Adhering to fine traditions, improving academic pursuits and creating a strong English atmosphere to learn English everywhere

S.K.H. St. Timothy's Primary School Founded in 1887, it has a fine tradition of over a century and is committed to enhancing students’ academic pursuits. Principal Tian Shaobin used abundant resources, hired an additional foreign teacher, and led a professional teaching team to provide the most appropriate English teaching activities according to the different learning needs of students, both inside and outside the classroom, top-notch and other areas, creating a strong English atmosphere.

Cultivate independent learning habits and expand vocabulary library

The English subject team specially arranges primary three students to participate in the Primary Literacy Program-Reading & Writing (PLP-R/W) program to cultivate students' English reading and writing skills. Starting from the fourth grade, local teachers will lead students in Process Writing, providing them with a large number of opportunities to write English articles. In addition to enriching students in the field of Phonics, the foreign teacher Ms.Pinky will also encourage students to invest in learning Language Arts and participate in writing new English poems, drama performances, etc., so as to increase the opportunities to use English and improve their own cultivation.

Teacher Liu Qiuyuan, the head of the English subject, added: “Our school has carefully planned the St. Timothy’s Got Talent talent show to provide an appropriate platform to encourage students to perform diverse performances in English and develop their unlimited potential. The school will also select representative works for a school-wide competition to increase students’ self-confidence and dare to express themselves in English in front of the public.” In addition, the school has also designed a Word Challenge to greatly enhance students’ vocabulary. By cultivating independent learning habits, students will not only spontaneously search for new English words on the Internet to use in their compositions, but they will also be better prepared to prepare for sub-exams in the future and even enter secondary school.

Increase interaction in lower grades and lay a solid foundation for reading and writing

The school has developed appropriate school-based curriculum for lower grade students, which greatly increases their learning confidence and naturally achieves twice the result with half the effort. Teacher Zhou Xiaoting, head of the English subject, specifically mentioned the highly effective The Space Town Literacy Program: "The Space Town program includes Phonics pinyin games, storybook reading, etc. The former improves students' literacy through games, dictation, etc., while the latter includes Share Reading and Guided Reading. Even affected by the epidemic, the teaching team still strives to improve the reading skills of lower grade students." Because of Space. The diverse activities of the Town program are highly interactive and can make students excited to learn English. Many freshmen who were originally unfamiliar with English have the confidence to use English by the time they reach primary two and have made significant progress.

Actively use abundant resources to promote e-reading

The school promotes multiple reading strategies and strives to create a strong reading atmosphere both in library classes and after-school time. In class, the teaching team will teach reading skills, such as grasping the meaning of new words, recognizing and understanding English sentence structure, grammar, etc., so that students will no longer resist learning English because they are unfamiliar with new English words. In addition, the school also actively uses resources from external organizations to improve students' reading levels. Library teacher Ma Wanyi said: "Our school has specially designed a systematic library curriculum, and has also applied for the Jockey Club Digital Reading Program planned by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust. It received a donation of NT$100,000. The newly purchased English e-books will be placed on the intranet for free for students to read, and the trend of e-reading will be promoted in the school."

The school also promotes different reading reward programs to cultivate students' independent learning habits. In addition to the reading ambassador program, teachers, students and even the principal recommend good books to each other and share the joy of reading with each other. Home-school cooperation is also an important part, so the school actively collaborates with parents to promote reading among students through parent-child reading lectures and the "Story Parents" program.

Promote interdisciplinary collaboration and penetrate English elements

The school is committed to creating a strong English context and giving students the opportunity to learn and use English effectively. Foreign teachers will promote Play with the NETs activities in the classroom to arouse students' interest in the form of English games. They will also conduct after-school activities such as Zoom and Star Speakers to increase opportunities for English conversation. The school even jointly organized an English camp with two schools affiliated with the Hong Kong Anglican Church. Sherlock Holmes was used as the theme and English communication was conducted in the form of a drama, which greatly improved the students' English proficiency.

In addition, the school also uses interdisciplinary collaboration to incorporate English elements into various subjects. For example, English is added to rugby, which is held at the King's Park Sports Ground. Not only can students learn English sports terminology, but they can also exercise their bodies. At the same time, the mathematics subject will also add English terms appropriately according to the progress of the class, so as to achieve the effect of learning English everywhere.

Interview classes for high school promotion were held and results in seat allocation were satisfactory

Promoting to high school is an important milestone that students must go through. Since September, the teaching team has been assisting Primary 6 students in collecting relevant certificates, off-campus competitions, etc. in order to create beautiful portfolios. The teaching team has also arranged for middle school interview classes to conduct mock interviews, teach interview skills, and prepare for self-introductions by reading English passages aloud. The teaching team works tirelessly to provide students with high-quality English teaching and the rewards are huge. Principal Tian smiled and said that the students' placement results were very satisfactory, and 40% of them were assigned to Band 1 secondary schools, which was encouraging.

Pay attention to the connection between new students and adapt to campus life

Affected by the epidemic, kindergarten students face the problem of insufficient attendance in classes and inevitably have obstacles in using English. Principal Tian attaches great importance to the bridging courses for freshmen and designs vocabulary cards with the teaching team. There are no silent books or exams in the first semester of Primary One, allowing freshmen to adapt to campus life without pressure, let go of their fear of English, and cultivate their interest in using English.