2023/2024 Newsletter No. 3

9 July 2024

Table of Contents

1. HKAHSS 60th Anniversary Study Trip (14-16/11)

2. ⁠Staff Professional Development Services 2024-25

3. Self-Regulated Learning (SRL)Festival 2024-25

4. Professional Dinner with Dr. Lam Ching Choi

5. Annual Conference 2024 (6/6) + Lessons Learned from COVID-19

6. Here and Now –Food for Thought on Education: Our Suggestions on the Optimisation of Senior Secondary Chinese History and Economics(2/7)

7. Farewell to Outgoing Principals

Dear Colleagues,

As the academic year draws to a close, I am delighted to share our third Newsletter with you. With summer vacation just around the corner, I invite you to take a well-deserved break, sit back, and enjoy reading the exciting updates from HKAHSS.

1. HKAHSS 60thAnniversaryStudy Trip (14-16/11)

We still have a few places left for this transformative experience, and we invite our members including full members (Serving Principals) and associate members (Vice / Deputy / Assistant Principals) to enroll today. Join us as we celebrate the 60th Anniversary of HKAHSS and embark on this remarkable journey together. Just to recap, here is the following information about the trip:

To commemorate the upcoming 60th Anniversary of HKAHSS and deepen the understanding of national and global development trends, HKAHSS is collaborating with the Hong Kong Pei Hua Education Foundation (香港培華教育基金會) and Jinan University (暨南大學) to organize a study trip for Hong Kong secondary school principals. The tour, scheduled for 14-16 November 2024, will take place in the Greater Bay Area in Mainland China, aiming to broaden the horizons of Hong Kong’s education leaders. During the tour, participants will examine solutions for urban-rural development, observe technology and green industry integration, recognize the strategic importance of the Greater Bay Area, and appreciate Mainland China’s contributions to a shared future.

The Hong Kong Pei Hua Education Foundation (香港培華教育基金會), established in 1989, is a non-profit private organization formed after a visit to Beijing and Xian organized by the Hong Kong business community. Its primary objective is to assist in the training of competent personnel in Mainland China, guided by the motto “Nurture Ourselves, Nurture Others.” Currently, the Foundation consists of 42 voluntary Members, with Dr. Lee Shau Kee (李兆基博士) serving as the Chairman, and Dr. Ian Fok Chun Wan (霍震寰博士), Dr. Henry Cheng Kar Shun (鄭家純博士), and Dr. Peter Lee Ka Kit (李家傑博士) as the three current governors. Pei Hua has provided funding for, organized, or co-organized over 600 projects, primarily focused on short training programs.

The tour will be fully sponsored by the Hong Kong Pei Hua Education Foundation and will be free of charge. Single rooms will be arranged to provide participants with a space for quiet reflection throughout the tour. Please click HERE for the itinerary.

Applications are open to our members, including full members (Serving Principals) and associate members (Vice / Deputy / Assistant Principals) and you can enrol by clicking this link:

2. Staff Professional Development Services 2024-25

Riding on the success of the Staff Professional Development service last year, HKAHSS will continue to help conduct staff professional development programmes, seminars or workshops in your school. Our aim is to enhance teachers’ professionalism, which has always been one of our primary goals. This year, we will provide services covering various topics across six different areas, including:

(1) New Trends and Prospects in Education

(2) Learning & Teaching & Curriculum

(3) Students’ Growth and Nurture

(4) Teacher Professional Growth and Development

(5) School Self-Evaluation and External Review

(6) School Management Theory and Practice

For details, please refer to the attached flyer HERE.

3. ⁠Self-Regulated Learning (SRL)Festival 2024-25

As the implementation of Self-Regulated Learning by HKAHSS confidently strides into its 11th year, we are thrilled to announce the continuation of the SRL Festival in the upcoming academic year of 2024-25.

The “Open-class sessions” will be held in two phases, namely from November 2024 to January 2025, and from February to May 2025. The highlight will be our Joint-School Teachers’ Professional Development Day on Friday, 14 February 2025. We have invited Professor Cecilia Chan, Director, Teaching & Learning Innovation Centre (TaLIC), The University of Hong Kong, to be our keynote speaker on the day. The topic will be “Empowering Self-Regulated Learning in the AI Era”. For details, please click HERE.

We cordially invite you and your teachers to be an integral part of this learning journey with us and create a vibrant professional learning community together.

4. ⁠Professional Dinner with Dr. Lam Ching Choi

Our Executive Committee recently had a professional dinner with Dr Lam Ching-choi, who is the new Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Mental Health (ACMH) and the Chairman of the Council for Carbon Neutrality & Sustainable Development. During the dinner, the members of the Executive Committee engaged in fruitful discussions with Dr. Lam, and focused on how to effectively support students at risk. We exchanged views and shared insights on various interventions that have proven to be effective. One consensus reached was the importance of training students and teachers as “gatekeepers” and also eliciting more professional help from the community to provide comprehensive support to schools and their students, and Dr. Lam expressed the direction to use more research data to provide more focused support to people in need.

5. ⁠Annual Conference 2024(6/6) + Lessons Learned from COVID-19

The 2024 HKAHSS Annual Conference was held at Kit Sam Lam Bing Yim Secondary School on 6 June, 2024. The event was attended by over fifty school principals.

Our Chairman, Lin Chun Pong, was pleased to announce the publication of principals’ reflections on “Lessons Learnt from COVID-19”, which is a record to give an account of the educational journey that Hong Kong Schools have undergone during the three-year pandemic.

The keynote speaker of the Annual Conference, Mr. Wong Kam Sing, former Secretary for the Environment, delivered a talk titled “Go Green: Municipal Solid Waste Charging and Reflection on Green Living.” Mr. Wong emphasized the urgency of environmental protection, highlighted the updated targets of some Asian countries, and shared insights into the progress and room for improvement regarding local environmental protection efforts. He encouraged the school principals to nurture their students in practicing environmental protection.

In the session “Basic Law Article 23 Legislation: Useful Tips for the Principals’ Attention,” Mr. Paul Lam Ting Kwok, Secretary for Justice, discussed the foci and directions for schools when implementing national security education and teaching about Article 23. Mr. Lam underscored the importance of students understanding the rationale behind the Article and the definition of the law-forbidden acts, and suggested ways for teachers to help students comprehend these complex legal concepts.

The conference concluded with the hope that all attendees had gained valuable insights for shaping the future of education.

6. Here and Now –Food for Thought on Education: Our Suggestions on the Optimisation of Senior Secondary Chinese History and Economics

Recently, the EDB and the HKEAA issued various measures to optimize two elective subjects in the Senior Secondary curriculum, namely Chinese History and Economics. The HKAHSS expressed its views and concerns about the consultation process, implementation time, assessment arrangement, difficulties in school administration, and the overall curriculum optimization in our column “Here and Now – Food for Thought on Education.” For details, please click HERE.

On 2 July 2024, the same letter was sent to the EDB and the HKEAA, urging future changes to incorporate wider consultation, clear communication, and comprehensive optimization to ensure success.

7. Farewell to Outgoing Principals

The Executive Committee would like to express our deepest gratitude to all those who have dedicated many years of service to our schools and will be retiring or taking early retirement in September. As we bid you farewell with a tinge of reluctance, we earnestly appeal for your ongoing support by becoming life/affiliated members of our association.

To join as a Life/Affiliated Member, kindly complete the membership form available on our Association’s website: Link

Please return the filled-out form along with a cheque payable to us. Your support is sincerely appreciated as we continue our mission.

We thank you once again for your invaluable contributions and look forward to maintaining a lasting connection as esteemed members of our association.

May everyone have a restful summer vacation!

Chan Shin Kwan

Honorary Secretary