School visit form SJKC Jalan Davidson

Reported by ELC

      Educational tours always give us ideas and opportunities to visit places that help us gain experience and knowledge through the actual  exploration. On 27th February, 2016, Hin Hua High School received 24 visitors from SJKC Jalan Davidson. There were 17 English Language     teachers accompanied by their school Chairman of Alumni, Principal and Vice principals. This school has a good record of achievement in academy as well as extra co-curricular activities.

      SJKC Jalan Davidson is also branded as a Cluster school by the Malaysian Education  Ministry. They have attained excellence in all  aspects of the school management and student achievement.

      It was Hin Hua High School’s honour to receive the distinguished guests from the school. The delegates were welcomed with open arms by Datuk Lee Peng Hock, the Deputy Chairman of the Board of Governors, Puan Sri Kai Yong Yeoh,  Patron of ELC, other members of the board such as, Mr Soh Shun Chang, Mr Er Juan, the Chairman of the Alumni Association and Mr Eric Chin, the Chairman of the Parents & Teachers Association, Mdm Ng Swee Geok, the Principal, Vice Principals, all Heads of Department and the ELC Management Committee. 

      The day started early with the arrival of all guests at 8.15 a.m. Mdm Ng Swee Geok of Hin Hua greented the guests and stated that Hin Hua and SJKC Jalan Davidson were like ‘sibling schools’. This was because we always heard news about each other through Puan Sri. Mr Yeap Seng Heng, the principal of SJKC Jalan Davidson, was  grateful to Puan Sri for her arrangement for this visit. He also shared his experience of running his school, emphasising that he and his team had gone through a lot of hardship and made a concerted effort in order to ensure stable development of the school. Besides, he mentioned that some revolutions and changes had been made in his school to keep abreast with the advancement of technologies. At the end of his speech, he extended an invitation to Hin Hua, hoping to have another exchange in his school in the near future. 

      

      Right after the speeches and introductions, the delegates were shown a short video presentation of the establishment and development of Hin Hua to the present time. Mdm Boo then briefed the delegates on the program structure of the English Language Centre. She mentioned about the importance of the differentiated teaching method that we adopt at school. She highlighted the English for Academic Purposes (EAP) classes that began in 2013 which was the first pilot project that had   started with only one class. However, with the advancement of students’ performance, all senior three classes are currently doing the EAP level this year. They learn to do academic writing by carrying out small scale research, using the convenience of ICT (Google Drive) to set questionnaires, do literature review, learn referencing and so on. This is to help them develop their critical thinking skills as well as collaborating skills, and also to prepare them for their tertiary education in future. 

      Project-Based Learning (PBL) is also another area that she touched on. We give importance to PBL where the 21st century skills are well integrated into all lessons like reading, listening, speaking, writing and even in the internal competitions planned at school level. Besides preparing our students for all major examinations like the UEC, SPM, IELTS, we also prepare them for the Cambridge examinations. She also proudly announced about Hin Hua’s achievement on being branded as a  Cambridge English School in the year 2015. This is done to bring major changes to our curriculum and equip our students with the skills they need especially now that most universities   require CAE (Cambridge English: Advanced)  as an entry    requirement. Last year, 300 students signed up for the Cambridge exams and this is a sign to show students’ interest in improving their English.

      She thanked our patron, Puan Sri Kai Yong Yeoh for her constant support to ELC Under Puan Sri’s sponsorship, 13 English teachers completed the In Service Certificate in English Language Teaching Programme (ICELT) by the University of Cambridge, which is internationally recognised. In May 2015, all English teachers started the Certificate in Secondary English Language Teaching (CiSELT) by British Council which they will  complete by the end of 2016. She emphasized the importance of continuous professional development at Hin Hua High School.

      Finally, she spoke on the students’achievement in public exams The passing rates in the UEC Senior and Junior exams and the SPM have been always higher than the national passing rate. There was an evident climb of students scoring as in allpublic exams over the years. Also, 90% of IELTS candidates scored 6.0 and above, which marked that they had successfully fulfilled the basic entry requirement of universities worldwide.

      After the introduction, all guests were taken on a tour to ELC for an exchange session on the   teaching and learning of English Language by the ELC Management Committee members. It started off with Ms Malini giving a presentation about the English Environment at ELC. Some of the areas Ms Malini talked about were the use of Multimedia Learning using Longman English  Interactive (LEI), the setup of ELC reading corner, the internal and external competitions held at Hin Hua as well as those organised by other colleges or universities, the promotion of reading by Scholastic Book Club, the free mini library that we have at the school canteen and some other interactive activities that are held internally and externally at our school. 

      Right after that, Ms Evon took over with her presentation about Project-Based Learning (PBL) that has been carried out at ELC in the past few years. She emphasized the importance of designing an effective project. She also shared some of the projects done by the students using Google apps like Powtoon, Storyboards, short films and EAP research projects. The audience were impressed with the students’ creative work and all the effort put in by all the English teachers at Hin Hua.

     

      Finally, Ms Chua presented on Process Writing. First, she exchanged some ideas with the audience about the experience of teachers and students when writing was taking place. She then showed a Powtoon presentation on what process writing was about. From the video clip, the audience got to know the basic steps to take and the involvement of teachers and students throughout the writing process. She also shared her own experience of how she had conducted process writing in stages in a Junior One class, some improvements made by the students, and the students’ feedback on process writing.

      After the sharing session that was held at ELC, the guests were then taken on a campus tour  to our newly renovated school library. The tour was led by the Vice Principal, Mr Soh Chin Chun who explained on how the library had been designed creatively and the meanings behind each design and creative idea. The delegates walked around the library taking photographs of the beautiful interiors and also checking the many types of reading materials that the library has got to offer. Later, the delegates were led to the Science & Technology Tower where they were taken to the Information and Communication Technology Center (5th floor), the Exploration Centre where they were shown a short video at the Remote Autonomy Observing Centre (7th floor), the Innovation Centre (9th floor), Sports Centre (10th floor) and finally Puan Sri Kai Yong Yeoh Auditorium (1st floor). 

      After a mind-blowing sharing session and an eye-opening tour, the delegates were taken to a nearby restaurant to end the day with a sumptuous lunch hosted by Puan Sri Kai Yong Yeoh. 

      The day ended on a good note. Both delegates from SJKC Jalan Davidson and Hin Hua High School gained new experience and knowledge from each other. It was truly a good exploration of knowledge for both schools.