All the awarded pieces will be anthologized in the association's publication soon. Visit here to see our past and current awardees and their awarded poems, including Yiding's winning piece.

Congratulations to all again and let's keep our poetry achievements as a tradition!

Dr H C Lee

For those of you who haven't explored all my previous posts for our Scotland Educational Trip (28 Apr - 5 May), here are the individual links (Click them!):

Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, and Day 7

And for those of you interested in the ANSWERS to the QUESTIONS posted in each entry. Here you go:

Thanks to our 414 voters and all our P.6 video-makers! Congratulations to Lin Chin Wing 6A, Joshua Ng 6C, Ian Wan 6D, Thomas Kwan 6D and Humphrey Yip 6E!!! Their videos are voted to be the top 5 favourite videos of this round of the challenge ^o^

Please find below the final poll results:

Again, we'll give subtitles to these five videos and store them in our video section as well as broadcasting them on this site and WA Square as the top 5 favourite clips chosen by you, boys, parents and teachers.

Thank you for your participation. It's so fun watching all of the boys' videos and seeing their creativity in English!

See you next time!

P.S. You may visit all the shortlisted videos here.

Although in itinerary we do have a Day 8 when we will visit a garden, Day 7 is the closure of our official duties as a professional trip participants and therefore I think it serves as a proper end.

To start with...who is this man next to me? Well, it's not really a question I'm asking you...I'm sure you can easily tell that he was the Principal of The University of Hong Kong, Prof Peter Mattieson. He left the university and became the Principal of The University of Edinburgh this year. We were thrilled to meet him and have the chance to speak to him this morning. Prof Mattieson was the one who conferred my doctoral degree to me in 2014. I am very glad to be able to thank him in person today!

To end our professional trip, we had a discussion at a room at The University of Edinburgh to consolidate what we had learnt over the past week. We were asked 3 questions. And I'd like to briefly share with you my responses here:

For those of you who haven't read my previous entries, I hope you will find time to go through them. I love reading all your responses and hope that more will come with creativity and intelligence. I will certainly give you the answers of all the questions I asked very soon. I will come back to Hong Kong on Sunday (6 May) and attend the concert on Monday! If you won't be there, I will see you when school resumes!

Last but not least, thanks to YWPS and Hong Kong Direct Subsidy Scheme Schools Council for this very prestigious learning opportunity; and thanks to you for reading and writing! You make this journey all the more meaningful.

Dr H C Lee

Do we only teach for excellence? How would the curriculum be shaped like if it wasn't the case?

Today we were fortunate enough to have visited two brilliant schools in Glasgow which might not be the so-called traditionally elite schools.

Glasgow Academy impressed us with a campus filled with "human touch". The politeness of students, words of praise posted on boards, posters hand-drawn by students, or even the funny Christmas video the Headteacher showed us featuring a story written by their students and played by both staff and students...all these are examples of this school's supportive and friendly environment, which is a very happy feature of the school.

Q1: We happened to witness the Glasgow Academy's International Week. In the Chinese Booth of the fair, could you tell/guess which two activities were offered?

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The next school we visited was St. Roch's Secondary School, which is the only state (government) school that hosts us in this trip. ​

While the school might not be the wealthiest, their inclusive education policy touched us a lot.  Especially, their "Deaf Education" is exemplary. The school takes in all students with sign language needs from Glasgow and as a result they have 30+ students with this need. It offers great challenge to the staff and many of them needed to learn the sign language so as to support these children.

Keren Mingole is one of the deaf children studying in St. Roch's. She was invited to share with us her learning experience in this school and how she fought her way to doing well in school. Watch the video to understand her background and her achievement.

Q2: The interpreter spoke with a Scottish accent which may be a bit tricky for Hong Kong students. Try to listen to him several times to get the idea. Do you understand what sort of difficulties Keren needs to get through and what achievement she had got?

In the end of the school visit, Mrs Lam gave each of those student ambassadors a "Snoopy" file for serving her well. All were happy in the end.

Getting back to the first question: Do we only teach for excellence? Well, the "love" I could sense in these two schools was already the "excellence" which every school should be working for.

Day 7 has something great to happen. Stay tuned.

The stage starts empty - not exactly - there is a drum set, an electronic piano, and a harp, each behind a square painting of some symbolic value - a woman trying to ignite a fire; an unlit fire; someone carries the moon (I am purely trying to name these paintings in my own imagination).

This echoes well with the artwork greeting us at the reception room of Glenalmond College we visited in the morning. 

The harper starts. She sings a traditional Scottish lullaby about a mother looking for her lost baby in the dark woods, followed by a few more pieces telling stories of relationships. Mind to mind, heart to heart. The harp and her voice speak a universal language.

The lead singer in red takes the floor and interacts with the drummer and the harper. The group incorporates poetry into painting, songs, music and videos. They call it "an audiovisual exploration of the 'inner child' concept through folklore song and film"; I see it as a daring journey in a dark forest, taming nocturnal creatures with equally mystifying and addictive voices. She is approaching the den where the baby is kept. She is drawing all the creatures nearer at the same time. There, she listens to the distinctive breaths from the occupied den. There, she hums a tune so low and echoing to build a unique connection.

She brings us vision and circumstances, characters and twists. I see life from the fusion of the music she creates, eye to eye. 

A journey becomes memorable when it is discovered and unfolded through improvisation and experimentation. I found a good story today. 

Dr H C Lee

P.S. I don't have questions to ask today. Perhaps you should be the one asking...be inquisitive and explorative!

Gorgeous weather kept following us on Day 4 of our Scotland exploration journey. This made the green greener, the red redder. George Watson's College gave us yet another great impression as a very fine school for those admitted to it and the teaching staff.

There are several things that stood out during the visit:

2. Perhaps it was not a unique feature of this school, but I did notice how the classroom was arranged - the neat tablet storage boxes with chargers, the schoolbag hanging areas and water bottle areas etc. This maximises students' learning space and makes moving groups much more convenient.

Memorable times kept coming, unlike the sunshine. In the afternoon, I made use of the free time we were offered to travel from Edinburgh to Stirling. Stirling is a peaceful little town with a long history. Not a lot of tourists would choose Stirling as a spot to visit but somehow I decided to go there (with my wife), and it was personally important. I went to a place which looked a lot like Royal garden.

The good weather didn't follow my train to Stirling and the town was typically cold and gloomy. Light rain disturbed the Airthrey Loch lightly but it was good for the wildlife. The happy sunlight was hiding and thus we could understand that beautiful things don't always stay - we need to appreciate good moments and embrace the less good as they always make us stronger.

Q2: But the question is, why did I go to Stirling today?

Finally, I discovered these spherical items between two buildings. I first thought they were large artwork for decorations only. But I should be wrong. 

​Q3: By the look of them, could you guess what they are?

That's all from me today. I love all your feedback and answers and responses so far to the previous posts.  For those of you who haven't commented (hope that at least you have read the posts!), the discussion is still open. I will give you the answers altogether (if I know all of them at all ^o^) when I return. Souvenirs are of course reserved for those who read and responded well! But I do know that my students will not care about the souvenirs at all, they are just waiting for my return so that their English lessons could resume, that's the important thing, isn't it?

Write you soon for Day 5...
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Dr H C Lee