Keio Yokohama Elementary School to Open in April 2013

Since the establishment of the Keio Yokohama Elementary School Preparation Office in 2008, we have established and implemented concrete plans for the opening of the Keio Yokohama Elementary School. After receiving approval to open the school from the Governor of Kanagawa Prefecture on August 3, 2012, we conducted a total of six school briefing sessions for parents at the West Hall on Mita Campus at the end of August. In late November, an entrance examination will be held, and in April 2013, we will welcome our first 108 students into the first grade.
The school building is due for completion at the end of November, situated in Aoba Ward of Yokohama City, near Eda Station on the Tokyu Den-en-toshi Line. We hope to arouse a robust curiosity in our students—in class as well as during recess and after school—when they engage in physical activity while playing with friends or find good reads in the library. Therefore, even as we are busy with general class preparations at this stage in the school building’s final completion, we continue to make further improvements to the building and schoolyard to induce curiosity in our incoming students.
We placed particular importance on the design of the schoolyard and library, as they will serve as the core spaces of everyday school life. For example, we did not leave the selection of trees for planting in the schoolyard to the architects and landscape artists. We have carefully planned a specific schoolyard biotope by pairing plants that caterpillars eat with nectar-producing flowers that adult butterflies favor, and by planting trees which various species of beetle inhabit. We want the children to play to their heart’s content on the natural grass lawn, with grasshoppers hopping a few steps ahead of them as they run on the grass, and beautiful butterflies fluttering overhead when they gaze up at the sky.

Our spacious library is about 1,300 square meters; we have created a space which stimulates children’s curiosity and expands their interests by combining bookshelves, various real-life models and specimens, and a host of other displays. For example, if a child likes beetles, he/she will first reach for a book with many pictures of beetles. And even if this child is in the lower grades, he/she may then go on to open an insect encyclopedia for adults standing next to the first book. If the library is designed so the child can turn his/her eyes to a world map, a globe, and furthermore a book about countries of the world, he/she will find out that certain beetles live in certain countries, and his/her interest in beetles may develop into an interest in world geography. If a child is interested in the universe, stories about the universe and constellations may transport them to the world of Greek mythology.
Just as we can see at Keio Yochisha Elementary school, the beauty of a good school building is accentuated by the entirely different movements of students outside of class—when they pour out of their classrooms, into the hallways, and onto the terrace during recess. As Keio Yokohama Elementary School nears its completion, I cannot help but wonder how it will look when students begin their studies this coming spring.
(Written in October, 2012)