Inagakuen is a coeducational junior and senior high school in

Saitama prefecture is a landlocked prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Saitama Prefecture has a population of 7,338,536 (1 January 2020) and has a geographic area of 3,797 km2 (1,466 sq mi). Saitama Prefecture borders Tochigi Prefecture ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. It was established in 1984 and is one of Japan's largest public schools. It has the status of SELHi, Super English Language High school. The school homepage is http://www.inagakuen.spec.ed.jp/ The founding day (which is a school holiday) is June 8. Although Japanese law prohibits the hiring of non-Japanese-citizens as teachers , there are 6 full-time and 3 part-time native speakers of foreign languages: French, German, English and Chinese.

Features

The school is divided into 6 houses, owing to the large size (around 2700 students with over 250 teachers). Each house is a separate building, and these are connected by a 2nd-floor corridor. The campus is over 3 times as large as the Tokyo Dome, at 155,000 square meters, and features 3 gymnasiums, an outdoor swimming pool, a running track, baseball and tennis courts as well as soccer pitches. There are over 50 extracurricular clubs for students to participate in. In 2006 air-conditioning was installed in all classrooms, and most staffrooms.

House system

Because of Inagakuen's size, it is split into 6 houses, of roughly equal size. Each house has a principal, who acts as a vice principal of the school as a whole. So the school has one principal and 6 vice-principals. Students wear a school uniform with the school logo on their shirt which is coloured according to which house they are in. 1st house: Since 2003/2004 academic year, this house has been entirely a junior high house, with no senior high students. The house colour is red. 2nd house: A senior high only house, specialising in foreign languages. House colour is yellow 3rd house: A senior high only house, specialising in social studies (humanities). House colour is white, or orange if on a white background. 4th house: A senior high house, specialising in mathematics. House colour is green. 5th house: A senior high house, specialising in sciences. House colour is light blue. 6th house: A senior high house, specialising in sciences. House colour is dark blue. Students belong to the same house throughout their study in Inagakuen, and have a home-room in their house. Owing to the size of the school, and the elective nature of some of the studies, it is not possible for students to receive all of their lessons in their own home-room (as is normal in Japanese schools). There is a 10-minute break between each class to allow students to move to their next classroom.

Clubs and activities

There are approximately 50 very active extra-curriclaur clubs, including all the usual sports and hobbies, and some less common, such as

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensively ...

and broadcasting. Notable club successes: * English Debate ** 2007 nationwide high school comprehensive conference, third in the nation ** 2008 nationwide high school comprehensive conference, second in the nation * Boys

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

section ** 2006 nationwide high school comprehensive

physical education Physical education, often abbreviated to Phys Ed. or P.E., is a subject taught in schools around the world. It is usually taught during primary and secondary education, and encourages psychomotor learning by using a play and movement explorati ...

conference ** 37th nationwide high school volleyball selection victory conference participation (2nd place) * Wind band ** In the 27th Vienna international young people's music festival invitational, grand prix winners ** In the 15th Pacific music festival, grand prix winners. *

Archery Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In m ...

section ** Women's 2006 nationwide high school comprehensive physical education conference, competitors.

Cultural festival

Every year, over a weekend at the beginning of September the school hosts a culture

festival A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival c ...

, which is very popular with local Japanese people (usually over 15000 attendees). The houses compete for a prize awarded to the house which best decorates their building according to a certain theme. There is live music, and demonstrations from some of the clubs and societies. In 2006 the festival was held on 9th and 10 September, and will hopefully be larger than any previous year.

Alumni

Owing to its concentration on modern languages, many alumni go on to work abroad. Some who have stayed in Japan are:
Mimura
Japanese TV and film actress ...others...

Sources

Most of this article has come from translating the Japanese Wikipedia page of the same subject,

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. Some from the schools official homepage, and some from personal experience of the school. {{coord, 36, 00, 49, N, 139, 36, 46, E, source:kolossus-jawiki, display=title High schools in Saitama Prefecture Schools in Saitama Prefecture Educational institutions established in 1984 1984 establishments in Japan