About Koblis

Kobe Bilingual School has been at the current site since April 2008. During that time we have grown into a small but successful 5 day Kindergarten as well as the most popular afterschool and Saturday program for fluent, returnee and bilingual children in Kobe. KOBILS grew out of a smaller school called EnglishDream and when we moved to our current location, we established our 5 day Kindergarten. Three years later, we have an excellent team of teachers and students who have grown with the school. We have just opened our separate annex for our Kindergarten giving the Kindergartners their own space and their own little playground. Our first KOBILS Kindy graduates are currently in second grade and the first children Janina taught in her pre-EnglishDream days are now in first grade junior high, working at a very high level of English, and still attending KOBILS! Throughout our seven-year life, we have grown only by word of mouth. With both low teacher and student turnover, we aim to stay small, and offer a bilingual education to about 6-8 children working at each grade level.

KOBILS is owned by a British teacher...

... who has lived in Japan for 20 years and has two bilingual children of her own currently attending Japanese elementary school, as well as KOBILS of course! This means at KOBILS the teaching comes a long way before every other consideration and the syllabus is conceived and controlled by a teacher not a businessperson. Moreover while the Japanese context is understood, we employ the same teaching methods and materials used in British and American schools, so children entering our school experience a different cultural world. It’s not Japanese-style English, it’s international English, and you won’t find any Japanese English on our webpage or in our school. Step into KOBILS and you step into a little piece of England or America. While we aim to look professional and run efficiently, we do not aim to become a big business. We are first and foremost a school and we consider our first and foremost job the education of your child, not only in English, but in the development of a love of learning and a love of life.

English and Japanese skills are developed

We are not an international school. Most international schools nurture only English skills and while at best these schools may help children develop very strong English skills without replacing Japanese, they rarely offer a balanced program that promotes bilingual fluency and literacy. Our aim is to help children develop bilingualism. Certainly, as English is a minority language in Japan, our program is strongly weighted towards the development of English skills. After all, Japanese fluency and literacy are mostly taken care of in the Japanese schools that the majority of our children attend. However our Kindergarten program includes at least one Japanese immersion morning, and Japanese tutorials and academic preparation classes are available to older students too as well as international children who are students of Japanese.

Really Using English

One thing we LOVE LOVE LOVE about our school is that our children really use English. Unchecked and unmonitored, whether in class and on task or messing around both in and out of teacher ear shot, children embrace the opportunity to use English and really do. Visiting teachers often ask us what our secret is and how we get our children to use English all the time. Parents sometimes comment that their Japanese child bumped into a classmate outside school and just started having a conversation in English. We don’t know why or how, but our kids know why they are here and love to use English. Of course we offer a range of projects, parties, fun days, holiday courses and social events for children in our program. But most of all our students and teachers recognize that English is a language and should be used for communication.

The learning and the fun are integrally linked

We have high academic standards and expect a lot of our children; however we do not believe a choice has to be made between working hard and having fun. We aim to take children on a learning adventure where they discover for themselves the thrill of learning and thus don't separate learning and fun. As such, we have a wide range of resources that appeal to all different kinds of children and a huge selection of books to borrow and read at home. All of our children love to read or to be read to.

We know your child

We know each of our children at KOBILS intimately. We know their hobbies and interests, their English level and strengths and weaknesses, challenges they are having in their regular schooling, the types of activities and the learning styles they prefer, and their personalities. Moreover we love all our kids. Our lesson planning and year-by-year class planning reflects each child’s needs, preferences and personalities. We are sure your child will enjoy KOBILS and will learn as much as they can. And we always keep in touch with you, so you can know how your child is progressing and share in the triumphs and challenges of their bilingual education.

All four skills are important

We believe a 4 skills approach incorporating reading, writing, speaking and listening is necessary for children to develop strong English language skills, and one short lesson a week, as offered by many "Eikaiwa" schools, is not enough. Therefore we offer beginner classes only in our 3 day preschool, full-time kindergarten, and our after-school program up until age 5 or 6, and from the start we encourage a love of reading and learning. In this way, we hope all children enrolled with us will develop strong English skills.

We love what we do, we do what we love

We hire only the most enthusiastic and dedicated teachers and staff. We love what we are doing and we are doing what we love. This enthusiasm and passion is communicated very clearly to you and your child and encourages a similar enthusiasm and passion in them.