elchk lutheran academy annual report 2013-2014
TRANSCRIPT
1
ELCHK Lutheran Academy
Annual Report 2013-2014
2
Executive Summary on the School Report
The school report (2013/ 14) consists of three main sections. First, achievements and reflection on major concerns are mentioned. Issues about learning and teaching are addressed. The support we provided to facilitate student development is stated as well. The financial summary of the school is the second last part. And the report is ended with the feedback on future planning. The significant points of each section are listed below. However, student performance is not included in this report as Lutheran Academy is a newly established school that there is no graduate who has already taken part in any public exam. 1. Achievements and Reflections on Major Concerns
• There were four major concerns in total, namely 1) Management & Organization, 2) Teaching & Learning, 3) School Ethos and Student Support and 4) Networking and Schools’ Sustainable Development.
• Efforts were channeled to deal with those concerns last year. And by adopting various measurements, achievements made in each area had been recognized.
• Pieces of evidence were also provided to support the achievements. One of the methods was to conduct a year-end online survey to invite our stakeholders, i.e. students, parents and teachers, to give opinions on different aspects. They commented on the School’s performance according to their overall experience and responses given were in a general sense. We noticed that the response rate of teachers’ questionnaire this time was rather low. To boost the response rate higher in the next academic year, more reminders will be issued.
• Some future plans had even been formulated for some areas of concerns in order to make further improvements duly. • Please find the summary of this section below:
Concern 1: Management & Organization
• Account systems were found clear and effective to manage the financial situation of the School. • Social committee was set up to strengthen the bonding among staff members of both teaching and non-teaching teams. • Self evaluation was conducted to ensure that the voices of different stakeholders could be heard and improvements could be made
accordingly.
3
Concern 2: Teaching and Learning
• To ensure that the education the School provided could fit students’ needs, over 80% of teachers had been sent to receive appropriate IB trainings.
• Collaborative working time was available for teachers to do the cross-curriculum planning in different year levels regularly. Meetings facilitated teachers’ communication and reflections were made to further modify the School’s policies for the good sake of students’ learning.
• Being ICT-infused remained one of the important focuses last year. Various electronic platforms were used for better teachers’ planning and collaboration and students were given a lot of chances to explore.
• More resources were allocated to take good care of students with special educational needs. A SEN coordinator was appointed and a storage room was reserved for managing SEN students’ data. The coordination maintained close contact with parents of SEN students so as to make sure home-school cooperation could take place to assist students in learning.
Concern 3: School Ethos and Student Support
• To enrich students’ learning experience, field trips, Global Classroom learning tours, Co-curricular activities (CCA) and Extra-curricular activities (ECA) were organized. The majority of students enjoyed the arranged activities and parents found them useful in term of their children’s growth.
• The School made external resources available to fully support students’ growth. The Friends of Scouting Jockey Club Long Ping Service Centre for Children and Youth was a partner and character-building program was held to particular assist students who needed some more improvements.
• Home-school communication was maintained well so as to provide students with support at both home and school. Teachers communicate with parents regularly. Furthermore, bulletins and Vineyard were published. Moreover, parents’ nights, sharing sessions, parent education programs were held. In addition, the Lutheran Association of Parents and Teachers (LAPT) was found another effective channel to bridge parents and the School.
• Certain portion of the reserve was used to support students. In total over 170 students were benefited from the scholarship and fee remission schemes provided by the School.
4
Concern 4: Networking and Schools’ Sustainable Development
• The School took an active role in maintaining network with various external parties such as the Police Force and The Friends of Scouting Jockey Club Long Ping Service Centre for Children and Youth in order to look for more resources to fully support our students’ needs. Internally, the LAPT played a role in bridging parents and the School.
• With the assistance of external organizations, students were educated to stay environmentally friendly while the operation partners such as the lunch caterer were asked to handle waste carefully.
• Efforts were channeled to study the feasibility of the extension of school campus. As a result, students could have adequate space for catering for students’ diversified learning needs.
• Government grants for different purposes were received for the School’s sustainable development. To raise fund, Grand Opening activities were held to get parents the community involved.
2. Financial Summary
• Various measures have been taken to ensure the school’s finance situation is controlled and sustainable. • The school’s financial summary is attached in the section.
3. Feedback on Future Planning In alignment with the completed cycle of school development and annual school plans, a number of areas were identified for future development. Please refer to different parts of the report for details.
5
About ELCHK Lutheran Academy Before going deep into the different sections of the annual school report, some background information about the School is given here so as to give readers a full picture for understanding the School’s developments and achievements better. Lutheran Academy is a through-train college founded by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hong Kong (ELCHK). The Chinese name of Lutheran Academy is 'Hong Xin Shu Yuan', which originates from the scripture, "Love bears all things, believes all things." (1 Corinthians 13:7), which is also adopted as the School’s motto. Vision We hope that our students will be able to:
• take a broad view over the world; • learn to strive for excellence; and • continuously make breakthroughs via quality Christian education.
Mission We are determined to:
• produce future leaders who are principled, balanced, and excellent communicators with sound foundation in language abilities (biliteracy and trilingualism, plus an additional language). Students will:
• learn by inquiring into challenges to become knowledgeable thinkers; • be lifelong learners with care and compassion for the community, the country and the global world.
Class Structure and Number of Students in 2013-2014 (as at 31 July 2014)
Year Level 1 2 3 4 5 7 8 9 10 Total Number of Classes 4 4 4 3 1 4 4 4 4 32
Number of Students 97 98 98 86 29 86 101 93 85 773
6
1. Achievements and Reflections on Major Concerns Major Concern 1: Management & Organization Enhancing the Effectiveness and Efficiency of the School
Target Achievement Reflection Future 1 To facilitate the through-train mode of
operation, the school has recruited staff from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds so as to incorporate different viewpoints in the dynamic organizational structure.
Non-Chinese candidates constitute around one-third of the teaching team. They are from nine different countries with different cultural background.
The Senior Leadership Committee will continue recruit teachers from overseas so as to further increase the proportion of non-Chinese and non-local teaching staff.
2 The school has established different knowledge management strategies to ensure the information and knowledge can be shared across the school.
e-Library system and document management systems are utilized to record, store and manage the library resources and school documents respectively. Apart from these, Google Drive has been introduced in storing and sharing resources and school documents.
Staff induction week will provide staff training on the used of management systems.
3 Accounting system has been effectively utilized in tracking income and expenditures in order to stabilize the organizational structure of the school.
All the account staff members find the system reliable and useful while around half of teachers feel the policies are concise and easy to follow.
More guidelines will be provided to teachers on the detailed procedures of the accounting policies.
7
Target Achievement Reflection Future 4 The Facilities Management department has
introduced management system for better organization and management of resources. Facility Management Officer has been recruited to work on the sustainability of the school. An e-Inventory system has been utilized in an effective way to manage the stock inventory and provide the updated record. To prevent over-stock, items have only been purchased when they are in need. A staff member has been dedicated to manage the teaching resources. Annual review on stock inventory has also been conducted, hence, the school can make good use of the review report to plan for the next academic year.
Users of the management system find it effective and useful.
/
5 The school has retained an employee-friendly workplace by providing an open-communication environment. To stimulate staff’s personal growth, the school continues provide them with professional training. A comprehensive plan has also been made to maximize their opportunities to receive trainings.
70% of teachers feel the environment allows open communication and the school welcomes their opinions. Around 70% of teachers agree that the school encourages and supports their professional development. Majority of them find the professional development activities organized by the school useful to their duties.
/
8
Target Achievement Reflection Future 5
Staff members took the initiative to enhance the team spirit and formed Social Committee. The Committee organized different events such as sports events emphasizing the importance of being respectful in the culturally diverse workplace.
Over 80% of teachers have attended regional IB workshops in Beijing, Singapore and Hong Kong. Get ToGether (GTG) is held every morning and social gatherings are taken place on alternate Fridays to gather staff and celebrate cultural diversity. Teachers participate actively and show their initiatives to share their own culture during the gatherings. Teachers were also willing to do coaching and hold classes for exercising and dancing samba together during the leisure time at school.
/
6 Self-evaluation mechanism has been implemented and effectively promoted the self-evaluation culture among the school for quality assurance and sustainable management. Teachers and school management made good use of the evaluation results and opinions collected from school management, students, parents and teachers to further improve the quality of teaching and management. Evaluation findings and future plans have been disseminated to teachers, students, parents and the public through the School Annual Report, School Development Plan and Annual Plan, which are obtainable in the school website and the DMS.
Year-end surveys for teachers, parents and students were conducted last year.
/
9
Major Concern 2: Teaching & Learning Strengthening 21st Century Skills of the Students through Improved Teaching & Learning Strategies Target Achievement Reflection Future
1 The school is striving the best to gain authorization for the Primary Years Program (PYP), Middle Years Program (MYP) and Diploma Programme (DP). The school has gained authorization for the Diploma Programme (DP) in January 2014 and is planning for the PYP and MYP applications. To equip teachers with IB knowledge before the implementation of the three programmes, teachers keep receiving professional development. DP Coordinator, MYP Coordinator and subject coordinators have been recruited and identified. They cooperate closely to ensure the delivery of curriculum meets the IBO standards.
To better prepare for the implementation of DP in 2014/15 school year, DP teachers visited Po Leung Kuk Choi Kai Yau School. Primary and Middle School teachers visited International College Hong Kong – Hong Lok Yuen and Renaissance College respectively for gaining insights from their experience of the PYP and MYP authorization. Over 80% teachers have attended regional IB workshops in Beijing, Singapore and Hong Kong. Over 90% teachers agree that the curriculum development of the school is in line with current trends in educational development. About half of teachers agree that the resource management system has allowed them to share and freely use the teaching materials across disciplines and year levels.
The school will continue building connections with worldwide IB World schools so as to gain much more valuable experiences before being authorized to provide PYP and MYP. DP curriculum is due to be reviewed at the end of next academic year to ensure it fits with IB philosophy.
10
Target Achievement Reflection Future 1 Collaborative meetings have been held regularly
among teachers from different year level and classes in each teaching block to evaluate and plan for both horizontal and vertical articulation of the curriculum. To support the implementation of the programme, curriculum proposals and guides are devised and reviewed by subject coordinators, teachers and the Head of Academics. A resource centre staff has been recruited to help manage the teaching materials and provide support to the library. The school has built up a resource management (context knowledge) system, ManageBac, to manage all the teaching materials. Teachers are highly encouraged to utilize the system to share the teaching materials with others. The school library provides resources to teachers and students. Teachers and students have utilized the resources to help their teaching and learning respectively.
Some of the teachers think the library collection includes resources in different formats such as books and electronic resources. Majority of them have utilized the library resources to help with unit planning and teachers. More than half of students agree that time is frequently spent on searching information by using the library’s resources in different formats, e.g. books and electronic resources. 88% of parents express their views that the school has provided a great variety of suitable learning resources for students’ education.
/
11
Target Achievement Reflection Future 2 To further facilitate the mobile learning
environment and the ICT-infused Inquiry driven curriculum, teaching staff have partnered with the ICT department in curriculum design and have reviewed the effectiveness of the use of technology in teaching and learning. Teachers, ICT representatives, librarian representatives and facilities & infrastructure team have launched the online library resources system, OPAC, in collaboration to support the pedagogically focused and ICT-infused curriculum. The school has provided great variety of learning activities to develop students’ multiple intelligences and potentials, for instance: - “Wizard of Oz” drama performed by in December 2013 - A series events in “Science in Life” for both primary and secondary students in November 2013 - Year 4 & 5 Camp in November 2013 - Field trips for both primary and secondary students throughout the school year
Over 80% parents agree that students have made use of ICT to facilitate their inquiry-based learning. Around 90% of them think that the technology resources in learning, for example, whole school Wi-Fi coverage and computers, are suitable and appropriate for students to facilitate their learning. High percentage of students agrees that teachers have encouraged them to make use of multiple learning channels including eClass and different online tools. Some teachers state that students have interacted with them through electronic social platforms for learning purposes. 87% students think their teachers have catered to and supported their needs. 77% of them express their views that teachers have set assignments and assessments at a reasonable length and level.
More training will be organized for teachers and students for the use of electronic social platforms, for instance, Edmodo, for teaching and learning. Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) will be established and in use in the next academic year. The school will provide tablets in primary classes for teaching and learning, portfolios in the coming academic year. Apart from ICT-infused lessons, specific ICT lessons will be included in the primary class timetable to equip primary students with ICT skills for their learning. The school will invite the Hong Kong Institute of Education to conduct lesson observation and teacher workshops so as to facilitate teachers in taking care of students with special education needs.
12
Target Achievement Reflection Future 2 Interactive Learning Whiteboard has been
installed in classrooms in this academic year for interactive, multi-sensory and multiple intelligence. Training sessions have been provided for teachers on the use of the Whiteboard. In addition, BrainPop has been subscribed for teachers and students for teaching and learning through online platforms. Moreover, inquiry-driven learning system has been utilized to allow students actively acquire knowledge through books and online resources. Field trips and outdoor visits were held in different year levels for students to learn outside classrooms. The school library has also held various activities in the “Bookworm Week” in May 2014, including “Spell-a-thon”, “Dress Up As Your Favourite Storybook Character Competition” and “Book Review” etc. In addition, students have been highly encouraged to connect with different social groups within and beyond the school. Some classes have initiated pen pals with overseas school.
Some teachers agree that the school has strategically arranged different learning modes and opportunities for students in light of students’ abilities, interests and needs. All teachers state that they have asked students questions of different levels in lessons. 75% of parents think that teachers have had a good understanding of students’ learning needs and spent time and effort to provide support to students within and beyond the classroom. 77% of students express their views that teachers have set assignments and assessments at a reasonable length and level. About one-third of secondary students feel that they have tried to be a positive role model for primary students where one-fourth of them agree that school’s prefects are student role models who lead by example.
University students majoring special needs will be invited to do teaching practice in the school to further split the class and reduce the class size to cater for learning diversity.
13
Target Achievement Reflection Future 2 The school has provided electronic social
platforms such as Edmodo, Google sites and email for teachers and students to discuss learning materials and experiences before and after class. Sufficient resources are provided to ensure technology has been incorporated into students’ learning in school and at home. Students have access to a wide range of services in the school for collaboration work. Primary students can use computers and scanning devices installed in the computer lab and other classrooms whereas all secondary students join the personal laptop computer programmes arranged by the school. A total of around HKD250,000 was offered by the Government and used to implement a pilot scheme regarding mobile learning. A number of iPads were purchases and our Head of ICT led 7 Year Level Heads in the primary section to try this out. The grant was also for upgrading the wifi speed at School. To foster personalized learning which caters for learners’ diversity, including students with Special Educational Needs (SEN) and students who are gifted etc., streaming, a team of teachers specializing in helping SEN and gifted students is assembled.
Year 5 students went to ICHK Hong Lok Yuen to visit the student exhibition for gaining experience and exchanging ideas with students there. Secondary students who studied Visual Arts have visited Discovery College for the Art Exhibition.
/
14
Target Achievement Reflection Future 2 Re-grouping and splitting cases have been
adopted to further reduce class size and cater for different students’ needs. Gifted students are encouraged to guide students with weaker academic abilities in their learning. Assignments with different level of difficulty are tailored for learner diversity. Teachers have helped students explore different knowledge areas with common central concepts and prepare respective sets of questions so as to allow students to choose to explore the area(s) of interest in greater depth. An experienced SEN Coordinator has been recruited to oversee the personalized learning and help further catering for learners’ diversity. She is also responsible for liaising with external organizations and monitoring students’ different learning progress. She provided Education Assistants with trainings as well so that we could support students with learning needs in primary section. After-school support services of Chinese classes for SEN students have been provided by external organizations.
Split class student lists were found and students were grouped by subject teachers according to their language proficiency.
/
15
Target Achievement Reflection Future 3 A concept of academic student assessment that
is not only adopted to serve the purpose of “selection or ranking” but also as self-challenging tasks for students to excel and improve has been developed in the school. Assessments have highlighted student positives and aroused their interest in learning, stimulated their motivation to learn and given them a sense of possibility that they can succeed and learn. The school has adopted innovative ways of academic assessment that reflects the learning abilities of students and puts strong emphasis on the learning process, but not only correct answers. Formative assessments with flexible arrangement for students with different learning needs and their self-reflection have been employed. Mathematics summative assessments have been established for all year levels for each unit. Teachers have also shared learning goals with students and helped them recognize the standard they aim for by providing clear rubrics that are unanimous with the learning goals. They have guided students in exploring their areas of interest and encouraged them to locate resources that help assessment preparation.
The math summative assessment, weekly scheme of work in TFI and the extension of student-led conference have been discussed during the curriculum planning meetings, which proves to be conducive. Teachers took TSA paper as one of the reference sources and widened the pool of question types by integrating them into the assessments. The majority of parents have found the learning portfolio useful.
/
16
Target Achievement Reflection Future 3 Self-assessment and peer assessment are of
upmost importance in inquiry-based learning. Students have been provided with opportunities to discuss with both teachers and classmates about what they have learnt and what they have found difficult, using the learning goals as a focus. Teachers have analyzed with students in steps in their thinking and have provided constructive, positive feedback that not only acknowledges students’ achievements but also identifies what has to be done to improve. In addition, students have been given time to reflect themselves on their learning before teachers identifying with them. Primary students reflect their learning progress at the end of every unit. All students can assess their own academic achievement through portfolios. Curriculum planning meetings have been conducted regularly by subject convenors and members for adjusting planning, evaluating the effectiveness of tasks, resources etc. as a result of assessment.
/ /
17
Target Achievement Reflection Future 3 In addition, math summative assessment as
well as a weekly scheme of work in TFI has been introduced; and student-led conference has been extended to both music and P.E. Those serve as informative and transparent student assessment which keep track of students’ academic performance. Electronic student learning portfolios have been developed to show clearly students’ participation in school events, activities that are held outside the school campus, accomplishments, areas for improvement and self-reflection in the learning process. A copy of the portfolio has been given to each student and parents at the end of each key learning stage for their reference. In addition, Student-led Conference was held to allow students to show parents what they had learnt so far in the academic year by actually demonstrating the skills and knowledge.
/ /
4 Learning programs such as mainland and overseas tours (Global Classroom), training programs and field trips have also been organized during the regular curriculum planning meetings for providing ample opportunities for life-long learning and whole-person development. The activities have ensured our curriculum to be school-based, holistic, broad and balanced.
11 overseas tours (Global Classroom) and field trips for different year levels have been held according to the inquiry units of various teaching block to enhance students’ learning experience.
/
18
Target Achievement Reflection Future 4 Students have actively participated in Co-
Curricular Activities organized by teachers on selective Fridays during normal lesson time. There are over 30 different clubs for students to choose from; both middle-year and primary-year students are allowed to take part in some of the activities. We have prepared Primary students for Secondary education as our through-train educational system has been put into practice via the following means: a) bridging courses such as student
workshops and summer camps have been provided for Primary students;
b) resources have been made available for students to further develop their spirit of inquiry and other qualities in the IB learner profile;
c) a sufficient number of teachers teach both Primary and Secondary classes so that students’ learning progress is monitored;
d) Primary students need not to adjust to a new environment since they remain on the same campus after being promoted to Secondary section; and
e) the format of timetable remains similar after being promoted to Secondary section as well.
Students have been actively participated in CCA activities. They have reported that they enjoyed the fun and relaxing environment during CCA activities; and middle-year students have taken the initiative in helping primary-year students learn. Homeroom and subject teachers have been monitoring closely on the primary students’ progress in order to make them feel academically an emotionally satisfied after having been promoted to Secondary classes. The majority of Secondary students have actively participated in the services provided for the Primary students. Secondary students have participated in a Global Classroom Service Learning trip to Cambodia in which they performed community services to the local people. Other students have contributed by donating their unused stationeries.
/
19
Target Achievement Reflection Future 4 Senior students are given opportunities to take
up various service roles to serve their junior counterparts and to act as role models. They have participated in leadership schemes in which students are trained to offer services such as ICT support. Students have participated in community services and charity work since our curriculum supports whole-person development. We have paired up with a character-building organization, The Friends of Scouting Jockey Club Long Ping Service Centre for Children and Youth, and developed a detailed plan on the character-building project. Social workers and pastoral care team have arranged and coordinated character-building program with the external organization. English has been used as the medium of instruction across various knowledge dimensions and school activities. Posters, signage and price lists at tuck shop are in English so that an English-rich environment is created and students’ biliteracy and trilingualism are facilitated.
A character-building program, Positive Adolescent Training through Holistic Social Programmes (P.A.T.H.S.), has been held. Over 70% of parents agree that the school has provided sufficient support to their child. Nearly 70% of the students frequently communicate with classmates and teachers in English at school or during school events.
/
20
Target Achievement Reflection Future 4 Putonghua has been used as the medium
of instruction for Chinese & Culture, Chinese History and Chinese Literature; thus students’ biliteracy and trilingualism are facilitated. Students’ language learning has been extended to French and Japanese with the help of technology for the facilitation of students’ biliteracy and trilingualism with an additional language. Teachers with high language proficiency (e.g. teachers from overseas universities and NETs) have been recruited to facilitate students’ language studies. Students’ reading habits are promoted while sharing of good books is encouraged. They have used the resources in the library effectively and have been reading a passage a day using available online resources. Bookworm Week has been held to encourage self-learning. The library staff members have also planned reading-related activities for the whole school. At the end of school term, Fun Week was held by teachers
Over half of the students frequently communicate with classmates and teachers in Putonghua at school or during school events. Over 40% of the teachers are non-local. French and Japanese are added in the formal curriculum. A committee containing the Principal, Deputy Principal and subject convenors is assembled. Over 80% of teaching staff have participated in staff development programs. Admin staff has been working closely with Deputy Principal on the matter. ICT support sessions have been held to provide teaching staff with adequate training to enhance their I.T. skills. Adequate information about professional development opportunities have been provided to teachers and the majority of them think that the information is of great help to them in performing their duties.
/
21
Lesson observations have been conducted for all new and returning teachers so that quality of teaching is ensured; our teacher librarian has evaluated library and reading resources; guided reading resources have been ordered; and we have identified the need for novels and writing practice resources for Year 3 and 4 students to teach cursive writing. A school-based staff professional development team has been set up for arranging and coordinating the work of staff development programs and management of knowledge. Teaching staff members are trained up for the planning and implementation of the school curriculum, with strong emphasis on strengthening their I.T. skills. Workshops and seminars by external professional bodies have been organized to strengthen teachers’ professional knowledge, so as to ensure the quality of teaching. We have developed a mechanism for quality assurance of the curriculum. Regular meetings have been held for the planning and implementation of the curriculum.
Most of the parents have reassured the quality of the curriculum; they agreed that the curriculum is well-rounded. Over 70% of the teaching staff have agreed that the monitoring of planning and implementation of curriculum is sufficient.
22
Target Achievement Reflection Future 5 A system of formative evaluation and staff
trainings have been set up to maintain high quality of teaching. Self-evaluation has been included in daily school practice, such as half year report and self-evaluation report. Collaboration and teamwork have been included in daily school practices. Staff members regularly communicate the school vision, mission and core values through induction courses or staff meetings.
ICT support sessions have been held to provide teaching staff with adequate training to enhance their I.T. skills. Staff meetings are held on a regular basis.
/
6 Parents’ Nights, Parent-teacher Sharing Sessions and Parent Education Program, etc. were held to improve communication on students’ performance in different subjects and progress across teaching blocks. Channels of regular communication between parents and teachers have been established. We have continued monitoring the punctuality of unit bulletins and weekly/ bi-weekly homeroom teachers emails to class parents, so as to build up mutual understanding as well as to inform parents of students’ learning attitude. We have also identified the need to enhance the 3-Way Goal Setting Conference to let parents know about students’ learning progress.
The majority of parents agree that they are well informed of their children’s learning progress by the teachers through different communication channels. The majority of parents agree that they are well informed of their children’s learning progress by the teachers through different communication channels.
/
23
Target Achievement Reflection Future 7 We have collaborated with partner
schools in Mainland China and overseas for teacher and student exchange programs. We have also connected with two sister schools from Mainland, namely the Experimental Primary School of NanChang Normal University and the Attached Secondary School of JiangXi Normal University. We have developed close partnerships with external professional bodies as training partners for our teaching staff; for example, we currently partner with Apple Inc. for ICT-related professional development for our teaching staff.
A group of 22 educators from Mainland China have come to our school in July for site-visit purpose. Teaching staff members have received iPad trainings to enhance the teaching and learning of our students.
/
24
Major Concern 3: School Ethos and Student Support Nurturing 21st Century Global Leaders who Live out the Core Values of the School Target Achievement Reflection Future
1 By adopting a whole-school approach for students’ development, teachers have observed students’ behaviors carefully both inside and outside classrooms and spotted some students who would need extra help for character building. Year Level Heads met with the Head of Middle School on a weekly basis to discuss the progress of character-building plans while Curriculum Coordinators discussed with the School Pastor about the planning of conducting Life Education lessons. The Friends of Scouting Jockey Club Long Ping Service Centre for Children and Youth was a close partner to the School in terms of helping those target students. Teachers shared the information in hand with the organization and served our students. With the joint effort of the Pastoral Care Team and The Friends of Scouting Jockey Club Long Ping Service Centre for Children and Youth, character-building programs were arranged successfully and students were invited to take part in them. Activities were well planned in advance and held in a long run in order to serve as a program to foster students’ whole-person development throughout the academic year.
As reflected by the year-end questionnaire completed by parents, over 70% agreed that the School cares about students’ personal growth and has provided suitable support for them. The majority of students were found more positive towards learning and social development whereas over 75% of parents were satisfied with the level of care their children received.
The Student Affairs Department will explore more to see if new service partners can be invited to join us next year in helping students to build characters so as to fully cater for the diversified needs that our students may have. The School planned to collaborate with various specialists to strengthen the effectiveness of the character-building activities that we are going to hold next year.
25
Target Achievement Reflection Future 2 Christian values were disseminated to enhance
students’ whole-person development spiritually, emotionally and educationally in both formal and informal ways. Internally, students were required to attend Life Education lessons and certain school time was reserved for doing Chapel so that they could be in touch with Christian faith. On the other hand, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hong Kong, the sponsoring body, organized fellowship at the School. This collaborative effort made the Student Affairs Department a more powerful one to meet our students’ needs. A service agreement was signed between the Church and the School for holding students’ supporting group such as drumming classes to benefit children. Secondly, the Student Affairs Department also kept in touch with The Friends of Scouting Jockey Club Long Ping Service Centre for Children and Youth and looked for more resources to better support the character-building program in order to maximize the benefits that students could have. For example, requesting more manpower like professional social workers to take care of students while holding the activities. The social worker was actually making use of the funding offered by the Government to run the program.
According to the survey completed by parents, almost 70% of them agreed that the School has provided appropriate spiritual growth to students. Furthermore, 88% of parents even appreciated the great variety of useful resources for students.
In terms of the curriculum planning and lesson timetable setting, time will be reserved for bible teaching in the next academic year.
26
Target Achievement Reflection Future 3 Different types of financial support schemes such as
scholarship and fee remission program were made available to the needy students in order to create a secure environment for families from assorted socio-economic backgrounds. All these made financial hardship no way an obstacle to students’ learning. The School identified students in need in a proactive way by conducting home visits and interviewing both parents as well as students so as to locate their needs, then the earliest possible assistance could be offered to suspected families. What’s more, parents were informed of the detailed information of the above-mentioned schemes by attending the seminars held at evenings and reading the relevant school circulars. In addition, our administrative staff from the Account Department answered parents’ inquiries patiently when they were unsure about the application for financial aids. Meetings were held to evaluate the effectiveness of these schemes to examine if any amendment has to be made next year for meeting families’ needs better. For instance, exploring the opportunities of launching new schemes, adjusting the requirements for eligible students and so forth.
84% of parents reflected that they were well aware of the financial support schemes offered by the School and knew where to seek assistance when they are in need. According to the School’s financial record, certain percentage of the collected tuition fee was reserved to implement the fee remissions program. In the 2013/ 14 school year, there were over 175 students in total who received different levels of financial assistance from the School.
/
27
Target Achievement Reflection Future
4 Pastoral care 3R (Respect, Responsible and Relevance) policies for managing students’ behaviors had been reviewed. Teachers gave students compliments when they accomplished some achievements. On the other hand, students would be punished when misbehaviors were found. A fair and open scholarship scheme for the IB learner profile was made available to encourage students to develop the attributes found in the profile, such as being principled, balanced and caring. For secondary students, dual-Class-Teachers were arranged to take care of one class in order to ensure that students could receive adequate care and attention from teachers duly when needs arose. For primary students, transforming co-teaching model and Education Assistant support model were made available in Year 1 and 2. Evaluation of trial is positive and will be implemented in following year throughout all year levels. Lastly, an appropriate storage place was allocated to store SEN students’ data and teaching materials for a better organization. The information was kept securely and shared by teachers who were teaching SEN students only so that the privacy of those students would not be violated. A SEN Coordinator was successfully appointed to take better care of those SEN students, especially to facilitate their learning and cater for the diversified needs.
Green cards and yellow cards were given to students who behaved well and poorly respectively. Over 80% of parents realized that the School has been providing students with balanced education. Parents knew that homeroom teachers were the first point to contact. Also, 88% of parents agreed that teachers encouraged students to reach their full academic potentials. School notices were issued to seek parents’ permissions for sharing SEN students’ information among teachers. 75% of parents thought that teachers understood students’ needs and were willing to support within and beyond classrooms.
Hopefully the color card system will go online next year in order to make it more transparent for both students and parents. Students can do their own reflection duly while parents can get to know the progress of students easily. In addition, a mentorship program will be launched to strengthen the communication between students and teachers.
28
Target Achievement Reflection Future 5 Students were encouraged to have a more positive
attitude towards learning. Teachers had made good use of students’ organizers to maintain an effective communication between parents and the School. For primary students, there were class-based reward systems and end of term student awards for good learning attitude. Apart from that, throughout the entire academic year, parents were invited to join various activities in order to get to know students’ learning. Activities included parent seminar, curriculum evenings, 3-way goal setting conference and student-led conference. Primary parents attended Phonics Workshop and realize how they could assist children at home while secondary parents joined ICT workshop to understand how technology could help students acquire new knowledge. Curriculum seminars/ workshops were held in both primary and secondary sections. Next, the Lutheran Association of Parents and Teachers (LAPT) held some talks for parents and invited guest speakers, who are the professionals, to share the most up-to-date parenting and study path information with them. Last but not least, for certain students’ activities of different year levels, parents were invited to become the volunteers assisting in carrying out those activities. For instance, being a field trip and clinic chaperone. This was one of the important sources of manpower to support students’ learning.
89% of parents observed that students were motivated and confident to learn. In addition, over 80% of parents found their children responded to school learning by being willing to take more actions in daily life. Over 70% of parents responded that home learning tasks and activities had effectively facilitate students’ learning while over 80% of them expressed that they were well informed of how they could support and be involved in students’ learning. In this way, parents, as strategic partners of the School, helped students to develop their multiple intelligence, capabilities and potentials at home better.
/
29
Major Concern 4: Networking and Schools’ Sustainable Development Enhancing Extensive Networking and Partnership with other Organizations and Companies for the School’s Sustainable Development
Target Achievement Reflection Future
1 Teachers attending different IB trainings shared contact information with other participants working at schools all around the world to establish the network among IB world schools. Furthermore, our teaching staff members visited some local international schools to conduct site visits and see what kinds of strength that we could learn from them. For instance, the setting of library and the use of ICT to facilitate teaching and learning. In addition to the networking, the School worked with some magazines about schooling or parenting, a powerful media, to promote the good reputation of Lutheran Academy so that more local parents can better understand our vision and mission. Reporters interviewed Principal FUNG and articles were printed on magazines for parents’ easy reference to give them a good impression of the quality education that we could provide children with. The School kept in touch with the Police Force and would seek professional advice for some disciplinary cases.
With the help of promotion done by the external magazine publishers, the School received more applications than last year, especially for Year 1 admissions. The applications increased by 44%.
/
30
Target Achievement Reflection Future 2 The School maintained a “Green Campus” learning
environment for students by encouraging students to categorize the wastes before disposal. Also, field trips regarding the protection of the Earth were arranged for various year levels according to the inquiry units that students were having for certain teaching blocks. External parties such as museums and electricity providers had helped us with the education. Students were also sent to clean up the beach. The School had met with the landlord of a piece of land nearby to discuss the feasibility of renting it for expanding the space that our students could have for doing PE lessons and recreational use. Also, the School carried on with the study of the utilization and construction work for optimizing space and increasing the necessary facilities that would benefit our students, e.g. internal renovations for increasing the number of classrooms. Such extension plan was made known to parents during the LAPT meeting.
97% of parents expressed that they know the School’s vision and mission statements while over 90% could see the School is moving towards achieving.
The School will monitor the service provided by the lunch caterer to see if lunch portion is appropriate to avoid unnecessary food waste and to check how well the caterer will handle the disposable lunch boxes in an environmentally friendly way.
31
Target Achievement Reflection Future 3 The Lutheran Association of Parents and Teachers
(LAPT) had been established for the second year. Different stakeholders like teacher representatives had regular meetings together to discuss school matters in order to ensure that parents’ voices could be channeled smoothly. An Executive Officer was appointed to be the Parent Liaison Officer to assist in the communication made between the LAPT and the School. Also, another Executive Officer was responsible for managing the front desk, which was the very first point that parents would contact when inquiries arose. Apart from having meetings, parents and the School cooperated to hold some activities to facilitate the relationship between home and school as strategic partners for the good sake of students’ development. For instance, the LAPT held an egg hunting activity to celebrate Easter together with students, parents and teachers. This helped strengthen the bonding among various parties. There were other occasions that students, parents and teachers celebrated together, for example a night party was held by social workers to have different stakeholders gathered.
85% of parents were satisfied about being well informed of the School’s latest news and future development. 70% of parents reflected that the School was willing to listen to their feedback and responded to their concerns as well as suggestions. Over 75% of parents thought that there were sufficient channels for them to express their views.
/
32
Target Achievement Reflection Future 4 Different sorts of grants provided by the Government
were made good use of to support students’ learning. For example, funding was used to provide non-Chinese speaking students some Chinese culture-related group classes to facilitate their learning in Chinese. Furthermore, a series of activities concerning the Grand Opening was actually for the purpose of fund-raising, hoping the community and parents could support our work on the School’s sustainable development.
/
33
2. Financial Summary (A) Sources of Income for the School From the Government:
• Capacity Enhancement Grant • Moral & National Education • Understand Our Motherland • After School Extended Chinese Learning for Non-Chinese Speaking Students • IMC Liability Insurance • School-based After-school Learning and Support Programmes • Enhanced DSS Subsidy for Schools with an Incorporated Management Committee
From CCFA:
• CCFA Lunch Subsidy (B) Summary Table Please find the financial summary of the school year 2012-2013 on the next page.
34
Items Government Funds Non-Government Funds INCOME (in terms of percentages of the annual overall income) DSS Subsidy (including government grants not subsumed in the DSS unit rate payable to schools) 50.55% N.A. School Fees N.A. 48.57% Donations, if any N.A. 0.00% Other Income, if any N.A. 0.88%
Total 50.55% 49.45% EXPENDITURE (in terms of percentages of the annual overall expenditure) Staff Remuneration 68.00% Operational Expenses (including those for Learning and Teaching) 12.95% Fee Remission / Scholarship 8.06% Repairs and Maintenance 2.78% Depreciation 8.21% Miscellaneous -
Total 100.00% Surplus / Deficit for the School Year # 0.85 month of the annual expenditure Accumulated surplus/Deficit in the Operating Reserve as at the End of the School Year # 2.06 month of the annual expenditure # in terms of equivalent months of annual overall expenditure The % of expenditure on fee remission/scholarship is calculated on the basis of the annual overall expenditure of the school. This % is different from of the fee remission/scholarship provision calculated on the basis of the school fee income as required by the Education Bureau, which must be no less than 10%.
þ It is confirmed that our school has set aside sufficient provision for the fee remission / scholarship scheme according to Education Bureau's requirement (Put a "✓" where appropriate).
35
3. Feedback on Future Planning
• The Senior Leadership Committee will continue recruit teachers from overseas so as to further increase the proportion of non-Chinese and non-local teaching staff.
• Staff induction week will provide staff training on the used of management systems. • More guidelines will be provided to teachers on the detailed procedures of the accounting policies. • The school will continue building connections with worldwide IB World schools so as to gain much more valuable experiences
before being authorized to provide PYP and MYP. • DP curriculum is due to be reviewed at the end of next academic year to ensure it fits with IB philosophy. • More training will be organized for teachers and students for the use of electronic social platforms, for instance, Edmodo, for
teaching and learning. Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) will be established and in use in the next academic year. • The school will provide tablets in primary classes for teaching and learning, portfolios in the coming academic year. • Apart from ICT-infused lessons, specific ICT lessons will be included in the primary class timetable to equip primary students with
ICT skills for their learning. • The school will invite the Hong Kong Institute of Education to conduct lesson observation and teacher workshops so as to facilitate
teachers in taking care of students with special education needs. • University students majoring special needs will be invited to do teaching practice in the school to further split the class and reduce
the class size to cater for learning diversity. • The Student Affairs Department will explore more to see if new service partners can be invited to join us next year in helping
students to build characters so as to fully cater for the diversified needs that our students may have. • The School planned to hire various specialists, such as educational psychologists, to strengthen the effectiveness of the character-
building activities that we are going to hold next year. • In terms of the curriculum planning and lesson timetable setting, time will be reserved for bible teaching in the next academic
year. • Hopefully the color card system will go online next year in order to make it more transparent for both students and parents.
Students can do their own reflection duly while parents can get to know the progress of students easily. • In addition, a mentorship program will be launched to strengthen the communication between students and teachers.