Ohokaminami Elementary School in Numazu

Numazu is one hour by shinkansen from Tokyo. The Tokkaido Line takes two hours. By car the journey is also one hour on the highway. Numazu is in the east of Shizuoka prefecture and Ohokaminami Elementary School is to the east of Numazu City. The Numazu area has a gentle climate, and snow is rare. The population of Numazu City is 210,859. To the south can be found Suruga Bay and the Kisegawa River. To the north, Mt Fuji overlooks the city. The view of the famous mountain is very beautiful, especially in spring. Nearby Kakida River to the east is a river with the most water in the whole of Asia.

The philosophy of Ohokaminami Elementary School is to help children to be healthy in both mind and body, and to create a sense of independence and confidence. The three keywords of the school are friendship, health and intelligence. The Principal is Tadashi Sakaguchi. The staff of the school includes a vice principal, 25 teachers, 1 care teacher, 2 clerical staff, 1 dietician, 6 qualified chefs, and 1 caretaker. There are 383 boys and 359 girls, including 2 Brazilians, 1 Peruvian, 1 Sri Lankan, and 1 child from The Philippines. The school has 21 classes.

The first semester begins on April 5th and breaks up for the five week summer holiday on July 20th. The second semester starts on August 29th and finishes on December 21st. The winter holiday lasts for two weeks. The third semester starts on January 7th, with the school year coming to an end on March 21st. There are 204 teaching days in the school year, with four periods in the morning and one or two in the afternoon, from Monday to Friday. All children come to school on foot with their brothers, sisters, and friends. The children don’t have to wear a uniform, but years 1, 2, and 3 have to wear a yellow hat to be safe when they walk to and from school. They also carry a satchel.

Japanese children study Japanese, Society, Mathematics, Science, Music, Art, Domestic Science, Physical Education, Moral Education, and English. This is the 2nd year of English being taught at the school, with a full-time Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) being employed. At lunchtime students can eat a delicious meal provided by the school. After lunch they have free time to play. The children enjoy playing football, basketball, dodgeball, riding on unicycles, skipping, climbing on the climbing frames, and ‘It’, to name but a few games. Following their lunch break all the children must help to clean the school, every day except Thursday. Each year the students go on three excursions to enjoy education outdoors. The 6th year students also go on educational tours to Tokyo. The security and safety of the children is always of the utmost importance to the school in all activities, both within the school itself, and on these excursions. A further new feature for this year is the daily reading program, where students read for 15 minutes between 8:00 and 8:15 am. This reading program is part of the school’s desire for children to develop curiosity and discover opportunities to broaden their minds, and for self-improvement.　On November 15th and 16th the 4th, 5th, and 6th grade will go to the 39th World Skills Competiton in Numazu. The school will support the Ecuadorian team in this competition. All the children are looking forward to it.






Thoughts from the ALT

Hello. This is Mat. I am in my second year as the full-time ALT at Ohokaminami Elementary School. I have really enjoyed this experience, and it has been wonderful to see the kids communicating confidently in English. Whilst a large part of lessons involve games, I try to make these activities as relevant to the real world as I can, and focus on communication for a purpose. As a citizen of The United Kingdom, I am also keen to explain about my own culture, and to learn about Japanese customs and traditions. The role of an ALT is as much an ambassador of their country as they are a teacher of English, and this is important to the way I approach teaching. The excellent progress of the students since I came here in April 2006 is very rewarding for me, and I really appreciate the help and support I’ve had in this from the teachers and staff at the school. Away from the classroom, just playing and talking with the kids, at break, lunch time, and after school, has been so much fun.

Mat, April 2007.
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