Issue No.5 Publication Announcement "Aiming to enrich the learning experience of each individual"

(Inagi City's Education "Yell" June 15, Issue 1)

　We are pleased to announce the publication of the Inagi City Board of Education newsletter "Yell". We will be publishing information about the city's overall educational policies. We hope that many citizens will take a look at this newsletter, along with the "Lifelong Learning News Square" that has been familiar to many of you for many years. Thank you for your support.
The name "Yell" combines "Inagi" with "Education" and "Learning," and also includes the meaning of "yell." We hope that in Inagi City, children and adults alike can experience new learning experiences every day, and support and praise each other's growth, expanding the circle of learning. With the publication of this book, we intend to further enhance our educational policies.
　
　There are currently many different educational issues facing us, but in order to realize the aspirations we have for "Yale," we recognize that it is important that each and every child and student is able to spend each day feeling hopeful and safe, and make progress in their learning.
With this awareness of the issue, on April 26, 2024, the Inagi City Board of Education invited Professor Hajime Arai of Kansai Gaidai University to hold a training session for all teachers and staff of Inagi City schools, with the theme of "The future direction of student guidance as indicated by the 'New Student Guidance Guidelines'". The "Student Guidance Guidelines" is a basic textbook on life guidance for schools and teachers created by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. In December 2022, it was revised for the first time in 12 years in light of major changes in the social environment surrounding children. This training session was planned in order to learn how to view and interact with children, which is necessary in the current era, and to have Professor Arai, who played a central role in the revision of the "Student Guidance Guidelines", provide guidance.
On the day, Mr. Arai first spoke about the New Student Guidance Guidelines, which take into account the challenges children and students face and attempt to answer four issues: "Acquiring the ability to survive in a changing society (VUCA era)," "Responding to the increasing number of children and students with diverse backgrounds," "Understanding the laws that protect children," and "Schools as a team to balance "Workstyle Reform" with improving student guidance." He went on to say that it was important to aim for a shift in teaching attitudes toward children to "development-supportive student guidance." We then learned the following:
(1) “Development-supportive student guidance” refers to efforts to support the growth and development of all children and students in all educational activities so that they can become members of a symbiotic society.
(2) From now on, student guidance will be required to be carried out on a four-tier basis ("development-supportive student guidance," "education to prevent problems from occurring," "early detection and response to problems," and "student guidance for dealing with difficult problems") based on the scope of the target and the level of the problems, with the aim of providing four tiers.
From these stories, we realized that in order to provide more effective support for issues such as "bullying" and "school absenteeism," it is necessary to systematically assess and determine what kind of response is appropriate for each "stratum" depending on the individual situation.
Furthermore, we received valuable advice such as "changing the question from 'Why don't they come to school?' to 'What kind of school would make them come?'", "creating opportunities to build relationships through direct experiences", "'Problem behavior' is 'problem-raising behavior,'" and "A 'troublesome child' is a 'child in trouble.'" We also received strong encouragement, such as "Let's become a 'professional learning community' and support the children as a 'team school.'" This deepened our resolve to support the development and growth of children while learning together as educational professionals.
　
　The Inagi City Board of Education has been working to improve the environment so that children can feel hopeful and safe and can experience learning. As part of this, we are working on the following to support children and students who have difficulty entering the classroom or attending school.
First, for individual concerns, homeroom teachers and life guidance teachers at each school, as well as professional school counselors and school social workers, and outside of school, psychological counselors at the Inagi City Education Center Educational Counseling Room (in the Friend Hirao complex) and the Educational Counseling Room Branch (opened in 2024), and instructors at the Educational Support Room (renamed from the Adaptation Guidance Classroom) and Nashi no Mi Room are available to provide consultation. In addition, each elementary and junior high school will provide online classes upon request, and each junior high school will have a separate room on campus, where "additional teachers for school refusal" (Inagi Fourth Junior High School) and "school refusal patrol teachers" (junior high schools other than Inagi Fourth Junior High School) from the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education, as well as guidance and support staff in the separate room on campus, are providing guidance and support for individual learning, etc. The "Nashi no Mi Room," an off-campus learning space, was previously set up in a classroom at a municipal elementary school, but was moved to its current location in the Inagi City Education Center in 2015, with the aim of making use of the more spacious facilities to enrich and diversify learning. In this "Nashi no Mi Room," teachers with experience as principals and vice principals at Inagi City schools organize and teach the curriculum based on the curriculum guidelines, and provide individualized learning, practical subjects and group activities using the facilities, and experiential activities through off-campus learning. In addition, since it is important to recognize that there are individual circumstances behind school refusal, a contact point was opened in the educational counseling room from 2024 to provide information on places to seek advice and nearby free schools, so that support can be tailored to each individual's situation.
Furthermore, in order for children and students to spend their days in peace, it is important that the school is a place where everyone can learn with peace of mind. Therefore, starting from the 2024 school year, the city is independently working on a "multiple homeroom teacher system" and "some subject homeroom teacher system" in all elementary schools, without waiting for the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to assign teachers for this purpose. We are working to create a system that will lead to the creation of a school where children can feel safe, by enabling appropriate support by having multiple teachers watch over the condition of each child, consultations from multiple teachers from children, and multiple responses to problems and worries that arise in each class or child.
We will continue to promote such initiatives and work hard to find ways to concretely realize the aspirations we have put into the name "Yell."
　

　Makiko Sugimoto, Superintendent of Inagi City Board of Education