"Bilingualism and Fourlingualism" build the foundation, programming empowers and cultivates new talents
Tai Po Old Market Public SchoolAdheres to the unique "biliteracy and four language" teaching policy and lists programming language as the fourth language. Principal Liu Shau Kee believes: "Programming is not just a technology, it is a basic ability in the era of artificial intelligence, and it is also a key technology for realizing innovation and creation in the future world." Through curriculum innovation, full-context activities, interdisciplinary learning, overseas exchanges and multi-potential training, the school steadily improves students' language skills, and uses Chinese culture as the main axis to cultivate a new generation of young people with an international perspective, ideals and responsibilities.
"Bilingualism and Fourlingualism" builds the foundation, equips the future and cultivates new talents
While implementing "biliteracy and four languages", the school also attaches great importance to cultivating students' basic abilities in Chinese and English. This year, it has launched a number of new measures to create an immersive, full-context learning atmosphere. The school designated Monday as Mandarin Day, and Chinese language teachers interacted with students in Mandarin during morning meetings and recess periods; Thursday was designated as English Day, with morning meetings conducted in English, and various English interactive activities arranged during recess. Four foreign teachers communicated with students to strengthen their English listening and speaking skills.
In addition, reading is an important cornerstone for consolidating language skills. The school invested approximately NT$200,000 in purchasing "Reading Ladder" books and implemented the "Take Home and Read Programme" in junior primary schools. In terms of book selection, the main directions are Chinese character parts, English Pinyin (Phonics-based), Chinese culture and moral education, aiming to enrich students' literacy, cultivate their sense of language, and stimulate their interest in reading. Students read one Chinese and English book each week during the morning reading period, and new books are replaced every week. The school will pair appropriate reading materials according to students’ level to help students accumulate reading amount step by step and steadily improve their reading ability.
In addition, the school plans to carry out a large-scale renovation project of the central library in 2026 to optimize the reading environment and further cultivate the reading culture on campus.
Integrating programming and artificial intelligence to become a digital center of excellence in academia
As the artificial intelligence wave sweeps the world, the deep integration of programming education and AI has become the core driving force for future innovation and technology education. The school forward-lookingly proposed the concept of "biliteracy and four languages" and positioned programming as the "fourth language" that connects the digital world. Students not only learn the use of various AI tools, but also gain a deeper understanding of algorithm logic and model operation principles, achieving a qualitative change from "AI users" to "AI creators", and then conceiving and developing smart products that meet social needs.
Principal Liu said: "The school has integrated programming and artificial intelligence education into the school-based curriculum for grades one to six as early as 2020. After years of deepening, the school's artificial intelligence development has become quite mature and complete. Through close collaboration with many top universities and industries, we continue to introduce cutting-edge innovative thinking and AI development content to ensure that every student can receive systematic innovation and technology training. After graduates enter middle school, their programming logic and AI application abilities are significantly better than students of the same age."
With its comprehensive curriculum and student training results, the school now has a leading position in innovation, technology and artificial intelligence. In the future, the school will continue to play its leading role as a center of excellence in digital education, actively share its school-based AI teaching experience with the academic community, promote cross-school curriculum exchanges and teacher training, and work together to lead the high-quality development of artificial intelligence education in Hong Kong.
Interdisciplinary integration practice, making full use of four-language diversified learning
In order to help students master the four languages, the school has designed a number of large-scale interdisciplinary activities. For example, at the annual "Spring Dream Market", students can choose Cantonese, Mandarin or English as the communication language at the stalls, and apply communication skills in various languages in the process of simulating running a small business. The sixth grade students will conduct special research on 17 social issues, and the results of the research will be exhibited and shared in the market. Students are free to choose the appropriate language to report, speaking English for international issues, and Cantonese and Mandarin for local and national issues, using their language skills flexibly.
The large-scale interdisciplinary activity "Tongli Dreams Flying" will also be held next semester. Students can use different languages such as Cantonese, Mandarin, and English to promote innovative and technological products. The underlying technology of the products is the use of fourth language programming language to organically combine the four languages. At the same time, the school actively organizes students to participate in various innovation and technology competitions. For example, last year it led students to Geneva to participate in the Innovation and Technology Invention Exhibition. They gave live demonstrations in English to experts and scholars from various countries, and used programming technology to demonstrate the products they invented. This practical experience fully reflects the complementarity of language communication and innovation and technology technology.
Participate in various international competitions to improve cross-cultural communication skills
During the summer vacation, the school organized students to go to Beijing to participate in the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) Robot Science and Technology Innovation Competition. Students were required to use Mandarin to communicate with contestants from various places; they also went to Wuxi and Beijing to participate in various science and innovation and technology competitions. In terms of overseas competitions, students went to the United States to participate in the "2026 ROBOFEST International Robot Competition" and won a number of international awards. Through competitions and exchanges, you can get in touch with cultures around the world, conduct in-depth practical exchanges, and broaden your horizons. The school also continues to adjust course content, striving to align with international education standards and help students improve their international competitiveness.
Penetrate value education and cultivate digital literacy
The school attaches great importance to cultivating students' digital literacy and positive values, and guides students to use AI tools appropriately and correctly. For example, in the innovation and technology classroom, teachers will lead students to understand the spirit of originality and cultivate the awareness of respecting the intellectual property rights of others. Principal Liu emphasized that compared with simply holding lectures, values education through personal experience and hands-on activities will be more effective. From the beginning of activity design, the school focuses on cultivating students' critical thinking and integrates values education throughout the entire learning process to avoid the disconnect between theoretical knowledge and practice.
Carry forward Chinese culture and broaden international horizons
Chinese culture is the main focus of the school in cultivating students' values. Principal Liu shared: "The school will build a Chinese pavilion as a learning venue for humanities, Chinese subjects, Mandarin, and national security education courses. At the same time, it will actively promote interdisciplinary teaching based on historical and cultural themes. For example, Chinese subjects will understand literary works through stories of historical figures; mathematics and technology subjects will introduce the history of technological development; in addition to exploring world issues, the innovation and technology courses will also connect with the latest national developments and think about how innovation and technology products respond to national needs."
The Global Citizenship Course has planned a variety of activities: first- and second-grade students take forest courses, go into nature, and experience life skills that are rarely touched in daily life, such as making fires and fishing; more than 120 students from all third-grade grades went to sister schools in Shenzhen for exchanges and visited the Shenzhen Science and Technology Museum; students from fourth to sixth grade went to Beijing, Hangzhou, Shanghai, and Guangzhou for exchanges. After returning to school, students shared their travel stories and cultural experiences with each other, and learned about the country’s development from multiple perspectives. The fifth-grade students also combined the "Treasure China" project of the Foreign English Section of the Education Bureau to make creative lapbooks and presentations based on the experiences and reflections gained from the exchange, and flexibly used the capabilities and creativity of information technology to demonstrate their learning results.
In addition, the school actively organizes overseas exchanges. For example, students can participate in Australian homestay experience and experience local life firsthand; they also participate in Korean art exchange groups to visit South Korea, where they follow local artists to create visual arts and visit art exhibitions. In terms of sports, the school's swimming team and basketball team go to advanced sports venues in the mainland to train and compete with local students. In terms of music, the Chinese Orchestra went to Japan to participate in the International Chinese Music Competition, where they watched performances by musicians from all over the world and broadened their artistic horizons. After all exchange activities, students will hold a results display to share their learning gains.
Inspire potential development and educate talents together at home and school
The school has about 110 groups of extracurricular activities covering the eight major intelligences, including speech and debate, mathematical logic, sports, orchestra performances, etc. There are also technological projection mapping projects combined with artificial intelligence. It is worth mentioning that the school held a large-scale projection mapping festival on September 21, with projection mapping on campus to showcase the fruitful results of students' visual arts learning.
The school positions extracurricular activities as "potential-enhancing courses" and encourages students to start from their interests, hone their interests into skills through training, and then further develop them into personal expertise. They can then participate in school, Hong Kong and international competitions, accumulate valuable experience, and gradually establish their life development direction.
Principal Liu said frankly: "The growth and development of students cannot be separated from the support of parents and the correct way of nurturing. The process of transforming interests into professional skills will inevitably encounter setbacks; and the experience of facing difficulties is an important process to hone students' character and character. As the image of the 'tripod' on the school emblem implies, students, teachers and parents are like the three legs of a tripod, united and working together to help students grow in a comprehensive and healthy way."