National and Social Caring Committee
“From our root here to the world out there.”
Nurturing of Chinese Culture
Our school advocates the Chinese culture and adopts a cross-disciplinary approach to nurture students with elements of the culture.
Caring for others
Our aims are to strengthen civil education and cultivate the sense of being a world citizen. Through organising a variety of activities, we hope that students can understand their roles, responsibilities and missions in their community.
Our committee invited World Vision to organise different experiential activities for junior form students, for example, “Mission M” for S1 students to understand the needs of girls living in poverty in Africa; “When technology meets poverty” for S2 students to explore the possibilities of using technology to reduce poverty; and “Skip-a-meal in a sweatshop” for S3 students to experience the exploitation of child labour and realize the importance of fair trade.
A film sharing session for S3 students was organised by Amnesty International to promote the value of human rights and equality. Our students also participated in a “Write for Rights” activity to show understanding and care for those who are under the threat of invasion of their human rights. To promote effective education and cultivate a sense of empathy, we arranged a visit to Crossroads Foundation for our students to experience the suffering and difficulties faced by the visually impaired and AIDS patients.
We are the partnership school of The HKFYG Jockey Club School of Global Leadership. We invite global leaders from different parts of the world to share experiences and organise workshops for our students. We selected some senior form students to join the Overseas Ambassador Programme 2019 competition. Our students performed excellently and were awarded the championship and first runner-up prizes in the competition.
We organised “Global Week” for students to learn about the cultures and places of different parts of the world. The activities included a tourism and cultural sharing session, global leadership talk and workshop, and lunch time cultural fun fair. The fun fair was held by students who had been awarded the ‘Going the Extra Mile’ scholarship. They introduced what they had seen and experienced on a foreign trip and let other students learn more about the cultures of the other countries.
We receive AFS students every year. By having lessons at our school for an academic year, our students and the AFS students can learn how to get along with people from different backgrounds and cultures. Besides, students from Vanguard College pay a visit to our school every year to hold lessons and join extra-curricular activities. This exposes our students to Western cultures.
As a learning community, scholars from different cities and countries, such as Hangzhou, Harbin, Thailand, Singapore and Japan, have visited our school and exchanged pedagogy in teaching and learning. From these visits, our teachers can learn from the experiences of others, empowering our teaching efficacy and vision to an international standard.
Ample excursion opportunities are provided for our students annually. Through immersing into other countries and interacting with the locals there, they can experience cultures around the world with first-hand knowledge.
Each year, we provide different exchange and excursion tours to widen our students’ horizons. These tours include Taipei Arts and Voluntary Service Trip, Taipei Environmental Education Field Trip, Kaohsiung Basketball Training Exchange Trip, Seoul Historical and Cultural Tour, Tokyo Science and Technology Trip, Russia Drama and History Tour, Vienna Music Tour, Britain English Learning Tour and Canada English Learning Tour. Students are better impressed by, and more reflective of, foreign cultures through these first-hand experiences.
Serving our community with the spirit of “Thou Art the Light of the World”
Cooperating with the Life and Society Department, a site visit to Food Angel is organised for S1 students to learn about the issue of food wastage, environmental conservation, food shortage and poverty. We hope that our students are enlightened by the site visit to practise the habit of reducing wastage and caring for the needy in our society.
To echo the S4 Liberal Studies curriculum of Quality of Life, we arrange an experience day with social entrepreneurship as the theme. By joining different community tours or experiencing the operation of social enterprises, students can learn about the challenges faced by women, the grassroots, the ethnic minorities and the elderly who need others’ help.
To better prepare our students for delivery of volunteer services, we invite external support from non-governmental organisations to provide training in voluntary services. For example, S3 and S4 students receive a total of 7 sessions of voluntary service training provided by HKYWCA before they deliver their services to elderly homes (for S3 students) and kindergartens (for S4 students). In addition, each service team is required to attend Easy Volunteer voluntary service training by HKFYG. With our preparation and planning, ten social service groups are found in our school, namely National and Social Caring Ambassador, Community Youth Club, Justice Ambassador, Secondary Student Leadership Team, 4C Youth Volunteer Leadership Programme, UNICEF Club, Fair Trade Ambassador, Children Eye Care Programme Ambassador, Orbis Student Ambassador and Community Health Ambassador. A social service award scheme is set up to encourage our students to serve the community with their strength and care.
Our students not only deliver community services, but also initiate and design service projects to promote a caring atmosphere for the needy in our community. Our students were awarded UNICEF Youth Ambassador, 4C Youth Volunteer Leadership Award and Youth Impact Award. In 2017-2018 and 2018-2019, the National and Social Caring Committee organised a school-based voluntary service programme for children with different needs. Students participating in this service programme won the first prize in the National Secondary School Student Leadership Competition. Our school was also recognized as a “Heart to Heart School” by the HKFYG in 2018-2019, appreciating our students’ efforts in active voluntary services.
Justice education and critical thinking
We emphasise the development of students’ values and attitudes. We hope that our students can embrace the values of justice, respectfulness, peace and sustainability and are willing to practise these values in their daily lives. We would also like to cultivate a sense of responsibility in our students, so that they realise that the steps they take do matter. To achieve this, our committee collaborates with different subject departments to incorporate issue-based teaching on current news and holds debate contests and inter-school youth forums. Our students are also actively involved in the Mock Trial Justice Educational Project. We won the championship and the award for the Best Justice Think Tank.
Exchange of sister schools
We have close connections with our sister schools – Guangzhou True Light Middle School and secondary schools in Hangzhou, Hezhou and Harbin – through joining the Sister School Scheme. We also coordinate with different subjects when we organise exchange visits to mainland sister schools. For instance, the Economics Department organised a one-day flash tour to Shenzhen, studying economic development, via the Express Rail; the Chinese Department led our students to Guangzhou Tea Garden to develop writing skills; the Music Department arranged an exchange to Shanghai; The Science Department guided our students to Nanjing University to learn about the technological advancements in Mainland China. The “Shanghai-Hong Kong Exchange Tour” was held to communicate with university students there, visiting well-known firms. We believe that experiential learning can impress our students and let them realise they can apply what they have learnt in a real-world situation.. Through frequent exchange tours to Mainland China, our students’ national sense of belonging can be strengthened.
We cooperate with the Chinese History Department to lead our S3 students to Guangzhou under the Mainland Exchange Programme for Junior Secondary and Upper Primary Scheme, run by the Education Bureau. Through paying visits to historical relics and monuments, students learn more about the deeds of historical figures, deepening their national sense of belonging.