Words from the School Supervisor Ms Leung Lai Ching
With the school’s 20th anniversary, it’s wonderful to see that the big trees on our campus derived from young seedlings have been filled with fruition; our children keeping their family motto in mind and the affection of motherland in their hearts, have been enjoying the care and love from their teachers and schoolmates, all thriving and flourishing. As we mark the 20th anniversary, please let us take this opportunity to share with you our educational achievements in the past, our latest development and what the future holds for us!
Academy Kindergarten (Tin Shui Wai) is a place of enlightenment created to provide children with quality education. It is also the cradle for nurturing children’s growth and development, ensuring that they can learn happily and grow healthily. Holding onto these beliefs, we provide children aged 3-6 with an open, exploratory and play-based curriculum and learning activities, with the aims of promoting children’s whole-person development and earning the support of parents and families through offering them useful parenting information. Over these 20 years, the enrollment rate in our school has been satisfactory and we have successfully nurtured our young seedlings into fruition and empowered them to flourish.
Regarding early childhood education as a lifelong career, I have been devoted myself to educational leadership and spare no effort in education, earning years of experience in the founding and operations of multiple kindergartens and primary schools in both Hong Kong and Mainland China. Under my leadership, my team in Academy Kindergarten has been putting their efforts into providing quality education, acting in concert with different regions in the country and different service users to provide professional early childhood education and training, ensuring that our curriculum and teaching approaches can prepare children for school, meet children’s developmental needs, help children make a smooth transition to primary school and promote the collaboration among families, the school and the community. Attention is also paid to the development of school resources and learning facilities, as well as to the implementation of remedial and enhancement scheme that caters for learner diversity, to maximise the benefits and effectiveness for children in their learning and development. Taking upon myself to provide moral education and cultivate global future leaders, I plan courses that will have a positive impact on social morality and the natural environment. Local and overseas teacher exchange activities are held on the Teachers’ Development Day every year in a way to enable our teachers to establish a bond with overseas educational institutions and build a support network for sharing and long-term exchanges. Programmes that promote moral and character development are also held for our teaching staff, students and parents in addition to our exiting parent-child activities, parenting education programmes, large-scale school events and festivals celebrations. Charitable, public welfare and social service elements are included in learning activities, large-scale school events and the curriculum. Examples include flag-selling, donation, giving warmth gifts, fund-raising performances, volunteer services, green and healthy campus, community visits, caring for the elderly, etc. I also help with charity work and give donations to Lions Education Foundation, Tuen Mun District Women’s Association, Lion’s Nature Education Centre, New Territories Association of Societies, Lions Kidney Educational Centre & Research Foundation, Yan Oi Tong, Lok Sin Tong, Scout Association of Hong Kong, Road Safety Patrol, while being the founding president of Hong Kong Gold Coast Lion Club at the same time.
Earlier in 2001, our school had already founded the Parent-Teacher Association and Alumni-Teacher Association following the Education Bureau guidelines. The Associations aim to facilitate the connection and cooperation between families and the school, enhance parents’ involvement in school to maximise learning effectiveness and safeguard the well-being of students, as well as promote students’ whole-person development and provide support and care for children’s learning and development. We also encourage parents to nurture their children with positive attitudes, spend more time with their children, accept their children as they are and acknowledge their feelings so that children will get to know that the school is a place of happiness and they will grow up with a sense of security. Our school regularly organises parenting programmes, trips for family, alumni and teachers, alumni and teacher volunteer activities, and gathering activities in order to facilitate home-school cooperation. We also enhance parents’ involvement in school through the parent-child reading programme, parent observation classes, parents’ talks, Parents’ Day and the alumni gratitude dinner.
Academy Kindergarten implements clear and effective strategies to cater for children’s learning diversity. Individual, group and small-class learning is carried out to ensure teachers can care for and address each student’s learning abilities and needs. We also invite experts in education, social workers and professional therapists in different fields to provide us with counselling services, implement individual education plans and offer parenting education on related topics in order to ensure students with special needs, including gifted children, receive equal opportunities in education, thus fulfilling our mission “teaching students in accordance with their aptitude”. We strive to make our school a love-filled paradise where children keep their family motto in mind and the affection of motherland in their hearts, and enjoy the care and love from their teachers and schoolmates. Over these 20 years of delivering the joy of learning, the school has become a firm fixture that everyone works together as a team showing care and love for one another, children excelling in moral and academic performances with the enthusiastic support of the community. I would like to offer my best wishes for the continued success and sustainable development of Academy Kindergarten in its mission of providing high-quality preschool education. I look forward to seeing Academy Kindergarten making strides towards a more fruitful future and continually realising the idea of empowering our students to thrive and flourish!