Deepen your English proficiency through English classics

Pui Tak Canossian Primary School is committed to helping students seize every learning opportunity, set clear learning goals, and carry out the spirit of the school motto of "Establish yourself and others, love the Lord and the world." The teaching team works together and cares for every student, cultivating students into talents with correct values, harmonious neighbors, caring for the weak, and able to contribute to society. Principal Sister Ding Zhimin firmly believes that high-quality English courses can break students' fear of English and provide a relaxed and inspiring English learning environment both inside and outside the classroom.

Interdisciplinary Reading Course: Learn English by reading classics

The school implements a school-based English reading curriculum and systematically teaches different world classics at all levels, such as "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," "The Nutcracker," "The Four Signs of Sherlock Holmes," etc. In order to cooperate with different interdisciplinary learning activities, teachers initially let students understand the story content of various classics in the Chinese class, arouse students' interest in reading, and conduct creative writing learning. The English subject uses different activities to deepen students’ understanding of classics. The school uses the Language Out Loud (LOL) Approach, a teaching method developed by an institution under Harvard University, for reading classes. It is an interactive and student-centered teaching model that combines language and art. Students can express their personal ideas through different methods, including painting, drama and music, so that all students have the opportunity to participate in different classroom activities, thereby increasing students' interest in learning English and strengthening their self-confidence. In addition, art appreciation and creation of relevant classics will also be carried out in music classes and visual arts classes, allowing students to express their creativity and conduct extended learning. Finally, students can share their learning results with their parents and classmates by holding a performance display day.

Enhance reading skills and lay a solid foundation for learning

Reading is the source of knowledge. Reading different types of books can help students expand their vocabulary and knowledge. For students to be able to write and speak fluent English, they must first follow a step-by-step approach to lay a solid foundation for reading. Therefore, promoting a reading culture is one of the important policies of the school. It has always adhered to the concept of "extending the library to every corner of the school" and built two "Reading Cafés" in the playground to display different types of English books and place tablets for students to read anytime and anywhere.

Another special feature is that the school specially purchased smart bookcases so that students can borrow English books recommended by teachers outside the library. Teacher Luo Shuxin, the head of the English department, said with a smile that students can only see the book cover outside the phone, so they are very much looking forward to perusing the contents of the book. It attracts a large number of students to borrow books, and the teacher often has to "replenish" the library cabinet. In order to allow students to enjoy the world of English books, the school also promotes other reading projects, good book sharing and other activities to broaden students' reading level and increase their reading volume.

School-based e-learning platform

In order to enhance students' interest in learning English and help students consolidate what they have learned outside the classroom, the school cooperates with external organizations to continue to develop online learning platforms. For courses at all levels, school teachers design corresponding online learning activities for students. Through the online platform, games and questions and answers are used to focus on improving students' dictation skills, consolidating their grammatical knowledge and vocabulary application, and reviewing text content. In addition, the school has established an electronic reading platform for English reading courses for students to review reading content, listen to audiobooks and answer questions. All games can be played repeatedly, and students can use the earned points to obtain virtual gifts on the platform, adding to the fun of learning.

English drama activities enrich the context and atmosphere

Learning English is not difficult. As long as students find their interests and study hard, they will get good results. The school organizes different extracurricular activities to help students find the fun of English. Including holding English drama classes, the teacher first sets the theme, and then asks the students to construct the story from scratch. They communicate and collaborate with their classmates to conceive the scenes, characters, etc., to increase their sense of investment and participation. Through drama as a medium, English teaching is naturally integrated into theater games and story interpretation, and then through role play and drama interaction, students' English ability, imagination, self-confidence, speech ability and communication and social skills are improved. Students can gain experience in listening, speaking, English and creative writing in a relaxed and interesting environment, and then transform these valuable experiences into practical skills to lay a solid foundation for the future.

The school participates in the Hong Kong School Drama Festival every year. Last year, students produced a drama performance called "Rock the Chicken", which tells the story of a pair of twin sisters who love cooking. The students were dedicated during the rehearsal, showed calmness, and performed superbly. In the end, they stood out and won the Outstanding Cooperation Award! In addition, the school implements the "English Ambassador Program", in which students participate in the English Puppet Competition, allowing students to use English in interesting ways and perform alternative performances.

All-round bridging courses Master the English teaching mode

For students entering Primary One, in addition to adapting to a new school environment, they will also encounter many challenges due to changes in learning models. The transition from kindergarten to primary school can help improve students' academic performance and physical and mental development. Therefore, the school has compiled a school-based booklet to consolidate knowledge for students entering primary school, and has established a kindergarten-to-primary bridging course to help students adapt to the primary school curriculum. The school also arranges for teachers to communicate with kindergarten teachers in the district to understand the needs of kindergarten students and provide targeted support for students with different learning needs. The school celebrates the "Full Moon" for new students every September and conducts themed activities to provide students with an additional opportunity to apply the knowledge they have learned. Different from the traditional teaching model, the teaching team deliberately arranges singing activities in the first-grade curriculum to coordinate with different learning units and introduce children's songs to students. By constantly singing along and practicing over and over again, you can sing it from memory once you become proficient. Driven by the beautiful music melody, you can learn more English unconsciously. The English skills learned can also be applied beyond singing. There are also school-based pinyin courses for grades one to three to help students systematically master the correct pronunciation of English original sounds, and then apply the skills of combining and disassembling original sounds to the reading and writing level to spell out the correct pronunciation and string together words. The foundation of English in junior primary school is solid, which is of great help in transitioning from primary four to primary six in writing, grammar and other aspects of training.

Meet the ideal future

In addition to transitioning from kindergarten to primary school, the school also prepares students for transition to secondary school. The school provides students with interview training for secondary school entrance and designs booklets to accompany teaching and mock interviews so that students can confidently handle secondary school interviews. The learning model of secondary schools is also different from that of primary schools. In order to help students adapt to the learning model of English middle schools, we began to try to learn other subjects in English in the fifth and sixth grades. The English subject cooperates with the mathematics subject and general knowledge subject to teach some topics in the form of units, so that students can understand relevant professional vocabulary and help them make a smooth transition to middle school life.