Connecting Classrooms – Student Voice: With Care and Action Forum
Three 6A students, Irene HAU, Elise TSANG and Billy HO participated in a one-day forum called ‘Connecting Classrooms – Student Voice: With Care and Action’ on 20th March, 2010.  This forum was organised by the British Council Hong Kong with the support of the Education Bureau.

Education policy makers, teachers and students from around the world gathered to work collaboratively to embed a global dimension in education systems worldwide.  Our students shared their opinions on various education systems and students’ matters.  They expressed their views on how students could contribute the school improvement and how students’ contributions could be developed as an ‘Other Learning Experiences’ activity under Hong Kong’s New Senior Secondary curriculum.  They also learnt how to put suggestions into practice through comparing and connecting Hong Kong classrooms to the United Kingdom’s.

Our students treasured this valuable experience and regarded it as a chance to practise their oral English.  They shared their views with school principals on students’ autonomy as well as students’ rights and duties.  They also established friendships with local and international students.  Our students commented that this forum was fun and enlightening.  They brought home invaluable experience and some innovative ideas to make Lee Kau Yan a better, more harmonious and student-loving school.

Learning Through your Failures

Scrabble, the most famous word game in the entire world, has attracted people from all walks of life to play. Recently, we participated in an Inter-school Scrabble Championship. During the competition, we had to play scrabble with other students from various schools in Hong Kong. By joining this competition, we learnt a lot of things, not only the skills of playing scrabble, but also the attitudes of learning.

We spent approximately a week learning how to play the game and the skills required. We needed to practise every day after school with other participants from 7A. Each practice took about an hour. Of course, our English teachers Mr. John Croft and Mr. Jason Yu practised with us every day. Through this practice, we learnt a lot of scrabble playing skills and we thought we could achieve a good result in the competition.

Sadly we were defeated in the competition. At the beginning, we did not know the reason why we lost the game. However, after the competition, we had a chat with other participants from other schools. They told us that they had memorized many four-letter words, and also seven-letter words, which would give them a bonus score if they put those words down on the game board.

Although we lost the game, we learnt so much from joining this competition. Failure does not mean anything; it is not an excuse for giving up. We should learn from our failures and make some possible improvements.

Alex Chiu and Cindy Tang (7B)

The Reading Aloud Programme aimed to enhance LKY students’ speaking skills and to boost primary pupils’ confidence in reading aloud. Twelve Secondary Four students were selected as student tutors who devoted time every Wednesday reading to the primary three students of Tsz Wan Shan St. Bonaventure Catholic Primary School. The two-month programme began with teaching and learning phonics, voice projection and intonation and it ended with a video recording of reading out the story ‘Little Red Riding Hood’. It was a tremendously rewarding experience for both TWSSB and LKY students.

The 6th AFS Intercultural Fair was held at Munsang College on 30th January, 2010. More than 1,000 students, including both local and exchange students, took part in the activity. Sixteen of our Secondary Four students were lucky enough to be there. They learnt through experiencing the cultures of more than fifteen countries. Activities included traditional games, dancing, singing, food tasting, drama, sports and so on. They were all conducted in English. It was a valuable lesson of ‘Other Learning Experiences’.

Our S.4 students had a unique experience when they attended the Vivienne Westwood Writing Workshop in Quarry Bay. They learnt more about the fashion icon’s early life, the change of her styles, her sources of inspiration and much more. The exhibition opened their eyes and in the workshop, they were taught how to write an interesting fashion column.

Hand-in-Hand English Learning Programme was organised by Rotary Club and CIS. Twenty S.1 students from our school had English lessons taught by the students from CIS. They learnt English through different types of activities such as games and role play and all of them were excited every time they went there.

Four S.6 students from LKYMS were nominated to be the delegates for the Hong Kong International Model United Nations 2007 (HKIMUN).

HKIMUN is an authentic simulation of the United Nations General Assembly. Participating students should dress in formal business attire. They assume the role of diplomats of their representing countries and negotiate on international issues. HKIMUN provides a platform for secondary students to explore the global issues, widen horizons and make new friends from various schools, regions and cultures. This year, LKYMS has been sorted as a delegate in the Social, Humanitarian and Cultural and Committee of Thailand and the Disarmament and International Security Committee of the Kingdom of Spain.

The first workshop was held on 6th July in the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Delegates were briefed the aim, the philosophy and arrangement of the Conference Day. They were also reminded of the three important steps of negotiation and presentation: Motion, Speak and Vote.

Through the HKIMUN, our students have the opportunity to meet foreign students from England, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea and the United States of America. Definitely, the S.6 students can deepen international understanding and cultural exchange through research and discussions related to local and international issues.

For the third issue of the English Newsletter 'Close Up', seven S.6 students spent a Friday afternoon with Mr. Lai. We would like to know our Principal's reflections on his first year in LKY. Though being overwhelmed with lots of work, Mr. Lai shared his joy and frustration, his motto and his life experience sincerely and patiently with us. The S.6 students were very delighted to have the opportunity to know more about our Principal, his vision in education, his ways to cope with pressure and his positive attitude towards life. And Mr. Lai also asked the students how they liked the new school management and explained the rationale underpinning the new school policies to us. The students freely expressed their views in a relaxing atmosphere. Both the Principal and the students enjoyed the interview immensely. Excerpts of the interview will be included in the upcoming Newsletter published in July 2007 and you can listen to the whole interview on this site.

The English Language Camp Leader Training Camp of English Festival 2007 was successfully held on 14 April, 21 April and 5 May. Six of the Form 4 students took part in it as camp leaders. They are Bo Tang, Yan Lam, Rita Lee, Jenny Yip, Angie Leung, and Eva Yip. They enjoyed very much at the camp while leading a group of primary school students to play a lot of English-learning games. It was surely a valuable experience for them. All of them say that they have learnt that "English is for life."

In March, all the English Society members took part in the English Fun Day of St. John Primary School. We had a wonderful experience. To show their appreciation to us, the St. John Primary School kindly issued a certificate to each English Ambassador. They also sent a letter to our Principal, Mr. Lai to commend our performance.

On 23rd and 27th of April, some of the English Ambassadors shared their experience with fellow schoolmates. They proudly read out the letter of appreciation to all fellow schoolmates. Principal Lai presented the certificates to us and kindly gave us some encouraging remarks.

For the second year in a row, about 30 English Society students from the English Society of Lee Kau Yan Memorial School served as English Ambassadors at St John Primary School on 2nd March, 2007. They instructed the primary school students and some visiting kindergarten pupils to play the many fun games and activities, such as Wheel of Fortune, riddles and making red packets and lanterns. The Principal and the teachers of St. John were again impressed by our students' friendliness and enthusiasm and found their performance highly commendable. In return, our students were able to enjoy a wonderful time with the lovely primary school pupils, school staff and other external helpers. They had a valuable opportunity to apply their English in serving the community, building up their confidence in the process. They will share their wonderful experience with the fellow schoolmates in the assembly for the junior and senior formers.

On 4th December, a total of 100 S4, S.5 and S6 students went to watch a drama performance of Mid Summer Night Dream at Hong Kong Institute of Education. The students found the adaptation of the Shakespeare's play hilarious and the costumes beautiful. They enjoyed the show very much. After the performance, students were delighted to chat and take photos with the cast.

On 23rd November 2006, AFS had a talk with the form 6 and 7 classes at the school. A French exchange students and a local girl who had a gap year in Denmark shared their experiences with the schoolmates. They asked them several interesting questions as they were intrigued by their experiences. After the talk, many of them wanted to take a gap year after finishing the A-Level.

For your information, AFS is an international, volunteer-based, not-for-profit, educational organization that provides intercultural learning opportunities to help people develop the knowledge, skills and understanding needed to create a more just and peaceful world.

On 9 Oct, 20 S6 and S7 students together with Ms Chau and Mr. Croft attended a monthly talk of ESU HK, i.e., English Speaking Union, on the topic " Priorities for Hong Kong Learners of English". The speaker, Dr David Bunton, covered some of the main difficulties HK learners have with English pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary. It showed how some of these arise from differences between Cantonese and English, and which areas are most important for learners or teachers to focus on. To conclude, Dr Bunton recommended learners to read extensively and increase vocabulary size by rote learning (learn by heart).