Blog Archives

Drama Team Receives Adjudicators' Award

5/30/2017

The English Drama Team has officially got its hands on its first trophy. The "Adjudicators' Award" was presented to the 42 schools that were invited to perform in the Public Performance stage of the Hong Kong School Drama Festival 2016-2017. It is the highest accolade possible for this Festival.

Our two lead actors, Anson Ng (6C) & Mike Wong (6E), represented the team to receive the honours at Tuen Mun Town Hall on Sunday 28 May.

Our English Drama Team will have one last performance at our school's Drama Fiesta on 27 June! Stay tuned for our exciting updates!

Mr Thomas Ching

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Matthew Chan - Poet of the School

5/27/2017

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Matthew Chan (6E, 2nd from right) at the award ceremony, 26 May

Congratulations to Matthew Chan (6E) receiving the awards of "Commendation" and "Poets of the School" at the Hong Kong Budding Poets (English) Award 2016/2017.

His commended poem will be published in the yearly anthology of the Hong Kong Budding Poets (English) Award. Also, each Poet of the School award is only given to the most outstanding poet of a school which submitted a good number of high standard poems to this competition. Therefore, Matthew's being named as the Poet of the School implies that YWPS's poetry submission was highly regarded as well.

If you're interested, you may take a look at his award-winning piece here.

Congratulations again and let's keep this poetry fire burning brighter and brighter!

Dr H C Lee

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English Drama Team Shines in First-ever Public Performance

5/18/2017

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Drama Team in rehearsal, Tsuen Wan City Hall

Our drama crew at the Tsuen Wan City Hall

After being informed that ALL our actors have won Outstanding Actor Awards at this year's Hong Kong School Drama Festival, we were invited to perform in front of a live audience at Tsuen Wan Town Hall on 14 May 2017! Here's what some of the actors themselves thought about their experience in the limelight:

Aidan Hsu 6E:

"We were all surprised and thrilled at the same time to hear that we had been selected to perform. As the performance date got closer and closer, all of us put in a lot of time and effort with extra practice sessions, as we wanted our performance to be perfect. Mr Ching constantly encouraged us and gave us guidance on how we could improve. On the performance date, we were all extremely nervous, but as we performed and heard the enjoyment of the audience, we were all relaxed and enjoyed the moments being on the stage. We would like to thank Mr Ching and all the teachers as we could not have done it without their encouragement and support..."

Monet Lam 5E:

"After finishing the performance, I felt really excited. I think that the performance that we did was really perfect, and I am very satisfied with my performance. I think that it is the best performance and the best try we've ever had..."

Mike Wong 6E:

"The Hong Kong Drama Festival performance on Mother’s Day was absolutely amazing, and also a perfect gift for my mum! I’ve learnt sooooo much through this incredible experience! With the guidance of our professional stage directors, we learnt a lot about what happens behind-the-scenes in a drama act. It opened a whole new page in my drama ‘career’..."

Overall, the drama team wouldn't have worked without the tireless help from all those involved. Firstly, a HUGE thanks must go to Miss Kwok and TA Dennis Ying for their work in filling in all the gaps that I made along the way (and there were A LOT of them). Our performance would have been a complete mess without you being there for the team! To the parents of our actors: you were all very accommodating! You allowed your sons to be a part of this "crazy" group in the first place; you were flexible with rehearsal dates; you offered your help on the weekend of the public performance; and you even put aside your prior Mother's Day plans to bring your son to the public performance! (Mums: I hope you enjoyed your Mother’s Day gift!)

One more performance to come … Drama Fiesta in June! Students of Ying Wa Primary School, are you ready to be entertained?

Mr Ching

P.S. More photos are available in our gallery.

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Beyond a Debate Contest...

5/9/2017

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P.6 Debate Team had a thank-you party with Mr Tam in celebration for the end of the tournament season.

The 4th Primary School Debating Tournament (organized by ARCH) didn't bring us a champion this year, yet the teammates' learning was well beyond what they were taught for the contests. Let's read some of their reflections here:

6A Isaac Chan:

After this debating tournament, our year of debating has come to the end. Yet, it has just been a tip of an iceberg to all of our dreams of encountering this wonderful piece of art.

Debating may be slightly tough and requires a lot of hard work. Take this tournament, for instance, debaters had to prepare for four sets of scripts. However, with our diligent debating coach Mr. Tam’s infinite assistance during our training, we managed to deal with our scripts and arguments. At the end of the day, no matter whether we gained victory or not, we found out that our hard work has evidently paid off.

Through this tournament (and in fact, this whole debating experience), I have changed a lot in comparison. At first, I was definitely not the kind of person who had bold and strong arguments in mind, But now, I have learnt the skills to attack the opponents and defend our own arguments at the same time which will be beneficial for my whole life. Moreover, I was only able to do verse speaking, but now I have leapt a bigger step in public speaking, which is quite a pleasant thing.

We have done a lot in a year of debating lessons, and this has been as if a dawn from a long dream. I will never leave this wonderful dream which I have experienced and which I have been sharing with by my coach and teammates. I would like to show my gratitude to the school for providing me with such a wonderful time.

Therefore, from the bottom of my heart, we must all continue this wonderful dream. Thank you very much!

6A Oscar Chan:

This is exactly how I, Oscar Chan, wishes to end the fruitful years in my primary life in Ying Wa. Although we did not get the championship in this competition this time and there would be disappointment, I’m sure I’ll have many more opportunities to have a try in debating with others in the rest of my school life. Moreover, as Mrs. Lam always says, winning is not everything, but at least we tried our best, and that’s enough for me.

Winning this particular competition was actually my first intention before the match, as I didn’t want to look bad compared to the wonderful performance in the same competition last year from the previous teammates, and also not wanting to let Mr. Tam, our team coach down. But as the competition went on, I realized that as long I enjoyed the whole process of the match, it’s enough. And I did. That’s already a huge step for me and also a brand new opportunity.

As I’ve mentioned, I think it’s also really important to learn how to lose. How to accept failure. What’s life without a few of them? You can never be perfect anyway, so if you have already done your best, that’s it! You did what you can! Furthermore, you’ve got to have sportsmanship in every activity. There must be a reason why you lost in a competition, why someone was better than you. It’s even better if you lose. You can learn from your mistakes and improve afterwards, while winning can’t.

So that’s what I’ve learnt after the Debating Tournament. Thanks for reading!

Coach Mr Tam’s final remarks

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the seven teammates for all of your effort devoted on debating and all of you have proved yourselves to be incredible debaters and confident speakers. You have all come a long way and your improvement is impressive.

What touches me most is the teamwork among us. I will never forget the day when all of your decorated the classroom using the cuecards which you have used in the competition and prepared the sweetest surprise for me. I was pleasantly shocked and emotional when I saw the words on the board and that was one of the personal highlights of my teaching life. Thank you once again and good luck to you all! Utilize the skills and knowledge that you have learnt in the future and continue to thrive!

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YWPS's Reading Scheme Recognized Scholarly

5/7/2017

Abstract of the paper. Click for full article.

Glad to announce that benefits of the Reading Strategies Training Scheme (RSTS) of YWPS is scholarly recognized as Dr Lee's academic paper "A Case Study: Reading Strategies Training Scheme in a Hong Kong Primary School" was launched in TESOL Journal (US) in March 2017.

The paper reports the structure and operation of the scheme as well as how it benefited the earlier batch of students in YWPS who experienced the learning of reading strategies under this approach when it was first introduced. The full report is available in our articles/reports section. Or you may click the picture above for the direct link to the PDF file.

The English Department of YWPS, among the rest in our unique school, will continue to share with the world what we love to do - teaching with passion and proficiency.

Drama Team Receives Adjudicators' Award

Matthew Chan - Poet of the School

English Drama Team Shines in First-ever Public Performance

Beyond a Debate Contest...

YWPS's Reading Scheme Recognized Scholarly

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