What being a new student at Uni High is like…
By Irene Lau
I am one of the new students at Uni High who started at school at term 1 2022. When I first came to this school from Hong Kong, I felt nervous and scared.Uni High was a strange place for me since I came from a different education system and I had a language barrier. I was afraid that I couldn’t communicate with others. Fortunately, I met a lot of friends in Uni High. They are all very nice and helpful and were able to help me familiarize myself with the school.
My experience in University High School is full of warmth and love. The students in University High School are very helpful, warm and friendly, and the staff are nice and patient. In my experience they are all willing to help new students. However, is this just my experience? Or are all students well supported by the student body?
To find out the answer, I made a survey for the new students at Uni High. The majority of respondents joined University High School this year. There are just a few people who joined Uni High after year 7 but have been here more than one year. The majority of new students thought that they were well supported by the student body in Uni High but there was one respondent who thought they were not well supported at Uni High.
A majority of respondents think Uni High students are friendly, nice, helpful, and kind. Some respondents said the students in Uni High helped them around the school when they were still new to all the building layouts. Some respondents said they met a lot of new friends who are helpful and help them to explain and translate what the teachers teach.
A majority of respondents thought that they were well supported by the staff and there was only one respondent who thought they were not well supported by the staff .
A majority of respondents think Uni High Staff are very nice, patient and give a lot of encouragement to them. Some respondents thought teachers have been really accommodating with new students, helping them catch up with things that they haven't heard and filling in the gaps. For me, I think I got well supported by the staff. I remember when I first came to Uni High and I had business class in room 724 ( which is a very remote and mysterious classroom ) and I got lost. Luckily, my sub school teacher took me to the classroom.
The reason the one respondent said they were not well supported had problems getting connected to the school’s internet.
Half of the respondents feel stressed when it comes to catching up on work and half of the respondents do not feel stressed when it comes to catching up on work.
Some respondents do not feel stressed when it comes to catching up on work because some of them have already learned them in other countries, and the workload here (in Uni High) is not that much. Also, some respondents said that because they already can speak fluent English and understand most English, they do not really have a language barrier and it is easy for them to catch up on work .
For this article, I interviewed my friends who are also new students and they came from China and Hong Kong. They think Uni High mathematics is very easy because they have learned it in their city before. They want to change their mathematics class to be more difficult. Because of the school strategy, they can’t change their mathematics to a more high level class which makes them feel frustrated.Some of the respondents feel stressed when it comes to catching up on work because some of them joined in the middle of term, they feel quite stressed and scared that they can’t catch up with the curriculum especially because the subjects are totally new for them.
I interviewed some of my friends who are new at the school, they said they don't really understand what did their teachers say during the lessons because of the language barrier (because the teacher spoke quite fast in the lessons and they could not catch the words or just understand a little bit) so they feel stressed when trying to catch up on work .
For me, I also feel a little bit stressed to catch up with work, especially Science. I didn't learn much science in Hong Kong because at that time, Hong Kong was locked down and I didn't have any online lessons . Because of that, I feel very confused during the lessons because the teacher is teaching quite fast and I do not really understand some of the words and concepts.
So, what can the staff do to help the new students to catch up with the curriculum ?
Some of the respondents said that they thought staff can give more practice work and help them with their weaknesses, some respondents thought that the staff can be more patient and explain more (about the questions they asked) to help them catch up with the curriculum and familiar with the school .
In my opinion, I think the staff can have some tutorial classes (after school or during recess) to help the new students to catch up with the curriculum .
Also, what can the respondents do to help themselves to catch up with the curriculum ?
A majority of respondents said that they will self-study and practice more exercises to help themselves to catch up with the curriculum, and ask teachers if they are stuck on some homework. Finally, they will also plan a timetable to push themselves to study.
For me, I will have self - study after school to help me catch up with the curriculum, and I have a science tutorial class during the science lessons.
In summary, some new students think they aren’t well supported by some staff because of the wifi problems and the IT staff can't help them to solve their computer problems. Second, some of the new students feel stressed when it comes to catching up on work. They suggested the school can have some tutorial classes to help the students’ weaknesses but we can know that Uni High new students get well supported from the school students and the staff. The Uni students are very nice, friendly and willing to help new students. Also , Many Uni High staff are very nice, patient and try to help new students solve their problems.
We know that Uni High is full of warmth and love.