School Calendar FAQs

NIS follows a calendar that is used by similar schools in many other countries in the northern hemisphere - one that starts at the end of August or beginning of September. This also corresponds with most colleges and universities, which also use a similar calendar.

This is mainly due to the need to have a school year starting at the end of August and the requirement for a certain number of student-contact days before testing periods (particularly for the high school) that do not match up with all of the other calendared Japanese holidays. For some holidays, like the holidays in September, we deliberately schedule informational open house days on holidays to make it easier for parents who work to come to school. We do realize, however, that many families only have the Japanese national holidays as days together, so we try our best to strike a balance between those needs and the needs of our curriculum.

The school needs dedicated amounts of time during the school year to focus on curriculum issues, time for planning together, as well as staff development. Having two hours each week devoted to staff collaboration ensures NIS can continue to refine curriculum and practices to improve student learning. School hours on the other four weekdays were extended to balance the shortened Wednesday.

The general calendar is determined after January, and published as soon as possible. The NIS calendar that is printed and distributed to all families is printed over the summer and distributed to new families at the interview, or, to all students on the first day of school. However, since this is printed over the summer, some events may be added, changed, or cancelled, so please make sure that you regularly check the school's "Google Calendar" and the weekly e-bulletin.