Back home

So we returned about 7.30 am Saturday morning, all exhausted, swollen feet and a bit bloated from all the indulgence in Chinese food! However back to normal after a good sleep and some fruit and veg… Johnny in the Chinese restaurant next to my flat asked me if I thought the food in Hong Kong or his was better when he spied me in the street, I avoided that question! So over the next few days write ups/notes/photos of the various visits we made will appear here and then hopefully our reports over the next few weeks. Lots to tell. Its been a fantastic opportunity for reflection over the past week and in many ways also a reaffirming experience for our values and beliefs that we show in our daily work here at home. We’ve learned a lot about ourselves, Hong Kong and how things are done there, reflected on how we go about things in Scotland and its been one of those life changing experiences which will start to impact on us as we think and reflect over the next few weeks. We also learned how well students learn English in Hong Kong. On the last day I was talking to one if the hotel porters who said his English needed work. It seemed pretty good to me, so asking what the problem was he said “I need to work on my joining words and prepositions.” Prepositions? I speak English all the time and I’m less articulate then he was in my native tongue…
Nice link here to TCPD. Thanks for that Con

Arrived

So after a long flight we arrived yesterday. We arrived about four in the afternoon Hong Kong time. A little sleepy and worse for the wear but here nonetheless! Yesterday evening time for a bite to eat and now better rested we have a busy day ahead. We will be met this morning by Terry Chau from the British Council and will meet Ruth Gee the Director of the British Council Hong Kong for orientation and greeting. In the afternoon we will be going to the Education Bureau to be briefed on the Hong Kong education system and curriculum development. As in Scotland Hong Kong is at the moment in the midst of major educational reform. Interestingly one of my favourite writers Michael Fullan is seen here also as a leader in thinking and assistance in leading change within education.
We will be meeting with Mr K C Tam the principal education officer and other attendees include MrS Chan Siu Suk-Fan the external liason senior education officer and Ms Sarah Ngai K C chief curriculum development officer for Kindergarten and Primary. We will later have a briefing in teacher development by Ms Y S Chan chief professional development officer and will meet with Mr Cheung Pak Hong chairman of ACTEQ and Principal of Munsang College. After that we will be attending an evening event at the British Council with a reception by Scholarship for Excellence.
During our meal yesterday we met a lovely family who were celebrating an eighteenth birthday. What a small world…. the lady had previously worked with some of those we are meeting with today. What struck us all was how engaging and keen to speak with us the young man was. CfE principles in action!
During our meal we seemed to be there for some time, nearing the end of the marathon we thought after about 15 courses it was finished and asked for the bill – only to discover there four more “small” courses to go – noodles, crispy duck, buns, cake and finally a whole water melon each – luckily that was a slight misinterpretation – a whole slice just….Some of us walked back to walk off the meal, others on their last legs from flight opted for the taxi option. After a good night’s sleep , bright eyed and bushy tailed for today!

Hong Kong Education reforms

Briefing on HK education and reform[1]
The link above contains a briefing on current Hong Kong Education reforms and systems

Programme

So we’re all busy packing and preparing for our trip to Hong Kong on Saturday 16th May. Our programme includes the following:
Mon – briefing by British Council and visit EDB
Tue – visit kindergarten school and HK Institute of Education
Wed – visit Secondary School (in Tai Po, New Territories)
Thu – visit primary school and Chinese University of Hong Kong
Fri – briefing and round table meeting with EDB
Sounds like a busy week, which will be very informative. We’ll meet each evening to debrief and update this blog.

SCIPD Hong Kong Visit

A Scottish delegation will be going on a SCIPD (Scottish Continuing International Professional Development) study visit from 16th May for a week to Hong Kong. Information on SCIPD can be found here. We will be writing this blog when out there refelcting on our visit.  The group visiting Hong Kong met with Nick Morgan and Joanne McLauchlin last week to discuss the details of the visit. So why Hong Kong? From results of recent studies Scotland could be doing better at some things.  The aim  is to learn from other countries who feature  higher in these studies eg PISA/TMMS. While out there we’ll be visiting a range of establishments from early years to secondary with a particular eye on teacher development and partnership working. The delegation going have a range of experience across authorities in Scotland and are all senior education officers within local authorities, so not only will we be learning from our hosts but we will be able to share our experiences and expertise with each other too. About a month after our  return we will meet again to share experiences after having  time to reflect.  At that point we’ll agree responsibilities for presenting our experiences in key themes to a larger group of SCIPD delegates in October. We’ll also meet with other  study visit groups around October and make formal presentations to others about what we have learned and how it has impacted on our/others practice.After about 9 months we’ll produce detailed reports for the LTS website. So the trip is a long term commitment for all of us to our personal CPD and also with an expectation that we will carry forward work on our return to impact in our own areas.