Training the teachers of tomorrow at NAIS, HK

Here at NAIS, HK, we love our teachers! That’s why we play an active role in providing all sorts of teacher training for the local community in Hong Kong.

When our School first opened in 2014, we made a promise together with the Education Bureau of Hong Kong to offer comprehensive training to more than 250 local teachers (and Education Bureau staff) each year. In 2017 alone, we exceeded this goal by training more than 300 teachers in total. As of 10 April, we’ve already surpassed our goal of training 250 teachers for 2018.

Through this ‘Local Teacher Training’ programme — the first and only one of its kind in Hong Kong — Nord Anglia professionals provide in-class training for working teachers as well as undergraduate/graduate students preparing for careers in the classroom. The topics of these training sessions include classroom management, coaching skills, reading skills, Early Years foundations and more.

We deliver this training through a variety of methods. For example, we host Saturday morning workshops that are open to local teachers. We carry out training for some teachers under the Government’s Native-speaking English Teacher Scheme. Many of these take place in our versatile Hub, our classrooms, or even in our MIT Makerspace. Most workshops are delivered by John Nicolls, Assistant Director for Nord Anglia University. Others are presented by our talented school teachers.

One important beneficiary of the programme is the Education University of Hong Kong. NAIS HK supports local applicants working towards a Postgraduate Diploma in Education with placements and employment in the school as Teaching and Learning Assistants (TLAs).  Our Saturday workshops are also popular with local teachers. We recently ran a course called ‘Introduction to philosophy for children’ which was a major hit. We received lovely feedback from this session including “As always, I came away from the workshop inspired and ready to apply the techniques in the classroom”. As of March 2018, we’ve hosted 27 such workshops, as well as providing over 25 workshops on site in local schools.

Overall, our ‘Local Teacher Training’ programme is a great way for the School to demonstrate its educational leadership and to add great value to the local Hong Kong community.