Pao students' language skills shine at bilingual festival

Students from the Secondary Division of YK Pao School participated for the first time in the Asia-Pacific Chinese-English Bilingual Festival, and all of them received at least 1 award! Pao students performed admirably at the festival, both as a team and individually, winning a total of 34 awards and certificates, including 1 gold, 11 silvers and 1 bronze.

The Asia-Pacific Chinese-English Bilingual Festival is hosted by Hong Kong's ISF Academy and co-organized by the Asia-Pacific Chinese Language Teachers Association. Now in its sixth year, the festival welcomed more than 250 participating students from over 20 schools in 8 major cities of Asia-Pacific, such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Taipei, Kaohsiung, Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. The students came from leading international schools in the region, such as Chinese International School, International School of Beijing, Yew Chung International School, Shanghai United International School and UWC Changshu China, just to name a few. The bilingual festival offers an extensive range of individual competition events, such as bilingual storytelling, bilingual poetry recital, bilingual speech and one team debate. As one of the largest bilingual events in the Asian-Pacific region, the festival aims to promote Chinese-English bilingual education, encourage students to use Chinese and English fluently and provide a platform where students can demonstrate their bilingual proficiency. It also provides a platform for friendly exchanges among participating schools.

Students joined this bilingual festival voluntarily and Pao School finalised the list after reviewing the students’ bilingual proficiency. Mr. David Xiong, Head of Senior Secondary Chinese Department and Ms. Shirley Jin, Head of Junior Secondary Chinese Department led Pao School's delegation to the festival in Hong Kong. After two days of exciting competition, Pao student won a gold award in bilingual poetry recitation for her outstanding performance of 'Tree Root'. Pao’s debate team earned second place in the final with Steven receiving the ‘Best Debater’ award for his eloquence in arguing ‘Online public opinion encourages analytical thinking’. Winning both silver and gold awards, the 12 participating students from Pao School impressed their peers, teachers and judges.

Debate: Online public opinion encourages analytical thinking

Emphasizing Bilingual Proficiency

The Asia-Pacific Chinese-English Bilingual Festival, which attaches great importance to the development of and support for English and Chinese bilingual education, is a carnival in its field. The event runs in a bilingual way with equal attention given to both languages. It is no doubt an ultimate opportunity for Pao students, who are nurtured in an immersive bilingual academic and social environment, to showcase their bilingual proficiency. It was clear from their performance at the event that they were truly in their element.

Demonstrating individual talent

Malcolm Pritchard, Head of ISF Academy, notes that the bilingual festival features only students in competition. As a result, the competition events are rich and varied, with plenty of flexibility. Students are encouraged focus on their interests, hobbies and talents. Compared with other similar events, the vision of this bilingual festival is to ‘demonstrate individual talent and facilitate interschool communication’. Thus, all participants can showcase their unique talents.

Cultivating analytical thinking

Debating is an art of language as well as a way of analytical thinking. To be a winning team, students must not only use language and knowledge reserves effectively, but also be able to collaborate well in a team. Thanks to Pao School's innovative Shanghai Plus Curriculum with the IGCSE and IB programmes, students develop strong hands-on project management skills and an inquiry-based life-long learning sense. As a result, they performed superbly in the debate at the festival, made it to the finals and came home with a silver medal (second place).

Right side: Pao School debate team

David and Shirley said: 'The outstanding performance of Pao students in this Asia-Pacific Chinese-English Bilingual Festival both comes as a surprise and also meets expectations'. The judging panel congratulated the Pao School team and wished teachers and students the very best for the future. Since matriculating at Pao School, students have consistently upheld the three cornerstones of Pao School's mission: developing the whole person, passing on traditions of Chinese culture and fostering an international perspective. Pao students are constantly refining their bilingual skills both in and outside the classroom, engaging with parents, teachers and classmates. Further, Pao School's rich variety of co-curricular activities and its many multicultural exchanges have expanded the global perspective of Pao students so that they are able to meet new challenges with confidence.

Below is the list of awards Pao students won at the festival. Congratulations to our Pao students and special thanks to our teachers and parents for supporting them.

List of awards: