Emi — Family Dashboard

Education › Overview Emi Mia Schedule

Decision in progress Family has decided Emi will move from Saint Maur for the 2027 academic year. The active questions are where and when.

Current focus

Grade 3 prep — comprehension-focused curriculum

30 minutes a day from now through Sep 2026 start. Built on the Spring 2026 MAP results (reading comprehension is the gap).

Open the plan → English guide

Profile

Basics

Date of birth	June 2018
Current school	Saint Maur International School, Yokohama
Curriculum	IB PYP · Grade 3 · Sept–June calendar
School hours	08:00–15:20 Mon–Fri
Languages	Japanese-dominant or near-balanced bilingual; English present from school but stronger in Japanese

Strengths & gaps

Strengths	Japanese (kokugo / kanji) · math (on track at IB level)
Focus areas	English fluency, vocabulary, reading-led speaking
Maintain	Kanji level, math progression
Notes	Add latest report card observations here

Goals

Short term (this term / 2026)

Improve English fluency — speaking confidence and conversation depth (reading-led)
Maintain kanji at a strong level for her age
Stay on track for math within IB level
Identify school destination for 2027 transition

See "English fluency targets" below and the full English study guide.

Medium / long term

Transition to a school environment with stronger Japanese values from April or September 2027
Balanced bilingualism — keep Japanese strong, bring English up to peer level
Continue arts & movement: violin, solfège, dance, gymnastics, squash

Add Emi's own stated interests / aspirations as they emerge.

The 2027 transition — Path A vs Path B

The destination decision and the timing decision are linked: April is for Japanese schools (新学期 entry), September is for international schools (matches Saint Maur's June year-end naturally).

Path	What it is	Entry	Family lean
Path A	Japanese school with strong English	April 2027 (Japanese schools generally don't accept Sept entry)	Slight lean
Path B	Different international school	September 2027 (less disruption — natural year-end alignment)	Open

Sibling alignment to consider: with Mia firmly on Japanese-track home study, Path A puts both daughters on the same trajectory — different in execution (Mia home study, Emi school) but same in destination (Japanese university). Path B keeps a different path. Worth being conscious of, not decisive.

Candidate schools

Path A · Japanese w/ strong English

School	Notes
Caritas Hiyoshi	Yokohama-area Catholic school, established bilingual tradition. Strongest single candidate to investigate first.
Tamagawa Gakuen	Long-running bilingual programme
Morimura Gakuen	Yokohama-area, traditional Japanese values
LCA International	Hybrid Japanese-curriculum + 60%+ English-medium classes. Only viable if Sagamihara commute is realistic — needs investigation.
Yokohama San-iku	Local, Japanese with English emphasis

Path B · Different international school

School	Notes
Saint Maur	Current school — moving from
Aoba-Japan Bilingual	Genuine bilingual model; sits between Path A and Path B
Tokyo International School	Long commute from Yokohama
YIS (Yokohama International School)	Historically full / waitlisted — entry probability low
ASIJ (American School in Japan)	Distant commute

Decision timeline

May–Jun 2026 · NOW Internal family discussion. Clarify priorities: English level? University destination? Transition tolerance?
Jun–Aug 2026 Research candidate schools; identify 5–8 to visit. Caritas Hiyoshi first.
Sep–Oct 2026 School visits, open days, trial assessments.
Nov 2026 Path decision — A or B. Shortlist 2–3 schools.
Dec 2026 – Jan 2027 Submit applications. 編入試験 prep if Path A.
Feb–Mar 2027 Acceptance / enrolment confirmation.
Apr 2027 OR Sep 2027 Entry to new school.

Tutoring stack

Currently at TOMAS for kokugo + math. English present at school during the day. Open question is whether and how to supplement English.

Recommended starting point

Tutor Japan online subscription — ¥30,800/month for 4 hours, 1-on-1 in English by bilingual tutors specialising in international-school children. Most flexible: a single tutor can adapt to whatever specific gap turns out to be.

Alternative

KA (帰国子女アカデミー) — group classes in 100% English with structured curriculum and 帰国生 cohort. Tamaplaza branch reachable from Yokohama. ¥320,000–430,000/year. Better for long-term maintenance against Japanese drift; less good for specific gap work or catch-up.

TOMAS English explicitly NOT recommended for Emi. TOMAS English is Japanese-curriculum English (taught in Japanese, structured for Japanese exams). Category mismatch for an international-school child whose problem is the opposite frame. Only relevant if family later commits to Japanese school path AND wants Eiken prep — and even then, other options exist.

Approach for Emi specifically

Don't add too much. She's 8, at international school all day.
Pick one English add-on, watch how she responds, add more only if she plateaus.
Trial first (Tutor Japan offers ¥5,500 trials).
Consider informal home English exposure (native-speaker conversation, reading aloud, English audiobooks) — cheap, age-appropriate, often more valuable than another formal lesson.

→ See the full English study guide for daily routines, the reading book ladder, speaking activities, vocab plan, tutor session structure, and a 6-month plan.

→ See Grade 3 prep — comprehension-focused curriculum built from MAP Spring 2026 results. 30-min/day plan for the summer before Grade 3.

English fluency targets — proposed

IB PYP, age 7–8, Japanese-dominant

Concrete benchmarks to make "improved fluency" measurable. Refine based on Saint Maur's own assessments and what you observe at home.

Strand	6-month target (Nov 2026)	12-month target (May 2027)
Vocabulary	+500 active words; everyday topic vocab	+1,000 active words across school subjects, opinions, time/sequence words
Reading	Reading independently at Rung 3 (Mercy Watson, The Princess in Black, first Magic Tree House); literal who/what/when. Already past Elephant & Piggie (May 2026).	Reads longer chapter books with comprehension; explains why characters do things; reading age within ~1 year of chronological
Writing	5-sentence paragraph on a familiar topic with capitals & full stops	10+ sentence story or recount with paragraphs, connectives (and, but, then, because), varied vocab
Speaking	10-min conversation on familiar topics; retells a story	Explains opinions with reasons; tells own-experience stories with sequence words; asks clarifying questions
Listening	Follows 2-step instructions; understands age-appropriate read-alouds	Follows 3-step instructions; understands jokes, idioms, indirect language

Confidence indicators (qualitative)

Volunteers in English in class without prompting
Plays with English-speaking peers without switching to Japanese
Picks up an English book for pleasure, not just for homework
Asks "what does ___ mean?" instead of going silent on unfamiliar words

Confirm with you: are these the right benchmarks? Worth running them past Saint Maur — they may have IB PYP language-development phase data on Emi we can baseline against.

Activities

Activity	Day	Time
Saint Maur	Mon–Fri	08:00–15:20
Squash	Mon	16:30–17:15
Gymnastics	Tue	16:00–
Violin	Weekend	Varies
Solfège	Weekend	Varies (to check)
Dance	TBD	TBD

Full grid view on Schedule.

Open uncertainties

Diagnose what kind of "improvement" is actually needed — catch-up vs enrichment vs gap-fix vs maintenance. Different needs would suit different providers.
"Why move" question deserves to be explicit if going Path B (different international). If primarily wanting Japanese-rooted education long-term (Path A), the rationale is clearer.
LCA International commute realism from Yokohama needs investigation before it's a real option.
Caritas / Morimura / Tamagawa admissions windows and entry exams — to research as part of June–August 2026 candidate research phase.

Emi's page · Tell Claude what changed and it will update.