Educational Activities

To be leaders in society, first comes the need to develop a strong body. Besides PE lessons, there are plenty of other opportunities for students to develop cooperation and compassion through sports. Each grade has its own exercise times for engaging in seasonal sports, but they may also practice before lessons, during lunchtime, and after school. There are also a number of extra-curricular activities to train the body and mind, such as a mini-marathon on the school trip to the beach for fourth-year students, and mountain climbing during the school trip to the highland for fourth- and fifth-year students.

There are many clubs at Yochisha. Clubs become available from the fifth year and meet once a week. Yochisha has a tradition that teachers can start a new club to make the most of their own skills and interests. This has resulted in a wide range of clubs being established. Besides rugby, baseball, tennis, drama, and instrumental music, we also have lacrosse and climbing—a rarity among primary schools. The sports clubs focus on developing individual skills and practicing for sports competitions with other private schools, while the cultural clubs work toward presenting their work at the school performance day. There are also several other extra-curricular activities, and some clubs go on training camps during the summer holidays.

Clubs are an important opportunity for students to interact with their peers from different classes and grades. Through these activities, students can appreciate their classmates’ strengths, which are not always on display in normal classroom settings and can help each other to develop those strengths even further. It is also an opportunity for the sixth-year students to learn how to behave as good role models to the new fifth-year students who have just joined the clubs, and to be aware of their responsibilities as the most senior members of the clubs.

Extra-curricular activities are the perfect example of encouraging students to take “the next step” and take initiative to provide services that aid the school and their classmates. Many of these activities are organized by committee. For example, the members of the Class Committee make up the slogans for the UNICEF campaign, and go around calling out to students at morning assemblies and in the classrooms of the lower years. In addition, the Environmental Problems Committee (EPC) was created in response to the children’s own request to recycle milk cartons and plastic bottle tops.
To inform the whole school of the decisions made by these committees, we hold a monthly morning assembly for student activities, where each committee can report on their progress. This special assembly is broadcast on the school’s television network, which is hosted by the Broadcasting Committee (YNS), with the Computer Committee in charge of the video cameras. In this way, the children can better appreciate that these activities are organized by them and for them.

There are many other activities that put an emphasis on student initiative. The signboards displayed at the school gate for sports day, the art exhibition, and the school performance day are based on students’ designs. We also have an open table tennis tournament in April, a New Year’s card game in January, a kanji reading contest at the end of February, and an open tennis tournament in March. These are all optional, respecting each student’s individual decision on whether to take up these challenges.

This is how we encourage initiative and proactiveness in all of our students, through spontaneous and independent activities that teach skills which can be applied in various situations.