The Hong Kong Jockey Club's "CoolPlay" Project has been implemented in phases across multiple kindergartens since 2020. It provides age-appropriate teaching resources, training, and ongoing support, and encourages parental involvement to build a "home-school-community" network to jointly promote exploratory learning for young children. The project emphasizes a child-centered approach, utilizing real-life scenarios in daily life and play to help children understand the world through multi-sensory experiences, fostering a spirit of inquiry and developing their abilities. Currently in its second phase (2023–2027), the project expands to seven grassroots communities, providing more kindergarten teachers and parents with comprehensive teaching support and resources. It also includes international seminars and the awarding of "Certification for Outstanding Exploratory Kindergartens," promoting innovative development in local early childhood education.
Introduction
賽馬會「智‧幼‧趣」計劃
Jockey Club ‘CoolPlay’ Project
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Project's Objectives
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Develop easy-to-use learning resources that meet the individual needs of young children.
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Train seed teachers to teach and promote exploratory learning for children both inside and outside the school.
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Strengthen parent education and encourage parent participation.
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Establish an evaluation model to measure program effectiveness.
Vision
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To provide underprivileged young children with large-scale, systematic high-quality exploratory experiences.
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To support underprivileged families and teachers in nurturing the diversity of young children’s explorations.
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To build a sustainable “home-school-community” ecosystem in Hong Kong, promoting tripartite cooperation based on community engagement.
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To establish an evidence-based intervention and evaluation model, measuring the impact of exploratory experiences on children, families, and teachers.
Concept
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Exploration takes place in everyday activities with everyday materials in real-life settings.
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Multiple modalities and senses should be considered when implementing exploratory learning experiences to respect children’s cultural and linguistic backgrounds, and individual needs.
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Adults should provide children with abundant hands-on experience with sensory stimulation to understand the surrounding through exploration.
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Children learn best through play. Guided play—caring adults designing thoughtful learning experiences based on children’s needs—is effective for young children to engage in exploration.
Phase II (2023-2027)
The second phase of the project will continue to adhere to the "child-centered" concept and further expand the project network to seven grassroots communities, providing continuous, orderly and comprehensive teaching support and resources to kindergarten teachers and parents in the district, jointly building a community that encourages children to explore, stimulate their curiosity and interest in learning, and thus cultivate key 21st century skills such as creativity, communication and cooperation.
Participating Schools
123
Participating teachers
1047
Participating students
6944
Project Introduction
Jockey Club ‘CoolPlay’ Project will develop children’s curiosity and talent about exploratory learning by ‘learning through play’, and making innovation and technology a part of their development journey. By stimulating their exploratory mindset, children will be equipped with the strength to face adversity and develop innovativeness in future pursuits.
Phase 1's Launching Ceremony & Sharing Session
Six pilot schools of Jockey Club ‘CoolPlay’ Project Phase 1 shared their learnings at the launch. The schools implemented the Project in November 2020 with guidance from YCCECE and VTC to present various exploratory activities. Through child-centred and play-based approaches, young children are encouraged to observe and explore in their daily life from the exploratory perspective, developing their interest in learning.
Phase 2's Launching Ceremony & Sharing Session
The Phase 2 of Jockey Club ‘CoolPlay’ Project has launched! The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust is also funding phase 2 of the project, which will span four years from 2023 to 2027. Co-organised by YCCECE and Hong Kong Christian Service, the new phase will continue to follow a child-centric approach and is being extend to cover grass-roots children in seven districts. Sustained, step-by-step and holistic educational support and resources will be provided to the kindergarten teachers and parents of those districts to collectively encourage children to independently and freely explore their communities, in a bid to stimulate their curiosity and learning interest, and develop creativity, communication and collaboration, which are regarded as essential skills for the 21st century.
Project's Objectives
Partner Schools
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