Break through tradition, keep pace with the times, establish a growth mindset, and strive to achieve goals

S.K.H. St. Timothy's Primary SchoolWe implement the school motto of "not to serve others, but to serve others" and are committed to promoting whole-person education so that students can develop comprehensive and balanced development of body, mind and soul. As the "Pilot Principal", Principal Tian Shaobin understands that education cannot remain static. Therefore, he seeks breakthroughs in curriculum traditions, expands his sights to the national level, and refers to other successful experiences. At the same time, he introduces AI teaching to strive for excellence and keep pace with the times. In the new school year, the school focuses on inspiring students to think from multiple perspectives, cultivating insight and problem-solving skills, and becoming positive and confident children; it also promotes moral education so that students can appreciate themselves and those around them.

Promote digital education and empower teaching with AI

Principal Tian attaches great importance to the continuous professional development of education, and actively learns from primary and secondary schools in the Mainland and around the world, focusing on promoting AI teaching and further expanding the application of AI in learning, thereby cultivating teachers and students to make good use of artificial intelligence and empowering teaching with AI. Since last year, the school has infiltrated AI elements into the four subjects of Chinese and English Mathematics, gradually building up relevant cognitive and application capabilities.

In terms of learning and teaching, students in grades one to five will be taught information literacy, distinguishing the authenticity of information, and selecting effective content. After completing the sub-test, students in grade six will learn to use AI to answer complex questions to prepare for their promotion to middle school. At the same time, the school has introduced AI assessment elements, such as encouraging students to use AI to grade and correct their own works, and making good use of technology to establish the habit of independent learning. Earlier, the school introduced AI exercise machines to coordinate with physical education teaching and activities to record students' physical fitness and develop personalized improvement plans based on the data.

In line with national education policies, hard-working education promotes personal development

As the leading principal of the Education Bureau, Principal Tian believes that the school has the mission of connecting with national education policies. Therefore, the school refers to the concept of "moral, intellectual, physical, artistic, and labor" in the Mainland and implements "hard-working education" to cultivate students' sense of responsibility and leadership and complement "labor" education. For example, setting up service positions for everyone, through cleaning classrooms, off-campus volunteer services, etc., allows students to understand the meaning of labor from an early age, learn responsibility, gratitude, perseverance, and team spirit, and then extend the spirit of labor to their families and society.

DBL Design Thinking Course Cultivating Insight Ability

The school offers a school-based "Design Based Learning" (DBL) course, which uses experiential activities to stimulate students' empathy, discover their own or others' needs, and then use design thinking to create solutions, cultivating problem-solving skills and creative thinking. For example: Regarding the theme of "brain degeneration", students first systematically study the causes, symptoms and methods of delaying brain degeneration, and then design games. Finally, the school invites the elderly to participate in the game, and students can use users’ feedback to reflect and optimize the design. In the process of "experience-design-test-modification", students need to stand from the perspective of the elderly, understand their difficulties, and know how to think about problems from multiple perspectives. President Tian pointed out: "What the future society needs is not just to work hard, but to gain insight into the deeper meaning behind the world and events."

Interdisciplinary Learning Explore STEAM Fields

The school uses interdisciplinary collaborative learning and scientific inquiry and practice to train students' logic, creativity and problem-solving abilities. Faced with the separation of general knowledge subjects into science subjects and humanities subjects, the school's science subjects will be more closely aligned with the development of STEAM, and will be taught in the form of special inquiry. Students will first be led to study in the science museum and space museum, and then design environmentally friendly power ships, environmentally friendly vehicles and other works, and then complete special reports under the guidance of Chinese teachers. The original "Computer Science and Technology Department" has also been reorganized into "Technology Department" to strengthen cross-disciplinary cooperation and combine technology and social services, allowing students to explore and invent related issues, such as making vacuum cleaners.

In addition, the school actively optimizes teaching equipment and introduces different robots, allowing students to understand the development of today's science and technology by understanding the assembly, programming, and operating principles of machinery. At the same time, the school offers interest classes on drones, AI mechanical engineering, etc., and organizes activities such as "Humanities" and "Math Week" to improve students' STEAM skills and interests. Last year, the school even took students to Hangzhou, Singapore and other places to conduct research visits on the development of information technology to broaden their learning horizons.

Create a language learning atmosphere so that students can use English confidently

The school creates an English learning atmosphere through courses, manpower, activities, etc., taking into account learning needs and ability improvement. In the course, common English vocabulary will be taught in some subjects of mathematics, general knowledge and the separated humanities and science subjects to take care of non-Chinese speaking students and local students who are accustomed to English, and prepare them for studying in English. In order to achieve consistent "learning and teaching evaluation", the test papers are also bilingual in Chinese and English, allowing students to choose their own answers and taking into account the diversity of learning.

In terms of manpower arrangements, the school has foreign English teachers and native English-speaking teachers (ELTA), allowing students to strengthen their English skills through communication with teachers; students are invited to share in English morning meetings; English dramas, English recitations and other activities are provided, and students are selected to join the small emcee team to systematically train speaking skills.

In addition, the school carefully designs and carries out a variety of English learning activities and immersive experiences, such as launching interactive English games on electronic teaching platforms and promoting AI-assisted English writing courses. These diversified learning forms, with the help of technological empowerment and formal innovation, fully stimulate students' enthusiasm and potential for learning English.

Activities reveal potential and give opportunities to shine

The school is committed to creating a platform to provide diversified activities to enrich learning experience and help students explore their potential and demonstrate their talents. Extracurricular activities are held on Fridays, covering music, physical education, art and other fields. Activities such as POPY pop band, English drama, non-bump rugby, squash and other activities are held for each student to participate in and develop their personal interests. The school also cooperates with private organizations to offer paid extracurricular activities on Saturdays, and offers interest classes such as Taekwondo and fancy rope skipping to cultivate multiple intelligences.

In addition, the school will provide appropriate school team training based on students' talents, such as track and field team, lion dance team, choir, etc. In recent years, the school has established a student talent pool and arranged suitable competitions or activities for students based on their specialties, so that every student has the opportunity to develop their talents and broaden their horizons.

With the support of the school, the students have won many awards outside the school. Earlier, they won 7 awards in the Kowloon Southern District Track and Field Competition and performed well. At the same time, the campus provides opportunities to showcase learning achievements, and holds the "Timothy Stage" and the annual "Student Achievements Show" for students to showcase their talents, gain self-confidence, a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction on the stage, and learn from and appreciate each other.

Pay attention to mental health and establish healthy living habits

The school attaches great importance to the mental health of students and promotes the healthy development of students' body, mind and soul through experiential learning and creative space. For example, the "Good Spirit Sports Meeting" is held to experience relaxing activities such as laughter yoga, sound therapy, and meditation, and students are encouraged to carry out these activities at home to cultivate their "good spirit" mentality. It also promotes "TCM in schools" to help students master the soft skills of "good spirit". It pays attention to the current situation of addiction to the Internet, attaches great importance to reading, and also arranges moderate free play to strengthen interpersonal interaction. A series of arrangements not only allow students to establish healthy living habits, but also enable them to gain something from the activities.
Get happiness.

Gentle transition to new stage, confidently meet learning challenges

The school has formulated a series of transition policies for kindergarten and primary school: starting from June, parent-teacher meetings will be arranged for prospective primary school students and their parents to let them know more about the school’s policies, and transition brochures and short videos will be produced to introduce the elementary school curriculum; in July and August, an “AI Enlightenment Course” will be held to experience how AI can be integrated into the teaching of different subjects; before the start of school, an adaptation course will be set up to allow students to get in touch with teachers and new friends; after the start of school, a half-day class system will be implemented in the first two weeks, so that new students will gradually adapt to the rhythm of primary school classes.

In addition, the Humanities Department will organize a "Campus Tour for Primary One" to lead new students to understand the school environment. DBL classes will also teach self-care skills to help students adapt to primary school life. In terms of testing, Primary 1 adopts a "three-assessment" system, namely paper-and-pencil assessment, multiple assessments and practical assessments, to comprehensively understand the needs and learning progress of new students. Scores will not be ranked to reduce learning pressure; during parent days, experts will be invited to hold parent lectures to guide parents on how to encourage their children with positive language.