Suginoko Preschool

Just toured Suginoko today as I prepare for my child to enter daycare/​preschool in a year. I had seen only the one Unilocal review when researching daycares but have heard good things about the school from friends of friends (including non Japanese friends.) I was very impressed. 4:1 student to teacher ratio. Music class with teachers playing the piano and/​or keyboard which we were told is every day. Happy looking yet calm kids, even the ones who just started the term two weeks ago. Cooked lunch. Short periods of «study» time every day for all kids (which for the youngest, we were told, means working on motor skills/​games and in the slightly older classes, numbers/​names/​colors etc). Teachers with amazing energy and a director who seems to know the name of every child. I don’t speak Japanese and neither does my spouse (Grandma does), but I hope that my kid will if he gets in off the waiting list… The other daycare I have toured so far has a waiting list of 35 kids and this is only a little better! One minor point is that the building looks a little old and is a converted house, but they make good use of space.

I called this school to inquire of availability for my daughter to join their school. When they found out we didn’t speak Japanese nor were we of Japanese descent, the director (or person in charge that day) discouraged me from putting her in the school for the reason that she’ll be unhappy there because she’ll be confused and she won’t be able to relate to the Japanese culture that she’ll be exposed to. Funny, I thought that was why I wanted her to attend their school in the first place — to learn a new language & be exposed to a new culture. This school’s ‘preferences’ for their students is a bit unsettling.