British Council Core Skills for Life Programme (also known as ‘Core Skills for Life’) is a professional development programme for teachers, led by the British Council and funded by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust). This project is designed to support English teachers in primary schools all over Hong Kong. Teachers who participate in the programme work alongside British Council trainers to plan and deliver engaging English lessons which also develop students’ core skills. These include: critical thinking & problem solving, communication & collaboration, creativity & imagination. The programme can equate to up to 50 hours of Continuing Professional Development.
We would like to invite you to take part in this programme if you are committed to:
- developing your own ability to equip your students with the 21st Century skills that they will need for life and work
- enhancing your teachers' capacity to teach diverse groups of learners
- establishing a learning circle in your school so that teachers can share core skills teaching approaches with their peers
- being thought leaders in the sector by pioneering creative teaching approaches.
Why should we teach Core Skills to students?
Core Skills support students to develop the ability to:
- create and innovate
- analyse information and find solutions to problems
- the ability to communicate and collaborate with people from diverse backgrounds.
How will teachers and schools benefit from joining the programme?
Teachers and schools will benefit from:
- one-on-one mentoring for each teacher to support them in their development of lessons that include core skills elements
- a number of versatile and effective teaching ideas
- producing, with guidance from the British Council, five lesson plans that incorporate a focus on core skills
- the co-ownership of lesson plans developed by teachers at other project schools and the British Council
- enhanced class engagement across the curriculum
- being part of a professional network aimed at supporting creative and effective teaching.
Project objectives
This project aims to:
- equip teachers with the necessary skills and knowledge to embed core skills into classes of diverse group of learners
- support teachers to be change agents in teaching innovation
- facilitate the creation of a ‘learning circle’ in each project school (so that teachers can share approaches to teaching core skills with their peers)
- establish networking platforms where practitioners, academics and relevant stakeholders can exchange insights into teaching approaches.
Target Schools
20 Primary Schools
Target teachers
Three teachers from each school who are:
- teaching P1–P3 English
- interested in teaching approaches that have been developed outside of Hong Kong
- willing to share their learning with their peers.
- Continuing Professional Development (CPD): 50 hours
Targeted Core Skills
Three categories of core skills will be covered at each project school, with each teacher focusing on one of the following categories:
- Critical thinking and problem solving
- Communication and collaboration
- Creativity and imagination
Mode of support
- Four full days of training sessions
- one-on-one consultation sessions along the academic year
- unlimited access to the Core Skills for Life Online Resource Depository, which is full of core skills training materials and related resources.
