Kenji Hayashibara
Headmaster of Handa High School, Aichi JAPAN
April 2023
Welcome to Handa High School website, Aichi JAPAN
Many thanks for visiting the Handa High School website.
I am delighted to say that this year marks the 105th anniversary since the Aichi Prefectural Seventh Junior High School, one of the predecessors of our school, opened here in April 1919. During this period, the school has also taken over the former Aichi Handa High School for Girls, Aichi Handa Junior High School and Handa Municipal High School for Girls under the old education system, has played a leading role in the intellectual culture of this region up to the present day. The school has produced more than 35,000 graduates to date, who have been significant in a variety of fields, not only within the prefecture but also widely throughout Japan and abroad, including distinguished alumni such as Nankichi Niimi, a writer of children’s stories still loved by the Japanese people, Rizo Takeuchi, who was awarded the Order of Culture, Shinichi Hirano, former President of Nagoya University, and two Keidanren (Japan Business Federation) presidents, Gaishi Hiraiwa and Sadayuki Sakakibara in the Japanese business world. This has helped our school to establish unwavering trust in the local community and to contribute to the development of a wide range of fields in Japan, including culture, academia and the economy.
The foundation of the school’s education is the spirit of ‘self-learning, self-governance and self-discipline’, or in other words, to learn by oneself, to control by oneself and to train by oneself, as advocated by the first headmaster Shusaku Suzuki of Aichi Prefectural Seventh Junior High School 105 years ago. This ideal, which is fragrant with the new education of the Taisho era, has been handed down over the ages, is still alive today under the term ‘independence and autonomy’.
The students of our school, who have inherited this tradition from generation to generation, are seriously involved in their daily studies, club activities and school events, and are developing the qualities and abilities to become leaders of the next generation. In particular, school event such as the ‘Hiiragi Festival’ is planned and organised primarily by the student council, with students taking the lead, and activities that make use of their originality and ingenuity are carried out year after year, providing a great deal of excitement as a place to showcase the results of their daily studies and activities. In club activities, the SSH Natural Science Club, Gymnastics Club, Swimming Club, Yachting Club, which competed at national competition level last year, have all achieved remarkable success with brilliant results as well as other clubs. 17 sports clubs and 14 cultural clubs are all working hard, balancing their studies with the aim of advancing to the higher levels of competition and giving high quality presentations. The school has also received high praise for its career achievements, having built up a number of achievements to date through guidance that fosters a spirit of challenge while aiming for high aspirations and goals.
Since the 2013 academic year, the school has been designated as a Super Science High School (SSH) by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), and is promoting initiatives to foster an international mindset while providing advanced science and mathematics education in order to develop science and technology personnel who can play an active role internationally in the future. In the 2023 academic year, our school has set “Fostering global science leaders who connect the spirit of Chita and continue to take on the challenge of creating scientific and technological innovations” as its research and development theme, while making the most of the school’s 65-minute class periods, the whole school is working on the practice of inquiry activities that integrate the humanities and sciences, aiming to nurture human resources who will boldly take up the challenge of advanced fields, such as fostering an entrepreneurial spirit and promoting overseas expansion.
Regular and active exchanges with Hiiragi Special Support School, which is located on the same site, are also a feature of our school. Through various opportunities such as reading exchanges, story-telling exchanges, wheelchair assistance practice, the simultaneous holding of the Hiiragi Festival and the special needs school art exhibition, comprehensive exchanges at the special needs school sports day and cultural festival, our school athletics competition and the Hiiragi Festival, homeroom exchanges, and interaction exchanges, pupils and students are able to learn together in the same place and deepen mutual understanding in order to form a symbiotic society. We are also working on the practice of ‘Inclusive Education’, in which students learn together and deepen mutual understanding.
In addition, the school’s alumni association, Hiiragi-kai, has given deep understanding and support for our educational activities, and it is worth mentioning that as part of the school’s 100th anniversary project that was developed mainly in 2018, the old martial arts hall built in 1924 was revitalized into the ‘Seventh Junior High School Memorial Hall’ as a future-style classroom that can be used at any time. It is a source of great pride for the students of our school, who are currently studying hard, that the building was officially registered as a “Registered Tangible Cultural Property” by the State on 29 June, 2022. Through the use of the Seventh Junior High School Memorial Hall, we will continue to nurture our students with the creativity and challenging spirit that will lead the future.
Last but not least, our school has decided to introduce an ‘Integrated Junior and Senior High School’ and is currently making preparations for its opening in April 2025. The aim is to nurture future ‘changemakers’. Today’s society is changing at an accelerating pace and the future is extremely difficult to predict. In such a society and in such an era, ‘changemakers’ are required to work with a variety of people, take on challenges with no fear of failure and bring about change in society, in response to issues for which there are no answers.
The Integrated Junior and Senior High School to be introduced in two years will promote learning that maximises and develops the potential of every child, who has a unique personality, through six years of well-planned, continuous education and activities with the local community. We will continue to strive for the development of human resources who will pave the way for the future of Aichi, Japan and the rest of the world.
It would be a great pleasure if you could visit this website again, where we will introduce you to our students who are enjoying a fulfilling high school life and our various educational activities.
半田高校のホームページをご覧くださり、ありがとうございます。
大正８（1919）年４月、本校の前身の一つである愛知県立第七中学校がこの地に開校してから、今年で創立105年目を迎えます。この間、旧制の愛知県半田高等女学校、愛知県半田中学校、半田市立高等女学校の流れも引き継ぎつつ、今日までこの地域の知的文化の中核としての役割を本校は担ってきました。今なお日本人に愛され続ける童話作家の新美南吉先生や、文化勲章を受章された竹内理三氏、元名古屋大学総長の平野眞一氏、経済界では平岩外四氏、榊原定征氏という二人の経団連会長が誕生するなど、これまでに卒業生は３万５千名余を数え、県内はもとより、広く国の内外にわたり様々な分野で活躍する有為な人材を輩出しながら、本校は地域社会からも揺るぎない信頼を得るとともに、日本の文化・学術・経済など幅広い分野の発展に貢献してきました。
本校の教育の原点は、今から遡ること105年前、愛知県立第七中学校の鈴木周作初代校長先生の唱えられた『自学、自治、自鍛』、つまり自ら学び、自ら治め、自ら鍛える、という精神であり、大正期の新しい教育の香り漂うこの理想が、時代を超えて『自主自律』という言葉で今に息づいています。
この伝統を脈々と受け継いでいる本校生徒は、日々の学習や部活動、学校行事等に真剣に向き合うことで、次世代を担うリーダーとしての資質と能力を育んでいます。特に、「ひいらぎ祭」に代表される学校行事においては、生徒会を中心とした生徒主体による企画・運営が行われ、生徒の創意工夫を活かした活動が年々歳々繰り広げられ、日頃の学習や活動の成果を発表披露する場として大きな盛り上がりを見せています。また、部活動では、昨年度全国大会レベルに出場を果たしたSSH自然科学部、体操部、水泳部、ヨット部をはじめ、輝かしい成績を収めながら、目覚ましい活躍を遂げています。17の運動部および14の文化部ともそれぞれ上位大会進出や質の高い発表を目標に、学習と両立しながら熱心に活動しています。また、進路実績においても、高い志と目標を掲げながら挑戦する気概を育む指導を通じて、これまで数々の実績を積み上げ、たいへん高い評価をいただいています。
本校は、平成25（2013）年度より、文部科学省からスーパーサイエンスハイスクール（SSH）として指定され、将来国際的に活躍しうる科学技術人材の育成を図るため、先進的な理数系教育を実施しながら同時に国際性を育む取組をすすめています。今（令和５）年度よりいよいよ第３期を迎え、『知多の精神をつなぐ、科学技術イノベーションの創出に挑戦し続けるグローバルサイエンスリーダーの育成』を研究開発課題として定め、本校65分授業の利点を最大限に活かしながら、起業家精神育成や海外進出促進など、先進的分野に果敢に挑戦する人材の育成目指し、文理融合型による探究活動の実践に学校全体で取組んでいます。
同じ敷地内にある「ひいらぎ特別支援学校」との定期的で活発な交流も本校の特徴です。読書交流、絵本の読み聞かせ交流、車イスの介助実習、ひいらぎ祭と特別支援学校作品展の同時開催、特別支援学校運動会・文化祭と本校陸上競技大会・ひいらぎ祭での総合交流、ホームルーム交流にふれあい交流などの様々な機会を通して、共生社会の形成に向けて、児童生徒が同じ場で共に学び、相互に理解を深める「インクルーシブ教育」の実践にも取組んでいます。
また、本校同窓会『柊会（ひいらぎかい）』におかれましては、本校教育活動に深いご理解とご支援を頂いており、特筆すべきこととして、平成30（2018）年を中心に展開された本校100周年事業の一環として大正13年に建てられた旧武道場を、常時使用できる未来型の教室としての『七中記念館』に再生していただきました。そして、昨年（令和４年）の６月29日に、この建造物が国の「登録有形文化財」として正式に登録されたことは、現在勉学に励んでいる本校生徒にとっても大きな誇りです。この七中記念館の利用を通して、未来をリードする創造性と挑戦心を持ち合わせた半高生を今後も育ててまいります。
最後になりますが、本校は、「併設型中高一貫校」を導入することとし、2025（令和７）年４月開校に向けて現在準備をすすめています。このねらいは、将来の『チェンジ・メーカー』を育てることにあります。現在の社会は加速度的に変化し続けており、将来の予測が極めて難しい時代となっています。このような社会や時代においては、様々な人と協働しながら、答えのない課題に対して、失敗を恐れずにチャレンジし、社会に変化を起こす『チェンジ・メーカー』が求められています。今後導入する中高一貫教育では、ゆとりのある計画的・継続的な教育や、地域の方々との活動を通して、一人ひとり異なる個性をもつ子どもたちの可能性を最大限に引き出し、伸ばす学びをすすめながら、これからの愛知を、そして、日本をそして世界を切り拓いていく人材の育成に努めてまいります。
このホームページでは、充実した高校生活をおくる本校生徒の姿や様々な教育活動の様子を紹介してまいりますので、今後ともご高覧頂ければ幸いに存じます。
令和５年４月
愛知県立半田高等学校長 林原 健二