Blog Posts

Friendly visitors from Singapore

11/16/2018

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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Engaged, Enchanted, Enhanced

6/29/2018

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Our Primary Six boys had their final formal lessons yesterday (28 June) before their impending graduation ceremony and coincidentally, the 12 English Enhancement Class participants had their very last lesson of their primary school lives with me in the small room on 6/F (which they will be missing!).

I captured their spontaneous "conclusive statements" on the pull-out programme and created the above video. The "A-list" which a lot of them mentioned was an assignment scheme I always use in which I put student names in a box (a.k.a. the Award List / A-list) on the blackboard indicating those who need to do extra writings on the day. Who gets into the box may or may not be to do with their in-class performance / behaviours (and my decisions can be very unpredicatble ^o^). It's definitely an award to them every time and NOT a punishment because each piece is commented and returned. And to my surprise, a lot of them find it a memorable thing if not the MOST memorable thing in the lessons!

Click to download

Besides the video, the English Enhancement Class produces this course-end literary journal named ACE - English Enhancement Edition, which has already launched its 3rd issue. This journal displays exemplary works from the participants including poems (free verse, magical realism, rhyming, themed, haibun and symbolic), prose works (wartime, adventure and literary) and essays (including reviews of literature) reflecting some types of writing tasks they have experienced throughout the year.

Other issues and editions of ACE are available here.

I am glad to have produced all these in honour of our boys' extra effort in English language learning. I wish them happy graduation and continue to excel in English in an engaged, enchanted and enhanced fashion!

Happy summer to you all!

Dr H C Lee

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7 "WOW"s for our Drama Fiesta 2018

6/19/2018

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ENGLISH IS WOW!!!

I will give at the very least 7 BIG FAT "WOW"s to our Drama Fiesta this year which was just completed this morning in the most festive and energetic atmosphere.

The first WOW goes to our junior drama team, "The Rainbow", and their coaches and parent helpers. What a meaningful story and what a powerful performance, and what a spectrum of distinctive voices to provoke a deep debate about which colour is more important! And most importantly, what a fun play to watch!!!

The second WOW of course goes to our senior drama team, "I Am Who I Am", and their coaches. What a huge challenge for them to play this complicated story with singing and dancing involved and detailed stage effects! They definitely deserve the many awards they have received if not even more! And the audience simply loved the show! We should all be proud of who we are!

Thirdly, I will send this WOW to the team behind the junior drama video "Clinky Planky Tenbo"! Oh my goodness! What a fun script! What a fun name! And what a cute performance from our talented young actors! We loved every moment of it!

The fourth WOW goes to Mrs Ho's body percussion session for the junior show in the hall. Her energetic and charming teaching of the rhyming lines and dance moves heated the entire hall of P.1-3 boys! Also, her team of P.2 dancers offered great help to the session!

Fifthly, this WOW must go to all our teachers taking care of the English Room, Covered Playground and Exhibition Hall activities for students who were not in the hall. Those teachers had limited space but a large amount of students to entertain. We should send them our best gratitude for their marvelous job to make our boys enjoy English to the fullest! My salute to them all!

WOW number six goes to my entire English teaching team as well as the entire YWPS teaching staff who helped to ensure the flow of the day to be smooth and safe. In particular, I thank Ms Jenny Ho for coordinating different parties and finalizing a very complicated run-down; I thank Miss Candy Ho and Angel Leung for designing a great souvenir programme; and I thank the Vice-principal Ms Pansy Chan for arranging teachers to take care of different classes when English teachers were unavailable.

Last but not least, the seventh WOW must go to our P.6 Improvised Dramatic Scene contestants. They achieved a very high level of improvised drama overall with great plot twists and acting skills demonstrated with only 10 min of practice time. I was so touched seeing their growth in our drama in education scheme. And most importantly, I am happy seeing all the happy faces on stage!

There must be a lot more "WOW"s I could give and I have no idea where to stop. This show was stunning and it truthfully showcased what our boys and teachers have been working on this whole year. This show was like a summary of our dramatic effort. I would say that this is the BEST Drama Fiesta so far and, I know this sounds greedy, I am already looking forward to having an even better show next year!

English is amazingly "WOW"!

Dr H C Lee

P.S. More photos in our Gallery section.

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Ying Wa Explorers Series: Exploring Digital Tools for Learning English

6/2/2018

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Written by Ms Angel Leung

The advancement of new technology has reconstructed our learning process. Learning English is not confined to books and classrooms. There are a variety of educational tools which offer fun and interactive ways for you to learn English effectively. Let’s explore some of them.

1. Alphabear
(Platform: iOS, Android App)

Do you want to brush up your vocabulary while you are playing games? Alphabear will be a good choice. It is an English word-spelling game. You have to make words out of the given letters to turn them into adorable bears.

The bears next to each other could be merged into bigger bears which worth more points. Each letter has a counter and it decreases by 1 every turn. Once the counter reaches zero, the letter will turn into a rock and will be unusable. It will be an obstacle for you to create bigger bears.

You can score more points by forming a longer word. It will be a good idea to lengthen the word with a prefix, suffix or even by turning the word into plural. Another strategy is to collect different bears after you meet the score target. Each bear possesses different skills and they help you to gain greater bonuses. Let’s try out this remarkable game to see how many bears you can collect.

2. Bonza
(Platform: iOS, Android App)

If you are fond of words and crossword puzzles, you will definitely be addicted to this word puzzle. This game is also ideal for those who want to expand their vocabulary and learn new words and phrases.

Players need to rearrange the scattered letter tiles and link them together to complete the crossword puzzle. Each crossword puzzle has a specific theme and this clue gives you an idea of the possible words that might be found. After completing each level, you will be rewarded with some coins. As you progress to higher levels, you will have to connect more letter tiles. The rewarded coins will allow you to get more clues to solve these challenging puzzles. This game comes with different free themed packs. It also provides free daily puzzle. You may also use the rewarded coins to unlock the themed packs.

If you find this game engaging, you may also try the animal and nature-themed sequel, Bonza National Geographic. There are some visual jigsaw puzzles added in this sequel.

To make it more interactive, you can create your custom puzzle and send the puzzle code to your friends. Let’s take up the challenge and solve the puzzle by entering the following puzzle code.

3. StoryJumper
(Platform: PC website)
http://www.storyjumper.com/

Have you ever used any computer software to create a digital story book? This online platform has a user-friendly interface which sparks your imagination and develops your writing skills. You can bring your illustrated story to life by dragging and dropping different clipart and scenes. You can also add texts and upload your own images as backgrounds or props to personalize the story easily. To make the story more interesting, you can even record an audio and be the narrator.

Why not spend a minute to create an account to explore this platform and write a unique story? Share your story with us by posting your story book’s link in the comments. (Please note that it is free to create, share and read the story books online. You will be charged if you order your books as professionally published books.)

Watch the tutorial below to see how to create a StoryJumper book.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBj_371c5o4

Hope these digital tools can boost your learning skills in a surprising way.

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Hong Kong Budding Poets (English) Award - a Ying Wa Triumph!!!

5/28/2018

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Yiding Song (2nd from the right) received his trophy from Ms Emily Lau Wai-hing, JP, along with his fellow GOLD Award winners.

Happy news from the 2017/18 Hong Kong Budding Poets (English) Award - our poetic boy Yiding Song 6C was awarded a GOLD Award for his poem "Curse of Existence", under his chosen theme "Me, the Earth, the Universe", at the Hang Seng Management College this afternoon.

Yiding was among the four prestigious GOLD Awardees, followed by 4 SILVER, 4 BRONZE and 8 Honourable Mention awards in the primary school category.

This competition is co-organised by EDB and Hong Kong Academy for Gifted Education. We regard it as one of the top poetry contests in Hong Kong for children as they attract esteemed schools to take part every year, producing excellent poems. We are very proud that we have been having an awardee for a few years in a row and this time, Yiding even earned the top prize! Congratulations! See his live performance of his poem below:

Yiding's poem on display

From left: Dr Lee, Yiding Song, Vincent Cheng, Matt Leung, Principal Cheng

To double the happiness, students from YWC, Vincent Cheng (S.3) and Matt Leung (S.2) received their GOLD and SILVER Awards respectively in the ceremony. Both of them graduated from YWPS and Matt, like Yiding, was in the P.6 enhancement class before he graduated!

Principal Cheng of YWC also attended the ceremony and was kind enough to ask for a happy selfie!

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

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Ying Wa Explorers Series: Dr Lee's Exploration 2 (Scotland Trip Sum-up)

5/14/2018

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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:

Day 1:

Q1 - How do you make sense of this idiom "You may go further and do a lot worse"?

According to a staff member I talked to, the idiom is showing a sort of national identity. It asks the Scottish people NOT to go south for England as it will only do bring them bad fortune.

Q2 - I found these weird items for sale at a hidden corner at the Edinburgh airport. What are these?

They are a kind of mini toothbrush for chewing. One pound each, available in the lavatory.

Day 2:

Q1 - The tour guide said it was a good thing to see these fungi, can you guess why?

Fungi only survive in clean air. Having fungi growing all over the trees implies that the air in the location is very clean.

Q2 - whose room was it? And why do you think so?

It was Mrs Lam's room. I have no idea how you could guess it right but some of you did guess it right with very good reasoning!

Day 3:

Q1 - As far as you can see from this short clip, how does their maths lesson differ from yours at school?

In fact, all of your answers are sensible. I notice mainly the grouping and the use of the small board for each student. But you know your maths lessons better than I do.

Q2 - Are you always ready and comfortable to share with a visitor what you are good at?

This is a self-reflective question which can only be answered by yourselves. But I'm glad to see quite a few of you answering "yes"!

Day 4:

Q1 - Can you tell what was so special about this poster?

This one is super hard...The speech bubbles on the poster were actually sound devices. I pressed on it and it played a sentence which was prerecorded by a student. Those sentences were statements on children's rights.

Q2 - why did I go to Stirling today?

It was because I wanted to visit my old school - The University of Stirling.

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

Those are study pods for small group gathering for discussion and homework.

Day 5:

I didn't give any question this day. But I'm glad to answer yours.

Day 6:

Q1 - In the Chinese Booth of the fair, could you tell/guess which two activities were offered?

Surprisingly, some of you did give me the right answers...The two games were chopstick skills and Chinese calligraphy.

Q2 - Do you understand what sort of difficulties Keren needs to get through and what achievement she had got?

I appreciate those who attempted to respond to this as the audio in the clip might be too hard for some of you. Keren struggled with her deafness and that she had no language when she first moved to Scotland. Adjusting her life with hearing students in school was also a challenge. But Keren still managed to win a poetry award!

Day 7:

Q1 - Try to listen to him (Prof Mattieson) carefully (maybe several times) and see if you could understand what he said here! Try to sum it up!

Another good challenge here. Prof Mattieson summed up the relationship between the Scottish and London Government and said that the former could run their own education policies.

Q2 - Among the many moments I recorded in these travelogue articles for Scotland, which one do you think is my favourite and why?

There are in fact too many memorable moments that could be my favourite. If I must choose, my meeting with Prof Mattieson, interaction with some individual Scottish students, and tour in Stirling were among my top favourite parts of this tour.

* * *

To conclude, as I have shared with my students in the morning assembly, be a world explorer and bring back your learning to share with others in Hong Kong. The world is a huge classroom and everyone can be your teacher. As for our P.6 boys, another tour is upcoming, be prepared to dig deep!

Dr H C Lee

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YWPS Debate Team comes SECOND at the 5th Primary Schools Debating Tournament 2018

5/13/2018

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Award ceremony

Vincent won the "Most favourite Debater Award".

Congratulations to our English Debating Team for snatching the second place at the 5th Primary Schools Debating Tournament 2018, which was organized at St Joseph’s Primary School on 12 May (Sat). This time, our team sent out three members who are Luke Cheung (6B), Cayden Wong (6C) and Vincent Song (6C) to take part in this highly competitive tournament. They defeated two schools in a row and entered the final round against Marymount Primary School. Ying Wa has become the first school which can enter the final round twice in three years and that is an impressive record. In the end it was a very close match and our team was awarded the second place.

This year, 12 elite schools enrolled in this competition including Diocesan Boys’, Diocesan Girls’, Heep Yunn, Marymount, St. Joseph’s, St. Stephen’s, Canadian International, Choi Kai Yau Primary School and others. We competed against the Raimondi Primary School in the first round and the motion was “Competition is not necessary in the learning process.” We were on the negative side and our team won with 228 - 237. The adjudicator was impressed with our solid team line and powerful rebuttal.

We were against Diocesan Boys’ at the second round and the competition was fierce. The motion was “Homework should be prohibited during school holidays” and we were on the affirmative side. Both teams were strong in their argument and demonstrated excellent speaking skills. In the end, the match was a really close-call but our team managed to secure another win with only a one-mark difference, i.e., 229 – 228.

The whole team was thrilled when they found out that they had made it to the final match. Ying Wa faced Marymount Primary School and we were debating for the negative side of the motion “Competition is not necessary in the learning process.” Beyond any doubt, both teams performed their best and all three adjudicators were pleasantly surprised with the high quality of the match and said that the performance was of professional level. After a long deliberation, the judges gave the crown to Marymount but Vincent Song (6C) was voted to be the “Most Favourite Debater” in the competition. Ying Wa took home the second place and all team members were happy with the results and agreed that it was a wonderful experience.

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to all the team members who have contributed to the preparation of the match. I hope that all of you have benefitted from our daily practice and mock debates. I would also like to thank all the parents who came to support the boys and help with the logistics. I hope all of you have enjoyed the competitions. Good luck to all the team members this year and I wish you can keep up the passion and pursue in debating!

Mr. Dennis Tam
Debate team coach

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