English

Objectives

 1.develop students' language abilities (4 language skills)
    and thinking skills (creativity and critical thinking skills)
2.maximize students’ exposure to English in and out of the
   classroom by introducing life-wide language learning through
   a variety of language development strategies, such as
   co-operative learning, IT in language learning, self-access
   learning, project learning, infusion of language arts and
   adoption of a wide range of text types
3.facilitate students’ integrative and purposeful use of language
   in authentic contexts
4.cultivate positive values and attitudes conducive to lifelong
   learning

Curriculum Tailoring
  • Teachers work as a team to select focused learning targets and objectives from the syllabus. Coordination across the levels of a key stage and across key stages is a must for the whole curriculum. Teachers teaching the same year level sit together to make decisions on how the curriculum may be adapted or extended.
  • To provide a rich language learning environment and arouse pupils' interest, teachers employ games, show-and-tell activities, theme-based projects and information technology, where pupils can learn English through purposeful and contextualized use of language in a fun way.
  • Teachers also make use of pupils’ work, such as poetry, stories, songs, personal letters and diaries for the benefit of other pupils.
  • Interesting pieces of work are encouraged to be displayed in the classroom. All these create a language-rich environment for developing language proficiency.
School-based worksheets (Writing)
  • We provide pupils with a context for writing for different purposes and in a variety of text types so that they can develop writing as an important means of self-expression. We try to make use of various kinds of written discourse (e.g. menus, postcards, posters, notices, etc). It is essential to create opportunities for them to write for genuine and purposeful reasons. This kind of writing allows pupils to experience writing as a powerful tool for communication with others.
  • We help pupils to think and plan well by putting a good process of writing into action, namely prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. To achieve the purpose of the writing, "mind-map" or "spider diagram" planning is encouraged. Sets of questions such as "Who?" "What?" "When?" "Where?" "How?" are also used to structure pupils’ thinking.
  • We aim to help pupils become real writers and be creative in mind.
Reading Workshops [Reading]
  • Reading is an essential skill for learning a language. We all can strengthen our word power through reading, especially at the primary stage.
  • Shared reading, guided reading and independent reading are conducted in the English lessons. Teachers always give pupils time to think, predict and imagine. Various reading activities, such as role-play, story-telling, writing a summary and a new ending to the story, are also included.
  • Our ultimate aims are to help pupils build up good reading habits and become independent readers in future.
School-based Dictation & Phonics [Speaking & Listening]
  • In order to help pupils develop listening and speaking skills, we design our curriculum through the use of various kinds of materials, such as authentic materials, games and activities, poems, stories, songs, drama and dictation activities.
  • The main target is the adaptation of dictation and the teaching of phonics.
  • The school-based dictation helps pupils practise the skills of listening and spelling. To arouse pupils' interest, teachers may vary the activities for dictation, such as focused spelling, missing punctuation, picture dictation, sequence dictation and composition dictation.
  • Phonics lessons have been conducted in all P.1 to P.6 classes which help pupils to gain confidence and competence particularly in the areas of pronunciation, spelling and reading.
School-based Support Services (SBSS)

Level

Content

P.4

In the academic year 2009-2010, our school initiates the 3-year school-based curriculum development and support service, which is co-operated with Language Learning Support Section, EDB.  The School Development Officer will establish a close partnership with the school in P.4 English.

The objective is to provide appropriate and professional services for teachers to co-operate, share ideas and review teaching strategies.  Teachers work collaboratively to devise and implement a quality school-based curriculum for P.4 students.  We aim to enhance students’ writing skills through the adoption of Process Writing Strategy.  This involves breaking the writing task into manageable parts: pre-writing, brainstorming, drafting, revising and editing, and publishing.  It integrates speaking, listening, reading and writing in a meaningful context.  Students are provided with opportunities to engage in a variety of communicative activities such as interview, group discussion, mind mapping and presentation so as to raise students’ learning motivations as well as to guide them towards being independent writers. 

P.5

Process writing has become one of the major learning focuses in our school-based curriculum. On our journey to develop our own Key Stage 2 school-based curriculum, we have also aimed to enhance student learning through speaking and writing activities.

Group discussion serves as an effective means to raise students’ speaking proficiency. To successfully and effectively participate in a group discussion, they need to develop the ability to analyze, persuade, support and use functional language. When they interact in groups, they also learn how to paraphrase, elaborate, and clarify their classmates’ ideas. Our emphasis on peer help and co-operation facilitates teamwork and sharing of ideas, whereby their fluency can be increased.

 As we encourage shared learning, we adopt the process approach in writing. Graphic organizers are used to help students organize their ideas by representing them in visual displays. Based on students’ needs, mini-lessons on specific writing skills, for example, elaborating with specific details to enrich their stories or specific facts to support their opinions, are conducted during the writing process. An open, supportive classroom environment is created for students to share and give feedback. Peer assessment leads to guided and independent self-assessments, which foster interaction and reflection by helping students understand their strengths and identify areas for improvement. With growing confidence about writing as the year progresses, students are motivated to write more descriptively and accurately.

P.6

Engaging in refining the school’s English Language curriculum, our focus has been on planning the modules – adapting and enriching the existing textbook materials, tailoring appropriate learning materials for our students; helping students build reading skills through enhancing their reading strategies, and writing skills through process writing.  

Lessons were videotaped and subsequently analyzed and discussed to further improve the learning and teaching process. Evaluations of the school-based curriculum have been ongoing at the end of each term to share our findings with the teachers’ with regard to student learning and at the same time, obtain feedback from teachers concerning the new initiatives.  Quality time was spent on improving materials design to cater for student needs including adapting the textbooks and teaching higher order language skills.  Overall, we aim at strengthening and sustaining the growth of school-based curriculum by cultivating a collaborative lesson planning culture among a group of reflective educators in school. 
English Enhancement Grant Scheme (EEGS)
Objectives
- This grant is to provide funding for school-based development on enhancing learning and teaching English and to achieve sustainable effects after completion of the Scheme.
- Our school have mainly spent the funding on developing IT teaching and self-learning resources. These resources include E-learning platform and phonics.

E-learning platform
- The purpose of designing the E-learning platform is to enrich students’ learning on topics related to school based English curriculum.
- There is a total of 37 chaptered materials and 2 specially designed activity materials for P.1-6.
- Students’ learning is enhanced and reinforced through completing the E-games and grammar exercises with teachers and at home as self E-learning.

Phonics
- A vertical school based phonics framework is designed for P.1-6 to ensure that all relevant phonics elements are covered throughout their six years of learning.
- Students are able to learn phonics effectively and authentically through class activities singing songs and reading lessons with the NET.
 
Activities

 

Activities

External

Speech Festival

 

-   Solo Verse Speaking

-   Choral Speaking

PTU Penmanship Competition

-   For P.1-6 students

English Tongue Twister Competition 2010

-   For P.1-2 students

The Hong Kong Schools English Writing Contest 2011

-   udents

-  Topic: An Unforgettable   Experience

Creative Writing Competition for Primary School Students 2011

-   For P.1-6 students

Internal

Spelling Bee

-   For P.1,2,4 students

Fun Writing Competition

-    Topic: Alliteration Sentences

Tongue Twister Contest

-    For P.1-6 students

Elite Programme

-     Drama Group

-     Writing Group

English Musical

-     For P.3-5 students

English Week

-     Movies, songs, tongue twisters, game booths, online language games, etc.
Modes of Assessment

 

Formative

Summative

Weighting

General English

--------

100%

80%

Speaking

50%

50%

10%

Dictation & Listening

50%

50%

10%