Message from the Principal

The Universal Value of Fairness

As someone still relatively new to Hong Kong, my thoughts are still somewhat attuned to the differences and similarities between schools here and where I am from in Australia. What is interesting, is that the similarities of schools and what happens in them, seems to be far more prevalent than any differences.

One such similarity is the universal desire for students to see and experience a sense of fairness. By fairness, I mean the state, condition, or quality of being free from bias or injustice. From my 28 years of experience in High Schools, fairness is one value that seems to be of paramount importance to students and an issue that they seem to be inclined to discuss and advocate for, irrespective of culture or background.

As I have stated in previous newsletters, the talent and work ethic of our KGV students is extraordinary. And when talent and hard work combine, amazing things happen and we see this every day in what our students achieve at our school. I think that because our students work so hard, they also have a strong sense of fairness when it comes to academics, and how they are taught, assessed and graded.

The major improvement priority at KGV now, and over the next few years is to continue to establish and refine what we call a Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum. Essentially, a Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum is one that can be taught in the time available and is being taught in every classroom. (High Reliability Schools, Marzano, et. al, 2014).

This promotes fairness for our students by ‘guaranteeing’ that all classes in the same year level and subject will learn very similar skills and content and will be assessed in the same way, at relatively the same time. The teaching and learning is also ‘viable’, in terms that the amount of content and skills that need to be covered in the unit of work can be taught and learnt by the students in the time available.

The process of establishing a Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum is essentially a collaborative process where teams of teachers meet together and look at the course of work and agree first what is essential for students to learn and then, what else would be important for the course to cover. The other important part in the process is to then collaboratively design the assessment (unless it is an external exam) and ensure there is consistency in how it is prepared for and administered.

To achieve this, our teachers meet every Monday afternoon from 2.20 to 5.00pm and this time is dedicated to the ongoing work of refining our Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum. It is called ‘GVC time’ and it is empowering to see the extensive expertise of our teachers come together in teams to plan and reflect upon the curriculum that they plan, teach and assess. We also think that the greater curriculum consistency that this ‘GVC time’ creates, will definitely support that universal value of academic fairness that all students value so highly.

Kind regards

Mark Blackshaw
Principal
King George V