Children's music "respects" investment and "learning" in it, creating rich English learning opportunities

Po Leung Kuk Chee Jing Yin Primary School is committed to providing students with an ideal learning environment and creating a good learning atmosphere so that students can learn and grow happily. The school designs courses based on life experience according to the development needs of students at each stage to enrich students' learning experience. Principal Gao Kailian attaches great importance to students' biliteracy and trilingual development. He leads the teaching team to design diversified school-based courses and extracurricular activities to promote students' language development and enhance their interest in English learning, so that they can become outstanding talents with both Chinese and English in the future.

Construct a collaborative teaching culture and enrich the language learning environment

A rich language learning environment plays an important role in improving the effectiveness of English learning. The school actively builds a collaborative English teaching culture. With the strong support of the school sponsoring group, it has three foreign English teachers and arranges for them to teach classes in collaboration with local teachers to provide students with a more diverse learning experience. Collaborative teaching benefits students in many ways. Through conversations with foreign teachers, they can improve their listening and speaking skills and deepen their understanding of pronunciation, intonation and daily language. Secondly, students are exposed to new vocabulary and phrases in real communication scenarios, which helps expand their vocabulary and better memorize and use it. In addition, all first-year English classes are taught by foreign teachers and local English teachers. Through practical communication, students can gradually overcome their fear of speaking English and enhance their self-confidence. The interaction with foreign teachers also enables students to gain a deeper understanding of the culture, customs and ways of thinking of English-speaking countries, thereby improving their cultural understanding.

Diversified school-based courses comprehensively consolidate English foundation

The school designs step-by-step English school-based courses and arranges appropriate course themes according to different grades and ability levels. For example, it designs a school-based DTS (Development of Text Sets Programme) course based on thematic learning units for grades one to three. This course uses different learning styles and reading materials, including stories, books, songs and poems, etc., to allow students to use authentic learning materials (authentic learning materials) to learn related topics, improve their language skills and learning interests, and promote all-round development.

For grades four to six, the school implements school-based reading and writing classes (Reading Workshops), which closely follow the curriculum with thematic learning units. For example, when teaching students to read detective novels, the teacher transformed the classroom into a murder scene and asked students to find the murderer through clues. In addition, students will also learn how to write a film review after watching a movie during the outdoor learning day. Enhance students' reading and writing skills through innovative teaching methods, and enhance their sense of participation and interest in learning.

In addition, after the epidemic ended, teachers found that students' ability to string together words and read words was declining. Therefore, the school specially designed a school-based Phonics Program for lower grade students to help students improve their ability to mix words, read words, and pinyin, and further develop their listening skills, effectively improving students' language learning difficulties.

Innovative English LEGO course to happily improve your English level

The school has also been keeping pace with the times and developing innovative school-based courses, combining Lego and English subjects to design innovative LEGO courses for second- and fifth-grade students to enhance students' language skills and creativity. The course allows students to improve their English in a pleasant learning environment through simple programming, hands-on operations and model creation.

In the course, students work in groups to promote learning, using Lego building blocks to construct storylines or solve problems, emphasizing interaction and collaboration, thereby improving learning results. This not only enhances their teamwork skills but also promotes oral communication in English. The course incorporates vocabulary learning and grammar exercises, combined with reading textbooks, so that students can learn relevant English vocabulary during the construction process and effectively enhance language understanding.

At the same time, the flexibility of LEGO bricks encourages students to use their imagination freely and explore different construction methods, thereby improving their problem-solving abilities. Through this course, students can not only improve their English proficiency and learning effects, but also develop their interest and enthusiasm for learning, and finally be able to confidently express their ideas and creativity in English.

Implement the concept of teaching students in accordance with their aptitude and cooperate with the policy of ensuring top-notch performance

In order to cater for the different learning needs of students, the school implements the educational philosophy of teaching students in accordance with their aptitude, and cooperates with the policy of "guaranteing excellence" to promote the comprehensive development of students' language. For example, in order to help primary one students adapt to silent reading, starting from the second stage of schooling, foreign teachers will read the assessment content aloud and put the audio files on the school intranet to facilitate students' learning; the school will also hold large-scale Storytelling activities to encourage students to develop reading habits. In addition, foreign teachers will also tell stories to students with special educational needs (SEN) during lunch breaks to enhance their language skills.

In terms of ensuring top-notch performance, the school has added a star-achieving course for second and third grade students this year to provide reading and writing training for students with lower abilities to improve their reading and writing skills. At the same time, in order to help sixth grade students prepare for the transition to high school, the school has added a middle school interview course to the reading and writing classes to equip students to meet the challenges of transitioning to high school.

Interdisciplinary learning activities Integrate application of different knowledge

Interdisciplinary learning activities are interesting and can attract students' attention and enhance their learning motivation and sense of participation. Therefore, there are no examinations for primary school students in the first period of school. The school makes good use of the examination period to conduct Chillax Camp courses, incorporating interdisciplinary elements, allowing students to integrate knowledge from different subjects in a relaxed learning environment. Taking the English subject as an example, the school held a campfire party to allow students to sing Campfire songs and experience the fun of camping.

In addition, in response to the healthy campus policy, the school invited different stakeholders, including students, parents, kindergarten students, parents, etc., to the campus this year to make healthy snacks "Yogurt Cup" together. Foreign teachers turned into chefs and taught them how to make delicious and healthy snacks. They learned English during the activity and conveyed health knowledge to everyone.

Diversified development of English activities to enrich language learning experience

The school provides different types of English activities to comprehensively enrich students' language learning experience. In terms of top-notch projects, the school has an English ambassador leadership training program, which gives students the opportunity to demonstrate their language skills and creativity and is responsible for promoting various English activities. Principal Gao said: "Every year, they participate in the Muppet Theater Competition organized by the Education Bureau and achieve excellent results. The competition attracts fourth- and fifth-grade students to participate. Participants work with teachers to create scripts to showcase their talents, encourage them to learn English in a relaxed and interesting environment, and cultivate their expressive skills and creativity."

In addition, the school has established English drama for many years to train students' self-confidence and ability to use English. As an effective way of language learning, it improves students' English ability through performances and role-playing. In the process of actually using English, students can strengthen their speaking, listening and expression skills. At the same time, through writing scripts, students' English skills are improved, teamwork is promoted, and the spirit of cooperation and communication skills among classmates are enhanced.

Regular activities add interest and learning becomes deeper and broader

In addition to top-notch English activities, the school also organizes different annual or regular activities, such as the Halloween event held every year, to experience the festival culture of different countries, with special emphasis on the integration with the English subject, so that students can improve their English skills while celebrating. The activities are very rich in content. Each booth game requires students to use English instructions and vocabulary to help students understand and learn related vocabulary; magicians are also arranged to perform magic performances in English. Students can learn English vocabulary related to magic while enjoying the performance; students will also use different handmade materials and follow the steps written in English to create Halloween-related decorations and furnishings, adding to the festive atmosphere and deepening their understanding of Halloween.

In order to enhance students' interest in learning English, the English Department also launched a series of interesting activities. Among them, the emergency command challenge was held for the first time during Halloween, and the school also filmed a Christmas short video of emergency commands. It is hoped that students can improve their oral expression skills and reaction speed through these activities. At the same time, the school also organizes English outdoor learning days for students in grades one to six. Activities include watching movies, watching musicals, visiting the Avenue of Stars and museums, etc., allowing students to see more, listen more, have more contact and speak more, so that their learning becomes deeper and broader, and enriches the curriculum content. In addition, this year the school launched the "Principles of Righteousness" program to enhance students' positive energy. The content contains golden quotes in Chinese and English, allowing students to learn the spirit of perseverance and never giving up, and serve as their motto on their learning journey.