Experiential English life education shows a different life

Sha Tin Methodist Primary SchoolIn the spirit of Christ, we have always been student-oriented and cultivate students with both moral character and academic excellence. Principal Zhu Minjuan understands that English is the key to opening up an international perspective. If students can establish their English foundation and interest from an early age, it will be of great help to their future development. Therefore, the school is committed to providing a real language environment, learning happily in a natural atmosphere, and comprehensively cultivating students' ability and confidence in reading, writing, listening and speaking.

S — Self-discipline
T — Thankfulness
M — Motivation
P — Perseverance
S — Serving Serving God Serving God

Linking value education to build positive attitude

The school has been committed to developing life education for many years and has integrated core elements into the English subject. It is hoped that students can acquire positive qualities and actively face challenges to solve various problems in life. Principal Zhu said that the curriculum design concept is based on the English abbreviation of the school name "STMPS" to instill five core values in students: "The school abbreviation STMPS can be seen everywhere on campus, as well as the core values it represents. Students can not only learn English, but also subtly internalize these core elements, learn to cherish life, and have a different life six years later."

Promote independent learning and cultivate a positive attitude

What’s special about the school’s English curriculum is its blend of life education elements, thinking strategies and independent learning. English teachers will incorporate self-study activities into daily teaching to allow students to practice self-study strategies. Taking pre-class preview as an example, students will collect information on relevant topics before class, and then return to school to share with classmates to enrich the subject content; teachers will also teach note-taking techniques, such as mind maps, timelines, etc., to deepen thinking strategies and extended learning after class, and cultivate students' self-learning ability.

At the same time, the teaching team arranges diversified learning tasks every year. Students collect information for different learning topics and report in their own ways, such as oral reports, making brochures, designing posters, etc., allowing students to use their small universe and promote thinking from multiple perspectives.

Foreign teachers teach optimized reading courses

To improve your overall English proficiency, the most important thing is to develop reading habits so that you can improve your vocabulary and learn more sentence patterns and grammar. The school employs two foreign English teachers, who are responsible for designing and teaching reading classes in junior and senior primary schools respectively, encouraging students to read more to expand their horizons. From elementary school onwards, foreign English teachers will guide students in the correct techniques of pinyin, stringing words and pronunciation. They will also use a series of English storybooks to conduct "guided reading" and "shared reading" in class to teach different reading strategies. Students can effectively improve their reading skills and lay a solid foundation in English.

In order to enhance the reading atmosphere, the school creates an environment conducive to students' reading both inside and outside of class, including setting up morning reading time to allow students to develop the habit of reading every day. It also establishes a "reading day" and organizes a series of reading-related activities, such as book introductions and sharing of reading reports, to increase students' reading pleasure. It also uses online reading platforms to encourage students to read independently after class and cultivate an independent learning attitude.

Multiple teaching models increase learning fun

Learning English cannot be limited to textbook knowledge, otherwise students will easily feel bored and find it difficult to maintain their enthusiasm for English. The school creates a relaxed and enjoyable English learning environment through multiple teaching models, and carefully arranges different teaching activities for students, such as drama teaching, writing activities, project studies, electronic teaching activities, etc., to enhance their interest and confidence in English learning.

Outside the classroom, foreign English teachers play interactive games with students in English every morning. During recess, senior primary school students serve as "English Ambassadors" and interact with junior primary students in English, allowing students to fully immerse themselves in the English world and stimulate their motivation to actively use English. The school will also actively prepare for different activities to explore the diverse arts and talents of students, including setting up an English drama team, with professional drama tutors and English teachers providing regular training for students, and participating in off-campus English drama competitions, so that students can gain pleasure and satisfaction from the activities and cultivate a lifelong interest in artistic development. In addition, in order to improve students' speaking ability, the school offers English gifted speaking classes and English interesting speaking classes, which are taught by foreign teachers themselves. Interaction, answer answering, role-playing and other techniques are integrated into the classroom, so that students can speak more and act more, improving their speaking ability and self-confidence.

Combine STREAM elements to improve learning efficiency

The school adheres to a forward-looking English education strategy and is committed to developing STREAM education to train students in common abilities such as logical thinking, problem solving, application of innovative skills, collaboration, and creativity to meet the needs of future society. In terms of curriculum planning, the English course specially integrates STREAM teaching elements. Through scientific experiments, foreign English teachers use activity teaching methods to lead students to learn different scientific vocabulary in an interesting way, increase their vocabulary, and greatly improve communication and collaboration skills in the process. These interesting science topics successfully aroused students' interest in learning, allowing them to discover that English learning does not have to be memorized by rote, but can be very lively.

Summer bridging courses to meet the needs of new students

When new students enter primary school, they will inevitably feel nervous when faced with changes in the learning environment and model. The school carefully arranges an adaptation period for new students to help them adapt to the new environment of learning in English. Before the start of school in September, the school will hold an English summer class. Foreign English teachers will take students around the campus to increase their sense of belonging. They will also introduce daily English words and preview story books to help them adapt to the primary school curriculum as soon as possible. After the official start of the school year, teachers will adjust the curriculum and teach students in accordance with their aptitude, no matter in terms of teaching, assessment and homework.

"The school has three assessments throughout the year. The school deliberately excludes the first-grade assessment results from the score sheet. The purpose is to reduce the pressure on primary school students, but at the same time, it allows them to feel the assessment atmosphere and understand the learning model and life in primary school." Principal Zhu added that the school's educational philosophy focuses on adding thinking strategies and skills to enhance students' self-study and multi-perspective thinking capabilities. Therefore, a bonus point system is set up for silent reading, and students are encouraged to collect vocabulary related to the topic outside of textbooks. If they fill it out during silent reading, they will receive bonus points. Students will take the initiative to collect and review new words to create a strong motivation for learning. Some students even consult dictionaries and learn spontaneously. This English knowledge can be used in composition or communication in the future.

In addition, the school holds a large-scale event for new students - a 100-day banquet. The whole process is communicated in English. Foreign English teachers design games to review what they have learned in class with the new students. On the one hand, they can integrate learning into the game, review and consolidate the knowledge they have learned; on the other hand, they can allow the new students to get to know each other in a relaxed atmosphere, adapt to and participate in campus life.

Principal Zhu concluded that the role of the school is to think about how to make good use of the configuration and integrate the English context into the campus so that students can remember the knowledge in their hearts. Students will face the world in the future. The school invests resources to strengthen the English context to equip them with a world view. By laying a solid foundation in English, they will have more choices when they enter middle school in the future.