The Gingerbread Man

This year we thought we'd try something new, a Christmas play that all classes could take part in. We chose the Gingerbread Man and every class was told the basic story but everyone had to choose which characters to put in the story and make up their lines -- all in English, of course. Then, as a treat every class had the gingerbread challenge (to eat a cookie without using your hands).

Good job everyone. See you all next year.

A Merry Christmas from Tower English (and the real Santa)

We were lucky to be visited by the real Santa again this year. Have you been good this year? There are still a few days left to get in his good books.

Merry Christmas from all at Tower English!

Trick or Treat? Halloween 2014

Playgroup Halloween Party 2014. The next generation of ghouls, goblins and ghosts.

 Every year Tower English Halloween Party gets bigger so this year we thought we'd try something different to give all the children an intimate taste of the dark side. While the playgroup had one big party as usual, we held smaller parties for every class at our very own haunted house. I think everybody had a good time. The favourite party games were English whispers, eyes of a ghost and the mystery box. Oh, and the Halloween sweeties of course.

Mr Sherriff dares you to stick your hand in the mystery box in the haunted library. 

Luigi: "Skeletons can dance, but they can't eat!" 

Haunted Tower English

Seven years of Tower English

We still feel like the new kids on the block, but today we're celebrating seven years of being in business for ourselves. We've come a long way since opening a playgroup in our front room for our neighbours. Since then, close to 700 children have come through the playgroup, we have our own dedicated school, written our own textbooks, a library stocked with 500 books and a reputation for teaching quality, fun lessons.

And it's all thanks to you, our students.

Thank you.

７周年記念を迎えられる事に感謝です。
これからも全力でいろんな事にチャレンジしていくユニークな英会話教室でいたいと思います。今後ともよろしくお願いいたします。

Tower English Speech Day 2014

Let it go!

毎年恒例のスピーチ大会が７月１３日に終了しました。

今年は過去最多、１００名の子供たちが参加してくれました。

練習の時よりも本番でもっと上手にできた子、緊張のあまりスピーチを忘れてしまった子、練習していた気合い入れたジェスチャーができなかった子、ステージに乗れなかった子、今年もいろいろいました。でも一番大切な事は、スピーチ大会に向けて一生懸命頑張ってきた過程。練習の時、本番の時、どこかで自分らしいスピーチができ、英語を話す事に自信をもってくれたら言う事はありません。みんな個性あふれる内容で素晴らしかったです。毎年どんどん成長していく子供たちを見て心より嬉しいです。来年は更にグレードアップすることでしょう。楽しみにしていてくださいね。

Thanks to the100 students who took part and made this year's speech day the biggest in our history. Click on the YouTube video below and enjoy. We did.

Sachiko speaks up.

Our new website

We are very happy to announce our new website is finally up and running. Tower English International is live at last and we hope to be adding more to the site soon. But check it out now and you can hear from Rei and Taku, our first two students to travel to the UK on a two-week study tour. We hope to be doing many more such trips soon, just as soon as we get through speech day. That's on Sunday, remember?

A Quick Tour of Our New School

The paint is almost dry on Mr Sherriff’s best (and only) oil painting...

The main children’s classroom

The second children’s classroom 

The adults’ classroom

The school library, Mr Sherriff’s favourite room

 

Our school is the house with the blue door.

Contact us here.

教室引っ越します！

３月１日（土）最後のレッスン後、緑にある平屋一軒家に教室を移動します。

新住所：我孫子市緑１−６−４１

子供のレッスン用に２部屋、大人のレッスン用に１部屋、そしてもう１部屋は念願の図書室に変身できそうです。１９６７年に建てられたこのお家では、昔ハチミツを作っていたそうです。学校帰りによく子どもたちが集まり美味しいハチミツを食べていたとか。

きっと昔から子どもたちが集まるようなお家だったのでしょうね。

なかなかできなかった事、どんどんチャレンジしていこうと思います。英語は身体を使って学ぶものだと私たちは信じています。Can you jump?という問いにYes, I can.とジャンプをして見せなきゃ意味がない．．．それがTower Englishの方針ですから。

Tower Englishは塾ではないので、英検対策も到達度テスト対策もしません。

それでもまだ続けて行きたいと言ってくれる中学生たちが来てくれるのは、やっぱり英語を話したいから。その気持ちを大切にどんどん話せる環境を作って行きたいです。

今週の中学生クラスの課題は、ホットケーキのレシピ作り。材料、道具、トッピングに関して調べ、プレゼンできるように準備し、レシピノートも完成させる。上手に出来ていたら、来週は本番です。美味しいホットケーキを作ってもらいましょう！

とても楽しみにしている私たちです。

We’re excited to announce that Tower English is moving to new premises. We give our last lessons on March 1st at the Wakamatsu school and move just up the road to our very own building in Midori on the same day.

The one-storey house, built in 1967, is the former family home of Kikuchi-san who was better known to neighbourhood kids for his orange tree and honey-making abilities than his skills as an architect. But as soon as we saw the house, we knew it would make the ideal home for Tower English.

We’re currently remodelling the interior to make it just right for its new life as an English school. When the doors open on March 3rd, we’ll have two dedicated children’s classrooms, one classroom for adults, and my personal favourite, our very own school library.

There is plenty of space for students’ bicycles in front of the house and ample parking on the dead-end street behind the school for car drivers.

But most important of all, the place is warm, bright and full of character. We are positive you will love learning English there as much as we’ll enjoy teaching it from our new school.

From Tower English with love

It’s been a Valentine’s week full of melting chocolate and melting snow but we are sure the kids enjoyed making chocolates. Yushi, above, certainly did. The younger kids practised giving and receiving presents, the older ones made cards and wrote out recipes. It was some good fun and hopefully everyone got the message that learning English is more than just grammar rules and test scores. It’s also useful.

And tasty too.

A new year, a new school…

We are very proud to announce that we are going to teach English to the children of Edel Kindergarten from the end of this month. We’re honoured that such a great community school has chosen us to introduce the world of English to the newest generation of Abikans. We’ll do our best (and have a lot of fun too). We’re confident this is only the first item of some great news we’ll be reporting this year. We wish all our present and future students a very happy new year.

2014年がスタートし、元気な子どもたちが戻ってきました。今年はTower Englishに大きな変化がいくつかあります。その都度追って報告させていただきますので、楽しみにお待ちください。

1月末より地元のエーデル幼稚園にて英語レッスンを始めることとなりました。我が家の娘たちも卒園した幼稚園なので、とても光栄に思います。英語大好きキッズ育成のため、楽しい歌とゲーム盛りだくさんの時間となるように２人で頑張って行こうと思います。

生きた英語を学んで欲しい。テストの為の英語ではなく、どこの国の人ともコミュニケーションがとれるような英語を身につけて欲しい。７年前からその気持ちは変わりません。今年は更にその気持ちを形にしていく予定です。

今年もよろしくお願いいたします。