# going to a public elementary school



## yabe

out son is 9,and only speaks English.are there any public schools in north tokyo,saitama omiya,that have a lot of gaijin kids attending.and maybe some English in there.


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## maruo

hmm. not sure around the area. why dont you visit city hall? they are always helpful.


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## xenocrisis0153

as a teacher in the Osaka public school system, I've worked in 10 schools with a total over nearly 5,000 students. I can count on the number of fingers how many native-English speaking students I've had. I don't think Tokyo would be much different. I think most foreigners send their children to private schools.


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## fadzilah_ashburn

I would encourage you to send your child to a private school too. I will be moving to japan in Septermber and i will source for a private sch. pls update if u found any!


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## nevaeh

If the OP cannot afford 1.5 to 2 million yen/year in tuition fees then international schools are not an option.

OP: Ideally, if you're staying short-term, then an international school would best suit your needs as your son would be able to rejoin the school system in your home country. If financially this is not an option, then there's no point in pushing it.

If you have some financial flexibility (500K to 1M/year), then you could consider a private Japanese school. Many schools are now really focusing on English instruction and you might find these have full-time English teachers (native and non native speakers). For example: ????????? these schools are not limited to a specific residential area and in all honesty, I'm not sure if you'll have a totally different experience with a private/public Japanese school.

While there are very few "gaijin kids" in Japan, and even less of them are in the public system. There are more and more mixed children, but generally these all speak Japanese. I believe all public elementary schools now teach English, so at least one teacher should speak (some) English at any given school. You'll be assigned a school based on your residential area, so if schooling is your priority, then you'll need to choose your home after you pick a school.

Here's a link with all the schools in Saitama: Saitama Pref | Gaccom - Elementary and junior high schools (middle schools) in Japan


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## xenocrisis0153

nevaeh said:


> While there are very few "gaijin kids" in Japan, and even less of them are in the public system. There are more and more mixed children, but generally these all speak Japanese. I believe all public elementary schools now teach English, so at least one teacher should speak (some) English at any given school. You'll be assigned a school based on your residential area, so if schooling is your priority, then you'll need to choose your home after you pick a school.


I'd say about 99% of all public schools in Japan do have a foreign teacher assigned to them, but in all likelihood, they are probably only in the school one day per week... sometimes even less! And even then, they are only required to teach the 5th and 6th-graders.

The most I've ever taught in a single elementary school was 2.5 days per week, but that was a long time ago before the system changed, and in a very rural village.

Also, individualized attention is highly frowned upon in Japanese public schools. I once had a 1st-grade girl, new to the country from Malaysia, who could speak English, but I was discouraged from talking with her because it "wasn't fair to the others that she got more English conversation than everyone else." -___-;;;

Avoid public school if you can really help it!


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