. As per IB policy, students can choose to take an additional Science course from those options in place of the Art course requirement.

As for us using past UK SAT (Key Stage) papers as diagnostics to appraise student performance in mathematics, we do so because those papers and support resources are easily accessible online. The content for the Key Stage 2 diagnostic is covered by the end of Grade 5. Your data is incorrect; most all of our students perform very well on the diagnostic exams, some performing well above our published expectations. For students not meeting expectations, we offer various support programs to meet their needs. As for the tests used being ‘abolished in the UK’, this as well is simply not true. The UK updated the Key Stage program recently but, due to limited access to the new exams, we choose to implement exams from the previous revision as they are easily (and freely) available.

You mention the children of ‘parents who are not clued in’ to our practices as being disadvantaged. We fully agree with that. In fact, one of our guiding beliefs is that ‘Education is a shared partnership of mutual cooperation between students, parents/caregivers and the school’. We expect parents to be aware of the policies and practices in place at KIST. As such, we make significant efforts to make all documentation and educational policies available to all stakeholders (including translations in Japanese). Parents who do not pay attention to our published communication are indeed putting their children at a disadvantage.

‘The onus to figure out a path back to high grade is left to parents’ - If you are referring to our mathematics pathways, these are described in our published material and we have had school information sessions explaining them in more detail. We consistently encourage any stakeholder to contact our Division Principals or our subject/classroom teachers to discuss any matter related to their child’s education.

As for scores of A+, B, C, etc., KIST does not, nor have we ever, used letter grades for reporting. As an IB school, we are required to issue grades on a 1-7 scale. The IGCSE publishes grades using a 1-9 scale which we convert to a 1-7 scale for reporting.

As for other schools with the same fees as KIST that have swimming pools and full-size grounds, we are unaware of centrally located schools in Tokyo that offer such value; in fact, we compare fees annually and KIST’s fees are significantly lower than some schools that do not even have gymnasiums or the size of school grounds available at KIST.

Your dates regarding construction are also incorrect. It was 2006 that KIST moved from its previous office tower location in Ojima to its new location at Kiyosumi. The school grew in the years that followed and various fundraisers were held to build a new Elementary School building, which was completed in 2011. We have been raising funds through our annual festival each year for a new gymnasium to replace our dated one. There have been some unfortunate events over the years that have impacted those plans. However, plans and preparations are in place for demolition of the old gymnasium in the coming months and for construction of our new school building to commence afterwards.

You are correct that KIST’s DP average score is in the top 10 globally. In fact, KIST has had the highest DP average score in Japan for over 7 years and was recognized as being the 7th highest performing school in the world for the 2020-21 school year (by IB-SCHOOLS.COM). We have recently chosen to implement the IGCSE over the MYP. We do so because the IGCSE provides a detailed syllabus (the MYP has no syllabi) and standardized tests upon completion of the program. School and external data shows strong correlations between IGCSE performance and performance in the IB DP. As such, your claim that we will offer less of an IB curriculum is unfounded – the decision to move from the MYP was made to further support student success in the IB Diploma Program.

Our consistently high DP average is evidence your claim that KIST will become an ‘IB school for most part no unlike others in the world’ is false.

Flexibility with regards to this our dress code would be inconsistent, contradictory to our school values and negate the principle of having a dress code in the first place.

Again, thank you for your feedback.

KIST