School-based curriculum x diverse activities, combined with innovative thinking, whole-person development opens up an ideal future

ELCHK Hung Hom Lutheran Primary School Adhering to the spirit of the school motto of "Glorifying God and Loving People", we are committed to providing a pleasant learning environment, and through diversified extracurricular activities, we inspire students' personal potential, establish good interpersonal relationships and a correct outlook on life. The school actively optimizes its school-based curriculum, combines high-quality teaching resources, and effectively implements the three-tiered gifted education concept to improve learning and teaching effectiveness. The new principal, Fung Lai-yee, has accumulated many years of rich educational experience and leads the teaching team to move forward with innovative thinking. Starting from school-based curriculum and diversified activities, it provides students with opportunities and platforms to develop their talents, training them to become "Red Stars", and consolidate their knowledge base and establish good moral character in the six years of primary school, so that they can shine in different fields in the future.

Design a three-tier teaching structure to take into account the diverse development of students

Students have different needs in their learning and growth. In order to enable students to fully develop their potential, the school adopts a three-tiered structure of gifted education as its development policy, taking into account the learning differences of students and supporting their various learning needs to ensure that students develop as a whole. The school adopts the educational strategy of "top-notch, middle-class, and bottom-line", making adjustments in terms of curriculum design, teaching content, homework, etc., implementing the concept of teaching students in accordance with their aptitude, and providing corresponding support and guidance to students with different abilities to improve learning effectiveness. To this end, the teacher team actively conducts course research exchanges with education experts to continuously optimize school-based courses and enhance classroom learning experience. At the same time, the school also maintains close cooperation with the Education Bureau, and uses education experts and teachers to prepare lessons together to introduce more diversified teaching methods, models and strategies to take into account the different development needs of students.

At the same time, the school has a diverse and broad enrollment, respects the needs of students from different cultural backgrounds, and carefully designs high-quality and equal education policies. For example, additional teachers are arranged to conduct "Chinese language abstract classes" for non-Chinese speaking students, which use writing and silent writing to strengthen students' word recognition and silent writing skills, help students master writing skills, and enhance their interest in Chinese. In addition, the school has after-school classes and organizes different cultural activities, and specially hires Urdu teachers to assist with translation work to facilitate communication with non-Chinese speaking students and create a united and friendly learning atmosphere. Principal Feng said, "The school continues to improve its support for non-Chinese speaking students to help them integrate into campus life and effectively master learning content. In addition, the school also has a school-based educational psychological service and speech therapy team, with professionals following up and supporting students' development in learning, emotion management, social interaction and language."

Learn English happily and efficiently and strengthen language application skills

Principal Feng attaches great importance to students' language development and strives to create a pleasant and rich language environment to cultivate children's interest in learning English. In addition to starting from the school-based curriculum and introducing the Education Bureau's PLP-R/W program to junior primary students, the school also arranged for foreign English teachers to share "Big Books" to teach students to master reading skills. At the same time, the English subject team will use "Home Reading" extended reading materials to deepen students' mastery of English sentence structure, grammar and vocabulary, and lay a solid foundation in English.

In addition, the school uses STEAM education and drama training as entry points to add diversity to English learning. Principal Feng said: “STEAM Education covers a variety of academic areas, and students can not only increase their English vocabulary, but also gain an in-depth understanding of the content and meaning of each professional term, thereby establishing independent learning habits. At the same time, the school also hires professional organizations to provide regular drama training to students, and to demonstrate their learning achievements in drama performances at graduation ceremonies. On the one hand, students can develop their personal expertise, and on the other hand, through activities and competitions, they can enhance their interest in learning English and comprehensively strengthen their English conversation skills and their confidence in using the language. "

Activities and courses work together to broaden the level of STEAM learning

In order to equip students to cope with the changes and challenges brought about by the development of science and technology in the 21st century, the school is determined to develop school-based STEAM education and cultivate students' interdisciplinary collaboration abilities. At the junior primary stage, the school will regularly arrange information technology classes for students to teach students about various innovative technologies and their basic operating concepts, and enhance their interest in innovation and technology through multiple intelligence classes and extracurricular activities. At the upper primary stage, advanced training such as mBot, artificial intelligence, and programming will be carried out. The school will also recommend students with scientific and technological innovation potential to participate in gifted courses outside the school, so as to deepen and broaden the learning level of the entire STEAM. In addition, the school makes good use of information technology to enhance the interest of learning. It uploads a wealth of learning resources to different learning platforms to meet students' different learning needs. It can select appropriate reading materials according to the learning stage, further cultivate self-study habits, and achieve the effect of "top-notch, middle-level, and bottom-level".

At the same time, the school regularly holds STEAM special study weeks, setting up STEAM topic-related activities with general knowledge as the core of teaching, allowing students to apply subject knowledge to daily life through "hands-on" activities, so as to achieve the effect of applying what they have learned. At the same time, teachers also encourage students to participate in science and technology-related activities and competitions, such as the "Red Letter STEM Activity Day", "micro:bit Classroom Activities", "Drone Classroom Activities and Competitions", and "Electric Vehicle Competition" to cultivate students' creativity, logic and problem-solving abilities through practice, allowing students to gain more knowledge and training in innovative technologies. The school's strong atmosphere of science and innovation education has successfully led students to achieve good results in different competitions, such as winning the runner-up in the drone competition in the "Asia International STEM Competition 2023" organized by the Hong Kong Education Development Association.

Promote the policy of "One Art for Life" to explore students' talents and potential

Rich learning experiences help promote students' all-round development and cultivate lifelong learning abilities. To this end, the school implements the "Lifelong Arts in One" policy and arranges various types of multiple intelligence activities to help students explore their interests and inspire their potential development. During class hours, the school provides learning experiences outside of the regular curriculum, such as cooperating with the YMCA to carry out "Colorful Physical Education Classes". Students can try rock climbing, hockey, shuttlecock and other sports in class, so that students can feel the benefits of physical fitness through practical experience and enjoy the fun brought by sports. At the same time, the school also promotes new sports activities such as canoeing, windsurfing, bump rugby and softball, and students have also achieved impressive results in extra-school competitions in bump rugby and softball.

At the same time, the school also arranges all-round learning activities for students outside of class time to expand their interests and enhance and practice students' knowledge and skills. By organizing different experiential learning activities in music, sports, and art, students' learning life becomes more diversified and enriched, and they learn from it the principle that "failure is the mother of success." Students need to undergo continuous training and trials to cultivate an unyielding spirit and embrace the final success with a positive attitude. In addition, the school encourages students to join uniform teams such as the Cub Scouts, the Red Cross, the Flag Raising Corps, the Traffic Safety Corps, and the Cadet Corps. In addition to training students' self-discipline, teamwork and discipline, more importantly, they build a spirit of serving the community and contribute to social development in the future.

Chinese culture has a long history and is profound. The school organizes a series of Chinese culture and Mandarin learning activities to increase students’ understanding of Chinese culture and arouse their interest in traditional customs and culture. For example, organizing activities such as Chinese Culture Day and Mid-Autumn Festival Gala allow students to appreciate traditional culture and art from different perspectives in a relaxed and interesting way, enhance personal knowledge, and cultivate identification with the country, nation and national identity, and help non-Chinese speaking students integrate into the local life culture. Principal Feng added: "The school will invite the Cantonese Opera Club to conduct professional training for Cantonese opera students throughout the year to inspire their understanding and interest in the art of opera. During the rehearsal and performance process, students can also improve their self-confidence and cooperation, enjoy the fun brought by performances, and play a driving role in popularizing and inheriting traditional Chinese art and culture."

Organize overseas exchange activities to get out of the classroom and see the world

The school actively creates opportunities for students to get out of the classroom, learn about Hong Kong, and see the world. The teaching team regularly designs outing learning activities to lead students to understand different cultural characteristics of society and build an international perspective. Principal Feng said: "The school has organized exchange activities in Canada, Australia, Japan, Beijing and other places in the past. In the future, we also plan to take students to different countries for in-depth learning and exchange, such as deepening their understanding of English and technology. We also expect each student to have at least A one-time overseas exchange opportunity. At the same time, in response to the different family situations of students, the school has a "Scholarship Travel" program, which follows the four major categories of academics, moral character, activities and service, and provides half-tuition or full funding for overseas exchange study opportunities. "

In addition to overseas exchanges, the school will also arrange various types of local visits for students to enrich their learning experience. Through the "Red Letter Star Building Project", when students reach certain performance indicators, the school will reward students to visit different places, such as M+ Museum, Science Museum, Space Museum, etc., to achieve the effect of extending after-school learning.

Carry out life education and meet new challenges on the road to growth

In addition to having high expectations for students' academic performance, the school also attaches great importance to their moral character and physical, mental and spiritual development. Through the implementation of life education, students are cultivated to establish a positive attitude towards life, such as optimism, enthusiasm, gratitude, hard work, self-confidence, etc. Life education courses cover different areas such as growth courses, moral education courses, life education theme courses, etc., and cooperate with diversified learning activities to guide students to explore life and growth issues. The school also collaborates with the Department of Social Work and Social Administration of the University of Hong Kong to launch a social and emotional learning program - the "Children and Dogs Talk" course, which allows children to practice positive values ​​such as cherishing life, caring and love through the interaction process between people and pets. Some students can also overcome their fear of pets through activities, enhance their self-confidence and courage, and help them meet different challenges on their way to growth.

Bridging courses to primary school deepening home-school cooperation

When transitioning from kindergarten to primary school, students need to face an unfamiliar environment and different learning challenges. For this purpose, the school has specially launched a kindergarten-to-primary bridging course to cater for the different learning needs of primary one freshmen and help them integrate into campus life as soon as possible. In addition to holding an adaptation day for primary one freshmen and an orientation day for primary one students, special adjustments have been made in terms of testing. For example, in the first assessment of primary school students, Chinese and English subjects only require exam-reading reading papers, and the examination questions in general knowledge subjects are mainly multiple-choice questions. Through a step-by-step teaching model, students can gradually master the primary school class style and learning skills. In addition, the school has a profound cultural inheritance foundation. The alumni association has always maintained close contact with the school to provide all aspects of growth and development support to juniors and juniors, and has established a scholarship system to reward students with outstanding academic and moral performance.

Principal Feng firmly believes that a good home-school cooperative relationship can promote communication and mutual trust between schools and parents and improve students' learning effectiveness. Therefore, the school regularly holds parent-teacher meetings, parent days and campus open days on different educational themes to allow parents to have an in-depth understanding of the school's teaching model, so as to more effectively implement different education policies and create a better learning environment. In addition, the school also actively encourages parents to join the parent volunteer team. By promoting communication between teachers and parents, they can enhance their sense of belonging to the school and work together to help their children grow up healthily.