Our Sacred Heart Goals

Celebration of diversity and a fierce commitment to inclusion to foster a community of love, acceptance, and belonging are integral to Goal 1 and to ISSH's identity as a Catholic school and a Sacred Heart school. As an international school, knowing and valuing the diverse cultures, religions, and perspectives brought by each member of our community is baked into our programs at both macro and micro levels—from whole-school events like One World Day and our Family Festival that create a forum for sharing unique cultures and traditions with the community, to the opening prayer at Junior School assemblies which are led by different fourth grade monitors and from different religions and belief systems each week. At a strategic level, our faculty and staff Community and Belonging Committee conducts regular DEI-J audits of programming and policy utilizing the Japan Council of International Schools' Inclusion Framework alongside other tools. We combine our dedication to inclusion with a focus on spirituality, encouraging students to take space to reflect, practice mindfulness, and understand that, regardless of religious tradition, each one of us has a place in the universe and is valued and needed. 

Steeped in 115 years of international education in Tokyo, ISSH students have the finest of academic programmes led by outstanding educators from 20+ countries who embrace Sacred Heart’s clear and enduring mission. ISSH graduates routinely outperform their counterparts across the globe on their Advanced Placement (AP) exams, earning them internationally respected and accepted university credits before even beginning their university careers. They are accepted to tertiary institutions like Harvard, Yale, Cambridge, McGill, University of Toronto, and so many more prestigious colleges and universities around the globe. The 4 Shifts Protocol—educational best practice—is the focus of our definition of high quality learning and teaching, which means our curriculum is framed around deepening learning and thinking, student agency and personalisation, authentic work, and innovation.

While many schools and international curricula have a community service requirement for students in middle and high school, Sacred Heart doesn't—and yet the overwhelming majority of our students are deeply involved in service groups, projects, and initiatives. Why? Because developing an understanding of empathy and love for our fellow humans in both our local and global communities is a core part of the Sacred Heart ethos. From Kindergarten, students are involved in age-appropriate service projects, such as our annual Rice Drive, and by the time they reach high school, they are taking leadership roles on our Student Council Service Council, and heading up service clubs and programmes like our 20-year relationship supporting a school in Nepal through the charity Nepal SEEDS. 

Building community is at the core of our Sacred Heart ethos—everyone in the ISSH community is valued and contributes to what makes our school special. That doesn't change when students graduate. Our strong network of nearly 12,000 alumni remain connected to ISSH, coming back for visits during the school year and joining us for alumni gatherings around the world, whether a small meetup in New York or San Francisco or our annual reunion event, Come Home to the Heart. They give presentations about their inspiring careers and speak on panels about transitioning to university, serving as mentors and role models to current students. Our parent community is incredibly involved in the school as well, from parent groups such as our dedicated Parent Association and Parent Advisory Board to the valued volunteers who visit kindergarten classes to read storybooks or prepare their cultural cuisine for our Family Festival. All members of our community are Symbas—once a Symba, always a Symba!

The founder of the Society of the Sacred Heart, Madeleine Sophie Barat (canonised in 1925) had a relational leadership style that kept the global family of schools unified even as each embraced its local culture and reality. During her lifetime (1779–1865) and under her leadership, over 100 schools were founded on four continents. Trusting relationships were the "intranet" of her day; they provided courage in the face of great risks. Out of love for our students, we continue to take risks and go many extra miles. Child protection and well-being practices are embedded in our curricular and extracurricular programmes. Students are valued and loved. They gain knowledge and skills to empower resilience, self-acceptance, and empathy so that they can realise their unique abilities, cope with the normal stresses of life, work productively and fruitfully, contribute to the community, and realise they came into the world loved and are to be loving.