Equipped with good English skills, DSE reaches new heights

Confucian Tai Shing Ho Kwok Pui Chun College is a school that promotes Confucianism. In addition to promoting Confucianism and guiding people's hearts, the school also attaches great importance to English teaching and helps students equip themselves with English skills. The school understands that the students’ weaknesses lie in their lack of self-confidence in English and lack of motivation. In response to these two major problems, Principal Chow Kai Tik Brian led the teaching team to develop a series of measures to enhance students’ interest and ability in English. Thanks to the efforts of the teaching team, last year's students' scores in the Hong Kong Diploma Examination reached a new peak. 50% of the students were successfully admitted to university. The passing rate of the English subject was higher than that in Hong Kong. 50% of the students even obtained a grade of 3 or above.

Jointly organize the "Joint School English Mock Oral Test" to prepare for the HKDSE and achieve good results

The school understands that in order for students to express their ideas clearly, accurately and confidently in English, they need to provide them with more opportunities to practice speaking. Therefore, every day after class and during exams, teachers will arrange special group oral training to improve their English communication skills and build their confidence in using English. In the past two years, the school has co-organized the "Joint School English Mock Oral Test" with as many as seven secondary schools, allowing students to take the opportunity to compete with students from other schools. This year, the school will continue to co-organize joint school mock oral examinations with other middle schools, so that children can reflect on their experiences and improve through reflection.

In order to help students prepare for the HKDSE, all teachers in the English subject provide make-up lessons according to the students’ different needs and jointly support Form 6 students. Improvement classes are also held on Saturdays and are taught by specially appointed external tutors. Taking this year as an example, the school hired three quasi-teachers who majored in English education from the University of Hong Kong. After receiving professional training from teachers in the school's English department who were former HKDSE assessors, they began teaching HKDSE writing skills in mid-July to help students improve their Paper 2 scores.

Vice-Principal Chan Kai-yin said, "Each teacher has his or her own strengths. Some teachers have experience in evaluating HKDSE writing papers, and some teachers are native English speakers." In response to the teachers' strengths, the school has carried out overall planning as early as after the students have completed the Secondary 5 curriculum. Allocate students according to their needs, and carry out group tutoring according to different paper types and abilities, so as to teach students in accordance with their aptitude, provide targeted support to students, strengthen their English skills, and make them more comfortable in the exam. The program is effective, as evidenced by last year’s students’ English scores in the HKDSE.

Introducing artificial intelligence system to support oral practice

The time for oral practice in class is always limited, so the teaching team introduces an artificial intelligence system to support students' English speaking practice. The system uses a video camera to capture students' performance during the presentation, and analyzes the students' performance in eye contact, body language, grammar and other aspects throughout the oral presentation. At the same time, the system allows students to practice multiple times anytime and anywhere outside the classroom, and provides complete reports for teachers and students to refer to so that students can focus on improving their weaknesses. Teachers will also provide students with targeted assistance based on the data.

"Turning time into subjects" increases teaching flexibility and interdisciplinary teaching broadens knowledge

One of the difficulties in learning English is the lack of practical opportunities. The school uses scenarios from different subjects to apply them to English, allowing students to apply what they have learned in English. Junior high schools adopt the method of "turning time into subjects". Each level has an English class, and subjects such as mathematics, science, and geography are taught entirely in English. In addition to Chinese, Chinese literature, Chinese history, and economic training, more than half of the elective subjects in high schools are taught entirely in English. Principal Chow Kai Tik Brian said: "The school hopes that students will be exposed to the English teaching model as soon as possible, which will help their reading and writing abilities. On the other hand, local universities all teach in English, and good English skills will greatly help students adapt to university study. The three years of English teaching in junior high schools have helped them gradually adapt to learning in English and prepare themselves for the transition to high school and university courses."

Various subject groups also jointly carry out cross-subject collaborative teaching to help students consolidate knowledge points. For example, geography subjects teach some topics in conjunction with English subjects, such as the topic of over-fishing in secondary and secondary schools. They use English to analyze the consequences of over-fishing and learn the English answer framework for geography subjects; science subjects use English topics to learn WH Words and use the cultural knowledge learned across subjects. French sentence patterns; the Form 3 Chemistry subject teaches students to write experimental reports using English sentence patterns, allowing students to learn and use English in the scientific field; the Visual Arts subject launched a bookmark design competition last year, in which students designed bookmarks based on English quotes of wisdom; the Music subject also cooperated with the English subject to organize a word-writing competition.

Last year, the school launched the "60th Anniversary Interdisciplinary Collaboration Activities", adding corporate accounting and economic elements to the English subject, allowing students to understand the anti-counterfeiting characteristics of Hong Kong currency through English reading materials. Based on the characteristics of each subject, multiple subjects work together in courses and activities, allowing students to consolidate knowledge points while improving their English ability and learning different areas of English knowledge.

In addition, the school is based on Confucian academics. In order to integrate Confucianism into the lives of students, some classic Confucian sayings will be placed in different corners of the campus so that students can hear and see them and remind them of the principles of life. The school specially arranged for senior English teachers to translate Confucian chapters and sentences from classical Chinese into English, combining Chinese culture and English to create a bilingual campus and build a strong English context.

English activities boost interest and reward programs encourage progress

In order to allow students to discover the fun of English, the school organizes a variety of English activities. For example, there are themed game booths once or twice a month, where English ambassadors plan and arrange games, and teachers assist, allowing students to speak English and play games with their peers in a joyful atmosphere, increasing their interest in learning English and no longer being afraid of English. In addition, the "English Café activity" is launched to teach students how to make coffee, learn coffee latte art, and then make it to the teacher to taste. During the process, they answer questions in English. It is hoped that students can experience the fun of learning English and then have stronger motivation for learning English.

At the same time, the school encourages students to actively participate in off-campus English competitions. Last year, more than 50 people participated in competitions such as the inter-school recital festival, writing, and speeches, and shined on the competition stage. Some of them successfully advanced and won awards. Through competitions, successes and rewards, we build confidence in English and a sense of achievement, which becomes the driving force for learning English. In addition, the school has launched an English award program to reward students who perform well in homework, tests, and classes by giving them reward cards. After collecting a designated number of reward cards, you can redeem them for prizes as an encouragement. The plan effectively stimulates their continuous learning motivation and encourages students to be more focused and serious in English learning and strive to make progress.

Overseas exchange groups with unique themes: look at the world and learn deeply

Most schools will organize overseas exchange groups, and Ho High School is no exception. However, the teacher who leads the group must set a unique theme for the exchange group. For example, in the Kyoto exchange group in 2023, the visual arts teacher who led the group used Japanese Ukiyo-e and ceramic techniques as the theme; as for the Dutch exchange group in 2024 The Netherlands-Belgium exchange group, led by teachers, focused on the themes of ancient and modern construction technology (such as the boathouse and land-sea bridge in the Netherlands; the post-modernist architecture of the Grand Place in Brussels), innovative technology (photolithography machine), emerging industry (large-scale hydroponic planting) and art (Van Gogh Museum). In addition to learning about relevant topics, students will also have the opportunity to use the English they learn every day to connect with the world and expand their international horizons.

Establish a "learning community that grows together" and professional exchanges to promote common growth

The school's teaching team is a "learning community that grows together" and strives for excellence in teaching through professional exchanges. Every year, each subject group will conduct no less than four professional exchanges and sharing sessions, providing a platform for teachers with different seniority to share teaching strategies, new teaching trends or effective teaching methods that are actually applied in the classroom. The teachers themselves are constantly adding value to themselves and striving for excellence, such as participating in different education seminars, actively participating in the grading work of the Hong Kong Diploma Examination, and sharing their expertise with other teachers in the subject group, learning from each other and growing together in an atmosphere of unity. In addition, before the start of each lesson, teachers at each level will hold a joint lesson preparation meeting to brainstorm on teaching methods, key points of each lesson, learning difficulties, etc. to optimize existing teaching materials to meet students' learning needs, promote the teaching team to grow together, and improve the effectiveness of learning and teaching.

Develop student-centered teaching strategies to comprehensively improve test-taking skills and confidence

In addition to the above-mentioned English subject group's policy of improving students' interests and abilities, teachers in other subject groups also actively understand students' needs and formulate student-centered teaching strategies to help them improve their test scores and enroll in their favorite universities in the future. Teachers come up with unique ideas to help students face the HKDSE with confidence.

Different from the instant notes in the market that only focus on information, Teacher Ho Zhong will make his own teaching notes according to students' learning difficulties, using in-depth and easy-to-understand methods, such as charts, point lists, comparison question types, etc. to focus on students' weaknesses and focus on the key points of examination assessment, so that students can learn more easily and have more goals. Every year, teachers will make fine-tuning and optimization based on different student characteristics, solving the root causes of students' problems step by step, and their grades will naturally and steadily increase. At the same time, the school requires students to excerpt the key points from the teacher’s lecture notes in class, clarify their own learning context, and train their ability to summarize, analyze and evaluate. In addition, teachers will record students’ quiz scores, track students’ learning trajectories, and use data analysis to adjust teaching strategies, all from the student’s perspective. Therefore, the school encourages students to "come to class with questions", complete pre-class previews, refine the answers, and then review the results in class to make self-corrections and deepen learning effectiveness.

In addition, the teaching team adopts flexible methods to cultivate students' learning interests. For example, through opera experience, script-killing games, and interesting teaching such as describing music videos or movie clips, students can have an in-depth experience of different cultural fields. In addition, each subject will also organize interdisciplinary learning activities for each other to create situations close to life and lead students to use knowledge from different subjects to complete learning tasks in groups. Students can not only integrate knowledge from various subjects and practice what they have learned, but also prepare themselves to join this society that values ​​problem-solving, collaboration, and flexibility. The school also arranges visits to Hong Kong and China to bring classroom teaching to life, which enhances their understanding and interest in learning content. They can combine theory with practice and be able to meet challenges in a better state during public examinations, and step into the bright future.