Blog Posts

P.5-6 Singapore Study Tour 2019 - Day 1

2/13/2019

[13 Feb 2019] Day 1 of the P.5-6 Singapore Study Tour was more exciting than expected, mostly because the weather was absolutely against the prediction of a stormy day - the sun was scorching today when we visited the Merlion Park.

The selected participants of the tour really lived up to our school's expectation today as they immersed into the English speaking environment well and they stayed very positive about the long day despite that they had to arrive at the airport at 6:35 am, endure the very hot and humid weather in Singapore, digest an overwhelmingly lot of information from our professional tour guide, and experienced meals from a different culture.

The children reflected on their first day well during their night discussion time with their group teachers and they completed their written feedback before bedtime. I personally look forward to reading their work in depth and seeing how they interact with the Singapore students tomorrow. It should again be an exciting adventure.

Stay tuned!

Dr H C Lee

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Tea Gathering at the Government House

2/10/2019

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Official group picture taken at the Government House (from the CE’s Facebook page)

[2 Feb 2019] On the Lunar Calendar this was the 28th of December, the traditional day for “cleaning your house”, but a group of Ying Wa Boys were invited to the Government House, not for cleaning, but for a tea party!

8 members of the winning Thematic Group Speaking Team plus 1 Maths awardee had the fortune to take part in the gathering initiated by our Chief Executive Mrs Carrie Lam. Over a hundred participants (students, parents, teachers, School Heads etc) enjoyed their happy time at the beautiful ballroom of the Government House, taking pictures with some major government officials (including Mrs Carrie Lam herself), listening to the CE's speech, and enjoying the delicious refreshments.

This was a unique and honourable occasion for all those who took part in it. It is also quite thoughtful of the CE to acknowledge young award winners in different areas who will certainly be the future of Hong Kong.

She first held the party in July last year and this was her second event. We do look forward to the next one. Perhaps, more Ying Wa Boys will get the opportunity!

Dr H C Lee

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The 9th Speech Gala - Words from Adjudicator

1/26/2019

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Mr Simon Tham giving feedback

Adjudicator Mr Simon Tham gave these words after the Grand Finals of Speech Gala 2019 held yesterday (25 Jan):

I was very happy to be invited for the third time to adjudicate the Ying Wa Primary School boys' Speech Gala.

It was also a memorable occasion as this will be the last Speech Gala Mrs Maria Lam will participate as Headmistress prior to her retirement in August 2019. Mrs Lam has given her full support throughout, without which the Speech Gala would not have gone through nine years of continued success.

As a co-founder of the Speech Gala with Dr Peter Lee, l have seen great and better changes in the number of entries, categories and quality of the students’ work.

They have shown very active involvement and many have truly mastered the skills of elocution and public speaking. So much so, that l had to award a double first (never done before) to the P.6 Solo Verse Speaking. The two boys, Andy and Hanson, were absolutely brilliant and as they spoke, l was completely immersed in their passion and intensity. I have not heard such a beautiful, passionate and emotional rendition of “A Stingray is Dying at Waratah Bay” before. Both were different, but both brought special meaning to this very topical and humane poem. Both definitely deserved a First Prize!

I wish the Speech Gala continued success and hope this wonderful culture of speech, drama and public speaking will continue for a very long time.

Stay tuned for more snapshots of the event!

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5 Wins in a Row - Thematic Group Speaking Team Crowned Champion!

12/8/2018

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Our winners with the Adjudicator Mr Barry Prince.

[8 Dec 2018] Our Thematic Group Speaking Team achieved the impossible by winning the title in this category for 5 times in as many years and receiving an incredible 91 marks (Honours) this time from the adjudicator Mr Barry Prince who wrote in his comments:

An excellent and very clear opening to the performance. The choral speaking was excellent, well synchronized and expressive. The boy spoke expressively and engagingly. Your voice was clear and rhythmic. A unifying force throughout. The movement from piece to the next was flawless. The staging was excellent. Each individual performance was very well understood and showed the sense of each character's importance to the piece overall. The whole group were totally engaged throughout the performance. The Shakespeare was very well performed and understood. Some superb ideas used to create a well linked & clearly Thematic programme. Very well done. Excellent conclusion to the performance.

We simply could not ask for a better result or comment from the judge especially that, just 2 days prior to this competition, we had to swap roles and recruit an entirely new member into the group as the lead actor had to leave for another contest that clashed with this one. The group underwent an intensive training the day before for this miracle to happen.

My deepest salute to the two actors, Sirius Kwan and Jonathan Ford for accepting the challenge of respectively role-changing and learning the act 48 hours prior to the competition, and also to the entire Thematic Group Speaking Team for their tremendous effort all these months to perform and appreciate the arts of English literature.

Thanks must also go to the boys' parents for their support, to the PTA for helping with the initial team member recruitment and prop hunting, to Mr Mickey Kong and Mr Kelvin Fan for assisting the team during the contest, and to all my English teaching teammates' support and inspiration.

Dr H C Lee

P.S. Thematic Group Speaking is a 15-min act of a combination of text types (poetry, drama, prose etc) performed under an originally designed theme. YWPS has been joining this category since 2014.

My brave team and I right after the competition ^o^

Sirius Kwan (left) & Jonathan Ford (right) with the Adjudicator

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Our Words and Movements Snatched Gold!

12/4/2018

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Our small "animals" with the adjudicator

[4 Dec 2018] BIG CONGRATULATIONS to our junior boys, Ms Jenny Ho and Miss Fiona Tsui for the joint effort to win (scored 87) in Words and Movements in 70th Hong Kong Schools Speech Festival.

Our boys dramatized Knapp's poem “The Lying Lion” which impressed the adjudicator. In his written comments, Adjudicator Mr Paul Trigg said, “Very well dressed group as various animals - they spoke their lines very clearly and in perfect unison. And the lion had a good strong presence and voice. The zebras ran about the stage with energy and facially told the lion that it was the bee which would call the lion's bluff. The bee in a beautiful costume rose from a bush where it had been hiding and caused the lion to run off. Very well performed with great tonal variety, pace and above all, energy.”

This was not at all easy to achieve such a remarkable result in this category with all the capable teams in addition to the very fact that it was our first time joining this category without almost any prior knowledge of what Words and Movements actually looked like.

What a feat! We broke new grounds! Isn't it what we should be doing particularly under this year's Gen!Us theme? Congratulations again to everybody!

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Senior Choral Speaking Team Wins!

11/24/2018

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Our boys with the adjudicator after the award announcement.

[23 Nov 2018] Led by Mr Richard and Ms Ming, our P.4-6 Choral Speaking Team defeated strong schools to win the First Place award at the 70th Speech Festival. This is our fourth First Place in this category in eight years since Mr Richard started coaching our Senior Choral Speaking Group. We are all very proud of our boys' achievements and thankful to our trainers' expertise and diligence and tremendous support from our parents.

This year, our boys turned Jan Dean's poem "Crocodile" into a live-action hunters vs crocodiles scene, with human beings as the villains. Adjudicator Mr Timothy McCarthy praised the team in his written feedback: "A focused assembly. Great costumes. A firm title. A great opening line that caused the essence of the story. A lot of style here and a sense of performance. Rhythm marked and a great flow to the line..."

Congratulations to our team's success and best wishes to all the other teams for the Speech Festival this year!

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Friendly visitors from Singapore

11/16/2018

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Led by the Vice-Principal Ms Nathalie Chen of Henry Park Primary School (Singapore), 30 excited P.5 students travelled all the way from Singapore to Ying Wa Primary School for a half-day school experience on 13 Nov.

After a campus tour guided by our student ambassadors, they had a global issue discussion in the English Room, a coding lesson in the STEAM Lab as well as an amazing dodgeball contest at the playground. All our accompanying students and visitors interacted well despite of the short time together.

Ms Chen first visited YWPS 5 years ago as a Science Subject Head together with other Head of Departments from various Singapore schools. She was moved by the vibrancy of our school and therefore decided to bring students and staff to us when she became a Vice-Principal. We thanked them dearly for their kind visit and bringing us such a good exchange. Early next year some of our P.5-6 students will have a study tour in Singapore, perhaps we may meet again soon!

Ms Chen and Mrs Lam in 2013 and 2018 - which one is which? They look exactly the same!!!

Visit our Gallery for more pictures.

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Intercultural Exchange Experience at Fukuoka (Summer 2018)

9/27/2018

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Written by Geoff Wong (S.1)

It was an exhilarating and a fruitful journey for me to join the intercultural exchange programs organized by the Asian-Pacific Children’s Convention (APCC). Together with another five Peace Ambassadors from Hong Kong, I attended the 30th APCC Anniversary Celebration and stayed in Fukuoka for 12 days. I would like to share my experience gained there to everyone who likes Japan and their culture.

The programs started with a 6-day stay in a camp site, namely Marine House, followed by another 6-day stay in a hosting family.

In Marine House, ‘PlayDay’ was the most valuable and enjoyable activity. I have had a chance to wear Kimono (traditional Japanese garment) and I dressed smartly in blue, wasn’t I? It was an unforgettable experience because nowadays Japanese wear Kimono only in special festivals.

I also played Shogi, a traditional Japanese chess. Shogi, aka Game of Generals, is a popular game in Japan and nearly everybody in Japan knows it. Shogi is similar to XiangQi, the Chinese chess. I myself, who is fond of XiangQi, was almost addicted to it when I first played it. There are 40 chess pieces in Shogi. The target of Shogi and XiangQi are the same ── checkmate (putting the other player's ‘將/玉將’ under a inescapable direct attack).

On the 7th day, I went to the school of my host friend, Kouta. He was very enthusiastic and played many different games with me (including my favourite game, Shogi). Excited and joyful voices reverberated throughout the corridors, the stairs, the playground and everywhere in the school. You know what, Japanese pupils are used to exercise and environmental friendly. They used to walk instead of relying on transportation. Just like us, some classmates spent an hour back and forth between home and school, but they are on foot. Very impressive!

The food was delicious. As one might think, the Japanese food (e.g. Miso soup and Sushi) in Japan tasted similar to the ones in Hong Kong. Yes, but they were much fresher, odorous and delicate and most importantly, cheaper. I would also like to recommend nattō to you all, which most of us have never tried before. Nattō is sticky, looks ugly and smelly but it’s worth a try as it provides a lot of protein and vitamins. Like durian, nattō may be an acquired taste because of its powerful smell, strong flavor, and slimy texture. I highly recommend that you eat it with a bowl of rice.

During the weekend, we attended a DIY session to make clay bowls, played Judo and tried farming. We picked carrots we liked for dinner and blueberries for dessert. This is what we cannot experience in the city life of Hong Kong. And the clay bowl, which had already been shipped to me after a month’s sail. A contented smile materialized from the bottom of my heart when I glared it.

It was a great trip and a once-in-a-lifetime experience. From the bottom of my heart I am very much grateful for the opportunity YWPS and Mrs Lam gave me for joining the APCC, which is currently known as the biggest international event for children in not only Japan, but the world, and is conducted under the cooperation of local and international citizens, government and business institutes.

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Cambridge 2018 - Zach's Sharing

8/15/2018

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Written by Zach Li 6E

Two week sounds like a long time in a place without your family, but two weeks in this Cambridge programme (29 Jul - 11 Aug) is like a short time because I enjoyed it a lot.

From feeling unfamiliar to making friends with mentors and other teammates, there were lots of things happened in between. I learnt and visited, played and laughed, it was really a good time there. I had different lessons there and I learnt a lot of new knowledge from them. I like the history and science lessons the most because I haven’t had them in Hong Kong. The science lessons were especially fun, every lesson we did some fun experiment and at the last lesson, our teacher made a explosion inside a big plastic bottle, it was so cool!

However, the most interesting part of the programme to me was the visit to the Harry Potter studio. As a Harry Potter fan, this was obviously the most exciting part. I was very happy when I went to the studio and saw a lot of settings that appeared in the movie. It was so fun to find and recognize the things which appeared in the movie in real life.

To conclude, although the programme is really expensive, I think it was worth it. If you have a chance, I really recommend that you try this experience!

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Triumphs in Europe - Lawrence's Musical Reflection

8/2/2018

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Written by Lawrence Ma 5B

This summer, our school’s orchestra went to Prague, Bratislava and Vienna for two competitions and a remarkable and unforgettable experience for us.

During this trip, I had some memorable moments.

My first memorable moment was when I got the chance to have a flute lesson with a professor in the Bratislava Conservatory of Music. Being taught by a teacher there is very different, as their music sense and their style of teaching really lets us learn more than we usually do.

My second memorable moment was when we got the winner’s prize for the symphony orchestra category and Grand Prix prize (only given to teams which have achieved a total mark of 97 or higher). We felt very honoured to receive the prizes and felt all our long and exhausting practices for the past few months finally paid off.

My third memorable moment was when I got up on stage to be the MC for our performance at the church of Sts. Simon and Jude. I had to introduce our school, and three of the nine pieces we were going to perform. Even though the experience was nerve-racking, it was a great opportunity for me.

Aside from the three most memorable moments, visiting landmarks, taking boat cruises and having a very high-class lunch at Hotel Imperial in Vienna also made our music tour unforgettable. Thanks to the school for organizing the tour and giving us an opportunity to perform and compete, and most importantly, thanks to Mr. Poon and Miss Luk for training us!

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