Graduation Day

Have you always wondered what it looks like when a bunch of Japanese 12 year olds graduate from their elementary school and move on to bigger and better things, like junior high? If so, you've come to the right place!

In Japan, the school year starts in April and ends in March. As it is now March, you may have deduced that the school year has just ended. All of my schools thus had graduation ceremonies, ranging from six students to over seventy at the largest schools. Like in American schools, these kids are all 6th year students who are now entering junior high school. All of my graduation events took place at the same time, so I was unfortunately only able to attend one of them; I would have liked to see all of my students graduate, but it was not to be.



The school that I went to was the smallest of my "big" schools, with around 60 students in grades 1 through 6. This school had 11 graduating students. In the morning, all of the non-graduating students assembled in the gym, with the stage all made up for the ceremony. Behind them were stools for the parents and relatives of the graduating students, who hadn't arrived yet. The banner on stage says "Congratulations on Graduation".



The teacher of the 6th year students came in, followed by the graduates, one by one. They walked through the audience to the front of the gym.



Here you can see some of the 6th years at the front. In Japanese elementary schools, students don't wear uniforms; in junior high and high school, they do. The graduating students here are wearing their new uniforms - black suits for the boys and blue skirts and blazers for the girls. These are formal uniforms, for occasions like this and the school entrance ceremony - for day to day class they have school-issued tracksuits. The kids are quite proud of their new uniforms.

Speeches are given and diplomas handed out. After receiving their diplomas, each student says some words of thanks to their family and teachers - one of the advantages of a smaller school. After all have been handed out, the graduating class and the rest of the school sang a few songs.

After the ceremony ended, there were lots of pictures taken, which I'll probably get a hold of later. I did get my picture taken with the teacher of the graduating class:



Some teachers wore traditional ceremonial dress, like this, while others were dressed in western-style suits.

Next week I'll be able to go to the entrance ceremony for one of the middle schools, where I can see some more of my students who's graduations I wasn't able to attend. Until then, I hope you enjoyed this look at an important event in students' lives.