Construct an English context, sow the seeds of English learning, diversify learning experiences, make children love English, and use English effectively.

TWGHs Ma Kam Chan Memorial Primary School attaches great importance to English teaching, is committed to developing school-based English courses, and creates a rich and colorful English context, emphasizing the arrangement of English activities outside the classroom and across disciplines, integrating English learning into every scene of campus life, and cultivating students' listening, speaking, reading and writing abilities. Students have always performed very well in secondary school, and many have been admitted to English secondary schools in the district and outside the district. Principal Lin Huimin shared: "Over the years, the school has established a strong English learning atmosphere. Many students are not only able to communicate fluently and freely in English, but also feel their love for English." Through a series of teaching policies and school-based courses, the school sows the seeds of English learning and cultivates students' comprehensive English abilities.

Create a rich and authentic English context and promote students’ spontaneous use of English

A good English context can not only help students learn English well in communication, but also have a positive impact, prompting more students to spontaneously listen and speak more, and create an English atmosphere. Over the years, the school has hired six foreign English teachers. In addition to co-teaching English classes twice a week with English teachers at all levels and classes, they also regularly hold various English games during lunch breaks and recesses, and lead "English Day" and English activities at different festivals. Through fun interactions, students have the opportunity to use English effectively and improve their listening and speaking skills.

The teaching team has sufficient resources to prepare large-scale English learning plans. For example, the school produces an English campus publication "NET Post" every year to introduce and report English activities throughout the year to students and parents; it writes, directs, and performs English short films on different themes, including content about positive education and 24 character strengths, to further enhance students' interest in English and create a rich English context.

Vice Principal Guan Sijin said: "Our foreign teachers are very popular with classmates. Many students will take the initiative to chat with them during recess or homework, and sometimes they are reluctant to leave." Under the influence of peers, a positive influence has been formed, and more communication in English has occurred in each class. Through the exchanges between classmates, the seeds of learning English are sown, and the English learning atmosphere continues to expand and become stronger at all levels and classes. More students are accustomed to speaking English and develop their communication and expression skills in English.

"5 in 1 Reading Programme" Deepen English reading and writing skills

Reading ability is an important foundation for mastering any subject. The school especially encourages students to read frequently, including story and non-story books and periodicals. The school understands that students in junior primary schools need an adaptation period when transitioning from the first learning stage (Key Stage 1) to the second learning stage (Key Stage 2) in upper primary schools. Therefore, the "5 in 1 Reading Programme" is specially designed for third grade students. The class is taught by four foreign teachers and a local English teacher. Each class is divided into five groups according to the students' English ability and carries out various reading activities. This program is designed to help students improve their reading skills and interests during the critical period of third grade and prepare for entering upper primary school. In addition, the school orders classroom English magazines for each grade that match their abilities and interests, the English magazine "BINGO" equipped with a reading pen, and an English learning platform that provides layered reading materials and games. It is hoped that students can read more English books in their spare time, thereby expanding their vocabulary, strengthening their English reading and writing skills, and developing the habit of reading and independent learning.

E-Learning Mode Learn English Efficiently

The school adopts electronic learning (e-learning) and introduces e-learning platforms and equipment in an orderly manner to assist students in learning English in a diversified way. For first and second grade students, the school provides reading pens. The reading pen is connected to the content of "BINGO" magazine and other school-based workbooks and worksheets, making it convenient for students to use at home. Foreign teachers are responsible for recording different recording materials. Students only need to use a reading pen to read the words, helping them understand the meaning of words and articles and listen to the correct English pronunciation. The reading pen allows students to read and review anytime and anywhere, becoming a good helper for independent learning.

For students in grades three to six, the school implements the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program, which uses tablet computers to assign English learning tasks to students, such as recording and telling stories, making the types of homework more diverse. With the assistance of technology, students' learning becomes more efficient. Computer teachers will also guide them in class on how to use tablet computers and e-learning platforms correctly to further assist their English learning. In recent years, the school has continued to arrange activities related to cultivating information literacy, and has also effectively monitored students' use of tablet computers to ensure that students make good use of electronic tools to achieve learning purposes.

The rapid development of science and technology has made learning no longer stay in the classroom, breaking the limitations of time and space, and moving towards the combination of virtual and real. The school is actively reorganizing the classroom design based on the hybrid learning model, and trying to integrate virtual reality (VR) and artificial intelligence (AI) into various subject courses, in order to use educational technology to stimulate learning motivation and enable students to learn proactively. The school has designed a series of school-based "immersive learning VR interactive tours" for English and other subjects. As long as students wear VR glasses, they can experience immersive interactive learning through virtual reality and explore different topics. In the English course "Fun with Cooking", students not only experienced VR games, but also completed a special assignment. Each student shot a short video explaining the process of food preparation in English, and finally uploaded it to the learning platform to improve their English expression skills and self-confidence.

Rich activities and rewards to promote students to learn English well

Principal Lin said: "We hope to sow the seeds of English widely and cultivate every student's love for English." Therefore, the school has the tradition of English Day, arranging rich English booth games and themed English hallenges on each floor every Friday to encourage them to use and learn English outside the classroom. English ambassadors will be on duty on Fridays to help students participate in games. These activities were very popular, with high student participation. Some students even asked teachers how to become English ambassadors, which became their motivation to learn English.

In addition, the school has a variety of English activities, such as English drama, English ambassadors, speech training, pinyin classes, English scientist classes, Cambridge English classes, and English reading and writing classes, etc., to develop students' English abilities in different aspects. For students with outstanding English proficiency, starting from the fourth grade, they will be arranged to attend top-notch classes led by foreign English teachers. Through interactive and interesting classroom activities, such as short film dubbing, hand puppet theater and other group training, their English proficiency will be further improved. Earlier, the school won the first runner-up in the Education Bureau's "Story to Stage Puppetry Competition". The results are encouraging.

In order to stimulate students' motivation to learn English, the school launched the "Mileage Reward Scheme" to encourage students to learn and use English. Each student is assigned a "Purple Book". As long as they participate in a certain number of English activities throughout the year, complete tasks, and collect enough stamps or signatures, they will be eligible to participate in the "Fun and Food Festival" at the end of the semester. This ultimate activity is not limited to grade levels. They can play games and enjoy snacks freely, celebrate their English learning achievements with their teachers and friends, and inspire other students to work hard in learning English.

Learn and apply, review the past and learn new things, use English to give back to the community

This year, the school collaborated with a Tung Wah Group of Hospitals kindergarten in the North District to launch the "Reading Buddies" picture book reading activity. English ambassadors will visit the kindergarten and use designated English picture books to teach K3 and K2 children and become their reading partners. Principal Lin believes: "In language learning, 'learning and applying' is particularly important, as it can help students use the language they have learned in real situations and improve their communication and expression skills. During the reading process, our English ambassadors not only need to design ice-breaking games, master the content characteristics of the picture books, prepare questions, but also need to understand young children. Children's learning progress. Each ambassador leads three to four kindergarten children to interact, which becomes a valuable experience for them to "learn by doing." Through this service activity, English ambassadors can review English, develop storytelling skills and leadership skills, and use English as a medium to give back to the community, which has a positive impact on their growth.

Implement interdisciplinary learning elements and deepen the connotation of knowledge and culture

The school actively integrates English elements into different subjects so that students can be exposed to relevant English while learning knowledge in various fields, thereby consolidating their English knowledge. For example, in the teaching of mathematics and general knowledge, teachers choose topics that are suitable for learning in English and design school-based teaching materials and activities to match the curriculum; in terms of STEAM education, the introductions and instructions of the campus tour buses and InnoSpace are also in English, and the control platform of AI Farm also uses English as the learning medium to help students become good at using English as a communication language. It allows students to learn STEAM while being exposed to English in an interesting way, broadening their language knowledge.

Use English as a communication bridge to promote cross-cultural exchanges

The school is committed to creating an environment for students to apply what they have learned, allowing them to use English as a communication bridge, get in touch with foreign people and things, practice their English listening and speaking skills, and broaden their horizons. On the one hand, the school invites foreign experts and organizations to the school for academic exchanges and provides students with opportunities to interact in English. Last year, the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals Middle School and Primary School in the North District jointly invited an Austrian trumpet master and a piano master to hold a two-day music master class in the school, providing individual performance guidance to the orchestra members, and performing together at a music evening. The seats were full that day, and the audience responded enthusiastically. In addition, the Norwegian youth choir Defrost Youth Choir came to the school for exchanges during the Spring Festival. In the musical atmosphere, students not only talked about music, but also told the story of Hong Kong to the guests in English, introduced Chinese culture, and learned about the characteristics and development of other countries in order to broaden their knowledge.

On the other hand, the school actively provides resources and leads students to participate in overseas STEAM and music competitions and exchanges. Students perform well in various fields and at the same time hone their English skills on these platforms. Last year, students performed outstandingly in the "Hong Kong Creative Mathematical Sciences 4D Frame Competition 2024" and won the Silver Award in the Intelligent Group, the Merit Award in the Advanced Group, the Excellent Model Design Award and the Excellent Model Construction Award, and represented Hong Kong in the competition in South Korea. Principal Lin pointed out that students participating in these international competitions need to clearly listen to English instructions to complete the tasks and fluently explain the concept of the work to the jury. This not only tests their creativity, but also tests their English expression skills. Last year, the school led the orchestra to Singapore for music exchange. This year, it plans to arrange for the orchestra to go to Japan in July. Through such activities, students can experience the importance of English as a communication bridge in practice, allowing them to improve their English skills, build self-confidence, and understand the world through English.

Obtain international professional recognition certificates to enhance competitiveness and meet challenges

In order to help students meet the challenges of future studies, the school improves their English skills in many aspects. For sixth grade students, the school arranges staged English interview training to prepare for the interview for high school entrance. In addition, the school encourages students to take internationally recognized English tests, such as "TOEFL Junior", so that they can understand their English proficiency, set goals, and strive to achieve internationally recognized performance levels to enhance their competitiveness. Earlier, many students achieved good results in the writing, speaking, listening, grammar and reading items of the test. One of them won the "TOEFL Best of the Best Awards for Youth in Hong Kong", standing out among more than 30,000 candidates and becoming the top 0.5% elite with outstanding performance.