SENSE

(The following information is provided by the school.)

Background

Ebenezer New Hope School was established in 1978 and under the Ebenezer School and Home for the Visually Impaired, providing education, rehabilitation and boarding services for students with visual impairment (VI) cum intellectual disabilities (ID).  Staff have substantial experience with VI and ID education.  Together with VI training facilities and resources, the school provides specialised trainings according to the needs of students with VI and multiple disabilities, including low vision training, orientation & mobility training, braille training, speech therapy, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, conductive education, multi-sensory training and integrated sensory training.

The school emphasises on transdisciplinary collaboration.  Different professional staff work together for the benefits of the students.  Also, the school has been actively seeking community resources, with the support of the school sponsoring body, thereupon successfully applied for different funds to support students, graduates and their families in different aspects and to establish service networks.

With Christian faith and love, the school aims to provide comprehensive educational and rehabilitation services for the visually impaired cum intellectually disabled students to foster their conduct, to improve their cognitive areas and self-care abilities so that they can overcome their impairment and develop their potential.
 

Highlights

To enhance the learning of visually impaired cum intellectually and physically disabled students with music

Students of the school rely on their senses of hearing and touch in understanding the world, learning, and communicating with others.  Music acts as a way to communicate and increase their learning motivation, thus enhances the efficacy of daily learning and training.  Apart from strengthening the students in learning, music also creates a safe and friendly learning environment for them.

The school has been actively developing music education and the use of music in the whole school.  Apart from music lessons, music has always been one of the major learning strategies in routine trainings and learning in other subjects.  In daily routines, teachers use Hello song and Goodbye song to mark the beginning and end of lessons, and include tooth brushing song, hand washing song in self-care trainings according to the needs of students.  Music teachers have been continually improving the music curriculum and have included the generic skills and values accordingly to increase life relevance.  IT tools and assistive learning tools developed with the occupational therapists are used to enhance self-directed learning and performing abilities.  In other subjects, teachers incorporate daily life experiences and task procedures in different songs for them to learn and practice.  Apart from learning the subject contents, students are encouraged to express themselves and to interact with peers through music.  For leisure activities, students can choose according to their preferences and participate in inter-class music activities, to learn together and share their interests, including singing, melodica, music games and music competitions.

In recent years, the school has been striving for extra resources to support the music learning and music career development of students and people with visually impairment.  With the support from Quality Education Fund, the School-based Music Therapy Project aims to provide music therapy service to students of different levels and to allow subject teachers to conduct co-teaching lessons with the music therapist to establish learning resources with the use of music.  In addition, with the support of Arts Development Fund for Persons with Disabilities, students and graduates from Ebenezer can develop their music talents sustainably.  3 students and 2 graduates of the school are participating in the instrumental trainings.  Lastly, with the generous support of Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, Ebenezer will establish a systematic framework for progression in musical learning for visually impaired students, and to create a database for music braille scores and online resources.  The school would like to fully support the music learning needs of visually impaired students, so that they can learn effectively and develop in different directions.