Start Strong: i-Supporting NCS Children’s Transition from Kindergarten to Primary School

Utilising innovative pedagogy and an e-learning platform to help non-Chinese speaking lower primary students learn Chinese

Riding on the success of its start-up project, the venture aims to support 200 non-Chinese speaking (NCS) lower primary students in learning the Chinese language through adopting “Dynamic Enrichment Learning Mode” (DELM) and making use of an e-learning platform.

The enrichment scheme comprises three major parts: (i) differentiated courses using DELM to facilitate students’ adaptation to the Chinese mainstream curriculum; (ii) innovative pedagogy and e-learning platform “mLang” (another funded project) to enrich students’ learning experience; and (iii) online after school consolidation classes conducted by prospective teachers from the Faculty of Education of The University of Hong Kong.

The venture will provide school-based train-the-trainer support to 20 teachers in 3 to 6 seed schools, including curriculum design, lesson planning and class feedback, for implementation of the enrichment scheme at their schools. Trained teachers will also be invited to share their experience and lessons learnt with another 240 teachers from 20 network schools.

All-round support will also be provided to 300 NCS parents of both kindergartens and primary schools, including school application, parents’ talks, WhatsApp support groups, and mLang training, etc.

• Provided training on e-learning platform (mLang) to 39 Chinese teachers from 7 seed schools for teaching 250 non-Chinese speaking (NCS) primary students
• Arranged after-class online learning support to 242 NCS primary one students taught by 25 prospective teachers
• Arranged 4 lesson observations / assessments for seed schools
• Shared project experience with 267 Chinese teachers
• Organised 2 conferences to share outstanding teaching cases in Phase 1 and Teacher Resource Manual
• Organised 2 professional teaching workshops for prospective teachers from seeds schools and network schools
• Organised 2 learning activities for seed schools and network schools
• Provided support to 645 parents of kindergarten and primary students