Teaching at The Jockey Club Primary School

 
The Outside of the School                                Interior Photos

Interior Photos                                                   Interior Photos

The school (pictured above) is half indoors and half outdoors and very beautiful. It even won an architectural award.

The school is publicly funded, but families still need to pay about $100-$200 US dollars a month to send their children here. Most students that attend JCPS have wealthier parents.

 
Classroom                                                            Main Hallway

A typical classroom is less colorful than a US classroom.  Hong Kong classrooms don’t usually showcase student work and have considerably less posters. Additionally, teachers go to the student’s classrooms instead of the students coming to their teachers’ classrooms.

Hong Kong students are much more independent than US students. It is completely normal to leave a class alone. Some kids, 8 or 9 years old even, take a public bus or taxi home by themselves.  (The school also has school buses.)

Each class starts with the teacher and the kids standing. The teacher says “good morning class” and bows, the students say “good morning teacher” and bow back.

The student’s English skills are very good. All the English classes are conducted completely in English without a problem.

Recess and lunch are at the same time. The kids eat and play at their own will.  The students can pretty much go anywhere in the school even though most go to the common, outdoor area. Also, there doesn’t seem to be much concern about bullying or social problems here. For the most part, the students just work out their problems themselves.

Teaching has been great so far!  We implemented a sticker chart with rewards for participation and good behavior.  This has been very effective so far.  Every 25 stickers the students earn a prize from the prize bag.  Students are motivated to behave well!

Helpful things to know:

  • There are signs across from the elevator that detail which rooms are on which floors.
  • You can leave the school for lunch and get something from the campus shops.
  • You’ll teach two classes a day and two after-school activities a week.
  • The schedule is from 8:30am-4:40pm Monday through Friday.  This is different from what the international office told us initially, as I believe they gave us the university students’ schedule.
  • Technically the school day ends at 3:40pm, but you are required to stay until 4:40pm even if you are not teaching an after-school activity. In your off time you can plan your lessons or mark students’ work.
  • You have an Easter break!  This is a great time to travel. Our Easter break about about a week and a half, from April 8th – April 20th.  (We have to come back Friday April 21st for an in-service day.)  I would wait until you come to Hong Kong to verify which days you actually have off.  As a teacher, you’ll go by the primary school work days/off days and not the university’s.

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