Carry out whole-person education based on love and inspire children to learn actively

St. Stephen's Church Kindergarten ‧ The kindergarten has been standing in the Central and Western District of Hong Kong for more than 70 years. Since its establishment, it has been implementing the spirit of the school motto of "training a child in the way he should go, and even when he is old he will not depart from it." It is committed to creating a learning garden full of love, ideals and scale. The school actively promotes whole-person education so that children can achieve balanced development in spiritual, moral, intellectual, physical, social and aesthetic education, and stimulate their ability to take initiative in learning. Principal Yin Peiyan leads the teaching team to design different teaching themes and cooperate with spiral courses from shallower to more advanced to lay a solid knowledge foundation for children.

Leveraging the advantages of school-school integration to promote continuous professional development

The vigorous development of school education is inseparable from the full support of school sponsoring organizations. Sufficient resources can help children receive high-quality education in a good learning environment. St. Stephen's Church of the Anglican Church is committed to providing firm support to students and parents. The school takes advantage of the "church-school-in-one" approach. The church not only provides students with ample learning space, but also provides support to families in need. For example, during the epidemic, some kindergarten students had their daily studies affected due to family financial problems. Upon seeing this, the church immediately launched a fund to lend a helping hand to parents and pay tuition fees for students whose families had financial difficulties to solve the urgent needs of parents.

At the same time, the school has a close cooperative relationship with St. Stephen's Church Secondary School. The principal of the secondary school also serves as the school supervisor of the kindergarten, playing a direct supporting role. The school supervisor provides professional advice and supports the development of all aspects of the school in many aspects, including information technology development, teaching policies, curriculum design and campus environment, etc., to create a better learning atmosphere so that children can learn happily and grow healthily.

Cultivate healthy development of body, mind and soul and establish positive values

The school implements the core values of Christianity and uses a spiritual educational atmosphere to ingrain correct values in the hearts of children and promote the healthy development of their body, mind and spirit. The school's school-based curriculum implements the goal of holistic education. For example, morning assemblies and afternoon assemblies are held every day, allowing children to participate in activities such as praying, singing school songs, singing hymns, and doing morning exercises, so that they can build a "love-based" spiritual life and be willing to pursue faith, hope, and love. In addition, the school will also hold flag-raising ceremonies on important festivals to let children understand the history of the national anthem, national emblem, and national flag, and cultivate their national identity.

Principal Yin said: "The school hopes to promote the spiritual development of children by organizing different activities. For example, in the morning assembly, they learned to pray for themselves, their parents, and the people around them, care for the different needs of others, and spread warmth. We are very grateful that the children can apply what they have learned and learn from the core values of Christianity. Zizhong understands the principles of life, and can practice correct values ​​and attitudes in life from an early age, which will benefit them throughout their lives. In addition, the school hires religious teachers to teach Bible classes to young children, host morning and afternoon meetings, and organize mother groups and parent interest classes to sow the seeds of the gospel for children and parents.

Develop a high-vision teaching model to enable children to become active learners

The school adheres to the child-centered educational philosophy, respects the different needs of individual growth and development, and cultivates them to become knowledge seekers who enjoy the learning process. Different from the traditional teaching model, the school specially designed a high-end education curriculum with "active learning" as the core. Through the three learning processes of "planning, working, and reviewing", the school cultivates children's ability to be independent and self-disciplined. In the course, N1 children mainly focus on building self-care ability; at the K1 to K3 stage, it extends to the cultivation of biliteracy, trilingualism and all-round learning.

Through the high-view teaching model, children learn to make their own work plans, and then implement them according to the plan with the help of the teacher. After the work is completed, the teacher will guide the children to review and share their personal gains and discoveries. Children not only develop independent learning habits, but also can set goals decisively, work in a planned way, and know how to report their work results and findings from an early age. The Gaozhan teaching model has been implemented for many years and has been highly praised by parents for effectively improving children's self-management abilities. Some parents have said that they will apply the Gaozhan teaching model to the daily education of their children, allowing their children to do things according to a planned schedule and cultivating their self-discipline.

Diversified language teaching, master authentic and pure English

English is an international language. Establishing a good foundation in English will not only open up more study and work opportunities, but also help cultivate an international perspective and have a broad vision of the world. In order to create a strong English learning atmosphere, the school's English courses are taught entirely in English, and foreign English teachers are specially hired to focus on cultivating children's fluent standard English pronunciation. In English classes, teachers use diversified teaching models to enhance the interest of language learning. Through storytelling and using different teaching aids, they teach children commonly used daily English and encourage them to speak more and listen more, thereby improving their confidence in using English.

Principal Yin added: "Children like to listen to stories, so in addition to English textbooks, the school will also add picture book teaching elements to consolidate the children's learning foundation. In the second semester of K1, students can begin to use English to talk to teachers; by the time they reach senior class, children have mastered more language application skills and can respond fluently in English. In addition, the school has many Many non-Chinese speaking students are native speakers of English. Through mutual influence and learning, both local students and non-Chinese speaking students can communicate interactively in Cantonese and English, and each other also has the ability to communicate across cultures. "

Get out of campus and learn in all aspects

The school focuses on all-round learning. K1-K3 will arrange different outdoor learning activities according to the theme, allowing students to learn in real situations and gain experiences that are generally difficult to experience in the classroom, such as visiting police stations, fire stations, libraries, ocean parks, space museums, science museums, water gardens, green areas, etc. During the process, the students were very excited and engaged, which was indeed a valuable learning experience.

Happy transition into the new life of Primary 1 and meeting different learning challenges

In order to allow senior class students to adapt to the new learning stage and smoothly transition to the primary school teaching model, the school actively promotes a diversified kindergarten-to-primary transition plan and arranges a series of transition activities to allow children to gradually adapt to primary school life in a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere. The school holds primary one bridging lectures and primary school briefings to explain to parents the teaching features of different primary schools and considerations for school selection, so that they can choose a suitable and preferred school for their children.

In addition, parents understand the importance of transition from early childhood to primary school and how to help their children adapt to the new learning environment. The school also arranges for students to go to different primary schools for experiential learning activities, and provides appropriate bridging courses to primary one to help students master their self-care abilities and study skills for primary school, so that they can meet new learning challenges in the best possible condition. Many parents of graduates report that the school’s transition plan to primary school is diverse and comprehensive, enabling children to quickly master new learning models after entering primary school and fully adapt to the learning life of primary school, and many of them are among the best. The valuable feedback from parents not only encourages and affirms the teachers, but also encourages the teaching team to actively provide high-quality whole-person education for children.