With questions as their compass, children chart a course of their own.

RaJA GLOBAL ACADEMY, or RGA, is an international early childhood education environment where children begin with what they have already seen, heard, experienced, and come to know. From within those experiences, they discover what captures their interest and explore it more deeply.

Communication, play, daily routines, and inquiry take place through English. Children experience English not simply as a subject to study, but as a language for thinking, communicating, and connecting with the world.

Through IB PYP-inspired inquiry and RaJA STREAM, our original interdisciplinary educational approach, children explore a single question through multiple perspectives — including science, technology, creativity, mathematics, and language.

What children develop here extends far beyond the amount of knowledge they acquire.

The ability to form their own questions.

The confidence to express their ideas.

The openness to listen to different perspectives.

The resilience to try again after something does not work.

The ability to collaborate and create better answers together.

These capabilities become the human foundations children will carry throughout their lives.

While always protecting children’s safety, we do not step in too quickly or determine every course on their behalf.

Rather than closing down a challenge because it may appear too early or difficult, we trust each child’s capabilities and possibilities. We offer support when it is truly needed while allowing children to take the helm of their own learning.

Reaching the correct answer quickly is not the destination.

Holding on to one’s own “Why?” and continuing to think deeply — that is learning at RaJA GLOBAL ACADEMY.

Children are not required to have any prior English ability when they enrol.

Whether they are encountering English for the first time or already communicating through English, every child begins from their own current stage.

At RaJA, English is woven into everyday communication, play, routines, and inquiry. Children do not simply memorise words. They use English because they have something they want to express or discover.

Through these meaningful experiences, English gradually becomes part of their everyday lives.

Learning groups based on each child’s English experience, together with our multilingual and multicultural education team, allow children to begin at a depth that is right for them.

Our education team includes teachers who grew up speaking English, teachers who learned it as an additional language, and bilingual educators who connect Japanese and English.

Teachers combine language with visual clues, real objects, movement, and hands-on experiences. This helps children connect the language they already understand with new expressions.

Our goal is not to teach one single “correct English.”

We want children to listen to others, communicate their feelings and ideas, and ask questions when they do not understand.

By respecting every child’s existing language, experiences, and identity — including Japanese — we nurture the ability to connect with people and learn through English.

The Academy groups its children three different ways, depending on what the day’s curriculum and activity call for, so that the learning is as enjoyable — and as effective — as it can be.

When an activity benefits from shared developmental stages and experiences, children learn in age-based groups.

Every child encounters and acquires English differently. Children learn within a group that reflects their current experience, understanding, and expression, allowing them to participate confidently while moving toward their next challenge.

Learning and growing beyond age boundaries.

Children of different ages learn together in two groups: Cooklilly and Pohutukawa.

Older children may share their knowledge with younger companions, while the perspectives of younger children can lead older children toward new discoveries.

The roles of teacher and learner are never fixed. Children contribute their different strengths and experiences as they learn and grow together.

Groups are formed flexibly according to the purpose of each activity or inquiry.

Advanced learning at RaJA is not about studying ahead or producing children who are simply “good at school.”

It means staying with a question, investigating it independently, testing ideas, thinking carefully, and exchanging perspectives with others before diving deeper.

Children who are ready for extended inquiry explore subjects that genuinely interest them while developing self-directed learning, collaboration, critical thinking, information literacy, and presentation skills.

Difficulty is not a reason to give up.

It can be a reason to become even more curious.

This program supports children in pursuing their own “I want to know more” through their own efforts.

Smart Caterpillar 🐛 is the inquiry class that leads into Clever Ulysses 🦋.

It takes six children from the 3-year-old year group. Holding on to the urge to know and the urge to try, it builds the foundation of thinking through play and first-hand experience.

The group is small enough for close attention, and in it children grow language, number, observation, expression and cooperation — and the habit of trying to understand something for themselves. It is a RaJA class built around one idea: that a child should come to love learning from the very beginning.

Choose, prepare, and take responsibility.

At the Academy, choosing, preparing, and caring for one’s own belongings are important experiences that contribute to independence.

Please label all belongings using Roman letters. The lettering does not need to be formal. Items should be as simple as possible and easy for the child to recognise and manage independently.

Items featuring established commercial characters are not permitted.

This is not intended to restrict children’s enjoyment. It protects the open space from which children can create their own ideas, characters, and stories.