Middle & High Schools

Our students get an international and host country experience that is not available in typical international schools.

With the soaring columns, natural light and open spaces, the first thing a new visitor to our campus seems to notice is the facility. We do have a nice building and it is clear that the architect put a lot of thought into designing a campus that would be shared by two schools. But the architect also understood that a school isn’t about the building. It is about the people inside it. He deliberately made the walls gray because, he argued, the students should provide the color. Our visitors soon recognize that this is more than a striking building and that it is the students, teachers, and community that make this a great school.

As an International Baccalaureate (IB) World School offering three programs, our students in grades 6 to 10 study in the IB Middle Years Program (MYP) and our 11th and 12th graders study in the very rigorous IB Diploma Program (DP).  That means our students are engaged in probably the most challenging academic program available to middle and high school students.  That academic preparation is apparent not only in the universities our graduates are accepted to, but also in the work they do once they are in university and beyond.  But as an institution, we do not just focus on academics.  With our mission statement, “informed, caring, creative individuals contributing to a global community”, we also help students work on all facets of their development so that they reach their own unique potential as an individual.  Through our classes, our pastoral program and a focus on the five respects and the student learning results we emphasize this development.   Students set goals and reflect on these areas so that they are taking charge of their individual growth.

For more information about the MYP & DP, please see the section 'OIS Curriculum Framework' here.

Exceptional opportunities

We are a small international school but our students get unique opportunities through our relationship with our sister school on campus, Senri International School (SIS). Because we share visual art, music and PE classes with a Japanese school our students get an international and host country experience that is not available in typical international schools. The sister school relationship extends beyond our classes and campus and into our activities and athletics program. Thus, our students have more opportunity to participate in sports than they would if we only drew the teams from our school. We also have a shared student council that plans two school events such as sports day and the school festival. Because we are not an expatriate enclave in a foreign country but engaged with the local community on a daily basis, our students develop a unique sense of intercultural understanding that not only makes them more culturally aware but helps them develop deeper sense of global competence. We truly feel that we are a unique school that has a lot to offer our community, Osaka, Japan, and the world. If you would like to find out more, please make an appointment to come in and meet with us. We will be happy to show you the features of our campus. But, we will be even prouder to share with you the people and programs that make up our school.

 

Stephen Frater

K-12 Principal for Student Learning