Student-centered, diversified interdisciplinary learning, giving full play to multiple intelligences, creating extraordinary prospects for students

Yuen Long Long Ping Estate Wai Chow SchoolRespond to the needs of social development, actively promote STEAM education, develop cross-curricular reading, and actively promote e-learning to train students' problem-solving abilities and creativity, and cultivate diverse talents for the future society. Principal Zheng Tinghui is not only familiar with the school situation and the development and changes of society, but also keeps abreast of the pulse of the times, leading the school and all teachers and students to keep pace with the times, continuously optimizing school-based curriculum and infrastructure equipment, and practicing holistic education, so that students can thrive in a high-quality teaching environment, so that their moral, intellectual, physical, social and aesthetic development can be balanced, and they can become good social citizens.

Optimize the learning environment and cultivate a sense of belonging on campus

In recent years, the school has continued to optimize the campus environment, comprehensively planned and expanded learning and activity spaces, and added various teaching facilities and facilities to create a comfortable and belonging learning environment for students, thereby improving their happiness in campus life and learning efficiency. During every summer vacation, the school inspects and renovates the campus environment and teaching equipment. This includes adding advanced audio equipment to the underground covered playground to provide students with the highest quality performance stage. In addition, facilities, corridors and lobbies on different floors of the school building will also be renovated and optimized. Principal Zheng hopes that students will have a refreshing feeling when they return to campus in the new school year, thereby enhancing their sense of belonging to the school.

A refreshed library will help promote a reading culture. The library is divided into different areas such as "Study Area", "Reading Area" and "Electronic Learning Area", and has purchased a 75-inch interactive electronic screen to provide an immersive learning experience and a quiet and comfortable reading environment for students. In addition, the teaching team regularly holds different cultural special exhibitions in the library. For example, with the theme of Chinese culture, a lifelike pop-up book of the Forbidden City is placed on the central display cabinet, so that students can deeply understand the essence of Chinese culture and improve their language skills. In addition, the hexagonal display cabinets on the wall are decorated with many ancient Chinese scientific elements, including two-wheeled waterwheels, textile machines, bean grinders, etc., integrating interdisciplinary learning elements, deepening students' understanding of Chinese engineering, and laying the foundation for knowledge and skills in scientific innovation.

Featured STEAM education provides scientific and innovative learning opportunities

The school is committed to cultivating students' interest and ability in innovation and technology from an early age, carrying out school-based STEAM education, systematically teaching STEAM-related topics, and providing opportunities for all students in the school to understand and be exposed to STEAM. The school actively organizes various types of STEAM learning projects, such as AI robotics courses, and different science and technology interest classes, including mBot robot group, VEX IQ robot, 3D printing and programming classes, etc. Students transform subject knowledge into science and technology skills and apply them to daily life, thereby building problem-solving abilities and coping with different challenges in future life and learning.

Principal Zheng said: "STEAM education is not about the study of a single subject, but the ability to comprehensively knowledge, aiming to cultivate students' all-round development in terms of knowledge, skills, attitudes, etc. Therefore, the school actively implements the STEAM education concept, closely links the knowledge of different subjects, promotes inter-disciplinary collaborative teaching, consolidates students' knowledge level, and cultivates creative thinking and collaborative problem-solving abilities, so as to enhance students' competitiveness, enroll in the middle school of their choice, and have more diversified and comprehensive development aspects."

Make good use of electronic teaching technology to establish independent learning habits

The primary school stage is an important period for students to establish learning abilities and develop good habits, laying a solid foundation for future study and life. To this end, the school makes good use of diversified e-learning strategies and actively introduces different e-learning platforms to provide a large number of diversified learning materials to meet students' learning needs and construct a richer learning process, allowing students to conduct independent learning anytime and anywhere, consolidate daily learning and discover new knowledge. In addition, teachers will also make good use of the learning management system (Google Classroom) to produce teaching videos and assign electronic homework according to students' learning progress, monitor students' learning progress, and provide appropriate support and feedback.

Principal Zheng added: "The school attaches great importance to students' learning in English, so the teaching team actively promotes students to use 'i-Learner' as an independent learning tool. Students can conduct online self-tests to understand their mastery of the course. Then they can choose topics based on their learning interests to achieve the effect of extended learning and further improve their English application skills. In addition, students can use STEAM During the learning process, it is necessary to search for different literature and information, and these first-hand materials are mainly in English. Therefore, the school provides students with a large number of English reading opportunities. In addition to introducing learning platforms, students are also encouraged to watch STEAM-related videos to increase students’ English listening and comprehension skills in an interesting way.”

Interdisciplinary Reading Program Deepening Cultural Connotation

Reading is the key to unlocking the treasure house of knowledge. The school is committed to cultivating students’ interest in reading, consolidating their knowledge base, and establishing good study habits. To this end, the school implements an interdisciplinary reading plan to incorporate reading elements into various subjects and develop cross-curricular reading classes. Through the project, students can not only enrich their subject knowledge, but also develop their independent learning and general skills. The reading plan covers multiple teaching areas, such as Chinese, English, mathematics, general knowledge and art education. Each subject will select a learning unit and match it with relevant books to design students' learning activities and homework. It not only emphasizes the depth and breadth of students' knowledge acquisition, but also enables them to master reading skills and enhance their interest in learning. At the same time, the reading plan also uses Chinese culture as the entry point, with rich and diverse activities, including facial makeup creation, recipe design, hieroglyphics painting, etc., which not only effectively connects classroom knowledge, but also promotes students' creative thinking and cultivates their understanding of Chinese culture.

Featured book drifting plan to achieve unlimited reading

The school has specially launched a "Book Drifting Project", in which books with different themes are placed in each classroom. For example, one classroom is filled with English books, while other classrooms are filled with books related to STEAM or Chinese culture. It is planned that students will take turns to read different books every month, and exchange readings regularly to break through the boundaries of knowledge learning. Principal Zheng pointed out: “The school implements the ‘Reading Everywhere's reading policy encourages students to read more books of different types to enrich and extend their knowledge. Based on students' learning interests, the school sets up bookshelves in each classroom to allow students to easily access books and establish a wide range of reading habits, thereby improving children's self-study ability. Whether students conduct scientific innovation experiments or collect information in the future, they need a solid English proficiency and knowledge base. By carrying out extensive reading programs, we can help enrich students' knowledge and create more diverse development opportunities. "

Pay attention to value education and practice it in life

In addition to attaching great importance to students' academic performance, the school also strives to promote values ​​​​education, cultivating students' ten primary values ​​​​and attitudes, and helping them to face challenges with a positive attitude on the road of growth. Principal Cheng said: "Values ​​education should be promoted at all levels. The school should connect it with classroom learning and design positive values ​​as behavioral indicators. Taking 'responsibility' as an example, teachers will arrange students to play different roles in class so that they can understand the responsibilities of different roles, thereby understanding the importance of responsibility and then practicing it in life to become good citizens." The school's excellent value education plan has successfully cultivated students with both talents and morals. Many students have won the title of the top ten outstanding primary school students in Yuen Long District, and their achievements have inspired teachers and parents.

In addition, the school combines Chinese culture and value education, and uses different Chinese classics to teach students to understand and learn the values ​​​​and attitudes of the sages in life. Chinese classics contain ancient Chinese wisdom and values, which can inspire students' thinking and establish good moral character. For example, studying "Mencius" can help students develop a sense of public morality and social responsibility; "The Three Character Classic", as an enlightenment book, teaches students basic moral concepts such as respecting parents, respecting teachers, and respecting others. Therefore, by teaching Chinese classics, the school not only enables students to be rooted in the fertile soil of Chinese culture, learn from the experience and wisdom of sages, and understand traditional Chinese culture, but more importantly, cultivate positive values ​​and a sense of social responsibility.

Promote national education and strengthen national identity

National education is an important element of values education. The school takes Chinese subjects as the entry point and selects appropriate teaching units as the horizontal development of interdisciplinary courses. In addition to teaching relevant knowledge about Chinese culture in Chinese language classes, teachers will also promote cross-disciplinary collaboration among general knowledge, music and visual arts subjects, allowing students to experience the characteristics of Chinese culture and strengthen national identity. Principal Zheng pointed out: "Take the sixth-grade class as an example. One unit in the textbook mentioned a trip to Macau, so the school extended it to a trip to Hong Kong, using Hong Kong as a teaching example to teach students different historical knowledge about Hong Kong. At the same time, outside of the curriculum, the teaching team will also cooperate with all-round learning activities, such as leading students to visit historical museums and different heritage trails, etc., through interesting experiential learning, to deepen students' understanding and feelings about history."

Participate in the sister school program and learn about Chinese culture and history

In order to enrich students' learning experience and broaden their international horizons, the school participates in sister school exchange programs to promote cultural and academic exchanges and deepen students' understanding of the country and Chinese culture, making students' identity and sense of belonging to the country more three-dimensional and stable. In the sister school exchange activities held by the school in the past, in addition to students, parents were also invited to participate, integrating national education and parent education. Parents responded very positively to the event, and expressed the hope that the school can hold more visits of the same type in the future to promote parent-child exchanges. While understanding the latest development of the country, it is also a kind of inheritance of the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation. Through precepts and deeds, students can establish correct values ​​​​and attitudes, so that they can become knowledgeable and responsible talents in the future.

Principal Zheng added: “During the exchange activities, students and parents gained a better understanding of the development of the Greater Bay Area and learned that Daya Bay is not just the nuclear power plant that everyone is familiar with. In fact, Huizhou’s development has been quite vigorous in recent years, and its economic growth has been rapid. Students’ exchanges in China can help them understand the national conditions and integrate into the country’s development in the future. To develop the overall situation and seize different development opportunities. More importantly, through mutual exchanges and observations, students can deepen their understanding of the country’s history, culture and development, and enhance their national identity. In addition, parents can also learn from each other’s strengths and weaknesses, absorb and internalize the advantages of different education, and jointly create a better learning environment for students.”