Week Twelve - Professional

This week I had the opportunity to visit the primary school I will be teaching in during my teaching placement here in Hong Kong. The school is called the Hong Kong Jockey Club Primary School and it is located on the campus of the university. Schools in Hong Kong are banded according to ability, so band one has more able children attending the school, whereas a band three school is for those children who struggle, frequently due to a learning difficulty. The HK Jockey Club Primary school is classified as a band one school and there are around 500 pupils in the school and three classes in each year group, with approximately 30 pupils in each class. This banding system is very different to Northern Ireland where children with special educational needs are included in mainstream primary classrooms, allowing them to have the opportunity to enjoy education alongside their peers. The range of abilities within the NI classroom is obviously quite broad because of this, and teachers face greater challenges looking to differentiate work in order to meet the needs of all pupils, regardless of their level of ability. While differentiation is key in the Northern Ireland Curriculum, it plays less of a role here in Hong Kong due to the banding of schools. During my meeting with my teacher I enquired about how I should look to differentiate the learning in the classroom and she said that no differentiation was needed, and that I was to set the work at an average level. Approaching teaching in this way seems very strange to me as, for three years in Stranmillis, differentiation has been at the heart of my planning and teaching during each of my school placements. I feel that differentiation is vital in any classroom, as it is extremely difficult to create a lesson in which all 30 children in the class learn and progress. It will certainly be interesting over the next number of weeks to see this different approach to teaching in the classroom. 

The school also runs in a way which is very similar to a secondary school back home as there are individual teachers for each individual subject, for example one teacher specialises in English, one teacher specialises in Chinese, one in P.E. and so on. I look forward over the next number of weeks to see the contrast this structure has from our typical Northern Irish schools, where one class is taught all subjects and areas of the curriculum by one teacher. I will be teaching English to a primary 2 and primary 6 class during my time in school, and my teacher Ms Kwok is actually a recent graduate from the Hong Kong Institute of Education. She has been extremely helpful in explaining to me what the Hong Kong Curriculum focuses on and she has also been very eager to hear if I have any ideas from my experience of the Northern Ireland Curriculum, which could be integrated into the classroom. Ms Kwok has explained to me how important assessment is within the Hong Kong Curriculum, and how there is so much pressure on teachers to ensure that children are prepared for frequent examinations which take place throughout the school year. 

I am looking forward to experiencing a way of schooling which seems so different to Northern Ireland. Hopefully I will be able to learn from this great experience and bring new ideas home with me, which will enable me to develop my teaching strategies and become better equipped as a teacher.