Yamasaki High School DAY BY DAY

On the 17th and 18th of August, Yamasaki High School held their annual open high school days, for junior high school students interested in the “Academic Course”, to come and visit the school.

The open days allow junior high school students to discover what student life is like at Yamasaki High school and they can participate in many lessons.

The open days begin with a very warm welcome by the Brass Band, and an introduction to the school. Student council members provide information about the history of Yamasaki High School, the different courses available, and all the wonderful special events and club activities they can participate in. Career development is also discussed, providing students insight into future professional paths.

 Then the junior high students can participate in demonstration lessons, in Japanese, English, Mathematics, Science, Education and Social Science.

In addition to lessons from teachers, students of Yamasaki High school’s “Education Course” also took demonstration lessons, teaching English and Mathematics displaying the teaching expertise they have learned. 

Further to the “Academic Course” open days, on the 27th of August, “The Forestry and Home Economics Course” held an open day for students interested in those specialized courses at Yamasaki High School. 

After a very warm welcome and school introduction, the junior high students were able to experience first-hand specialized units of study, provided at Yamasaki High School.

First the students were able to participate in harvesting egg plants, peppers, and other vegetables, and learned about the process of growing vegetables. 

Second the students got to participate in wood-working, and were able to make wooden mask boxes, with help from the wood-working high school students at Yamasaki High School.

Thirdly the junior high students were able to experience cooking, learning to make delicious cup-cakes by watching instruction videos on personal tablets, and with help from the Yamasaki cooking high school students!

The open days at Yamasaki High school, were very interesting and enjoyable, and allowed junior high students a wonderful insight into all the amenities Yamasaki High school provides. We hope to see all the junior high school students again, come next spring.

The students of the second grade have been working on an English presentation about foreign countries. At first the students made groups and chose which countries they would like to research. They then did extensive research into the many facets of life in the countries they had chosen. These included such topics as history, famous places, culture, music, food, art, sport, education, plants, and animals etc.

Having done thorough research, the students then developed wonderfully illustrated and detailed PowerPoint presentations expounding upon the many highlights of their chosen countries. Further to this, all the presentations were required to be written and presented in English.

In order to present professionally, the students were individually instructed on correct pronunciation, intonation, and advised on elements of non-verbal communication such as gestures, and eye contact.

All the students had assessment sheets and scored each other’s presentations, using an assessment matrix.

The goal of doing presentations for the students were fourfold.

The first goal was for the students to learn more about foreign cultures.

Secondly we wanted the students to improve their communication skills.

Thirdly we wanted the students to gain some experience in public speaking so that fourthly, it would encourage them to use English more confidently in the future.

Despite the challenge of presenting in English in front of their classmates, all of the students did exceptionally well, and they can be proud of their hard work.

On the 28^th of September 2020, Yamasaki High School held their annual sports festival. Because students couldn’t have a cultural festival this year, some of the activities were included in the sports day. The day started with an opening ceremony, parade and raising of the flags. Then the games began!

The first event was the 100 meter and 200 meter sprints, followed by a 4 x 100 meter relay.

Then new for this year was an obstacle race prepared by the student organization of the school.The obstacle race included drinking a fizzy bottle of drink, a sack race, balloon popping, spinning around a baseball bat, egg and spoon race, and a two person wheel barrow race. Participants and spectators thoroughly enjoyed the race!

This was followed by a group jumping rope event, with class 2-4 winning with 84 jumps! An amazing feat! Then to conclude for lunch there was a wonderful dance and singing performance.

After lunch, all the members of the sports clubs at Yamasaki High School changed into their club uniforms and marched in a parade. The students all looked impressive and proud in their colorful uniforms. Then four members of each club participated in a relay race.

Following the club event, everyone was treated to a mesmerizing dance performance. The students performing the dances had such incredible precision and poise, and danced at such a professional level! The talent of students at Yamasaki High School is really outstanding!

Not to be outdone, the second grade students dressed in a wide variety of hilarious costumes and performed a parade, and raced in a very entertaining cosplay race! 

To finish the day’s events, there was a 200 meter relay race, followed by a massive tug of war between the three grades.

After everybody had strained their sinews in battle, it was time for the closing ceremony, which finished a day full of fun and exhilaration!

Opening Ceremony Report

The opening ceremony for the second semester was held on Tuesday, August 18^th. The ceremony was held in classrooms by using the school’s broadcast system to prevent the spread of the new corona-virus. Principal Takeda gave a speech about the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, and talked about the importance of peace with his experience as a student. The Principal hoped the first and second year students would inherit the attitude of the third year students and continue to work hard for the next year.

Next, Ms. Kanzaki, the school nurse, gave a lecture on measures to prevent the spread of the new corona-virus at the start of the new school year. She talked about the importance of the three basic measures against infection: "cutting off the source of infection," "cutting off the route of infection," and "increasing resistance to the virus”.

On Wednesday the 19th, the first and second graders will be taking an assessment, and from the 19th (Wed.) to the 21st (Fri.), the students will only have classes in the morning. Regular classes will start again from Monday the 24^th of August.