English in Action　Learning for Life

Tai Po Old Market Public School (Plover Cove) is committed to preparing students for the future, deeply integrating English learning with life practice, and cultivating students’ language ability and life skills through themed experiences, real-life applications and diverse activities. The course focuses on developing students' independent learning abilities, provides layered guidance and extended resources, and actively integrates AI tools and STEAM topics to promote personalized learning, making English a key tool for students to explore the world and express creative expressions, and cultivate future talents with international vision and lifelong learning capabilities.

Learn from life and apply what you have learned in English

The school attaches great importance to "learning from life" and is committed to closely integrating English learning with students' daily experience. The school believes that "hands-on, hands-on learning" experiential learning can best stimulate interest and allow English to be naturally integrated into life and become a practical and meaningful language tool.

When studying the theme of "Fruit we like", first-grade students not only conducted a "fruit tasting" in class, but also visited a strawberry orchard. By observing, touching and tasting fruits, students learn to describe the appearance, texture and taste of fruits. By picking strawberries by hand and listening to farmers’ explanations, they learn about the growth process of fruits. This interactive learning inspires students' curiosity and deepens their understanding of nature.

When learning "Colourful clothes", students wore their favorite clothes back to school, participated in fashion shows, transformed into fashion models, and introduced their clothes to other students in English. Such activities not only enhance students' confidence but also create a learning experience for them that is both fun and memorable.

In the "Our pets" unit in grade two, students learned care and responsibility by raising wheatworms in the classroom, and integrated care into language learning. Not only do students learn how to feed and clean the animals, they also take the wheatworms home and take care of them on the weekends. The activity not only improves Chinese language skills, but also allows students who have no experience in raising pets to understand how to become responsible pet owners.

Third-grade students transform into little chefs, combine cooking and English, write personal recipes and make them, and then share each other's creations on Padlet, integrating writing, speaking and digital literacy.

The fourth graders extended their learning to the real world: they corresponded with New Zealand pen pals and expanded their cultural horizons. When they received replies from their pen pals, they all felt excited and satisfied. In addition, when learning the topic of shopping, the teacher pushed the food cart from the school’s canteen into the classroom, allowing students to apply the language knowledge they learned in real situations.

Under the theme of "A fun day out", the fifth grade students walked into the Pak Tam Chung Nature Education Trail, applied hiking-related sentence structures, deepened their understanding through signboards, and finally made learning posters, combining experience and writing.

Sixth graders are full of visions for their ideal careers in the future. Teachers led students to visit different work organizations to explore "My dream job" and visit organizations such as the Civil Aviation Department, Radio Television Hong Kong, Customs and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. While learning about various industries, they also used English to understand the actual work environment.

Learning platform builds confidence and communicates naturally and fluently in English

Confidence is the cornerstone of language learning and the key to effective communication. The school's English course design uses diverse learning platforms and real life experiences to strengthen students' self-confidence and truly express themselves in English. The school's English ambassadors take the initiative to help organize English activities and encourage students to have English conversations in a natural and stress-free environment. The school has also set up English interactive areas in different corners, allowing students to communicate in English naturally under the guidance of teachers and English ambassadors.

One of the most popular activities among students is Campus TV, which allows every student to showcase their talents and potential. Students become reporters, writers and even directors to jointly produce programs. This not only enhances speaking skills but also fosters creativity and teamwork. In addition, English Day and English Day Camp are the highlights of the English subject every year. The content covers games, songs and small challenges to strengthen students' language learning. At the same time, this also promotes values ​​education such as perseverance, respect and self-worth. Students are developed to become confident communicators, ready to express themselves in English.

Make full use of language to give back to society and establish positive values

The school organically combines value education with Chinese language ability development. The English Department helps students establish positive values ​​and put them into practice through various activities. For example, when learning the theme of "Colourful toys", students not only learn to describe the appearance of toys, but also think about the situation of people in need in society, are willing to donate their own toys, and learn to share. While studying "World problems" and "How can we help?", the sixth grade students even designed booth games and organized school-wide fundraising activities, with all proceeds donated to charity groups.

Overseas Study Exchange Group Explore the World in English

The school attaches great importance to the international perspective of sixth grade students, and has organized English overseas study exchange tours for many years, such as visiting Greenpark School in Tauranga, New Zealand, staying with local host families, and immersing themselves in an all-English living environment. While experiencing the local culture, using English in the most authentic environment can effectively improve students' English confidence, allowing them to use English more meaningfully and prepare them to face the world in the future. Participating students said that this was a rare and unforgettable learning experience.

Cultivate self-study ability and learn to think carefully and discern clearly

Cultivating students to become independent learners is the core educational goal of the school. The English curriculum is designed to help students develop self-learning abilities and thinking, so that they can have a sense of ownership of their own learning, learn to think critically, and use these abilities in different learning areas.

In order to achieve the goal, the school implements the Guided Reading Program, which focuses on cultivating students' reading strategies and independent comprehension abilities. The teacher gradually gives students the initiative to interpret the text through techniques such as guiding questions, predicting plots, and summarizing key points. This process not only builds students' reading confidence, but also deepens their investment and thinking in the content.

The school attaches great importance to the development pace of each student and provides diversified and layered reading materials, with content extending from basic vocabulary to complex narrative structures. Under the guidance of teachers, students can receive appropriate support and meet appropriate challenges. This kind of personalized learning design can effectively improve students' intrinsic motivation and cultivate their long-term interest in reading.

Extended self-study materials to connect classroom and life

To promote the extension of after-school learning, the school has designed a series of interesting and easy-to-use self-study resources, including themed reading tasks, interactive vocabulary games and creative writing prompts. Students are happy to use these materials at home to continue learning, and this has also received positive recognition and support from parents. The school believes that the true meaning of learning is not only to cope with exams, but also to equip students to face various challenges in future life. When students master "how to learn", they can build confidence, take the initiative to explore, and eventually become independent, purposeful and continuously growing learners.

Connecting technology and English to embrace the future world

Technology is a dynamic bridge connecting language and the real world, and it is also an important engine for promoting independent learning and creative thinking. The school is committed to deeply integrating AI tools, STEAM elements and digital platforms into teaching, so that English learning can break through the limitations of the classroom and become a practical tool for students to explore the future, solve problems and express creativity. In terms of oral practice, students improve their thinking ability and questioning skills through message conversations with AI chatbots; in terms of writing improvement, senior students use the AI ​​English writing platform to get real-time grammar revision and personalized layered exercises to accurately improve their writing skills; in independent reading, teachers will recommend appropriate e-books and audiobooks through the e-reading platform based on the teaching topics and students' level, and students can borrow them at any time to develop independent reading habits.

The school also selects suitable topics at all levels and designs STEAM special activities that integrate science, technology and English. Through scientific experiments, off-campus field trips and hands-on tasks, students use English to learn new knowledge in a real exploration process, allowing language to naturally become a medium for connecting knowledge and expressing discoveries. In addition, the school uses an electronic learning platform to completely record the learning process. Class tasks, topic discussions and work sharing can all be presented on the platform. Students can conduct self-evaluation and peer-evaluation, adjust their learning pace from real-time feedback, and cultivate the ability of independent management and collaborative reflection.