Six students from Yokohama Science Frontier High School (YSFH) visited Saint Maur between November 14th – 16th as part of the annual exchange programme. The students followed their Grade 10 and 11 hosts and as well as taking a keen interest in how Science is taught at Saint Maur, participated in the full range of regular classes and activities. The event provided students with the opportunity to find out about the differences between the Japanese education system and life at an International School. Many of the students were surprised by the differences between them.

When doing a Chemistry lab with her partner, Sophia (Gr11) was interested to see how they both used a different method to calculate their results but ended up with the same final answer. Karen (Gr11) was impressed when her partner was able to teach her some calculus. The YSFH visit coincided with the preview of the school play ‘1984’ and visitors were able to see how the cast and crew prepared for the show. After chatting with his guest, Charles (Gr10) commented that ‘I am very lucky to be able to learn History, Drama, Art and Spanish because many schools do not have these options’.

The exchange was not all academic studies and hard work. Jasang (Gr11) enjoyed playing ping-pong at lunch-time with his partner and Kye and Yuka (Gr10) enjoyed great conversation and getting to know their new YSFH friends. We are grateful to Mr. Yutaka Kurisu for facilitating the exchange on the YSFH side and we look forward to many more opportunities for fruitful collaboration in the future.