International English Education Best of the Best!

The Salvation Army Ann Wyllie Memorial SchoolSince its establishment, the school has been cultivating talents with high-quality courses and outstanding teachers, and has been highly praised by parents and students in the district. The school will merge with the Salvation Army Zhongyuan Charity Foundation School of the same school in the near future. The new principal Cheng Zhixiang said that change is an opportunity - education is a hope project that awakens the soul and shakes life. It is a process that guides the development of children's potential. Therefore, the school will continue to develop after the merger. We will implement the love and truth of Christ and realize the different potentials of students. We will also seize the opportunity of the merger of the two schools to further optimize the teaching content and methods, so that children can equip themselves in a learning field where "textbooks are everywhere and everything is a teaching aid", establish good bilingual skills, and open their future to the world.

"Weili's four elements of self-study":
"Effective preview", "Learning tasks", "Learning reflection", "After-class extension"

Optimize the teacher-student ratio and learn English through "topics"

Principal Cheng has rich teaching and management qualifications and is a pioneer in the implementation of STREAM education. His past management work in a direct subsidy school has also exposed him to different teaching methods and solutions: "The times are changing and challenges are constant. To enable children to gain a foothold in the future world, education must also be prepared accordingly. Of course, learning information technology is important, but fluent English skills are also essential. Looking back on my experience in the direct subsidy school, there were 13 foreign English teachers in the school’s 30 classes at that time. Under the immersive environment for many years, the students’ English skills improved rapidly and the effectiveness was amazing.”
In order to effectively improve the English proficiency of students in the school, Principal Cheng made good use of resources and immediately hired two more foreign English teachers, increasing the number of foreign English teachers in the school to 3, and hopes to increase to 5 in the coming year. At the same time, he introduced the international education model and through a large number of "Task-based projects", students can ignite their interest in English through "group discussions", "oral reports", "lectures", "practical activities", "self-evaluation" and "peer-evaluation", establish good language application skills, and realize the advantages of interdisciplinary learning.

Promote students’ self-study, self-discipline, and self-improvement in their study style

Principal Cheng said that after the implementation of "Task-based project" teaching, the learning atmosphere for students in the school has become stronger. Through different learning activities, such as "group discussions" and "oral reports", students can independently explore and construct knowledge on different topics in English. Senior primary school students even regard learning techniques such as "pre-class preview", "using concept maps", "reference books" and "online resources" as classroom routines, which are beneficial for them to absorb knowledge and establish self-study habits.

Apply for the international English test and win the "TOEFL Best of the Best Awards"

In order to better understand the English education level in the school and the learning needs of the students, the school assists students to register for the internationally recognized TOEFL Junior exam every year. The relevant exams mainly assess students' listening, grammar and reading abilities. Students can effectively assess their English proficiency through the exams. Teachers and parents can also provide further targeted teaching support through the sub-scores of the test results.

"This test has an indexical impact on English teaching in schools - every year the school will adjust the curriculum based on the students' assessment results and formulate relevant classroom practice plans, worksheets and homework. Summarizing the results in recent years, our school's TOEFL Junior performance is very satisfactory. For example, last year's test results showed that the students' scores in the school reached the international middle school level, and the oral test scores even reached the international Grade 8 and Grade 9 levels, and some students even obtained the "TOEFL Best of the Best" Awards” (Junior TOEFL’s highest honor in Hong Kong), the winners of the relevant awards are the top 0.5% of candidates with the highest scores in Hong Kong, which shows that the school’s English teaching level is outstanding,” said Principal Cheng.

Popularize gifted education and special activities to increase the fun of learning

In order to implement the Education Bureau's "popularization of gifted education" and "optimization of universal education resources", the teaching team regularly designs learning activities with rich themes and integrated with life, so that all students have the opportunity to be discovered, while at the same time cultivating potential gifted students, achieving the goal of "a rising tide lifts all boats". Principal Cheng said: "In the English subject, we also combine the three elements of 'affection', 'leadership' and 'high-level thinking'. We also set up activities outside the regular classroom, such as 'English gifted classes', 'English drama' and 'English ambassadors', so that students of different levels can learn foreign languages in a fun and interesting way through different learning experiences and improve their potential."

There are numerous English activities in the school. In addition to "English Fun Day", "English Hunter", "English Summer Camp" and "International Language Day", the school also specially integrates drama elements and launches "English Mini Theater", allowing students to develop their own personal universe and create their own stage play scripts. Through school-wide performances, they can strengthen their English confidence and build their children's stage brilliance. In order to emphasize that English is not a single subject, but a communication tool closely related to life, the teaching team also vigorously integrates English elements into different learning activities. For example, in the past "Night Market", students used English guidance to make sugar paintings (Sugar Arts), a "national intangible cultural heritage". "In this activity, students learned about the preferences of different classmates through market research, designed their own projects, learned to set goals, predict and manage risks, and were able to use bilingualism to experience the culture of their motherland and the world, and build a broader world view," recalled Principal Cheng.

Promote family reading and connect it with language learning

Establishing context and English reading habits are two important keys to English education. Therefore, the school attaches great importance to the reading atmosphere in the school and hopes that through reading promotion, students can learn to read, love reading, and "learn from reading" to improve their overall learning ability. "When reading, students can connect language learning and personal knowledge, and understand the affairs of the entire world, making connections by analogy. The school has invested a lot of resources in the library for this purpose, and encourages teachers to use different reading materials and story books to assist teaching. Students are also encouraged to use electronic reading platforms, such as 'Highlight Library', to read a large number of English books and experience the beneficial principles of opening books." Principal Cheng added.

Seeing that home reading can encourage children to establish a habit of reading at home, the school has specially set up a "Wenqing Pavilion" for parents, so that parents who come to school can choose different reading materials, set an example, and read with their children at home. In addition, the school also arranged for students to visit chain bookstores this year and serve as "little store managers". While learning about the operation of bookstores, learning about book classification, and trying to put books on the shelves, they will also have personal contact with customers and experience the fun of working in a bookstore, thereby encouraging children to visit more bookstores and make more connections with books.

Make good use of e-learning resources Artificial intelligence essay

As we enter a new era, education also needs to keep pace with the times. In order to stay ahead of the curve, schools have introduced different e-learning platforms in recent years, such as "Nearpod", "Padlet" and "Wordwall", to allow teachers to produce different electronic teaching materials and promote an autonomous learning atmosphere on campus through e-learning. In order to improve students' English listening skills, teachers at the school will also use English videos and foreign websites to assist teaching. In addition, the latest introduction of "generative artificial intelligence" is different from other schools that mainly use it to assist school administrative work. The school is the first to pilot it in learning and teaching. It uses this generative function to assist teachers in quickly correcting students' English compositions, and then uses the extra teaching time to teach students more advanced vocabulary and sentence structures to further improve their writing skills.

"These electronic teaching platforms can not only promote independent learning, but also penetrate higher-order thinking elements, allowing students to develop a strong interest in learning through technology. For example, in English learning, because students repeatedly practice correct English pronunciation and speaking speed through the platform's self-study software, many of them can speak fluent English." Principal Cheng pointed out that the teaching team has worked hard to target students' learning weaknesses and designed a lot of learning resources and activities in and out of class to effectively improve students' English proficiency. In the performance of last year's transition to secondary school, nearly 50% of the school's graduates were admitted to the school's English class after entering secondary school, which shows that the English proficiency of its graduates is ideal and even better.