Hamana High School


Shizuoka Prefectural Hamana Senior High School is a public co-educational senior high school in Hamakita-ku, Hamamatsu, Japan.

Overview

Hamana High School is a public senior high school with two departments, a full-time day school and a part-time evening school.

History

The school was founded in 1913 as the Kitahama Sewing Cram School for girls. In 1947, the Kitahama High School merged with Kasai Girls' High School and the next year the name was changed to Shizuoka Prefectural Hamana Senior High School.

Chronology

Kitahama Girls' High School

The Japanese school year begins near the beginning of April and ends in mid-March, with 5–6 weeks of summer vacation from the last week of July to the end of August and about 2 weeks of winter vacation around the New Year's holiday.

Rigorous Academics Course

In this course, students have supplementary classes every morning before school and two times a week after school in addition to their regular classes. The focus in these classes is on studying. Students in this course aim to enter prestigious national or public universities.

Science Course

In this course, the focus is on the sciences and the curriculum includes many math classes. Students have math classes twice a day on some days.

Literary Course I

In this course, students study all subjects including math and science.

Literary Course II

In this course, there is less emphasis on math and science. Students take classes in art, music, calligraphy or dress design.

School clubs

As in most Japanese high schools, the school clubs at Hamana are mandatory. Students join only one club and generally continue it throughout high school. Students have one opportunity after their first year to change their club. Students finish their club activity requirement after the first semester of their final year to concentrate on studying, the exception being some athletic clubs.

Athletic Clubs

Athletic clubs meet almost every day to practice. Students often practice after school, during holidays and school vacations.
Hamana has a strong soccer team which has competed at the national level multiple times in the All Japan High School Soccer Tournament.
Hamana's baseball team also attended at a national event, competing in the 75th Japanese High School Baseball Championship as one of 3 teams representing the Tōkai region in 2003. The baseball team has also participated in the Shizuoka Prefectural Baseball Tournament.
There are many cultural clubs at Hamana. These clubs usually meet just one hour a week on Fridays, with the exception being the dance club which meets more often to practice.

List of cultural clubs

It is held on a Friday and Saturday around the beginning of June. In-school performances are held on Friday with the whole school in attendance. On the Friday morning, there is a dance club performance, a drama club performance and a concert by the school brass band. In the afternoon there are several guest performers for example musicians or comedians.
On the Saturday morning, the student bands play. The festival is open to the public from mid-morning on Saturday. There are classroom exhibitions from the cultural clubs, including photo and flower arrangements. The dance club and drama club have performances and the English club often performs puppet shows in English. The tea ceremony club offers the experience to try the tea ceremony for a small fee. Visitors can enjoy games created by the computer club members. There are also classroom exhibitions by the second and third grade home rooms which include games and activities for visitors to enjoy.

Alumni