Anchors Academy in Yuen Long is advancing its K-12 "through-train" curriculum, with executive director Carmen Choi Ka-man emphasizing that early exposure to artificial intelligence is key to equipping students with critical problem-solving skills for the future.
The school set up three areas for ages one to five, six to 10 and 11 to 15, showcasing its Progressive AI Learning on its open day. These themes, Adventures to AI-land, Young Inventors & AI Creators Studio, and Tech Leaders & Future Solutions, for different age groups, along with AI, robotics, and STEAM elements, are already integrated into our daily curriculum.
“Starting with the kindergarten stage, the entire curriculum progresses from shallow to deep. The most important goals are to boost children's interest in learning and teach them how to solve problems,” Choi said.
For primary school education, Choi said the focus would be Programming, which is knowledge that junior students are required to equip with and know how to practice.
"Many programming courses in the market simply train children to complete a task through coding, covering the entire process of planning, execution, and achieving results," Choi said.
However, she said the core objective was to encourage students to think outside the box, use personal creativity to explore possibilities, and apply this to operation and combat, unleashing their STEM creativity, citing an open day activity where students used self-made combat vehicles.
Moving into the secondary school stage, the focus shifts to AI robotics. Pointing to the robots that danced fluidly during the open day, entirely relying on the operators' control skills, Choi described this as an essential skill for everyone in the future society.
"We proactively let students understand what the future requires, what knowledge they should possess, and through what channels they can absorb it early. More importantly, they must learn to use tools to assist themselves,” she said.
“This is not about the frequently discussed notion that 'AI will directly replace human jobs', though that may indeed happen in the future. When it comes to logical thinking or problem-solving, AI currently still relies on human observation, control, and judgment to determine the best direction." Choi added.
When the new academic year began in September, Grades 7 through 9 of the junior secondary section at the Yuen Long campus commenced classes. Meanwhile, construction of the St Bees (Anchors) Sixth Form College in West Kowloon has started, which will offer senior secondary curricula.
Choi Ka-man shared her delight at having encountered a team with shared visions, allowing them to establish a seamless educational pathway spanning kindergarten, primary school, secondary school, junior secondary, and senior secondary in such a short period of time.
Speaking about the students entering Grades 7 and 9, Choi noted that the student body comprises local Hong Kong students, children from mainland cities such as Shanghai and Beijing, families arriving through the Top Talent Pass Scheme, and even students returning from overseas.
“They come from different schools with varied potential and interests. Both bilingual in Chinese and English, their distinct talents across various fields have pleasantly surprised us,” she said.
The primary and secondary section will welcome their new principal, Michael Taylor, in November. With over 20 years of school leadership experience in Asia, Europe, and Australia, he possesses an international educational perspective.
Choi said that she is very much looking forward to working with Taylor on education.
"We are an innovative school and are looking for a principal whose philosophy aligns with ours. A principal is not only a leader but also needs to inspire other teachers," she said.
