At Nagoya International School, we know what we do: we Inquire, Inspire, and Impact. That’s our promise to parents — that every child will engage in contextualized learning, find personal inspiration, and use what they’ve learned to make a difference.
We also know how we do it: we Include. Inclusion is the context that enables all learners to thrive, regardless of their background, language, identity, or journey. It is what makes our community who we are. We embrace difference. We build community with one another.
But until recently, we hadn’t clearly answered a deeper question: Why do we do it? Why do we show up for one another every day? Why do we make decisions the way we do? Why does NIS feel the way it feels? Why are we who we are?
These are questions of values. They’re about the anchors that ground a community, the shared beliefs that guide behaviour, culture, and choices, not just in classrooms but in every hallway, conversation, opportunity, and challenge. During the strategic planning process launched in 2022—a community process involving board members, students, staff, parents, alumni, and others—we realized that to fully live our mission, we needed to articulate those values. We had always had them, but they had been unspoken. If we were to take the next step in deepening the foundation on which we wished to build, it was necessary to define them, not as a theoretical activity, but in a way that would actually translate into practice. We needed a set of community-embraced and created values that we could hold as our collective north star and truly live by.
So, across the past two years, that’s exactly what we’ve done.
In 2023–24, the work began with teachers, who spent the first part of the year evolving and exploring what values meant at NIS. In the second half of the year, students joined the conversation. Through focus groups, students engaged in rich discussions as learners offered thoughtful insight into the kind of community they wanted to belong to, shape and build.
In 2024–25, we welcomed parents into the conversation through another series of community events. It was inspiring to hear parents and caregivers talk about their passion for their children and what they value about learning, well-being, and connection at NIS. In the second half of the year, it was time to consolidate and triangulate all the data we had generated and, in consultation with the Board, an early longlist of value words was refined from well over 50 down to nine ‘finalists’. This led to another round of feedback from parents at our Student-Led Conferences Day and staff, bringing the long list of 9 down to a final 6: Growth, Integrity, Safety, Kindness, Belonging, and Responsibility.
At that point, it was time to bring the students back to the center of the process. A student workshop brought together representatives from the Elementary, Middle, and High School Councils. Students co-created definitions for each value and then voted on the ones they truly wanted to keep, as well as those they would recommend to cut. Their comments were brilliant: personal, articulate, and insightful. They lived the NIS mission as they inquired, brought inspiration and led with impact in this important task. One student described safety as “being comfortable sharing your identity.” Another described belonging not as being invited in, but as “knowing you should be there.” They spoke of responsibility as deeply tied to integrity. They saw kindness not as a standalone value, but as essential to a culture of belonging. Any parent in the room would have been filled with pride at the maturity, insight, and vision of our student leaders.
After the student workshop concluded, we invited staff to reflect once more. Again, their responses affirmed much of what the students had said, while also offering nuanced perspectives and the interconnectedness within the values. Staff looked to add depth to the definition of growth such that it spoke to the quality of holistic education we ascribe to at NIS. They also looked at the relationship between integrity and responsibility, and the concept of belonging as being embedded in our commitment to inclusion and fundamental to the lived attribute of kindness.
After months of dialogue, reflection, and community input, the final shortlist of six values was carefully reviewed one last time. With the feedback from students and staff in mind, the leadership team made the decision to refine the list down to four, not by discarding ideas, but by thoughtfully integrating them. The final wording of each value honors the original concepts and language offered by our student leaders, ensuring their voices remain at the heart of the outcome. With this work complete, the Board formally adopted the four final values for NIS in June 2025; values that are simple, powerful, and enduringly rooted in who we are and who we strive to become.
We’ll be sharing these four values with the entire school community in a special launch this August when the new school year begins. We can’t wait to reveal them together, not just with posters or assemblies, but through conversation, celebration, and action. This is about more than words on a wall; it’s about who we are, what we believe, and how we grow stronger together. We look forward to welcoming back our returning community in August as we work together to bring our values to life!
