Hello Japanlife, I hope you can help us with some questions here. Me and my wife are living here with our child that is soon becoming 2. So far, we haven’t needed any child care services whatsoever but my wife will start working again in December or January. We have read the website of the local school that has a pre-school. In the website, the application for says that the application date is between November 1st to November 28th. The main concern is that in Japan, the school year starts in April and this is also stated in the school website. Additionally, even if there are vacancies in middle of the school year, the school won’t take any children in middle of a school year unless there is an “emergency”. The school definition of emergency is that there is no other adult that can take care of the child while the guardians are at work. Since we both will be working, I guess that our situation falls under the definition of “emergency”. Here is the question: Should we contact the school soon to inform that we would like our child to start January, if possible? or should we fill out the form, and hand it in November as stated from the school website, and hope our child gets to go to school in January?
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If anybody has been in a similar situation, I would love to hear how it went for you. Our town is basically an inaka with one public school and crippling population decline. Maybe the conditions are more relaxed here compared to the big cities, or so we hope.
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Thankful for all the help and advice we can get
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Edit: Thank you everybody for your insights, advices and ideas, we appreciate it very much and will act accordingly.
6 comments
Is this the only kindergarten or preschool in your town? I live in a mid sized city and my school accepts new kids mid year, whether they moved from a different city or both parents started working, etc.
Does the school have orientation or trial lessons? Around this time of the school year, schools have orientation or trial lessons so parents can decide if they want to enroll their child at that school next school year. Maybe at that time, ask them if will accept your child before the new school years starts based on your situation.
The obvious thing would be to go to city hall and get all the answers you need immediately. Especially for your specific context. If you’re worried about a language barrier, they usually have translation services available – if it’s a very inaka place that might be on a specific day.
I failed to get a spot in hoikuen, so had to go the youchien route. I contacted them in february, although the application/setsumeikai/uniform ordering had already taken place the previous winter, it wasn’t a problem at all.
Go to your city hall, they will have literally ALL the pre school in your area. Cold call all of them until you find one.
In our case we were on a wait list for a ninka hoikuen but in the meantime got a slot in a ninshou that is nearer to our place.
Like everyone has said, go to city hall now and talk to them about the best plan of action. Don’t wait until November.
Another thing to consider is that when it starts, daycares usually break the kid (and parents) into it on a partial schedule.
This differs from place to place, but for illustration–1st day will be for one hour, second day will be for two, third might be a full morning (or afternoon, and so on. If everything goes smoothly it might take a week (more?) to build up to full days.
Don’t expect full days from day one.