Skills Builder Global

This content was written by

HKSKH Bishop Hall Secondary School

Context

Our school is a secondary school in Sau Mau Ping, Kowloon, Hong Kong. We actively create a diverse learning environment and platform for students with care, appreciation, acceptance and good discipline, helping students to fully develop their potential and gain experience in their growth: learning experience, failure, and progress; through students' personal participation, making different attempts, and gaining fun and satisfaction from the learning process and results.

Overall impact

Our teachers have been able to effectively track the progress of our trail group of students using the Skills Builder Framework. Students have had the opportunity to develop their confidence and knowledge of speaking skills.

Keep it simple

Teachers involved in the project received training from Skill Builder to familiarize them with the importance of recognizing students' strengths beyond academic performance. The training focused on how to integrate this recognition both inside and outside the classroom. We made essential skills visible and consistent by printing the posters provided by Skills Builder and displaying them in the classroom where students have their career and life planning lessons. Additionally, teachers are encouraged to offer positive reinforcement in lessons to motivate students to further enhance their soft skills.

Start early, keep going

As this was our first year on the Accelerator programme we conducted a train in Secondary 2.

Measure it

Teachers utilized HoloTracker, an online platform for evaluation, to record their observations of students’ performance in activities and provide individualized feedback. Over time, this will enable us to develop a comprehensive profile of students’ growth across various dimensions.

Focus tightly

We created lesson plans to include the relevant essential skill steps of Speaking for the project. At the end of the project, students showcased their prototypes to the principal, teachers, classmates, guests from external organizations, and the elderly. They received valuable and positive feedback, which reinforced their self-recognition in their creativity, problem-solving, listening, and speaking skills.

Keep practising

We aim to develop essential skills into other areas of our subject curriculums next year and encourage teachers to reinforce students essential skills learning and reflection in more areas of our school.

Bring it to life

Our secondary 2 students who had participated in the project had the opportunity to visit the Gerontechnology Museum. They were able to speak to staff and ambassadors and get hands on with innovative products. This fostered deeper insights into the project and encouraged informal discussions where students used their speaking skills in a real life setting.

What's next

Next year we aim to take our learnings from this year to train more teachers and increase the number of students impacted by essential skill development.

Hong Kong