The Jockey Club SMILE Project  Closing Ceremony cum Outcome Sharing Seminar

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More than 480 principals, teachers, parents, pre-service teachers and those  concerned about inclusive education gathered at The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK) Tai Po campus today (3 December) to attend the Jockey Club SMILE Project – Closing Ceremony cum Outcome Sharing Seminar: Strategies for Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Students with Intellectual Disabilities.

The Jockey Club SMILE project, completed in August 2016, received a donation of over HK$10 million from The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust. The three-year project was undertaken by the Department of Special Education and Counselling (SEC) and Centre for Special Educational Needs and Inclusive Education (CSENIE) at EdUHK, aiming to strengthen frontline teachers’ understanding of and handling techniques for students with special educational needs, especially those with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and intellectual disabilities. The project benefited 145 schools, including 5,100 SEN students, 7,400 teachers and 2,300 parents.  Based on the feedback and evaluation results from the participating schools, over 93% rated the support services positively.

Officiating at the ceremony were Ms Winnie Ying, Executive Manager, Charities (Grant Making – Youth, Education & Training, Poverty) of The Hong Kong Jockey Club; Professor Lui Tai-lok, Vice President (Research and Development) of EdUHK; and Professor Kenneth Sin Kuen-fung, Director of CSENIE. Addressing the ceremony, Professor Lui said that “EdUHK is committed to transferring knowledge to the community and participating in community work. The outcome sharing seminar today is a very good platform for school teachers to share their practical experiences gained from the project with the seminar attendants”.

Ms Ying said that “the Club is highly concerned about students with special educational needs”. She went on to explain that “under the Jockey Club SMILE Project, school-based support services were provided for both primary and secondary schools to adopt the whole school approach to integrated education and give students comprehensive help with their different learning needs, and the results have been very satisfactory”.

Dr Ho Fuk-chuen, visiting Assistant Professor, and Dr Rosa Chiu Ching Tak-lan, Guest Lecturer at EdUHK, were also invited to share the results of the Survey in Supporting Students with Intellectual Disabilities in Ordinary Schools and give advice and strategic guidance on these students' learning. Teacher representatives from the Fortress Hill Methodist Secondary School then discussed "Enhancing the relationships between parents, teachers and students through Five Love Languages", while teacher representatives from the Rhenish Church Pang Hok Ko Memorial College talked about improving AD/HD students’ learning performance through lesson observations.

In the afternoon workshops, psychiatrist Dr Lee Yiu-kee was invited to discuss strategies for dealing with AD/HD children at home and school, and another psychiatrist, Dr Ting Sik-chuen, talked about the teaching and learning of children with intellectual disabilities, both with the aim of helping parents and teachers understand more about the worlds and learning abilities of these children so they can assist them in better fitting into normal lives.

The other workshops covered coding and teaching, and using table games to improve the learning effectiveness of students with special educational needs, among others. A resource package based on the experience and achievements of the past three years developed by the Jockey Club SMILE project team will be distributed to local primary and secondary schools to enhance frontline teachers' knowledge and skills in handling students with special educational needs.