English opens the door to the world, gives full play to language skills, and embraces a rich life

Free Methodist Mei Lam Primary School Actively provide high-quality Christian education for the whole person, implement the spirit of the school motto "Faith, hope, and love exist today, the greatest of which is love." We use innovative thinking to cultivate students to become tomorrow's pillars with 21st century thinking ability, good language communication skills, love in their hearts, and caring for their country. Principal Zhao Jieling makes flexible use of resources and leads the teaching team to continuously optimize the school-based curriculum and establish an electronic independent learning environment to stimulate students' interest and talent potential in learning English, helping students to fully demonstrate their talents and embrace a rich life.

Start from reading and build the future

The school is well aware that English proficiency is closely related to children's future development. To this end, the school is committed to cultivating students' reading ability. It continues to optimize course materials through funding programs, creates an immersive English learning environment for students, and inspires students to learn independently, improving their English proficiency and all-round knowledge through reading.

In the first semester of Primary 1, a school-based curriculum is adopted, which is dominated by English picture books and school-based homework with different themes. At the same time, it is combined with Pinyin courses specially taught by foreign English teachers to build students' reading, writing, listening and speaking abilities thematically. In Primary 2 to Grade 3, the English Reading and Writing Curriculum (PLP-R/W) program is implemented to continue the learning of Pinyin, reading and writing.

The principal recruiter said: "At the upper primary school level, the school designs school-based reading classes for students in grades four to six, which are taught by local teachers and foreign teachers. The course materials are flexible and layered to take care of individual differences, so as to flexibly develop students' reading strategies and enhance their reading pleasure."

Develop independent learning habits and learn English with picture books

The junior primary school-based curriculum designed by the school not only focuses on reading ability, but also hopes to cultivate students' independent learning spirit, allowing students to learn by doing and learn English hands-on. In the course of teaching English picture books, the teacher teaches students to flexibly use the content of picture books to create related works, so as to truly "apply what they have learned". The school also specially equips the school-based curriculum study books with audible reading pens for students to borrow and read electronic storybooks with audible through different online reading learning platforms, such as using "e-Story" and "Highlights Library" for independent reading. Students can study independently at school and at home, breaking the learning framework and improving learning efficiency.

Systematic Reading Assessment Personalized Reading Progress

Students begin to learn pinyin, word stringing and pronunciation skills from primary school to establish their reading and dictation skills. They also learn English common words (High Frequency Words) in class. Students recognize most of the vocabulary when reading, which effectively helps them understand the content, improve their reading ability, and make learning more fluent.

In addition, students will also undergo relevant progress assessments on a regular basis to understand their personalized learning progress through feedback. In order to develop students' personal reading ability, the school will conduct a systematic reading assessment (PM Reading Benchmark Assessment) every semester to evaluate each student's reading ability, lead students to read books of different levels according to reading differences, and implement the concept of teaching students in accordance with their aptitude, so that students can improve their English proficiency and construct all-round knowledge through reading.

Participate in different top-notch courses to fully develop your English skills

The school is committed to providing a variety of opportunities for students to fully develop their English skills, such as participating in different cutting-edge courses, including drama performances using hand puppets, script writing and English short films, etc., to enhance students' expression skills and self-confidence, and help them build a sense of self-identity. At the same time, the school also pays special attention to the challenges faced by Primary 6 students in transitioning to high school and has designed a series of specialized English interview training for them. Within the group, students will conduct a variety of mock interviews with teachers, which not only helps them become familiar with the interview process, but also improves their oral expression skills and on-the-spot adaptability, so as to stand out in the interview process.

Diversified learning experience, strong English learning environment

The school provides students with diversified learning experiences and creates a strong English learning environment. The English subject team will select two English ambassadors in each class to assist teachers in launching rich English activities, such as Phonics Fun Fun Fun and English Week, etc., to increase students' opportunities to use English in daily life. For students in primary five to primary six, the school implements the drama teaching "Language Art" course, which strengthens students' English listening, speaking, reading and writing abilities through the course, and enhances students' confidence in using English.

At the same time, foreign English teachers will also organize a series of English cultural sharing activities, such as From West to East! and campus TV programs, etc., to create a relaxed, enjoyable and international learning atmosphere for students, thereby broadening their learning horizons and encouraging them to listen more, speak more and use English more. In addition, the school actively recommends students to participate in the internationally recognized TOEFL Junior Test every year. It also participates in the men's English recital competition and obtains runner-up results. It also achieves excellent results in individual solo recitals and performs well.

Precise teaching strategies, excellent performance in high school

In order to cultivate students' preview habits, promote peer learning, create a good learning atmosphere, and improve English learning efficiency. In addition to actively seeking external resources, the teaching team also plans diversified teaching activities and promotes cooperative learning models. Before teaching new topics, teachers will ask students to preview before class, and then design interesting activities based on the preview and course content to promote student-student interaction and lead students to master classroom knowledge more deeply. With its precise teaching strategies and excellent school-based curriculum, the school’s primary six graduates have an increasing rate of being sent to English secondary schools, which is higher than the Hong Kong average. The teaching results are well recognized by the society and parents, reflecting that the school and teaching team have achieved significant results in promoting the professional development of English teaching, and all students have good language skills.

Comprehensive curriculum connection and implementation of the top-notch strategy

Every student is unique and has unlimited potential and talent. In order to cater for the different learning needs of students and provide appropriate learning support and guidance, the school has specially set up a primary one bridging course, with foreign English teachers leading a reading support program to help students who are slightly behind in their progress to solidify their English foundation. We make good use of different electronic tools in the classroom, and also use AI software to encourage students to learn to read on their own. The computer assigns different books according to the students' reading levels, thereby adjusting the progress of each student.

Promote interdisciplinary collaborative teaching and improve learning and teaching effectiveness

The school is committed to promoting collaborative teaching among teachers from different subject groups and adding English elements to the curriculum content of each subject, allowing students to accumulate English vocabulary and become familiar with the English usage environment while absorbing knowledge from different subjects, achieving the effect of immersive learning.

In addition, the school implements the Learning By Doing (LBD) teaching method in the general knowledge subjects from primary one to primary two. It breaks through the traditional curriculum framework and abandons the use of traditional teaching books. It transforms the learning content into many different experiential activities and experiments, integrating closely related life examples into the curriculum. By stimulating students' sensory feelings, it uses an experiential learning model to lead them to achieve the all-round development of affection, skills, and knowledge. In the emotional course, the teacher will focus on the movie "Inside" Out", teaches students emotional management skills, provides rich and diverse learning experiences, helps students establish positive values, and maintain a good learning attitude to promote learning effectiveness.