homelocationfaq





















Accreditation

MST is fully accredited by
The International Montessori Council.

Membership

MST is a member of
The Japan Council of International Schools (JCIS).

Accreditation

The Montessori School of Tokyo is fully accredited by The International Montessori Council.

A decision was taken in September 2004 that MST would look into the accreditation processes offered by various educational institutions. After some research and discussions with other International Schools in Tokyo and Montessori schools around the world, it was decided that the accreditation offered by the The International Montessori Council (IMC) would best suit MST with respect to its educational philosophies and benefits to be gained by going through this process.

In the Spring of 2005, MST was visited by a team representing the IMC to assess the possibility of whether our school met sufficient standards to acquire accredited status. Once we were given a positive report and some suggestions, the real work began.

Ably coordinated by a parent of two children at the school, Sarah Deschamps, the faculty and administration began collecting documents and information. In December, 2005, the whole MST community of teachers, administration, owners and parents got together for what is known as the “Blueprint Weekend”. An intensive, three full days, leading into evenings as well, resulted in a document (blueprint) being drawn up which looked at all aspects of who MST is and what we stand for. Some of the results of that weekend are shown on the Blueprint page. The whole self study document (including the Blueprint) is available in the school library.

In February of 2006, Sarah joined the school faculty as Assistant Head of School and one of her many roles was to continue to coordinate the accreditation process. By the end of the summer of 2006, after hundreds of hours of work by members of faculty, administration and parents (and yes, there were blood, sweat and tears!) we completed the final documentation of our self study which came to over 800 pages of in depth study of every aspect of MST. This self study was sent to the various members of the accreditation commission of the IMC.

In November of 2006, the visiting accreditation team came to Tokyo and spent a week going around the school, observing teachers in classrooms, inspecting facilities and interviewing parents, students and members of faculty and administration. After an intensive week, the visiting team submitted their report. A summary of this report can be downloaded here.

In December of 2006, we were notified that the IMC had fully accredited our school. 


"The main benefit of accreditation is not so much to obtain the accredited status, but to undergo the process of self study - to continually reflect upon and improve all aspects of your school."

—Tim Seldin