PSHE Curriculum at DGS – The introduction of Junior Secondary Liberal Studies

Why offer Liberal Studies? to seek possible ways of integrating the subjects grouped under PSHE to develop students’ thinking skills, civic mindedness, learning skills, values and attitudes to teach students a way of living to help students respond to the knowledge- based society and globalized world

How to go about it? Sharing of aspirations with the senior staff by the headmistress set up an ad hoc committee comprising PSHE panel heads and deputy heads to look into the pros and cons of the various modes of integrated curriculum and suggest the mode that is appropriate for DGS to suggest the elements to be incorporated into the new subject

How to go about it? create space for the introduction of a new subject in F.1 through negotiation ( ) - The library period is given up with the reading and information search skills being incorporated into the new LS lesson. The Chinese History curriculum sees a greater flexibility in trimming the syllabus, thus 1 lesson is given up.

How to go about it? The Form Period for Form 1 is cut to once per month. The Liberal Studies teachers are arranged to be the Form teachers. The above changes make possible the introduction of a new subject with 18 triple lessons and 12 double lessons in Form 1 in the academic year

How to go about it? Changes in staff deployment – The teacher librarian will teach 1 class as the library periods are cut. A Home Economics teacher will teach 1 class as the senior form Dress & Design is no longer offered. The AS level Liberal Studies teachers rearrange their team teaching load to make room for two of them to each teach an LS class in F.1

How to go about it? set up a working group comprising the potential F1 LS teachers to work on the content of the new curriculum to provide mentorship by more experienced Liberal Studies teachers in the group while working in collaboration to design the curriculum and various teaching activities.

How to go about it? Principles behind the way to go about it Individual PSHE subjects will remain as the building up of a solid background knowledge is essential in the junior secondary years. Strong coordination between departments and teams is to be maintained to avoid overlapping of learning contents. Gradually build up the future team of teachers for NSS LS through teacher mentoring.

Challenges to decide on which mode of integration to be adopted to create space for cross-subject learning e.g.project learning, Geography, History, Chinese History, Civic Education to let students, teachers and parents fully understand what this subject is about, its requirement and its learning objectives

The end product The ‘end product’ is basically the same as what has been anticipated. The reflective feedback of students show their basic understanding of subject aims and their acquisition of some critical thinking skills. The ‘end product’ of this pilot trial gives insight to how the curriculum should be designed and suggests changes needed to help students better learn and parents to better understand what Liberal Studies is.

PSHE mode of curriculum planning ( ) The school adopts an individual subject mode of curriculum planning. Subjects of the S1-S3 PSHE curriculum (Chinese History, History, Geography and Religious Knowledge) are tailored to make room for the introduction of Liberal Studies, which is a school-based curriculum. A smooth interface with the SS1-SS3 independent PSHE subjects and Liberal Studies, a compulsory core subject in the NSS curriculum, can be ensured with the adoption of this mode of curriculum planning.

PSHE mode of curriculum planning ( ) Project-learning is integrated into Liberal Studies to enable students to connect knowledge, skills, values and attitudes and to construct knowledge in the process. Cross-curricular and extra-curricular programmes / activities are organised to provide PSHE learning experiences for healthy personal development and the nurturing of moral and social values.

The allocation of lessons are as follows (5-day cycle): LS Chin Hist History Geog RK S12* S S (*The 2 lessons for S1 were originally the library period and one of the Home Economics lessons) (Starting from , the duration of each lesson is 50 minutes)

The introduction of Liberal Studies will not squeeze out foundation knowledge of the humanities disciplines LS S1 S3 PSHE curriculum at DGS Chin Hist RKGeogHist