Second English Speaking Activity Day 14th February 2012

‘Love and Friendship” was the theme of the Second English Speaking Activity Day which was held on 14th February – Valentine’s Day!

The Covered Playground was a hive of activity during recess, lunchtime and after school, as students thronged around colourful booths where English Ambassadors hosted various activities. Students tried their hand at a Matching Game featuring Famous Family partnerships; an enthusiastic crowd enjoyed a Valentine’s Bingo game; while others tried an oral activity where they had to ask and answer questions to find their ideal partner. Students also selected and wrote greetings in Valentine’s Day cards celebrating the importance of friendship.

At the same time, the Mathematics and Geography Departments hosted game booths featuring interactive games that drew enthusiastic crowds, eager for the chance to add chops to their English Log Books!

The theme of friendship was continued in an after school activity in the School Hall where guest speaker Janice Jensen, of HK Animal Speak, gave a lively talk on Companion Animal Welfare.

For this very special activity Janice was accompanied by her four therapy dogs Baby, Lily, Rocky and Bearette. Teachers and students alike indulged their love of dogs in a wonderful hands-on opportunity where everyone was invited to stroke the four placid dogs.

For some it was a golden opportunity to overcome their fear of dogs! Under the careful supervision of Janice and her helpers everyone was encouraged to stroke the soft fur of our delightful canine guests. Who would ever have imagined that we would see dogs in school?

S.1 and S.5 Collaborative English Activity –
Reading Sharing Square
The S1 and S5 Collaborative English Activity was held on four Wednesdays from 14th December 2011 to 11th January 2012. It was one of the many English Speaking Wednesday activities jointly organised by the English Language Department and the Language Across Curriculum Committee, aiming to enhance students’ reading interests and presentation skills. Our S1 students, with the help of their senior schoolmates, enjoyed their first collaborative activity in Carmel and gained a positive experience of reading and sharing.

Overseas Study Tour 2011 – Dunedin, New Zealand

On 8th July 2011, twenty S.1 – S.6 students and two English teachers embarked on a 16-day overseas study tour to Dunedin, New Zealand. The trip, organized by the English Language Department, was to extend our students’ repertoire and to enable them to immerse themselves in an English-only environment.

The students attended lessons on weekday mornings and went on excursions in the afternoon. They had the chance to learn more about the culture in New Zealand and to appreciate the natural beauty of the country. The highlight of the tour was the trip to Otago Peninsula where they went seal spotting and visited Penguin Palace.

The New Zealand tutors highly praised our students for their outstanding English proficiency and good learning attitude.

Praise to the Lord for HE safeguarded the group to return to Hong Kong despite the 3-day delay of the flight owing to a snowstorm.

“Understanding British Culture”:
our English Speaking Activity Day
Shrieks of laughter and the excited chatter of students vied with the melodic strains of a Beatles song as our students filled the Covered Playground for the first English Speaking Activity Day of the new school year, which was held on Wednesday 19th October.

Following a lively morning assembly in which students were introduced to British Culture to celebrate the arrival of the new NET teacher, the programme of activities continued at lunchtime and after school.

Colourful booths were set up in the Covered Playground and students crowded around, eager to earn chops for their English Logbooks and to win small prizes. One booth featured worksheets based on Special Days in Britain. Students filled in a Mother’s Day crossword puzzle; read aloud Valentine’s Day rhymes and filled in the missing words in the lyrics of the Beatles song ‘With Love from Me to You”.

Students queued patiently to test their skills at tossing pancakes; whilst others studied an information board about British Culture and matched the names and pictures of famous characters from British fiction, such as Sherlock Holmes and Paddington Bear.

After school the activities continued in the Covered Playground; whilst in the School Hall students could choose to join a listening activity about making a pot of tea; read the humorous play script “Tea break”; or play special board games that required students to explain or describe something to the other players.

All the booths and activities were manned by our competent team of English Ambassadors, who did a very good job!

The Biology and Computer Departments also had a booth in the Covered Playground featuring British Wild life. Students matched the animals to the descriptions of their habitats. This first English Speaking Activity Day was well attended and students went away happy with their tally of Logbook chops and small prizes.

The English Ambassador Team

Maths Arena 2011
The Maths Arena was rounded off on Monday, 4 July. There were totally six primary schools joining the competition. The event lasted for two hours. There were six game stalls covering different mathematical aspects such as speed-calculation, logical problems, problem-rummikub etc. Students’ collaboration and problem-solving skills were challenged.
The champion went to Po Leung Kuk Luk Hing Too Primary School, the 1st and the 2nd runner-up were Tseung Kwan O Government Primary School and Yan Oi Tong Tin Ka Ping Primary School respectively.
All participants have shown active participation and enjoyed themselves jubilantly throughout the event.

S2: English Reader Activity
On Monday May 16th, Secondary 2 students participated in an engaging English Reader activity called All About the Titanic. The excitement began with a fun game of Titanic Bingo. Next, students enthusiastically enjoyed a class competition game called The Titanic Quiz Show. The Class Champion was 2D and the First Runner Up was 2C.

Inter-House Debate Contest
Our School Inter-House Debate Contest was a great success and it has helped students to improve their thinking abilities and presentation skills. At the Final held on 24 March 2011, John House and Matthew House had an exciting debate in front of our honourable guest adjudicators Miss Lee, the former Principal of Carmel Secondary School, Mr Lam from the Sai Kung District Council and our school teacher Miss Lau. Finally, John House won the Champion, Matthew House got the First Runner-up, Mark House the Second Runner-up and Luke House the Third Runner-up.

Hong Kong Flower Show 2011
The Hong Kong Flower Show 2011, organized by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, was held between 11 and 20 March, 2011 at Victoria Park. 5 members of the Flower Arrangement Club joined the competition in order to enhance their skills and creativity of floral design. Hui Un Ieng (S4B) won the Champion of the Floral Art Competition on ‘Pitter-patter’.

Speakers’ Corner
Farewell to Speakers’ Corner! The Speakers’ Corner was held by all S6 students nearly every Wednesday lunch. They decided what topics to discuss, very often current issues like minimum wage, freedom of speech and who the speakers were and what roles they had to play. They kept an eye on current issues and collected information and discussed the issues before they started the Corner. It was a great success as all S6 students benefited from the activity.

English Speaking Wednesdays (Cross-form activity)
On 13th April, 20th April and 4th May, our Secondary Six students enjoyed their time with Secondary Five students listening to their presentation on the movie, 17 Again. Both parties enjoyed the sharing sessions and all of them benefited from the activity.

Inter-school Basketball Championships
24 of our students from Secondary 1 to 7 participated in the Inter-school Basketball Championships (Girls A, B and C Grades) from October 2010 to March 2011. The competitions were organized by the Hong Kong Schools Sports Federation aiming to promote girls’ interests in playing basketball and improve their basketball playing skills.

The First Putonghua Day
The first Putonghua Day this year was held on 17 February 2011. Many activities were organized such as guessing Lantern Riddles, broadcasting Putonghua songs, teacher-student karaoke singing, etc. Through a wide variety of activities, it is hoped that students’ interests in speaking Putonghua can be fostered and enhanced. On the day, students actively participated in the activities while the teacher-student karaoke singing was among which the most popular one.

Hong Kong Planning and Infrastructure Exhibition Gallery & Central
The S6 Geography Outing to Central was successfully held on 7 January, 2011. The theme of this outing is town planning and urban land use. It aims at raising students’ awareness of applying what they have learnt in Geography lessons in the real cases. The activity also enables students to know more about the future town planning of Hong Kong. We visited the Hong Kong Planning and Infrastructure Exhibition Gallery and conducted a land use survey in Central District. Our students showed much interest and enthusisam in the visit and survey.

EPA/ ACT Library Books Display
The book display was organized by the EPA/ACT department and the library. It was held in the last two weeks of November. The activity was open to all students and we especially encouraged the senior forms students to participate. Its aim was to arouse students’ interests in the development of our society. A book written by a retired senior government official, Mr. Joseph Wong, was recommended to students. In the book, Mr Wong described the process of the formation of government policies and the reasons of carrying out the policies.

Made in China : Visit Shenzhen Factories

48 of our Secondary 5 students participated in the Made in China: Visit Shunzhen Factories on 19th October 2010. It is an activity organized by Careers and Further Studies Committee and Plate-Forme(旅遊學庫), aiming to enable students to experience the rapid economical development in China. Our students were impressed by the well organized structure and pleasant working environment of the factories in China.

S5 and S7 Collaborative Speaking Activity

Our S5 and S7 collaborative speaking activity was held on three consecutive English Speaking Wednesdays in September and October. The activity aimed to provide the students with opportunities of group discussion practice. They were also given the opportunity to assess the performances of their group members and give them constructive verbal and written comments. We hope that this can improve students’ learning.

Our Second Putonghua Day

Our second Putonghua Day was held on May 10, 2010. More than 40 representatives from Matthew, Mark, Luke and John Houses participated in the inter-house Putonghua competition, which was held during the Assembly period. Various kinds of activities such as quiz games as well as voice-over and colour-reading aloud competitions were organized. The competitors enjoyed playing the games a lot and the audience was invited to join the competitions as well. They all found learning Putonghua fun in a pleasant and welcoming atmosphere.

Our Easter Nurturing Camp

Thanks to our Heavenly Father, our Easter Nurturing Camp was successfully held at Wu Kwai Sha Youth Village between 7 and 9 April this year. 65 students, 6 teachers and 6 pastoral team members joined the camp. The purpose of this year’s camp was to help to help the Christian students to establish their prayer life. We pray that they can learn to put into practice what they learned in the camp to become spiritually disciplined Christians who are able to lead a life displaying good self-control, to glorify God’s name and to bless others.

Our First Inter-house Debate Competition

Our first inter-house debate competition was held on April 28, 2010. Its motion is ‘The drawbacks of The Hong Kong SAR Government imposing stricter controls over privately-owned cemeteries outweigh its benefits’. The competition provided our schoolmates with an opportunity to train their public speaking and critical thinking skills. After the preliminary, John and Matthew houses went through the final. Our former principal Mr Lour, Sai Kung District Councillor Mr Fan Kwok Wai and Mr Cheung Ka Tat, Founder of ‘i-debate’, were our adjudicators. John House was the champion while Matthew, Mark and Luke Houses came second, third and fourth respectively.

Secondary One Famine Lunch

Our Secondary One Famine Lunch as held on April 2, 2010 with about 200 participants. The participants walked with bare feet and made their own shoes, and enjoyed a simple meal before the activity came to a close. The activity not only serves to provide the students with an opportunity to work as a team, but also to help them to understand more about the need of the children living in poverty in Mainland China.
A total of $3,382 was collected and has been donated to the Salvation Army Hong Kong to enable the children to receive basic education.

Secondary 3 and Secondary 6 Collaborative Activity (ESW)

Our Secondary 3 and 6 students shared the books they read on four English Speaking Wednesdays (ESW) between February and March. The former spoke on Number the Stars while the latter on The Last Lecture. Our Sixth Formers also offered the juniors advice on how they met with challenges as the latter will be studying under the NSS curriculum in the coming year.

Secondary One Reading Sharing Session

A series of enjoyable activities on poetry appreciation and composition was organized for our Secondary One students on 11 May, 2010. Apart from learning about the characteristics of several types of poems, students had the opportunity to display their creativity through composing their own poems, both individually and collaboratively. The atmosphere in the workshop was charged with excitement when their work was shared by all.

Our 12th Parents’ Night ‘ Living Rainbows in Carmel’

A big audience consisting of parents, teachers and students attended the Parents’ Night on 30 April, 2010. There were a symphony played by our orchestra, singing school choir singing, verse speaking, dance and drama performances as well as quiz shows, all of which were greeted with rounds of applause. The audience was enthusiastic about hitting pong pong sticks in a game and the atmosphere in the hall was charged with excitement instantly. The audience was further amused when our students showed their musical and artistic talents.

School Forum

Our latest school forum organized by the Student Union during lunchtime was successfully held on March 26, 2010. In the forum, many students were eager to express their opinions and raise questions. In the previous forum held on December 8, 2009, Mrs Kwok Kong Mei Po and Mr Kwok Wing Yin were invited to share their views on lesson arrangements and school facilities, while in the recent one, Mr. Wong Chung Man and Mr. Hui Siu Hong addressed students' concerns on discipline. We, as members of the Student Union, are very glad to see that our schoolmates grabbed the chance to share their views with teachers. We expect more of our schoolmates participate in our future forums.

Our Putonghua Day on April 2, 2010

Our first Putonghua Day was held on February 4, 2010. Several activities were organized to provide students with the opportunities to speak Putonghua. Our students enjoyed playing fun games at the class teacher periods and knew more about Pin-yin. Our Putonghua Singing Contest held in our hall after school was also well-received. Many students joined the contest in which they showed their talents in singing Putonghua songs .Besides, several teachers were invited to perform on stage. Students showed their great support for the performers with resounding cheers. The Day was a huge success and we are looking forward to the next one.

Our Cheering Team

Every year, our Secondary One students have to give cheering performances on the Sports Day to show their support and encouragement for their respective houses. The hard practice done for the performances enables the youngsters to build up team spirit and to strengthen their sense of belonging to their respective houses, which can then become more united.

S3 Inter-class Drama Competition

The S3 inter-class drama competition was held in the afternoon of 26th January 2010. After spending a few months studying one of the most well-known plays of William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, the students were divided into groups to rewrite a certain part of the play to demonstrate their creativity. They are to put on performances based on their scripts. Eight groups of students giving excellent performances were then invited to join the inter-class drama competition. By the time the shows were staged, the audience enjoyed watching all the eight different versions of the classical play and the hall was filled with laughter and rounds of applause. It isundeniably a meaningful experience for all the Third Formers since they have learnt a lot about adapting a story, acting skills and working as a team.

Our English Speaking Activity Day on 28-1-2010

Our second English Speaking Activity Day was held in the Covered Playground on January 28, 2010. As a co-curricular activity this time, our English Department joined hands with the Math and Physics Departments to help raise students’ awareness of the importance of using English at all times.

Challenging games such as Guess that Movie, Guess that Song and Celebritity Heads (What’s My Name?) were our students’ favourites. One may wonder why the youngsters managed to make the right guesses in just an instant though these games had all been cleverly designed by our dedicated English ambassadors.Our students also showed much enthusiasm in playing the games well-thought out by the Math and Physics Departments involving questions on formulas and principles of gravity. As expected, our Prize Booth was packed with winners eager to get their rewards then.

Our Gospel Week:Depending on you (You)?

Our Gospel Week themed ‘Depending on you (You)?’ was held from 11 to 18 December, 2009. A variety of activities were organized to provide students with the opportunities to know more about Godand to learn to depend on Him more in order to live a fruitful and meaningful life.We hope that students will continue to grow in HisWord.

Beijing Cultural Visit - The Capital of the Chinese Olympic Fire, Beijing New Motion

From 22 to 30 December, 2009, Keong Sin Hang from 3E went on aBeijing cultural visit called The Capital of Chinese Olympic Fire, Beijing New Motion, which was organized by the Christian Family Service Centre. The purpose of the visit is to strengthen participants’ sense of cultural and national identity, as well as to enable them to learn about the impact of the Beijing Olympic Games on local residents.

Keongvisited Beijing Olympic Games venues such as the Nest and the Water Square.She also went to the Great Wall and hadthe opportunity to have a discussion with students from the RenminUniversity. The trip has enabled her to gain a better understanding of the lives of Beijing residents and their views on the BeijingOlympic Games, as well as the changes taking place in our motherland. Last but not least, the friends she made in the city are undoubtedly another thing that has made her trip unforgettable.

Secondary One Inter-class Speech Competition

To enhance our Secondary One students’ ability in Chinese public speaking and in the appreciation of poetry, our school held an inter-class speech competition on 21 January, 2010.That afternoon, the First Formers were quite engaged in the competition by giving the contestants rounds of applause and resounding cheers to show them their great support and encouragement.The competition came to a close with announcing Chiu Hiu Yan’s group from 1B and Chan Yan Ling from the same class as the champions of the choral and solo verse speaking section respectively.

S6 Study trip to Hong Kong Heritage Discovery Centre

On 27 November 2009, twelve students from 6A studying Chinese History visited Hong Kong Heritage Discovery Centrewith their subject teacher Mr. KoongSze Ton.The centre hosted an exhibition titled ‘Heritage Alive: Hong Kong Winning Projects of UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards for Culture Heritage Conservation’, andplenty of videos, documents and construction models on the topic were shown.They have learnt about the characteristics, and historical backgrounds of the monuments as well as the work done by different parties in the society on the conservation of historical heritage.

Then they visited the St. Andrew’s Church nearby to know more about European architecture in the Victorian period.

Sixth Formers’ Sichuan Study Tour - Heart on Kids

Three of our Sixth Formers joined a Sichuan Study Tour, Heart on Kids, organized by The Boys’ & Girls’ Clubs Association of Hong Kong, from 22 to 27 December, 2009. The purpose of the tour was to provide free English lessons tothe students of a primary school in a village there. Though our visit only lasted for five days and our teaching schedules were not tight then, both we as teachers and our students enjoyed the lessons very much. The young ones found our lessons joyful as they were conducted rather differently from the traditional classes they usually had.The experience was one of rewarding to all of us.