Adopting play-based learning and a holistic education approach, Christian Alliance P.C. Lau Memorial International School (CAPCL) strives to cultivate a nurturing environment to meet the spiritual, social, emotional, physical, and intellectual needs of young learners.
Founded in 1992, CAPCL is the first international school set up by The Kowloon Tong Church of the Chinese Christian and Missionary Alliance (KTAC).
To inspire children to be active learners and boost their interest in learning, CAPCL educates students through playing and interacting to make them feel that they can contribute and participate in learning.
“We want to fill our students’ childhood with endless possibilities by making them understand that there isn’t just one way in searching for the answer,” says Dr. Cora Hui, Head of School
“Learning, as in playing, involves relationship as we believe that both activities are individually and socially constructed,” she explains. “At CAPCL, students learn through interactive and collaborative learning with peers and with teachers as co-learners, co-researchers, and co-imaginers of possibilities.”
To make children feel safe while learning at school, CAPCL calls their classrooms ‘homeroom’. In a small class, each teacher is in charge of teaching multiple subjects, and they keep track of each child’s learning progress and disposition.
In addition to integrating Biblical truths with the Alberta Bilingual curriculum of approximately 65% English and 35% Chinese, CAPCL upholds the mission of developing Christ-like servant-leaders who set examples in speech and behaviours, as in faith, love, and purity.
“Our teachers serve as great examples to students. Not only are they aware of their behaviour at all times, they also show students that they enjoy the interaction, and motivate their urge to enquire and learn,” Dr. Hui adds.
To nurture children into enthusiastic learners and becoming future servant-leaders and community leaders, CAPCL believes that the development of four domains – heart, habits, head, and hands – is the crux to a quality holistic education.
“By incorporating Christian values into the school’s curriculum, CAPCL aims to cultivate and shape children’s heart of love and compassion,” says Dr. Hui as she elaborates on the other domains. “Heart and habit both begin with an ‘H’. Our holistic education approach strives to help students develop a habit of being responsible to the community. Therefore, we encourage them to tidy up the homeroom and be considerate in the hallway. Learners have the opportunities to apply what they’ve learned (head) into services (hands) of one another within the school community and in our neighborhood.”
Daisy Man, mother of Bruce who is currently studying in grade 2 in CAPCL, shares that when her son studied in a traditional primary school in grade 1, he refused to do homework and dreaded school due to stress. However, after entering CAPCL in grade 2, Bruce has gone through phenomenal changes. Man is moved as her son now enjoys school and even requests to go to school on Saturday.
“Different from the spoon-feeding mode of teaching adopted by most local schools in Hong Kong, CAPCL boosts students’ self-confidence in learning, and encourages them to be inquisitive and proactive learners,” Man enthuses.
“Taking care of each student’s needs, teachers in CAPCL group students with similar abilities to teach them in ways that suit them. There are also projects that are specially designed for students according to their needs,” Man highlights.
Man stresses that she feels secure and truly trusts the school to groom her child into a responsible member of the community. She especially appreciates the school’s strong focus on home-school liaison. “The school communicates with parents via various platforms such as Google platform and E-class,” she says. “I’m impressed that teachers send parents regular emails on learning progress, as well as photos of class activities. If we want to raise any issues, we can easily communicate with teachers via e-mail.”
Christian Alliance P.C. Lau Memorial International School
Tel: 852 2713 3733
Email: info@capcl.edu.hk
Address: 2 Fu Ning Street, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Web: www.capcl.edu.hk
Facebook: www.fb.com/capcl.hk
