Today is my first day to address at the School Opening Ceremony as the Principal of Shung Tak Catholic English College. I wish my service here in the coming years can meet not only the needs of the school but also those of the teachers and the students as well.

The academic year of 2010-2011 marked a big success of Shung Tak. Not only because of the outstanding performance you have got in different inter-school activities, but also remarkable results that our F.7 students have achieved in the A-Level Examination. In the A-level Examination, we got 30 A’s, 58 B’s and 97 C’s with the highest score of 3A2B and the overall passing rate and credit rate are 99.3% and 63.8% respectively. Besides the F.7 students, our F.6 students have also done a very good job. Seven of our F.6 students have been enrolled by the universities of Hong Kong via the 2011 JUPAS Early Admission Scheme for S.6 Students. On behalf of the school, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our hardworking teachers who have made a great effort and contributed so much time on nurturing our students. May I invite all of you to give a great round of applause to our devoted teachers.

Dear students, please always bear in mind the great achievements attained by your senior schoolmates and take them as your role models. Therefore, your mission, as Shungtakians today, is to break their records and write for the school a new page of its history. I know that all of you have the same good academic foundation as your senior schoolmates. You are all within the top 33% of the students of the same age. So, doubtless to say, getting at least level 4 for every subject in HKDSE is surely within your competence. Let’s imagine, if all F. 6 students of Shung Tak get level 4 or above in all subjects in the HKDSE next year, it is already a new school record. So, dear students, the reputation of our school cannot only rely on the top students of each form, but with the joint effort of each of you, we can achieve even higher academic performance. I wish to see in the coming years, more and more of you work collaboratively to break different kinds of school records.

In order to achieve our common goal, the first thing that I wish all Shungtakians can attain is an open mind, i.e. not to be selfish. One old saying for explaining why Chinese traditional achievements cannot be carried forward is that the teacher taught only ninety per cent of his skills or knowledge to his students. So, as time goes by, the skills passed onto the coming generations became less and less. In a school context, every one of you knows that though you are elite students, you may not be elite in all aspects. So, if a sharing culture among students can be nurtured in Shung Tak, I am sure it can bring great improvement to every individual and the school as a whole. Furthermore, please be reminded that teaching others to understand is the most effective learning strategy. Therefore, helping others to succeed will not bring you any harm but help you to be promoted to a higher level of academic achievement.

For self improvement, I have shared with my students of the previous schools to set their own goal at the beginning of the school year and convinced them if they worked hard according to their own plan then they could enjoy the fruit of success at the end of the school year. On pages 142 to 144 of your Student Handbook, our school also encourages you to practice Self-evaluation and Goal Setting continuously during the school year. In order to help you draft your own self development plan more effectively, I would like to share with you the SMART Approach. Smart, S-M-A-R-T, is an acronym for 5 words, namely Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound. What does that mean? Let's take the preparation for the HKDSE as an example. ‘To be specific’ means you have a clear and concrete goal. For example, ‘I want to be admitted to the Bachelor Programmes offered by the universities of Hong Kong’ is a very specific goal. ‘To be measurable’ means we can measure the achievements with some kinds of quantitative indicators. For example, ‘I want to get level 4 or above for all subjects taken in the HKDSE’. ‘To be achievable’ means the goal is within your ability and can be achieved if you really work hard for it. For example, if you are the top student of the Form, getting only level 4 may be too low a target, you could set your target to level 5 or above instead. ‘To be realistic’ means that you have to distinguish whether the goal is relevant to your needs at the moment. For example, do you think that getting a boy or girl friend is your immediate need at F6? Frankly speaking, I don’t think it is your most urgent need for the time being. Last but not least, ‘to be time-bound’ is the most important key to success. It means that you have to draft a very good revision time-table and adhere to it. If you have prepared yourselves in this SMART way, you are already on your road to success.

Dear Shungtakians, the SMART Approach does not only apply to your studies, but also your activities or any other areas. If you can develop good time management skills when you are young, a bright and successful future will be in your hands. I have reminded the Form 1 students and their parents on the Orientation Day held last Saturday that Shung Tak offered all round education to our students, so both academic work and extra-curricular activities are equally important. We gain knowledge by studying hard, but we can broaden our horizon and build up our good value and attitude by joining different kinds of activities. Take myself as an example, I dare to speak on stage with confidence when I was a secondary school student because I joint the solo verse speaking competition since I was in Form 1. I learnt different kinds of handcrafts and liked to serve others because I was a member of boy scouts. And those skills and attitude I gained from joining the ECA could not be learned by just sitting in the classroom and they really helped me much in my career of being a competent teacher. So, I always encourage my students to take an active role in the extra-curricular activities but remind them taking studying as their top priority and joining activities as the second priority and playing TV games etc. as minor options. And that is why I say good time management is a key to success.

The last point that I would like to share with you today is about freedom. I understand that young people nowadays cherish freedom. If you are keen on reading the news of Hong Kong, I am sure you have been attracted by the hot discussions among the Police Force, Legislative Councilors, school administrators and students of the University of Hong Kong about the arrangement of receiving Mr. Li Ke Qiang, the Vice-Premier of the State Council, in the centenary celebration of the University of Hong Kong. I am not trying to raise a debate on this issue in school but as the Principal of the school, it’s my responsilility to remind you that freedom doesn’t mean you can do whatever you like with no limits and without respecting the rights and freedom of others. According to the ethics training of Catholic schools, we all know that freedom means making choices and shouldering up the corresponding responsibilities that may arise. So, the higher the standard of self-discipline of a person, the more the freedom he may deserve. Dear students, I learnt from Ms. Lau, the former Principal, there are lots of evidences proving that most of you show a high degree of self-discipline. And it tells us that the freedom education of Shung Tak is a success. I wish this wonderful tradition can be upheld and one day in the near future, the Head Prefects can take charge of the school assemblies, help maintain the progress as well as the discipline of the functions.

Time is running short. I know that the teachers in charge of some other departments are having lots of new information to share with you this morning. Today is only the first day we meet, there are still lots of chances for me to share with you about my experiences and my rationales of running a school. To conclude, as one of the family members here, it will be my honour to see you further develop morally, physically and academically. May I wish you all a very enjoyable and fruitful year to come.

May God bless you all. Thank you.