The successful S.1 expansion of the school in the year of 2017/18 is indeed attributed to all primary school principals and teachers, primary six students and parents, and the public who agree to the school’s vision and mission and cast their votes to support the school. The achievement is definitely the result of the efforts of the colleagues over the years. This year, the number of students enrolled in S.1 has sharply increased. Our school has been approved by the Education Bureau to expand the number of classes, which means that we have one more class in S.1 for more effective care of our students. We promise to meet the stakeholder’s expectations, doing our utmost to teach and nurture every student to be a leader and pillar of the society.
In recent years, the school has been actively developing ‘learning and teaching’. Since the launch of ‘eLearning’ in the year before last, we have attained fruitful results. Students and teachers can make good use of tablets and mobile network in lessons to conduct interactive learning activities, which effectively bring forth more interesting and effective lessons. In addition, the school started to develop ‘cooperative learning’ last year. Students have worked more to participate, discuss, exchange, and demonstrate in lessons, which add new dynamics to learning and lay a good foundation for the school’s future development of ‘self-regulated learning’.
There is also a breakthrough in our school’s public examination results. A total of 9 subjects have improvement compared with last year, in which 3 subjects achieved a 100% pass rate. 40% of the elective subjects achieved levels above the overall Hong Kong averages. 25% of the students obtained good results of Level 5 in Chinese History. Besides, in Paper 1 and Paper 3 of Chinese Language, there were students attaining remarkable results of Level 5**. In Applied Learning, 100% of the student results are reported as ‘attained’, among which 15% are ‘attained with distinction’. In addition to public examinations, our career and life planning was appraised by the Education Bureau. We are invited to share our experience with other schools. It is proven that the efforts of the school team are recognised. In fact, 100% of our students are able to find their own way out and to realise their dreams every year.
The school focuses on whole person development. Students have attained numerous awards in various competitions, including Championship of Inter-School Basketball Competition Division One (Hong Kong) Boys A Grade for nine consecutive years, making it the top team on Hong Kong Island; Top 10 Youth Arch Student Improvement Award for non-Chinese speaking students; Champion in Vocal Solo – Foreign Language – Female Voice at the 69th Hong Kong Schools Music Festival; Hong Kong Youth Artist Award. Under the delicate guidance of teachers, our students can have breakthroughs, develop their potential, and attain extraordinary achievement.
The music development of the school is even in leaps and bounds. Formed in the year before last, the school band ‘The Next Generation’ has performed in the Celebration of the 20th Anniversary of the Establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Not only was their performance greatly acclaimed, but it also proclaimed the message of love and integration. It let people from all walks of life learn about the music talents of the non-Chinese speaking students. The lead singer of The Next Generation, Gia, has even entered the finals of the Philippines National Teen Voice to fully demonstrate her music potential. In the coming year, the school will be devoted to advancing harmonica performing arts, hoping that all students in Kwei Wah Shan can learn to play the harmonica and together display the artistic talents of Wahshanians.
The school has also been awarded the ‘Caring School’ Award for 11 consecutive years, proving that teachers are very concerned about the students and the teacher-student relationship is sound. Students have a strong sense of belonging to the school, proving that the school has a good atmosphere for nurturing student growth. In addition, in recent years, the school has gradually developed into an ‘international campus’ with students from different countries to study and live in the campus. Besides widening their horizons, students can learn about different cultures from around the world and communicate with each other in English and Cantonese simultaneously. Not only does it enhances greatly their language skills, but also equips them for future studies and career paths.
In this year, the school is very honoured to receive the ‘Old Master Q’ Idiom Learning Package from the author of ‘Old Master Q’, Prof. Wang Ze. The Package will be very helpful for our students to learn Chinese and enhance their writing skills. Through learning the idioms, the non-Chinese speaking students, in particular, are able to understand the Chinese culture and the allusions, and to integrate themselves into Hong Kong and China even further.
Finally, the school lays particular emphasis on the cultivation of student integrity. Last year, we reached a consensus with all the teachers and students in the school to set out the direction of cultivating the personality traits of a ‘Wahshanian’. In the future, we will nurture our students with the six personality traits – ‘Respect, Responsibility, Care, Honesty, Gratefulness and Perseverance’. We hope that they will become excellent and outstanding ‘Wahshanians’.
Lastly, thank God for His ongoing guidance that allows the school to develop ceaselessly. Given the population decline, we can still have a class expansion. We are grateful and would like to attribute all glory to God!
Dr Felix Cheng Lai-lam
Principal
15th September 2017