Setting up a school in Japan is not for the faint hearted, are you sure you want to do it?
So said a long time friend, and highly respected ex-colleague from Rugby School before I came out in September 2022. It was too late, I had signed the contract and I was committed, if not a little scared as to what I had signed up for.
There were lots of conflicting thoughts in my head those first few weeks. In The Trial, Kafka is very clear that everyone is ultimately an imposter. And I had a real sense of am I up to this? Will parents really trust us to send their beloved children to a premium boarding school that is currently just a field in Kashiwanoha, Greater Tokyo? And can I really find and persuade world-class teachers to come and join me in a Japanese adventure?
6500 miles from my family and friends, and initially only a frying pan and some good luck cards for company in my flat, I was excited for the adventure that lay ahead. I still remember those first few days of chaotic thoughts and simple needs. Where on earth can I get some milk?
The first day in the office was dominated by an email that had come in that day from NHK, the national broadcaster. They were going to join us on the first day on site – tomorrow – with Mitsui Fudosan. Wow, national television, what will I say to them? The realisation that I should have done some media training, and more importantly where on earth can I find an ironing board and iron was my slightly bizarre memory. I can’t appear on national TV with a shirt that hasn’t been ironed.
Those first few months whizzed by, and I was relieved to be joined by Simon Palferman and Laura Bispham to share the burden in January 2023. Time passed by in a blur of persuading parents that we would provide a very different educational experience and the reality of trying to make sure everything would be in place ahead of the opening in September 2023.
The buildings appeared to spring up almost overnight. Access to the campus was limited, apart from our monthly hard-hat tours, when we would take prospective families tentatively around and watch the magnificent campus gradually emerge from the ground. It was an extraordinary transformation, and one that was completed entirely on schedule. Of course it was – day by day I was now beginning to understand Japan a little better.
We opened with 134 pupils, 20 adventure seeking teachers, a handful of incredibly hard-working operations staff and two boarding houses. It was now crunch time; would all the systems that we had put in place work? Would the parents and new pupils show up on that first day? The calmness and efficiency of Japan can be misleading, underneath it all we were all working incredibly hard to ensure that what we had promised to the parents was being delivered; there were a few missteps in those early days, but there was genuine relief that there were plenty of smiles and laughter from the pupils. Dare we even dream that they were settling and enjoying the School?
In that first year the senior team survived mostly on coffee, frequent visits to Subway and very late nights. Strong bonds formed between pupils, staff and parents, and in many ways managing the growth of the school was and always has been the most challenging, and perhaps most rewarding part of opening a brand new school.
September 2022 feels a different lifetime now. I am immensely proud that we have been able to grow the pupil roll to over 400 this coming September, with 6 boarding houses fully operational and what I hope will be some outstanding public exam results and university pathways this summer. The senior team and staff – both teaching and all the support staff – were the key to the early success of the school and the building of the community, and as I write this I am on a whole school residential trip in Hakuba, and the commitment and dedication of all the staff is quite something to behold, not to mention the beauty of the Japanese Alps. There aren’t many teachers in the UK that can say they have done white water rafting in Japan.
It will feel odd when I leave the School for the final time in a couple of weeks, particularly as it has been such a huge part of my working and inevitably personal life these past few years. The School community feels ready for new ideas, new thoughts and reimagining as it grows to capacity, and the world class enrichment campus in Hokkaido becomes a reality.
In my view RSJ has become a jewel in the crown of the Rugby Group, and I can’t wait to follow the next steps of its journey as Dr Sarah Wade and the new Senior Team come into post over the summer.
By Tony Darby,
Founding Principal at Rugby School Japan
