SENSE

(The following information is provided by the school.)

Background

Established in 1980 by the Hong Kong Sze Yap Commercial and Industrial Association, the school has been providing education for children with intellectual disability.  The school’s mission is to assist them in the development of their potential to the full so that they can learn a wide range of knowledge and life skills through school education, thereby developing the ability to take care of themselves and to integrate into the society when they grow up.  The school believes that cooperation between home and school is essential for the growth and learning of children.  Therefore, it is important to actively build up the relationship with parents for the well-being of children with intellectual disability. 

 

Highlights

In addition, the school is well-recognised in different aspects.  It has been recognised as “International Safe School”, “Eat Smart School” and one of the caring schools in the “Caring School Award Scheme” for the emphasis on providing an ideal environment for children to grow and learn.  Teachers have also been awarded “Chief Executive’s Award for Teaching Excellence” and “Excellent and Outstanding Teachers’ Award” for the schools’ teaching excellence.

“Music in the Classroom” is a teaching strategy created for students with special educational needs (SEN). It integrates music therapy elements into the teaching.  Simple and repetitive songs are created based on the teaching content and students' abilities, to enhance students' concentration and memory of knowledge and skills in the classroom. “Music in the Classroom” was originally designed for students with moderate intellectual disabilities and autism spectrum disorder (ASD).  The songs are highly repetitive, with phrases that allow students with ASD to grasp the key learning points. It is important that the lyrics match with the tone of the Cantonese language, while the speed of the songs can be adjusted.  With the cartoon animation or real setting filming, and visual modeling elements, the song videos can enhance students’ learning motivation.  The target audience of “Music in the Classroom” is extended from students with ASD in special schools to primary school and kindergarten students with SEN.

“Music in the Classroom” combined the elements of music therapy and video modelling.  The program was jointly developed by teachers, occupational therapists, speech therapists and music therapists from the HKSYC&IA Chan Nam Cheong Memorial School.

The school’s non-Chinese speaking students (NCS) teaching team is another major focus.  The school has developed a school-based curriculum with reference to the Education Bureau's Learning Adaptation Framework.  Since there is a lack of Chinese learning materials for NCS students in special schools, the school has been working as a team to develop multi-sensory learning resources for them through cross-disciplinary collaboration, such as speech therapy, music therapy and visual arts.  Five sets of teaching materials have been developed, such as "Fun in Language" and "Reading and Writing EASY".

The school also emphasises the development of an inclusive campus.  It adopts different learning and teaching strategies, organise parent seminars and parent-child activities, and shares the experience with other schools.  All the school’s efforts have been recognized by the education sector.