Hello everyone!🐞
The 2025 Summer School at Gojo Campus has officially begun!!😊✨
The children were clearly looking forward to it, and from the morning, the campus has been filled with laughter and excitement.
Today is the first day of Summer School. We have many new friends joining us from outside the school, and some familiar classmates are away, creating a slightly different atmosphere than usual.
Some children have been coming back to our Summer School every year, while others are joining us at Gojo Campus for the very first time this year. It’s a wonderful mix, and we’re so excited to spend this special summer together!

Every year at Summer School, we start by giving a school tour to students from outside ISN.
During this tour, the children have a chance to explore the campus and go over important safety rules and potential hazard areas in advance.☢🏔🐝👣

Due to the number of participants, this year we’ve divided the students into two groups: Grades 1 & 2 and Grades 3, 4, 5 & 6. However, there is no major difference in the overall schedule or activities.
The highlights of Day 1 were Water Play and a visit to the Fossil Museum!
During Water Play, each child had their own water gun and had a blast spraying water at each other—and at the teachers too! 💦It was a perfect way to cool down and beat the summer heat with lots of energy and fun. Of course, we also made sure to take hydration breaks every few minutes to prevent heatstroke and keep everyone safe.

Our first day was packed with activities—we just barely managed to squeeze in some time for self-introductions! 💦

In the classrooms, students enjoyed chatting and getting to know one another while sharing laughs with their homeroom (or activity) teachers.
It was heartwarming to see how actively the visiting students approached ISN students, and how ISN students were helping them with English and making them feel welcome. ✨💛

～🍙Happy lunch time！🥪～

This year, our students can enjoy a bento box from a local catering service or a yummy bento made at home! (Thank you to all the moms and dads taking the time to create one for their kids!) We are doing our utmost best to ensure all bento’s stay fresh by having students put them in chilly cooler boxes every morning!

Not everyone may know this, but Shiga (the area where our Gojo campus is located) is an important area for fossil discoveries. Specifically, those of whales. Today, we had an excursion planned to the Shiga fossil museum, where they have several of the fossils found in the area on display. Some students had already been to the museum before; however, on this day, we had asked the staff to prepare two activities for the students. In the main room, one of the staff members vividly and passionately explained about the fossils on display (the reimagination of an old granny finding a fossil of a huge sealion was particularly funny). Students got to learn about whales and the specific species that lived in the Shiga area millions of years ago. On the second floor, one of the staff members had prepared an English quiz about whales! Students showed their knowledge while doing the quiz; some of the students even helped the teachers translate their questions from English to Japanese! Once the quiz finished, there was time for questions, and maybe to no one’s surprise, the students had loads of questions; “Do all whales eat the same things?”, “How do whales breathe?”, and lots of other questions.

In the afternoon, grades 3 to 6 got to play outside with water. The teachers had prepared some exciting activities for them. They started their session with a game of “kick the can”, students had to hide and stay out of sight, if they got caught, they needed to go into “jail” (a pool… so not exactly a punishment in this temperature..!). They then played a session of red light, green light (or, as students like to say, “squid game”). However, this time… while the student froze, there was a water hose to distract them and make them move! Could they remain a statue..? Why don’t you ask your child? 😉 Lastly, they played a game of “capture the flag”; students had to protect a dry handkerchief from getting sprayed by the opposing team’s water guns! The field was filled with laughter and exciting cries while the students were playing with some chill music in the background to create a nice summery atmosphere.

At the end of the day, it was time to say goodbye and chat with each other about which of our new friends would be coming back the next day! Just know that we had a blast hosting all of you, and we are excited to share more time with you this year or in the future!