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children excel above their age level , and children that were behind that are able to catch up in a very short time ,” she says .
How do the teachers judge these levels ? The school has developed its own benchmarking based on those set by the US Department of Education and the Hong Kong Education Bureau . These benchmarks guide the teachers on their expectations of the children indicating what they should achieve by each grade . The school uses its own tools to make assessments at the beginning of the year , looking at reading , writing , maths and also Chinese . These are then checked at the end of the year to see progress and to check that children exceed these benchmarks .
When it comes to learning Mandarin , children are put into ability level , not age . There is a native stream and non-native stream , and each stream has levels 1 , 2 , and 3 . The children are taught traditional characters . The traditional way of teaching would involve lots of memorisation , but that ’ s not the way it ’ s taught at Discovery Montessori . “ We show them the way , we give the keys to learn ,” explains Tammy , “ because not everything can be memorised .” She believes that once you know the structure of the traditional Chinese , like radicals and stroke order , you can almost copy and write every
single word . “ Our Chinese is very advanced ,” says Tammy , “ the children are able to write sentences and write a story also , using strategies .” The native stream is particularly strong , meeting the levels achieved in local schools in Hong Kong .
Children also have art , and PE and music lessons twice a week . Music involves participating in a string orchestra or band . There is also dance movement and choir . There ’ s outdoor space , including a basketball court , although when we visit , the rain keeps play very much inside .
As a group , Discovery Montessori consists of three campuses , educating some 600 children . The Central campus , located in the heart of Central , has six classrooms and caters for children age one-to-six years . Another Discovery
Bay campus , also featuring six classrooms , caters for children age one-to-six years . This Discovery Montessori Academy campus caters for children age six-to-12 years .
Although many of the families do live in the Discovery Bay area or Tung Chung , there is also a school bus bringing children from Pokfulam , Central and Kowloon .
Tammy and Christie are clearly incredibly proud , and devoted to the DMS schools , which first opened in 2010 . “ We put in a lot of effort . For children with so many different languages to come together in harmony , it ' s a lot of hard work ,” explains Tammy . “ The first year was hard work ; there were no role models in the class because there were no older children . Kindergarten was always successful , but elementary had this difficulty but we overcame it . A grade two pupil is now doing the work of a grade three or four student .” The hard work is clearly paying off and there is a lot of which to be proud .
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