Message from the principal - March 2023

Dear parents of APSW,

　　May the grace and peace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you always!

　　Thanks to our Heavenly Father for his conservatism, our school has always been recognized and supported by many parents, over-enrollment numbers have been recorded in both Primary One Discretionary Place Allocation and Central Allocation over the years. This year, we broke the record by having 3.6 times more of the enrollment recorded from previous years. This designates the trust and support our parents and kindergarten partners have towards our school educational philosophy and policy, as well as the determined efforts of all our teaching staffs and stakeholders.

　　Our school has recently received a notice from the Education Bureau stating that small class teaching (SCT) policy needed to be implemented in primary 1 progressively, starting from 2024/25 academic year. SCT policy will have to be fully implemented in Hung Hum District (School Net 35), where our school is located, we are also the last school to implement relevant policy. Furthermore, The Chief Executive has also announced in his recent ‘Policy Address’ that the progress of promoting small class teaching (SCT) in public sector primary schools (i.e. government and aided) will be accelerated. In addition to the earlier announcement that a total of 31 primary schools will implement small class teaching (SCT) policy, 7 more of the primary schools (including our school) will join the implementation of small class teaching in 2024/25 academic year. By then, there would be approximately 90% of the primary schools implemented small class teaching (SCT), which have met the target a year earlier as stated in the “Policy Address.” Apart from our school, 6 other primary schools in Yau Tsim Mong District (School Net 31) and Yuen Long District (School Net 73) will also need to implement small class teaching (SCT) policy. All public sector schools in the relevant school net plus School Net 35 (where our school is located) would have been implemented small class teaching (SCT) policy completely by then. Classroom interactions can be heightened through small class teaching, which is conductive to diversified teaching and enhance students learning effectiveness.

　　Our school has always been providing great Christian whole-person education for our students through Gospel and biblical truth. Though the number of students in each class have been relatively large over the years, our teachers have used diverse teaching strategies and assigned different groupings for our students in the lesson, this has compelled diverse learning and improves the learning outcomes of the lesson, which helps built up a positive and loving atmosphere in our school campus. 

　　With the implementation of small class teaching (SCT), this helps promote classroom interactions and enhance students’ learning effectiveness, which brought greater learning benefits for our students. Our school is belonged to the category of ‘large school’ which consists of five large classes at each grade level from primary 1 to primary 6, with an average of 30 students in each class. According to the requirements of the Education Bureau, SCT policy will have to be implemented in primary 1 progressively, starting from 2024/25 academic year (the number of students at each grade level will remain unchanged.) There will still be 5 classes open for primary 1. However, the number of students in each class will have minimized to 25 (A maximum of 27 students per class can be admitted.) In addition to that, we have always been executing a procedure of having two class teachers for each class from primary 1 to 6. There are one class teacher and an assistant class teacher to help taking care of our students’ needs. In the years to come, we look forward to seize the implementation of small class teaching (SCT), create more opportunities to get along and build up relationships with our students. We hope to teach them to face difficulties and challenges with a positive attitude and deepen their whole-person development.

　　Additionally, we have recently celebrated our ‘Open Day and Celebration of Student Achievements’ on the 29th April, 2023 (Saturday). A school introduction and various game booths were available for parents and children’s participation. There were also displays of our students learning achievements! The event was a huge success, thanks to all of the teachers, students, parent volunteers and honourable guests for their hard work, support and appreciation!

    Lastly, we will continue to work together with all our stakeholders to march towards the goals of excellence, predominate the opportunities of implementing small class teaching (SCT) policy, allow our students to gain outstanding achievements and soar in the love of the Lord.

 

Mr. Lee Tak Hang

School Principal