Location	1－3－20, Otemae, Chuo-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka
TEL.	81-6-6942-2231
Website	https://www.otemon-e.ed.jp
Membership	2025

2024 Annual Report

Nurturing Contributors to the Creation of a Sustainable Society

This school year, in promoting ESD throughout the school, we have set forth and worked toward three major goals.

Ⅰ Global Citizenship and a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence

Greeting Campaign

We view greeting others as acknowledging their existence, a first step toward peace. In other words, we believe that greeting people is a way of respecting those around us, which extends to a perspective and respect for the community and society as a whole.  We believe that this leads to the creation of a culture of peace and non-violence. At the beginning of each new school year and when there are many visitors to the school, there is a school-wide reminder calling on the students to greet people of their own initiative.

Promoting Cooperation

Taking advantage of our location in front of Osaka Castle Park, we organized students into groups and held comprehensive learning activities throughout the year to cultivate a spirit of mutual aid and leadership.

Participation in Learning Together with 20 Osaka/Kansai ASPnet Schools

We participated in learning exchange meetings with 20 Osaka/Kansai ASPnet schools about a supportive society, and held workshops and learning camps about living while supporting each other based on the experience of the Noto earthquake.

Children’s Clothing Drive (Delivering the Power of Clothes Project)

In support of the SDGs club activities at the junior high school and high school where some of our school’s graduates currently study, we called for cooperation from the families of the school’s parents in collecting used children’s clothing to be sent to refugee camps and other locations.

At the start of the collection, the current situation of refugee camps was introduced to all students. Many families donated items, not only for the purpose of the activity, but also out of a sense of support for the efforts of our school’s graduates. After the event, messages written by our graduates were posted in the school to express their gratitude.

Ⅱ Sustainable Development and Sustainable Lifestyle

Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Education

Based on our monthly disaster prevention education curriculum, awareness and discussion activities on disaster prevention and mitigation were conducted in the classroom.

In addition to the spring general evacuation drill, disaster drills were held in fall and winter. In addition, in a tie-up with the SDGs Kids Support Project (sponsored by Sekisui House, Osaka Gas Network, and Sankei Shimbun), “Let’s learn SDGs! Living and Disaster Prevention/Mitigation” programs were held in the fall and winter.

The Sankei Shimbun ran a feature article on the program, and through the newspaper (which was donated to the school), families were informed of the program’s disaster prevention and disaster mitigation efforts connected to their daily lives.

Environmental Education

In order to reduce waste, in addition to regular waste bins, waste bins were installed in each classroom to separate unneeded paper into two major categories, and recyclable paper was collected throughout the year.

In order to reduce the amount of leftovers from school lunches eaten every day, we talked to the entire school to raise awareness. In principle, students are supposed to eat all the food served to them after adjusting the amount of food before eating it, but baskets were placed in the hallway for students to throw away food that they could not finish. Over the course of several days, photographs of the leftovers and posted on the bulletin board to show our students the current situation of uneaten food.　In addition, the “School Lunch News,” prepared by the school lunch kitchen, includes explanations of seasonal menus and nutritional information about the ingredients used that day, in order to raise awareness about food. In this connection, World Food Day was celebrated on October 16.

In addition, World Environment Day on June 5 was taken up in conjunction with our Sports Festival held on June 2.

In order to protect the environment, we recommended that children practicing for the event bring water bottles instead of plastic bottles for beverages.

Parents and guardians visiting the school on the day of the performance were also encouraged to refrain from buying beverages in PET bottles and to bring their own bottles, and were asked to cooperate with the school’s overall efforts.

Energy Education

During the extremely hot summer, the entire school worked to turn off the air conditioners in all classrooms when possible. At the same time, the entire school worked to turn off lights as often as possible.

Posters were displayed in each classroom, and a graph of the amount of electricity used in the previous year was created and presented to encourage students to take action.

The same efforts were made during the heating season in the winter.

III Cross-cultural Learning and Respect for Cultural Diversity and Heritage

Online Classes and Live Exchanges

Each semester, online exchange meetings with our sister school in Australia were held for grades 1, 2, and 3.　After exchanging greetings with each other, each class designed a performance, such as presenting a song or playing a musical instrument, and played games together online. In the 6th grade, teachers introduced each other’s traditional events, food, clothing, shelter, and lifestyle to the students of the other school in an online exchange class.

A school in Hawaii with which we have a friendship relationship sent a group of 24 students and 7 school staff to visit our school and participate in a homestay.

A teacher and his family from an exchange school in Korea visited our school and introduced Korean traditional culture to the 4th graders by playing yuunori, a Korean board game.

Slide materials were prepared in advance of the exchange to introduce the greeting words of the other country to all the children. The slide presentation was displayed in a place where all the children could see it.

The whole school was excited to welcome the visitors.

Experiential Learning of Traditional Japanese Culture (Rediscover NIPPON Project)

In June, a hands-on learning experience of picking tea leaves was held. Participants hand-picked tea leaves while listening to a local farmer talk about farming techniques and facts, for example, how tea leaves grown without pesticides can be eaten on the spot after being picked. The tea leaves were then roasted, dried, and made into tea.

In October, students took a walk in the countryside along Yamanobe-no-michi, an ancient road in Japan, to experience the historical atmosphere that still remains today and the Manyo haiku monument that was acclaimed in ancient times.　After the walk, the participants listened to a talk by an associate professor of Nara University of Education on the restoration of architectural coloring in terms of conservation techniques and restoration of cultural properties, followed by a hands-on coloring class.

In February, a Gagaku (ancient Japanese court music) master directly instructed the group on Gagaku (ancient Japanese court music), a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Property, through chorus and ensemble performances.

 

Annual Work Plan

As a school that nurtures human resources who contribute to the creation of a sustainable society (socially valuable human resources)-Promotion of ESD

We believe that human resources who contribute to the creation of a sustainable society are those who have a spirit of respect and love, and are equipped with wisdom (the ability to challenge, explore, and express oneself) and rigidity (the strength and stamina to overcome difficulties). We plan studies and school events to cultivate these foundations to be acquired in the future. The main pillars of our plan are activities that emphasize the environment, peace, international understanding, and the relationship between everyday life and the SDGs.

1. environment and peace

In connection with activities to celebrate the International Day, we will plan study and school events on the themes of the environment and peace, respectively.

2. International Understanding

In addition to exchanges with sister schools (Australia, Hawaii, Korea), students will have opportunities for cooperative learning with ASPnet schools overseas.

3. Everyday familiar life and SDGs

Set weekly goals…Set weekly behavioral goals that the school as a whole should be aware of, while taking into account the actual conditions of the children’s daily lives and how they are doing, in order to establish or raise their awareness of these goals. This is an opportunity to learn what to know and what to do, to learn as a person, and to learn to live together.

4. Others

Opportunities for cooperative learning with ASPnet in Japan.

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