Each year at ISB we welcome students of many national backgrounds who speak little or no English. They immediately enter mainstream school life and benefit from intensive support from our ‘English Language Development’ teachers. They learn fast and the bond they develop with their ELD teachers is strong.

So when our Japanese alumni heard that a group of 9 teachers were visiting Japan, they turned out in huge numbers to our alumni reunion events. The private tour was led by ISB Japanese teacher Dr Mariko Ishida and included Mr Paul Boucher, Mrs Laura Boucher, Ms Helene Houben, Mrs Susan Baudoux, Mr James Bell, Ms Angela Purcell and Ms Michele Wren. The ISB alumni office worked with Dr Ishida, Ms Minori Okabayashi ’91 and her mother Mrs Sono Okabayashi  P’91 to organise the reunions and we were delighted to host over 200 alumni at the Belgian Embassy in Tokyo and the Westin Hotel in Osaka. The teachers also visited Hasune dai-ni Elementary School where they joined the 4^th Grade class of alumna Yuri Ishii ’06 for lessons and lunch. Yuri said ‘It’s a dream that the teachers are visiting my class. I became a teacher because of Mr Boucher’.

The ISB Baseball team was also in Japan this April, for the first time since 1986. The ISB links with Japan grow stronger all the time and we look forward to keeping in touch with our Japanese alumni and their families throughout their lives.

To see photos of the reunions please click here