School Year Commencement Message

Date: 01/09/2021

Good morning teachers and students.

 

It is a blessing to have you all coming back to school for a new academic year after the summer vacation. This summer is truly a special one. Despite the difficulties arising from COVID-19, athletes from around the world came together to celebrate sportsmanship in the 2020 Olympic Games. Before I lead you all to partake in our yearly goal-setting practice, “My Pledge to Act”, at the start of the school year, I would like to reflect on the lessons brought by the Tokyo Olympics. 

 

The Olympics this year have inspired many Hong Kongers as our local athletes have made remarkable achievements in various events. Most notably, Cheung Ka Long won the gold medal in fencing 25 years after Hong Kong’s first. Hong Kong has also garnered two silver medals in swimming and 3 bronze medals in Table Tennis, Karate and Cycling respectively. From time to time, we would see social media posts congratulating our athletes on their success. In all these different posts, one particular phrase stood out. It is “Thank you”. 

 

As Hong Kongers, we take immense pride in our athletes’ efforts. We thank them for the sweat and toil they have had in their training and practice. With their efforts, our city could shine on the stage of these world-class events. We felt grateful for the glory they have brought us. Of course, there were lots of other places getting way more medals than Hong Kong did. But that did not diminish our gratitude towards local athletes. Instead of comparing to others and thinking less of ourselves, we felt grateful and treasured what we had. 

 

That brings me back to “My Pledge to Act”. Our theme this year is “Be grateful and treasure what we have, stay positive and optimistic”. I believe you will agree that our gratitude towards our athletes has filled the city with positivity and optimism. It did not matter how many medals we got. We treasure what we have. As we learn to take stock of the good things in life and be grateful about them, we get to see life in a more positive light; we begin to believe that more good things will come in our way. With such optimism, we become empowered by a vision and motivated to work towards that vision. 

 

In an interview, Minnie Soo, who won the bronze medal in Table Tennis with her teammates, said, “When you believe something will happen, it will happen”. That says a lot about the importance of optimism. If you are optimistic and believe something good will happen, good things happen. This is not a matter of luck. It is simple psychology. Pessimism sucks the energy out of us while optimism gives us fuel to work on our dreams. Our local athletes are living proof for us.

 

Sometimes life presents us with hardship. It may be difficult to stay positive and optimistic all the time. Therefore, it is important to be grateful and treasure what we have. “Always look on the bright side of life”, as an old song goes. Today, we may grumble about having to wear a mask all day. It may seem absurd to say we should be grateful for COVID-19. But remember there was a time when Hong Kong had a shortage of masks? Now we have a steady supply of masks to give us some protection against the virus. When we think positively, hope comes to us. 

 

As I said in the beginning, it is indeed a blessing to have you all coming back to school. I feel grateful and I treasure the opportunity. Although circumstances change every day, I have faith in the school year ahead. I hope you too share the sentiments. Let us take inspiration from the Tokyo Olympics and commit to a life of gratitude and optimism starting from this academic year.  

 

This year, there is a new teacher joining our school - Miss Tsang Yee Ting. She will teach S.2 to S.4 Mathematics. I also like to share with you the bright results of the S.6 graduates in the 2021 HKDSE examination. The average passing rate was 99.9% and about 95% of graduates attained the minimum university admission requirement. The average percentage of Level 4 or above was 75.4%. The best individual result was four 5** and three 5*.  Our graduates also got very promising JUPAS offers. Out of 121 graduates, nearly 95% of them obtained an offer from JUPAS. 92.6% of graduates were given a bachelor’s degree offer. All these vividly showed that you can make it if you work hard.

 

The educational theme in 2021-2022 is “Grasping every opportunity with your enthusiasm and determination. "積極果毅  見機而作” I hope all of you could well prepare yourself for every learning opportunity and have a fruitful year.