8 September 2009
Message from the
Headmistress (1)
Dear Parents,
It has been a long Summer Vacation since the School
Suspension in June and I am glad to welcome you all back to school. Let me take this opportunity to report
to you about the rationale behind some of the decisions made on the allocation
of resources in school administration as well as curriculum design. All the proposals were thoroughly discussed and a common
consensus was obtained from teachers as well as
PTA committee members. The proposals
were also endorsed by the School Management Committee. We hope that the school can always provide quality services to our
students.
Considering the request from parents to assign one day
for each subject in the examination, school has sought opinion from the PTA
committee members as well as teachers and we all have come up
with a common consensus. So,
starting from this school term we are going to have four days for each
Examination so that students can have more time for revision. I would like to remind parents that we
should encourage students to do revision every day.
After consulting with teachers and the
PTA committee members, the school decided to allocate ten
more minutes for the lunch, making it a total of fifty minutes for our students
to enjoy lunch this school year. As usual, we will encourage P4-P6 students to go to the library
in the lunch recess so that they can make good use of their spare time.
Since our English textbook “Step
Up” has been used for many years, the school has undergone the
English Textbook Review in the last school term. A textbook committee which
included parent and teacher representatives has been set up and the mechanisms
and criteria for the assessment of the English textbook
has been generated with reference to the EDB Guideline.
As a result of the Review, “My Pals are Here!” was chosen for its’ high quality text
and strong support for self-learning in Reading. The School has joined
the Primary Literacy Programme in Reading and Writing for P1-P2 and the Seed
Project for P4C with an aim to enhance students’ literacy skills in
English. In order to have a cohesive
planning for these programmes as advised by the NET Section, our P1-P4 students
will use “My Pals are Here!” this year and P5-P6
students will start using “My Pals are
Here!” in 2010
and 2011 respectively.
It is the school’s responsibility to provide students with a comprehensive and balanced curriculum. But it is also vital for us to give focused support for the specific needs of our students. In order to reduce the
labeling effect, there is no streaming from P1 to
P3. At the same time, in order to
stretch the abilities of our students, we have streamlined P4-P6 according to
their attainment level. We are
using different strategies to cater for learner diversity in
different subjects. To enhance the
learning of Chinese, we have one Elite class in each level from P1-P6. Since P3 is a critical year in Key
Stage One, the school implemented split class policy in English, Chinese and
Mathematics so as to help students build up a better foundation. Elite students from 3A and 3B will be
taken out from the class to learn in small groups. As the P5 Mathematics Syllabus is more demanding than other
levels, we have two split Mathematics classes to cater for the needs of average
students. Furthermore, small class
policy has been adopted in one of the classes from P4-P6 to provide more
support and individual attention to the academically challenged students. Formative assessments, which are in the
form of quizzes, will be given in between Examinations to all levels for
English, Chinese and Mathematics so as to help teachers monitor learning and
teaching.
One of the Main
Concerns for our school this year is to enhance students’ English and Chinese
literacy skills. Besides having
the Intensive Readers and the Swap Readers, the school has built up a “Reading Resource
Center” for teachers so that they can choose the appropriate “Level Readers”
from the center for their own class to cater for class-based progress in
Reading. Students will be provided
with the “Level Readers” in the English and Chinese Reading Lessons according
to their ability and their reading progress will be adjusted when necessary.
One of the school’s important roles is character building of our students. This year, the school aims to inculcate students’ positive attitude on Care and Serve by incorporating the value into the learning and teaching of different subjects as well as in the Moral and Civic Education. We encourage good services from students by providing opportunities to them with awards and acknowledgements so that students will form a good habit of helping one another.
The school believes that by equipping students with the Generic Skills such as Self-management and Study Skills, they are more ready to cope with the challenges which they will be facing in solving problems. By implementing the Whole-school Approach Award Scheme as well as different programmes, we would like to see students show more initiative in learning and develop the ability to learn independently. Our ultimate goal is to help students develop the right attitude and acquire the necessary skills to pursue Life Long Learning.
Dear parents, please be assured that all the school’s decisions are for the benefit of our students. Your constructive comments and suggestions are most welcome. Best regards!
WONG CHUNG Wai-yee