Thursday

Another really interesting day. Visited a primary in new territories. A school which serves the neighbourhood with a mixed catchment which has high attainment. The school is embracing new teaching methods and is vibrant, bright and a joy to visit. We started there listening to the huge school orchestra (some of the members wee feet didn’t reach the ground when in their seats) and it was just magical. In the afternoon we meet with some reps from a University talking about teacher education and how they are working alongside establishments to challenge and support them. And as we’ve found all week – we talk the same educational language – active learning, collaborative working, distributed leadership – we could go on. In the evening another quick turn around and despite averaging about 4 hours sleep a night here we set off to jump on a ferry and watch the evening light show on the ferry.
Off now to the education bureau present some of the good practice we idientified from our own authorities back home and then for a sharing/question/answer session.

Wednesday

Lots to add here when we get home and have time to write up what we are seeing. Yesterday was fascinating – early years, primary and then time with a professor who works with student teachers. Today we go to a neighbourhood secondary which our hosts tell us will be a completely different experience. Yesterday we were seeing innovative/cutting edge schools within the Hong Kong system which were relatively newly opened – about 7 years. They were based in the new territories. There are various questions we are starting to get from comments etc here, which we’ll answer on return when we’ve had time to reflect and digest. we’re just at the moment trying to understand/make sense of what we are seeing. Yesterday we had a really interesting talk about variation from the lecturer at the college – again there wa a huge amount of information which it will take us some time to digest.
Speaking of digestion – another wonderful meal last night – we hosted a small dinner for those we are working with and it was great getting the time to sit and talk in depth about life here. Anyway the bus is waiting for me – we’d write more but the computer here in hotel is available during working hours so we can only really update this before we nip off at 8.30am and then by evening its closed.