What's New

SOW Year Planner 2024
A year’s harvest counts on spring; a man’s success hinges on his diligence." With a new year around the corner, it is high time for students to set goals and make plans for the coming year. The EDB has designed the SOW Year Planner 2024, which guides students to set goals and plan ahead to achieve them. The year planner showcases 14 outstanding and commendable entries of the Poetry Remake Competition (2022/23), an activity under the SOW Campaign to promote poetry appreciation and artistic creation with the use of English poetry by Hong Kong-based poets. The SOW Year Planner 2024 also features six activity sheets on the theme of the SOW Campaign in the 2023/24 school year – “In Love We Share, In Love We Grow”, encouraging students to put the six kinds of love into practice in their daily lives.

Learning and Teaching Resources on Writing a Letter to Express Love and Gratitude for the “SOW in Love” Letter Writing Competition

This set of materials for primary students comprises two learning tasks based on a reading text and a multimodal text respectively. Learning activities and teaching steps are provided to guide students to explore the positive values and attitudes embedded in the texts, write a letter to express their love and gratitude to someone or something with a SOW of their choice and create a piece of two-dimensional (2D) artwork by themselves. Teachers are encouraged to make effective use of the learning and teaching materials to develop students’ language skills, promote values education and prepare students for participating in the “SOW in Love” Letter Writing Competition.

Learning and Teaching Resources on Writing a Letter to Express Love and Gratitude for the “SOW in Love” Letter Writing Competition

This set of materials for secondary students comprises a set of presentation slides and worksheets, which guide students to write a letter to express their love and gratitude to someone or something dear to the heart. Examples are provided to help students generate ideas through connecting their reading/viewing or personal experiences with a SOW of their own choice and a piece of two-dimensional (2D) artwork created by themselves. Tips are also provided on ways to polish the language and enhance the emotional appeal of the letter. Teachers are encouraged to make effective use of the learning and teaching materials to develop students’ language skills, promote values education and prepare students for participating in the “SOW in Love” Letter Writing Competition.

A Collection of English Learning Activities for the Promotion of Values Education: Examples from the School-based Activity “Week of Positivity”

The web page A Collection of English Learning Activities for the Promotion of Values Education: Examples from the School-based Activity “Week of Positivity” showcases a collection of school practices in planning and implementing the “Week of Positivity”, a signature school-based activity under the 2022/23 SOW Campaign. Schools can make reference to the school examples and adapt the variety of learning activities to strengthen the promotion of values education in the school English Language curriculum and enrich students’ English learning experiences. Based on the examples and the resources available, schools are encouraged to organise their school-based “Week of Love and Growth” under the 2023/24 SOW Campaign.

Award Presentation Ceremony for the SOW Campaign 2022/23

The Award Presentation Ceremony for the SOW Campaign 2022/23 was successfully held on 7 October, 2023 (Sat) to acknowledge and celebrate the achievements of schools and students in various SOW territory-wide competitions/student activities organised by the English Language Education Section and the Native-speaking English Teacher (NET) Section in the 2022/23 school year. More than 300 students, teachers, principals and guests of honour were invited to the ceremony officiated by Dr Gloria CHAN, Principal Assistant Secretary (Curriculum Development). Our heartfelt gratitude to schools’ support and effort in featuring a variety of learning activities to promote values education in the school English Language curriculum.

SOW Campaign 2023/24: “SOW in Love” Letter Writing Competition

The “SOW in Love” Letter Writing Competition is organised to enhance students’ language skills and multimodal literacy, nurture their creativity and foster their positive values and attitudes. Students are invited to write a letter to express their love and gratitude towards an entity with a SOW of their choice and create a piece of two-dimensional (2D) artwork to enhance conveyance of meaning and visual representation of the letter. To engage more students in the Competition, schools are encouraged to organise a preliminary competition within the school to shortlist outstanding student works across different year levels for the Competition. In support of the Competition, learning and teaching resources at primary and secondary levels will be disseminated in due course.
Entry Submission Deadline: 6:00 p.m., 8 March 2024 (Friday)

SOW Campaign 2023/24: School-based Activity “Week of Love and Growth”
The Week of Love and Growth, which is to be held within the period of 19 February – 12 July 2024, is a cross-curricular English week in which schools organise school-based activities that echo the overarching theme and the six sub-themes of the SOW Campaign 2023/24 to create a learning environment conducive to English learning and the promotion of values education through cross-curricular collaboration. In support of the activity week, a variety of resource materials will be disseminated in due course. Experience sharing sessions will be organised to provide schools with insights into the planning and implementation of the activity week in different school contexts. School-based support for organising the activity week may also be provided by the NET Section upon request.
Registration Deadline: 6:00 p.m., 12 January 2024 (Friday)

Campaign on "Promoting Positive Values and Attitudes through English Sayings of Wisdom 2023/24"
SOW Campaign 2023/24 will continue to feature a variety of student activities and learning and teaching resources to sustain the momentum and growing impacts of building a positive school culture through cross-curricular collaboration. The overarching theme of the campaign this year is “In Love We Share, In Love We Grow”. Together with six sub-themes, namely “Love Our Country”, “Love the Community”, “Love Our Family and Friends”, “Love Myself”, “Love Learning” and “Love Nature”, the campaign this year aims to engage students in exploring the various manifestations of love across different dimensions. Schools are encouraged to develop in students a sense of pride and appreciation for our country, enlighten them about the importance of self-acceptance and self-improvement as well as encourage them to put positive values into action in daily life through caring for and respecting the people and things around them.

Creative Writing for Upper Primary Students -
Writing about a New Festival that Promotes Positive Values and Attitudes
The creative writing activity aims to provide opportunities for students to leverage the e-book to connect their reading and writing experiences and facilitate their self-directed learning. To participate in the activity, students should create a new festival that promotes positive values and attitudes and write about it in 120 – 150 words. .

Poetry Remake Competition 2023/24
First launched in the 2020/21 school year, the Poetry Remake Competition is a cross-curricular activity that connects poetry appreciation and art creation. The Competition has attracted a rising number of entries over the years and 2023/24 marks the fourth run of the event. As part of the SOW Campaign 2023/24, which aims to promote positive values and attitudes, the Poetry Remake Competition is organised in this school year to promote reading and artistic creation with the use of inspiring English poetry written by Hong Kong-based poets.
Submission Period: 7 to 8 March 2024

“We Write ‧ We Sing” Music Competition
The Competition is open to primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong. It aims to engage students in writing lyrics and performing songs that promote positive values and attitudes, with the use of melodies newly composed by the Hong Kong song-writer Mr NG Lok-shing, Ronald.

e-Book Traditional Chinese Festivals
This e-book aims to facilitate students in learning English at the primary level, provide resources to enrich their cross-curricular reading experiences, cultivate a sense of national identity in them, and foster their development of proper values and attitudes. It features four traditional Chinese festivals, namely Chinese New Year, the Ching Ming Festival, the Dragon Boat Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival, and includes a writing task. Besides, the interactive features of the e-book can facilitate students’ self-directed learning.

Poetry Remake Competition 2022/23
Announcement of Results

New

The Poetry Remake Competition is a cross-curricular activity jointly organised by the English Language Education Section and Arts Education Section of the Curriculum Development Institute. It aims to enhance students' awareness of and interest in English poetry by poets in Hong Kong, encourage artistic and creative expression and provide opportunities for cross-curricular collaboration in the promotion of reading. The competition integrates literary appreciation and art creation. Students create a two-dimensional artwork in response to one of the selected poems, and then write an artist statement in English to explain the ideas in their work.
Submission Period: 20 to 21 April 2023

SOW Motivational Talk Contest
Announcement of Results (Primary Level) (Secondary Level)

New

The SOW Motivational Talk Contest is organised to enhance students’ language and multimodal literacy skills, develop their interest in reading and viewing, nurture their creativity and foster their positive values and attitudes. Students are invited to create a short video to share their reading or viewing experience by connecting their reflections on a text of their own choice with a SOW that echoes the theme and/or the sub-themes of the SOW Campaign 2022/23. [Updates]

Learning and Teaching Resources

Entry Submission Form /Transcript Template
By 6:00 pm, 19 May 2023 (Friday) [Updated]

A Guide on Self-directed Learning for Secondary Students
Self-directed learning is important for nurturing students into lifelong English learners. This leaflet aims to illustrate key concepts of self-directed learning and offer some useful tips on how various English learning resources can be carefully selected and effectively used to facilitate self-directed English learning.

SOW Activity Sheet "PLAY, LEARN, THINK in SOWonderland: Fun Activities for Fuelling Positivity"
This activity sheet aims to nurture students' positive values and attitudes and to hone their language skills (e.g. speaking, writing) through fun and engaging activities. It provides opportunities for students to explore and reflect on the featured themes (i.e. "Leading a Positive Life", "Diligence", "Empathy", "Respect for Diversity" and "Cherishing Life") and selected sayings of wisdom under the SOW Campaign 2022/23, and use English to discuss and share their views on topics related to positive values and attitudes in meaningful contexts.

Learning and Teaching Resources Related to Cultivating Students’ Concern for Cleanliness
To cultivate students’ concern for cleanliness, and enhance their awareness and habit of keeping the environment clean, three sets of learning and teaching resources, including video clips and presentation slides, have been developed to support schools in developing students’ good civic awareness for building a clean campus and community:

Implementing National Security Education in the Secondary English Language Curriculum
The resource materials on Implementing National Security Education in the Secondary English Language Curriculum aim to illustrate how elements of National Security Education (NSE) can be integrated organically into and connected naturally with the learning components of the English Language curriculum. The resource materials comprise four learning units based on a range of selected reading/multimodal texts featuring different topics and major domains of national security. Suggestions for cross-curricular and life-wide learning activities are also provided to extend students’ English learning beyond the classroom and help them connect learning experiences across the curriculum.

Online Self-learning Platform on the Academic Use of English
The e-Learning Platform on Academic Use of English aims to heighten senior secondary students’ awareness of the academic use of English and facilitate their self-directed learning through interactive activities with explanatory notes and answer-checking function. The platform comprises six chapters on the common features of academic texts and language skills for reading and writing academic texts. Each chapter comes with brief notes and learning activities, which guide students to explore key concepts of academic use of English. In addition to the e-learning platform, a printable version of the materials and a collection of six posters featuring keys concepts of academic use of English are also also available for download and adaptation.

Learning and Teaching Resources on Law-abiding Education
To support schools in promoting values education (including law-abiding education), three sets of learning and teaching resources, including video clips and presentation slides, have been developed to support schools in integrating values education into the school English Language curriculum at primary/secondary level:

Schools are advised to adapt the resources with reference to the students’ needs and abilities and cultivate in them an awareness of law-abidingness and understanding of the rule of law to enable them to fulfil their civic responsibilities.

A Treasury of Literary Classics – Chinese Fables and Tales Series (2)
Chinese Fables and Tales Series (2) aims to help students develop reading skills and reflect on the moral lessons embedded in the ten inspirational Chinese fables and tales written in English. An extension activity for each story is included to encourage students to watch a relevant short video and share their thoughts and feelings. Through reading the stories and watching the videos, students can enhance their understanding and appreciation of the essence of Chinese traditions and culture as well as the latest development and achievements of China, thereby cultivating a sense of national identity in them and fostering their development of positive and proper values and attitudes. To facilitate students’ self-directed learning, an e-version with interactive features such as answer-checking functions and prompts is provided. In addition, the Chinese Fables and Tales Series (1), which was disseminated earlier, has been enriched with the inclusion of an extension activity for each story.

SOW Treasure Chest
The SOW Treasure Chest aims to provide suggested ideas and resource materials for schools to enrich their school English Language curriculum and promote the learning and teaching of SOW. The box of resource materials, each containing a SOW Aeroplane Chess Board Game and Activity Cards, SOW Speaking Cubes and SOW Acrostic Poem Templates, may be adopted in class and other English learning activities (inlcuding the school-based activity “Week of Positivity”) or placed in the English corner for students’ self-learning and enjoyment.

Posters on “Leading a Positive Life”
A collection of four posters has been designed to present selected sayings of wisdom echoing the overarching theme of “Leading a Positive Life” and the four sub-themes “Cherishing Life”, “Diligence”, “Empathy” and “Respect for Diversity” of the SOW Campaign 2022/23. Each poster highlights three selected sayings to inspire students to gain a better understanding of and reflect on the featured themes.

A Compendium of Week of Hope
As a supplement to the web page “A Collection of English Learning Activities through English Sayings of Wisdom: Examples from the School-based Activity “Week of Hope", this e-booklet provides further examples of learning activities for primary/secondary schools to enrich and diversify their learning activities for enhancing English learning and nurturing positive values and attitudes in students. Schools participating in the “Week of Positivity” under the SOW Campaign 2022/23 are encouraged to make reference to the compendium to plan and design their school-based English week.

Fact Sheet on “Understanding the Functions of Assignments, Dictation and Assessment”

The Pamphlet on “Parents’ Tips on Effective English Language Learning through Assignments, Dictation and Assessment” and Fact Sheet on “Understanding the Functions of Assignments, Dictation and Assessment” are developed to help parents understand how to support their children at the primary level to learn English effectively. Through clarifying myths about assignments, dictation and assessment, the pamphlet illustrates how parents can play their role more fully in their children’s learning and how they can help their children learn English well through these three aspects and cultivate in their children ways to develop positive attitudes and habits of active learning, thereby enhancing their children’s self-directed learning capabilities. The fact sheet provides an overview of the functions of assignments, dictation and assessment for students, teachers and parents, so that parents can better support and guide their children.

A Collection of English Learning Activities for the Promotion of Values Education: Examples from the School-based Activity “Week of Hope”
The webpage showcases a collection of school practices in planning and implementing the “Week of Hope”, a signature school-based activity under the 2021/22 SOW Campaign. Schools can make reference to and adapt the variety of multimodal resources and learning activities on the webpage to strengthen the promotion of values education in the school English Language curriculum and enrich students’ English learning experiences. Based on the examples and the resources available, schools are encouraged to organise their school-based “Week of Positivity” under the 2022/23 SOW Campaign.

Highlights of the Award Presentation Ceremony for the SOW Campaign 2021/22
A web page capturing the highlights of the Award Presentation Ceremony for the SOW Campaign 2021/22 held on 10 December 2022 (Saturday) has been developed to acknowledge and celebrate the achievements of schools and students in various SOW territory-wide competitions/student activities. Schools can refer to the video clips and winning entries of different SOW competitions on the web page when planning and implementing learning activities for the promotion of values education in the school English Language curriculum.

SOW Year Planner
2022 is drawing to a close soon. With a new year around the corner, the Chinese saying “A year’s harvest counts on spring; a man’s success hinges on his diligence” reminds us that it is high time for students to set goals and make plans for their learning and life. The EDB has developed the SOW Year Planner 2023, which showcases 12 winning entries from the SOW Creativity Contest: A Moment in Time, to support schools in promoting positive values and attitudes through inspirational sayings, and guiding students to plan ahead for the future, set goals and strive to achieve them with persistence.

Implementing National Security Education in the Junior Secondary English Language Curriculum (Cover)

Implementing National Security Education in the Junior Secondary English Language Curriculum
In support of the promotion of national education and national security education in the junior secondary English Language classroom, three sets of presentation slides are developed to provide suggested learning and teaching materials and activities for exploring different major fields of national security such as cultural security, science and technology security and outer space security in the English lessons. Schools are encouraged to make use of the resource materials to enrich students’ English learning experience and enhance their understanding of our country and national security.

Resource Kit on the Creative Use of English: A Collection of Six Posters and Activity Sheets
This resource kit aims to support schools in incorporating elements of the creative use of English into the English Language curriculum. It includes a collection of six posters to present six key topics on the creative use of English in a lucid and graphical manner for easy understanding. A total of six activity sheets are designed to facilitate and complement the use of the posters by providing opportunities for students to apply the writing skills and techniques featured in the posters.