About Us
Our Approach
Clarence Lab runs short residential and day courses for children aged 8 to 14 across two locations: a working farm in Hokkaido and a creative studio in central Tokyo.
Each course is built around a simple idea : that children learn most powerfully when the place itself is the teacher. Not a textbook, not a screen: the forest, the field, the city street.
In Hokkaido, children camp under open skies, care for horses, build with local timber, and learn to read the landscape they're standing in. In Tokyo, they explore the city through visual arts, drama, music, and storytelling. Discovering who they are and how they connect to the world around them.
Every course is structured around daily inquiry questions, reflective journalling, and student-led discussion circles. Children don't just have experiences, they make sense of them.
Clarence Lab is not a holiday club. It's not childcare with activities. It is education designed around real places, real responsibility, and the kind of thinking that stays with a child long after the week is over.
Since 2016, Clarence Education Asia has grown from a single preschool into one of the most respected educational networks in Japan. Establishing landmark institutions including the art-rich Clarence International School, the tranquil Hokkaido Home Farm, the vibrant Phoenix House International School, and Rugby School Japan, the first authentic British boarding school in the Greater Tokyo area.
Clarence Lab carries that same commitment: rigorous, purposeful education that meets children where they are and asks more of them than they expected.
Our Foundation
From Our
Course Director
The idea behind Clarence Lab is simple: the best learning happens when children lead it.
After graduating from university, I found that journalling guided me through my life; taking time to reflect on what I'd experienced until I could hear my own voice again. That experience stays with me, and it shapes everything we do. I believe every child deserves the space to find their authentic voice while they're still growing, not years after they've left education.
That's why Clarence Lab is built the way it is. Learning isn't split into separate subjects.
Nothing is simulated. Children are given real responsibility, real questions, and the trust to lead their own thinking. Journalling sits at the heart of every course because it gives children something I wish I'd had sooner: a quiet space to make sense of who they are and who they're becoming.
I'm so excited that our first Clarence Lab pioneers arrive this summer. I'd love your child to be one of them.
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Teto Parvanov
Clarence Lab Course Director