FEX2162 Chap.2 Reading Your School: Philosophy, Policy and Practice
Reading Your School: Philosophy, Policy and Practice
What the first task asks
The first portfolio task is an evidence-based reflection on your placement school's philosophy and goals, the policies and practices through which it pursues them, and the roles and responsibilities that follow for teachers.
The task guide supplies the premise that makes the task manageable: a school philosophy or mission is a statement of the attributes the school wants its students, the citizens of the future, to develop.
Once you read it that way, the mission becomes a claim you can trace into policy and look for in daily practice.
Start with the sponsor
The first guiding question asks what the philosophy, mission, vision or goals are and how they reflect those of the School Sponsoring Body, if the school has one. Many Hong Kong schools are run by religious or charitable sponsors whose language appears directly in the mission.
Naming the sponsor early explains wording that would otherwise look arbitrary, and it shows the reader you understand the school as an institution with a history rather than as a list of rules.
Follow the goals to the people
The next questions ask what policies and practices support staff in achieving the philosophy and which stakeholders carry them.
The guide names the Principal, the Academic Board, the discipline or guidance team, the co-curricular activities team, subject and class teachers, and parents through the Parent-Teacher Association. Choose the few whose work you can actually evidence, and describe their part in the goal you have traced rather than their duties in general.
A short dated note of a conversation with your supporting teacher is often the best exhibit you will have.
Profile the school, then argue about it
Session two sets a website search as homework, covering language of the site, medium of instruction, sponsoring body, school type, the socio-economic background of families, lessons per day, activities, support for special educational needs and class sizes.
A profile is only raw material.
The session's activity converts it into reflection with four questions: how curriculum goals serve the mission, how measures serve the goals, how the teacher's role serves the mission, and how the school's background shapes the mission in the first place.
What the descriptor measures
The assessment form grades this task on a single descriptor, from comprehensive to little or no understanding of the interrelationships between philosophy, goals, policies and practices and their effect on teachers' roles.
The key word is interrelationships. Accurate description of each element, without the links between them, cannot reach the top band.
What this chapter covers
- 01
A mission as the attributes a school wants to develop
- 02
Why the School Sponsoring Body comes first
- 03
Policies and practices that support staff
- 04
Stakeholders from Principal to parents
- 05
Interview notes and observation as evidence
- 06
Profiling the school from its website
- 07
Four questions that turn a profile into reflection
- 08
The interrelationships descriptor
Worked example · free
Trace one mission phrase into a teacher's week
- 2Link the mission phrase to the plan concern.
- 2Link the concern to the prefect and project practice.
- 2State what the practice asks of the class teacher.
Key terms
- School Philosophy
- The statement of the attributes a school aims to develop in its students, expressed as its mission, vision or goals.
- School Sponsoring Body
- The organisation that sponsors a school; its own philosophy often shapes the school's mission and wording.
- Parent-Teacher Association
- The body through which parents take part in school life and extend its aims into the home.
- Direct Subsidy Scheme
- One of the school types the profiling worksheet asks you to identify, alongside government and aided schools.
Reading Your School: Philosophy, Policy and Practice FAQ
How long should the school reflection be?
The outline suggests about 400 words in English, while the task guide sets a floor of 125 words. Only the 2,000-word total across all four tasks is fixed, so a long first task is paid for by a later one, usually the lesson reflection that carries the most weight.
Can I quote the school's mission statement in full?
You can place it in a screenshot or text box, where it does not count towards the limit. In your prose, quote only the phrase you intend to trace and spend your words on what that phrase commits the school to doing and how you saw it happen.
Which stakeholders should I write about?
Choose two or three whose part in one goal you can evidence, from the Principal and the Academic Board to guidance and co-curricular teams, subject and class teachers, and parents. Depth on a few connected roles is worth more than a sentence about everyone.
Assessment move
Before the placement starts, spend thirty minutes on the school website with the profiling worksheet, then choose one phrase from the mission to trace. During weeks one and two, look for the policy and the practice that serve that phrase and collect one exhibit for each link. Draft the paragraph by week three so your tutor can comment while you can still gather more.
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