Day 3 of the visit still proves to be unusual in different ways - the weather is still oddly sunny; and the schools we went to impressed us all to a point where we didn't remember the last time we had this feeling after a school visit (I hope you don't get too jealous reading this report...).

Robert Gordon's College, Aberdeen, welcomed us warmly by their very friendly Principal and Junior School Head. In the end of the briefing session, we approached the Principal and Junior School head to present our souvenirs to them. The latter was even impressed by our poetry book "Wordiology" !

Their hospitality came with the equality impressive campus as we were guided through it. The photo/text rich environment convinced us that the school has been offering a lot for the children in their course of learning. This strongly enhances students' sense of ownership to their school. And we could sense that teachers there put in extra efforts to improve students' wellbeing in addition to academic excellence. And fortunately, YWPS has been doing just that!

In the tour, we were brought to different floors to visit different rooms where some of them had lessons on-going. We took the chance to interact with their students and were greatly impressed by the children's confidence, presentability and happiness, which was easily observable.

Fortunes can sometimes come in twins. In the afternoon we were equally, if not even so, awestruck by another excellent school - High School of Dundee. Like the last school, High School of Dundee offers quality education from nursery till secondary, with a long long history. Again, we enjoyed the rare privilege to speak to some of the students.

YOU MAY, YOU CAN

You may not be the brightest star
among all those privileged in class.

You may not get the scores from words
as success is hardly measured in certs.

Still you can own glimmering eyes,
seeking for more, asking big "Why's".

Still you can pass this very spirit down,
using obstacles to build your playground.

​
This is a rather raw poem I wrote during my jet-lag, inspired by the Dundee boy above. More or less having the meaning of the saying "Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass...It's about learning to dance in the rain." Got confused further? Well, all I wanted to say was "what an extraordinary day we had in Scotland!"

​Write you tomorrow!

​
​Dr H C Lee

sparkling in whispers
a boy sauntered by without
the weight of city

​

I couldn't help starting this with a haiku poem inspired by the morning sight of a beach near our hotel at Aberdeen. The tranquility, relaxation and purity of air put together a perfect start of an explorative day.

We first visited the Royal Lochnagar Distillery - a small but very famous Scottish Whisky factory in Aberdeen. Instructor Mr Gordon gave us an eye-opening explanation of how this Scottish Whisky was processed and produced and the proper way of tasting it. I am not a fan but was also moved by his enthusiasm and expertise in this area. Mr Gordon was a knowledgeable and humorous guide. He shared that when he was a teenager studying chemistry at school, he had no idea how the seemingly irrelevant knowledge in the subject would become so useful a dozen years later at work when he was involved in the intriguing chemical process of wine distillation. That's very true, we never know when our learning in school will suddenly become so useful and practical!

The fruitful day ended with a fruit party! The question is, whose room was it? And why do you think so? 

Answers to all my tour questions will be given once we have enough attempts from readers. So, keep switching on your brains and have fun reading about our trip! Day 3 is up-coming!
​

​Dr H C Lee

Mrs Lam, Mrs Ho and I are among the 31 Hong Kong educators participating in the Hong Kong Direct Subsidy Scheme Schools Council's Scotland Study Tour 2018. Our group is composed of primary, secondary and tertiary schools members and we are excited to learn more about what people of this side of the world are doing for teaching and learning.

But before that, we had to go through really long flights - 8 hours to Doha and 7 hours to Edinburgh...followed a 3-hour coach ride to Aberdeen. Yet the views on the way proved to us it was all worth it!

To the people in this country, the meadows and animals may not seem to be so special at all. But to us Hongkongers who grew up in concrete forests, these scenic views are truly a luxury. The weather was great. Mostly a clear sky with decorative clouds. Temperature was around 8-9 degree celsius, just right to keep us awake from the inevitable jet lag! 

This restaurant, where we stopped en route to Aberdeen, seemed to have an interesting name: Ye May Gang Faur and Fare Waur...according to a staff member, it was written in Doric, a Scottish dialect, which meant "You may go further and do a lot worse." 

So, my first question is: How do you make sense of this idiom?

We ended the long day at a decent restaurant where we all enjoyed a satisfying meal. We left the restaurant at 8 pm, and as you could see from the right picture above, the sky was still bright! But of course, we needed a good rest and we were all driven to our hotel where I wrote this brief travelogue entry.

Hello! Hope you enjoyed the last video project of our P.6 boys. Here comes the Part II of it - P.6 One-min Show-and-tell Video Challenge (Part II)!

Below please view the 15 shortlisted videos from our P.6 boys. For YWPS members (parents, students, teachers), please login your eclass to cast your vote!

​Deadline: 4 May.

Have fun and thanks for your support!!!

Congratulations to Lawrence Ma 5B for winning in the Grand Finals of  2017-2018 Daily Readers "Read Out Loud" Competition (第十二屆港澳校際「開心英語朗讀」比賽)!

The competition involves three rounds: In the first round, Lawrence's voice recording of a poem was sent to the association for judging. The shortlisted 36 candidates (Senior Primary Division) then entered the Semi-finals where they performed the verse live. 15 finalists were then selected for the Grand Finals which were held this morning. Lawrence performed the verse on stage again plus a short comment on the piece. His performance won the heart of the three judges and he was granted the Champion (Gold Award)!

The competition process seems long (3 months!), but his effort finally paid off. Congratulations again to Lawrence! And may all our boys continue to pursue excellence in appreciating and performing poetry!


Dr H C Lee
​

They also found our school very creative both in the design of the classes that we attend, and the design of the various places around the campus. And I bet they must have enjoyed our high level of hospitality a lot too!

​As a student ambassador myself (I had the honour to take care of the group’s leader Sir Clifton-Brown!), I’m glad to say that it is a great experience and it will definitely stay with me throughout my whole life. Hope all the delegates and representatives enjoyed their visit. And...a big thank-you to our headmistress, supervisor, and to all the teachers and students who took part in welcoming the guests today!

Vincent Song 6C
Student Ambassador

​P.S. Don't miss out the photo tour of the event at https://goo.gl/7ZqqZo

Congratulations to Amos Tsai and Vincent Song, both from 6C, for their recent awards from the prestigious Hong Kong Young Writers Awards (HKYWA) 2018. They entered fiction groups 6 and 2 respectively under the theme "New Journeys to the West". Both of their stories are recognized by the judges and are now published in a beautiful anthology as awardees of HIGHLY COMMENDED. This is our third time having 2 students awarded in HKYWA (previously 2013 and 2014).

Click here to check out the excerpts of their stories.

Well done boys!


​Dr H C Lee