NET Scheme News 2023 Spring issue 43

11 NET Scheme News Issue 43 eventually turned into an English Day. Designing activities for that occasion became a brilliant extension of our values education. Throughout the week embedding the English Day, our students, parents and teachers wrote their messages of hope on the leaves of a huge Tree of Hope provided by the EDB.All our students were also tasked with making their own mini trees. P1 and P2 students watched a video and explored the meanings and uses of the English Sayings of Wisdom (SOW). After watching short animations about hope, our KS1 and KS2 students worked in groups to memorise as many words and sayings of wisdom as they could. As the word/saying cards were displayed away from their tables, they had to take turns to run to them, memorise one and then report it back to their group so they could jot it down on their group’s whiteboard. In addition, P3 and P4 students focused on mindful colouring, while P5 and P6 students coloured pieces of a rainbow, which they then put together to create a large collaborative piece of art. P5 and P6 students also played SOW board games in small teams. The Power of Hope Weaving the FUNtastic Reading Scheme into our weekly English co-curricular activities allowed us to promote family literacy and foster positive values in an attractive, child-friendly way. Both children and their carers are now very familiar with important values and exciting children’s literature. The provision of relevant teaching experiences does not require any additional effort from the educators and values education is well-established in our students’ daily lives. After all, every single text is meant to teach us a lesson, often related to important values – why not use them to our advantage? Karolina Tomaszek, NET, Canossa Primary School (San Po Kong)