SCHOOL PROFIL

Uto Senior High School
Phone: +81-96-22-0043
Fax: +81-96-22-4753
Principal: Junshi Morita
Counselor: Ryosuke Koyanagi

COMMUNITY

Located in Uto-city, which is on the south of Kumamoto City, the district is accessible to both urban needs and relaxation from natural environment. This district enjoys diversified industries, convenience of transportation, cultural and historical sites including the World Heritage Site, Misumi West Port, and at the same time, calm and peaceful environment for education.

SCHOOL

Uto Senior High School, founded in 1920, has been one of the academic high schools in Kumamoto prefecture and is competitive to be admitted into. It is a comprehensive three-year public high school enrolling about 700 students in grades 10 - 12. The academic year starts in April and ends in March next year. The graduation ceremony is held on March 1st, however, 10th and 11th graders’ academic year ends at the end of March. It has an affiliated junior high school enrolling about 240 students in grades 7 - 9.

Since we are under Ministry of Education, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) in Japan, the school grade levels are, elementary school (1-6), junior high school (7-9), and senior high school (10-12). Up to 9th grade is compulsory; however, more than 97% of junior high graduates continue their education at senior high school. Since it is not compulsory, to enter senior high school, students usually have to take an entrance examination. Each senior high school has its own uniqueness; some are more focused on academic achievement, others more on commercial or industrial education.

Our education and a long maintained reputation as the school with well-behaved students attracting students with high academic ability, our graduates attend various prestigious colleges and universities, and since our foundation, we have produced distinguished people in academia, medicine, business and economics, technology and engineering, politics, and many other fields.

The students also enjoy extra-curricular activities, called club activities.   Total number of the students who belong to the clubs is about 550 (81%), with some students even belonging to more than one club. We have 11 cultural clubs, such as Wind Ensemble, Art, Japanese Calligraphy, Japanese Drum, Flower Arrangement, Tea Ceremony, and 17 sports clubs, such as Baseball, Basketball, Volleyball, Tennis, Track and Field, and so on.

SUPER SCIENCE HIGH SCHOOL (SSH)

The school has been providing high quality science education, with the help of JST (Japan Science and Technology Agency), since it was designated as one of the Super Science High Schools by MEXT since 2013. The students are very active in various kinds of research and enjoy presenting their findings in domestic and international academic meetings. With abundant on-going researches highly evaluated, we were selected the best SSH by JST and MEXT in 2016. In 2018 one of our research findings was selected as research representing Japan in the ISEF (Intel International Science and Engineering Fair). The research was ranked 4th in the physics division. The next year, in 2019, we sent other excellent students demonstrating at Japan Science & Engineering Challenge (JSEC), and there they won the incentive award.  This year, in 2021, also our school was awarded the 2nd prize at the Physical Society of Japan 17th Jr. Session. Furthermore, one of our fruits of the research, the research of the secondary real images on convex lens, was on a column page of a certain high school physics textbook. In addition, our school introduced 15 minutes’ nap, called Uto-Uto Time, just after lunch time for the refreshment before afternoon classes, which is often making its way into the nationwide media.

GLOBAL LEADER PROJECT (GLP)

We have been sending many students out to the USA, to Europe, to Asian countries for the purpose of fostering global leaders. Among them are the participation of academic meetings abroad or of get-together sessions with Harvard and MIT students, and the visiting universities in Taiwan, which are mentioned as a few examples.

CURRICULUM

As mentioned above, since we are under MEXT in Japan, our curriculum is probably quite different from the standard one you have in your country. Please note that as a public school in Japan we do not have any block schedule, AP/IB courses, or honored courses. The academic year is divided into three terms; the first, April to July, the second, September to December and the third, January to March. The transcript is the one certifying the grades at the end of the year. To be qualified to graduate, students have to earn more than 90 credits.

GRADING

* The average should be set around 60 - 55.

Class of 2021

There were 225 students in the Class of 2021, who are graduating on March 1st in 2022. At the end of the first team,