Kamajo offers students a wide selection of engaging extra curricular activities to support and compliment their academic studies.
The English Department regularly hosts a number of extra curricular activities throughout the year which take place both in Japan and overseas.
Thought the year both junior and heigh school students are encouraged to enter various regional and national speech and essay contests. Many of our students have gone on to win first, second and other placed prizes in these contests.
In June, the native English teachers host an British Afternoon Tea Event. 20 JHS Grade 2 students participate in the event, during which they learn how to bake scones, how to prepare a fresh pot of English tea and how to set a table for a traditional afternoon tea event.
In JHS Grade 3, students take part in a series of temple interviews around Kamakura. This involves the students approaching foreign visitors. Students interview tourists to gather personal information, to find out about their resons for visiting Japan and to get their overall impression of Japanese culture.
In SHS Grade 1, students use their English languege skills to guide foreign tourists around some key sightseeing areas of Kamakura.
At the end of SHS Grade 2, students participate in a special program called “English Shower”. This progrem provides students with the opportunity to take part in either presentation or debate skills workshopes debeloped and run by professional native English language instructors and post-graduates from a range of Asian countries, the USA and other countries.
Every summer approximately 30 SHS Grade 1 students go to Toronto in order to experience a 24-hour total immersion program. These students spend 3 weeks in Canada where they experience the following:
Every second spring approximately 15 students from JHS Grade 3 and SHS Grade 1 go to Pennsylvania in the USA on a home-stay program. They spend around 3 weeks with a home-stay family and attend the Perkiomen Valley High School. In the following June and July, Kamakura Jogakuin families then host the American students in Japan. Students participate actively in both school and family life in Japan.
SHS Grade 1 and SHS Grade 2 students have the chance to study at Craighead Diocesan School for Girls in Timaru in New Zealand. Our students study for one whole academic year, returning to Kamajo to complete the rest of their school life.
SHS Grade 1 and SHS Grade 2 students have the chance to study at the prestigious public school, Leweston School in Sherborne in Dorset. Our students study for one whole academic year, returning to Kamajo to complete the rest of the school life.
As part of their learning skills classes in JHS Grades 1 and 2, students develop a pen-pal relationship with junior high school students in Cambodia who are also studying English. This gives students the opportunity to develop their writing skills and learn about another culture.
The White Horse Theatre group visits the school to perform classic British works followed by a workshop. The performance and workshops are conducted in English giving the students the opportunity to be exposed to not only British works, but the works in their original form.
In February, the English Department hosts an internal recitation and speech contest open to middle school students.
Eight JHS Grade 1 students, eight JHS Grade 2 students and four returnee students participate in the recitations, while six JHS Grade 3 students deliver speeches, written by themselves with guidance from the Oral Communication teachers.
Participants perform their recitations and speeches in the auditorium to the entire middle school and are judged by a panel of teachers including the school principal.
In both SHS Grade 1 and Grade 2, Kamakura Jogakuin hosts guest speakers from Asian countries such as the Philippines and Myanmar. These lectures are held in order to give our students some insight into those issues which are impacting developing nations in Asia.
In SHS Grade 2, Kamakura Jogakuin hosts a group of students from Nashville’s Herpeth Hall High School. This exchange provides our students with more opportunities to develop their English language skills, share information about their own lives and culture and find out about the lifestyle of the Tennessee visitors.
