Dear Parents and Students,

The Administration team have been meeting to discuss next week and beyond while the cases of COVID-19 are increasing throughout Tokyo. We want to reassure you that we remain committed to school being fully open online, therefore e-learning will continue for as long as needed. It is our sincere hope that students will be able to return to school on April 6th but this may change considering the continual developments in the Tokyo area. 

We have a sincere and deep appreciation for the support you have shown so far to our teachers and the administration team under these challenging circumstances, and we need to ask for your continued support. Our teachers are still committed to the delivery of quality e-learning for their students.

We would like to ask for your support with regards to social distancing. It has reached the point where it is crucial that everyone in our community makes some sacrifices to help with the prevention of the spread of COVID-19, especially to those who are most vulnerable. We cannot continue to go on with our lives as usual. These are not normal times and the welfare of everyone should be at the forefront of all decisions we make. We need to live our school goal of  “Social Awareness Which Impels to Action.” This involves taking the necessary action of staying home, avoiding meeting up with others, refraining from the use of public transport and limiting our activities to only those that are absolutely essential.

A bonus of social distancing now for our whole school is that when students are able to return to school, we can trust that our families have been taking the necessary precautions to help keep our community healthy.

For families who have been out of Japan, please inform the school of your date of return to Japan. We would like to remind you that starting Monday, March 23, the school requires that anyone returning from overseas self quarantine for 14 days from their arrival date. This will apply to faculty, staff, students and family members.

If anyone is finding this whole situation overwhelming, please do not hesitate to reach out to us. We need to support each other in this very anxious time. Please find a link here to a wonderful site created by our school counselor, Mrs. Dega, with helpful resources for taking care of ourselves during the COVID-19 outbreak.

We are constantly monitoring announcements from the government and of course any decisions we make can change at any time. We will do our best to maintain up to date communication with our school community.

Sincerely,

Yvonne Hayes
Headmistress
International School of the Sacred Heart
Tokyo, Japan.
Tel. 81 3 3400 3951
Fax 81 3 3400 3496