Commentary by teacher Ngan Heng Chan
After International Children’s Day on June 1, the English Language Team of Hou Kong Middle School (Primary Section) hosted a “student-led English carnival” recently.
The event aimed to promote student well-being and actively respond to recent educational issues. Specifically, it aligned with the Education and Youth Development Bureau’s (DSEDJ) policy to “care for the growth and development of students’ physical and mental health,” as well as the nation’s “Double Reduction” policy* by the Ministry of Education, which seeks to reduce students’ academic burden.
Since 2020, the team has pursued a whole-school approach to hold an annual English-language event. The goal is to provide students with a different learning experience where they can apply English in real-world contexts. The objectives of this year’s English Carnival were to strengthen students’ confidence in speaking English and to encourage them to explore the world through the language. In the current academic year, around 10 game booths were set up for students to enjoy during their lunch breaks.
The highlight of this year’s event was that the student helpers and booth hosts were from the school’s English Enrichment Programme, which is funded by the DSEDJ Education Fund. It aimed to demonstrate that students with advanced English skills need more than just language proficiency, considering that leadership and communication skills are important in today’s world. Therefore, Grade 3 to 5 teachers from the English Enrichment Programme took this carnival as a practical platform for these students to exercise and implement their leadership and communication skills.
The OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) emphasises through its Learning Compass 2030 framework that social emotional learning (SEL) is the core for developing students’ self-regulated learning and becoming life-long learners.
In response to the framework, Hou Kong has been working hard since 2015 to assist students in becoming life-long learners. As the bureau has also launched a “Wellbeing Week” this year, the school’s English Language Team is planning to collaborate with the school’s Moral and Civic Education Team, with the objective of designing English-medium activities that support and promote students’ wellbeing.
*The “Double Reduction” Policy is a set of education reforms introduced by the Central People’s Government in July 2021. Its full name is Opinions on Further Reducing the Burden of Homework and After-School Tutoring for Students in Compulsory Education. The policy has two main goals, namely (1) to reduce the burden of homework by limiting the amount and difficulty of compulsory education students’ homework and (2) to reduce the burden of off-campus tutoring by strictly regulating and limiting for-profit, subject-based after-school tutoring. - DeepSeek
Hou Kong Middle School (Primary Section) students participate in the school’s recent English Carnival. – Photos by Hou Kong Middle School (Primary Section) student Luciano Sio Pak Long
