In this scheme, the importance of student-centred teaching was developed through classroom observation. During the scheme, my main duties are to assist the classroom teaching and prepare the teaching materials for Mathematics and Visual Arts. Interactions between me and junior primary students with intellectual disability, and me and senior secondary students with intellectual disability were developed, providing me with hands-on experiences on how to communicate with intellectually disabled pupils.

During the 15 days of my placement period, I was lucky enough to experience first-hand the comprehensive education support and fruitful school life in a special school. Many things in Hong Kong Red Cross Margaret Trench School (MTS) have inspired me about the attitudes and thoughts of being considerate and hardworking in fulfilling roles and responsibilities that I could perform as a special-educational-needs caretaker.

I was delighted that I had the opportunity to go to Hong Kong Red Cross Alexandra Princess School for placement. It is a special school for students with physical disabilities, while some of them also have other special educational needs (SEN) such as intellectual disability, autism, attention deficit and hyperactive disorder, dyslexia, etc. Throughout the experience, I have learnt a lot of skills and techniques in teaching students with various types of SEN. It was so precious that I could understand more about my strengths and weaknesses so as to improve myself to be a better teacher. I will use “understanding” and “empathy” to summarise what I have learnt from this placement scheme.