Forward-looking biliterate and four-lingual strategy to embrace the future and face the world

Tai Po Old Market Public School is committed to enriching students’ learning experience, cultivating their skills in innovation and creativity, communication and collaboration, digital technology, and resilience, and actively promotes values ​​education to create a smart and happy campus so that children can live a healthy life. Principal Zhang Lizhu said: "Technology is a future skill that children of this generation must possess." Therefore, the school adopts the education policy of "biliteracy and four languages", starting from the environment, teachers and curriculum. Based on biliteracy and trilingualism, it systematically teaches programming and science and technology to inspire students' problem-solving abilities. It also infiltrates different thinking modes into the subject courses, organically combines values ​​education, and cultivates students' abilities of diffuse thinking, summative thinking, logical thinking, etc., so as to equip students to face the world and face the future.

Comprehensive language policy lays the foundation for biliteracy and trilingualism

Principal Zhang said: "Children must have a broad view of the world and embrace the future. They need to have good language skills no matter where they are." In terms of biliterate and trilingual teaching, the school uses interdisciplinary collaboration to organically connect different disciplines, with experiential learning and multiple strategies, so that students can personally participate in different forms of practice to consolidate language knowledge points.

Chinese

Literacy is very important for language learning. The school designs a "school-based literacy curriculum" to create a vocabulary library of their own for students. Director Zeng Ruisi, head of the Chinese language subject, said: "Our focus is on students being able to recognize the radicals or parts of Chinese characters and thus connect a series of words, so that they can have a preliminary concept of the basic structure of characters and more easily master the text." The school's junior primary Chinese course has a "Treasure Book" to encourage students to learn independently. Through different literacy strategies, including learning character structure, radical identification, associative literacy and other methods, focus on a large number of literacy. At the same time, the school believes that life experience and observation are very important for children's writing, so it has specially arranged sentence practice exercises for the first and second grade classes. The sentence booklet also comes with a QR code, which allows you to see relevant pictures or video references at a glance, which helps accumulate the usage of words in different scenes and generate richer associations when writing.

In addition, the school attaches great importance to the development of students' Mandarin. Over the years, it has adopted a policy of universal education to provide students with more opportunities to speak and speak Mandarin. For example, specially appointed full-time Mandarin teachers promote Mandarin activities and participate in daily classroom teaching, allowing students to strengthen their Mandarin listening and speaking skills through communication and interaction. For example, students are arranged to try telling stories in Mandarin and upload the voices to Google Classroom, and select outstanding content to play during recess to enhance their confidence. For top Mandarin speakers, the school has Mandarin ambassadors to help organize Mandarin activities, such as Mandarin Day, to create a strong language atmosphere.

English

In terms of English teaching, the school designs a series of interesting English activities that connect different subjects and incorporate elements of positive education. The school also actively participates in activities organized by the Education Bureau, such as the "Week of Love and Growth", to teach students to understand different ways of loving, including loving the country, loving the family, loving themselves, and loving nature and the community. Through movie appreciation, singing, book reading, parent-child travel, summer vacation activities, etc., English is closely connected with life, allowing students to discuss and do hands-on activities, so as to learn positive values ​​such as appreciation, gratitude, healthy living, caring for the earth, and caring for the world. Director Huang Xueer, head of the English Department, pointed out: "'I learn and I forget, I do and I understand', learning must be through experience and experience, so that students can truly learn knowledge. We also hope to arrange these interdisciplinary activities so that students can not only learn English, but also understand the message of love."

The school practices interdisciplinary collaborative teaching, cooperating with different subjects and groups to broaden students' knowledge. For example, adding STEAM elements to English courses, foreign teachers will teach students how to prepare food with scientific nutrition knowledge; in conjunction with the "Tourist Board in HK" course, students will be led to visit Mai Po, learn about the natural ecology, and learn to appreciate and protect nature; in line with the topic of world culture and globalization, teachers will let students use exchange groups in Hangzhou, Australia and other places to introduce what they gained from the activities through short film shooting, reporting and sharing, etc.

Systematic "Fourth Language" Teaching Cultivates Students' Thinking Development

In addition to attaching great importance to students' biliteracy and trilingual development, the school also cultivates students' ability to master a "fourth language". Principal Zhang explained: "The so-called 'fourth language' refers to programming. We place programming in such an important position because programming can train students' thinking mode of debugging. This problem-solving ability is very important in a changing society." Therefore, as early as three years ago, the school has popularized programming, technology and other contents in grades one to six, and has established a "Life and Technology Course" to teach students to use different methods, procedures and logic to solve problems, and train students' thinking mode systematically and step by step.

At the same time, the school has invested a lot of resources to purchase logic-related teaching materials. On the one hand, students can learn to solve problems through applications, and on the other hand, it can enhance their interest in programming, technology, STEAM and other aspects. For example, Tublock water pipe building blocks were introduced to allow students to build them, train logical thinking, and teamwork spirit in the process; magnetic building blocks were also purchased, and students were arranged to design parks in conjunction with thematic study format to cultivate design thinking and creativity. The teaching of "Life and Technology" is not about talking on paper, but provides a lot of hands-on opportunities. The school also makes good use of online platforms, such as Code.org, MakeCode, etc., to allow students to complete simple tasks.

Make good use of the opportunities provided by the platform to deepen the development of innovation and technology education

Vice President Zeng Jialin, who is responsible for technology support, pointed out that learning programming in the classroom alone may not be enough. Online platforms are allowing students to practice programming at home, continue to try and learn independently, and continue to strengthen their personal thinking development, so that in the future they can design their own technological works and solve life problems in their senior classes. The school also purchased the hardware Matatalab to carry out programming training. Through practical operations, children understand that programming can be combined in reality, and learn to deal with the tasks and difficulties encountered in programming through hands-on training. Students can even help each other through pair programming. Under the teaching model that attaches great importance to practice, students can think logically after absorbing knowledge, and then do it by hand, making their knowledge foundation increasingly solid. The students also won the team prize in the Group Problem Solving Challenge in the International Science Olympiad Matatalab Robotics Competition.

In the future, the school plans to expand STEAM education from programming to the field of AI. However, to develop AI courses, information literacy and values ​​education are equally important. Only by establishing correct values ​​can we ensure that technology is used in the right places. In recent years, the school has organized various types of science and technology activities based on empathy, allowing students to apply knowledge and skills in technology and programming to solve problems for the elderly, for the school, for teachers, and for classmates. Through this, the school gradually builds positive values ​​​​for children, practices what they have learned in life, and gives back to the society in the future.

High-quality learning environment to support "biliteracy and four languages" education

To effectively implement "biliteracy and four language" education, we first need a high-quality learning environment, coupled with teaching and learning in language and STEAM, and create a smart and happy campus. The school has "60i LAB", which is designed with the concept of a space capsule to provide a new learning space to coordinate with science and technology learning. Principal Zhang hopes to use this design to stimulate students' exploratory thinking and curiosity. The school also has an "i Eco Learning Space", which introduces blue lobsters, turtles and other small animals. Students can name the small animals and raise them with teachers. This will help them gain a sense of belonging and involvement, learn more about the natural ecology, learn to contribute, care for and protect nature, and develop positive values.

With the support of parents, alumni and the school board, the school has also built a new "Happy Reading Gallery" to widely promote reading. This not only gives children more opportunities to come into contact with books, but also provides them with a comfortable reading place to encourage children to sit in the "Happy Reading Gallery" and absorb book knowledge. The school also makes good use of campus space and arranges "sunshine terraces" in green corners to create a leisurely and comfortable environment for students to relax, enhance children's happiness and make them more energetic. On the other hand, the sunshine terraces are also a place for teachers and students to chat and interact, bringing them closer to each other.

Teacher professional development in line with forward-looking policies

Promoting the professional development of teachers is an important measure to improve the quality of education. It helps expose students to more new ideas and new thinking, injects new vitality into teaching, and gives students a better learning experience. Principal Zhang believes: "Teachers' qualifications do not depend on how many honors they receive, but on their ability to organize and plan courses." Therefore, the school attaches great importance to the professional development of teachers. For example, it arranges for teachers to participate in training programs planned by major institutions, "learning while teaching, learning while doing", and through teaching mutual learning, lesson observation culture, and peer excitement, teachers can learn from each other. Teachers' professional development cooperates with the school's forward-looking planning to make curriculum arrangement, content coordination, interdisciplinary collaboration and other aspects more efficient, and to strive for excellence in curriculum organization and planning.

More than 110 groups of after-school activities to cultivate whole-person development

The school is committed to cultivating students' holistic development and cultivating their potential so that they can live a healthy and exciting life. Through the implementation of the "One Life, One Art, One Technology" strategy, more than 110 groups of after-school activities have been set up to provide diversified learning experiences, allowing students to shine in different fields. The school also has a swimming pool. Grades 1 to 6 take swimming classes, one to keep fit and the other to practice survival skills. Outside the classroom, there are also extracurricular activities such as fancy rope skipping, martial arts exercises, track and field, ball games, and dance. In terms of music, the school has an orchestra, a Chinese orchestra, an old town eband, etc. In addition, the school actively provides students with opportunities to showcase their talents and broaden their horizons. For example, we organized swimming team students to go to Shenzhen to communicate with local swimmers; we also led the Chinese band to Japan to participate in international competitions and exchanges.

Thanks to the school's comprehensive support, students are able to achieve success in the projects they are good at, and their results are encouraging to all teachers, students, and parents. For example, students from the wind band and Kau Hui eband won silver medals in the orchestra group and pop band group respectively in the Joint School Music Competition 2024; the girls basketball team won the championship in the Tai Po District inter-school basketball competition; the track and field team also won 6 golds, 4 silvers, and 4 bronzes, as well as 1 team championship and 3 team runner-ups in the Tai Po District inter-school track and field competition. Vice Principal Liu Shauji added that based on the total points accumulated in all academic competitions, the women's team ranked first in the district, while the total points of the school's men's team ranked second in the district.

Comprehensive care and support for transition from kindergarten to primary school

In terms of transition to primary school, schools provide support according to children's developmental needs. In terms of timetable arrangement, including lunch break, students have four breaks on weekdays to give them enough rest time; the school only holds classes for half a day every Friday, and the freed half day allows students to study other knowledge or rest, reducing the pressure on primary school freshmen in transitioning to elementary school. In terms of the learning environment, the school has also put more thought into decorations and games, and purchased "cooker toys", LEGO, etc., hoping to create a campus where primary one students will feel the same sense of security, intimacy and familiarity as in kindergarten, and thus enjoy going to school. The school has also launched the "Big Brothers Big Sister Matching Program" to match each sixth grade student with a freshman in primary school to help them adapt to campus life and make the children who have just entered school have a greater sense of belonging to the school.

In order to help primary school freshmen adapt to the primary school curriculum as soon as possible, the school arranges "PhD classes" in Mandarin and English during the summer vacation, taught by Putonghua specialist teachers and foreign English teachers. After first-year students enter the school, the school will also arrange Mandarin supplementary extracurricular activities for them to enhance their interest in Mandarin and adapt to the classroom in general education. As for the English subject, three English teachers plus their own subject teachers will be arranged to provide students with a good English context through English drama classes and practice authentic English pronunciation. In addition, Principal Zhang hopes that children will have energetic and healthy bodies, so he has expanded the Primary One physical education class to three periods to give students more time to exercise. In the future, school-based percussion courses will be set up in the first and second grade music subjects to express affection and train abstract thinking through instruments that are easier to learn.