The Centre for Enhancing English Learning and Teaching (CEELT), Faculty of Education, organized the ‘Developing Young Short Story Writers in Secondary Schools in Hong Kong—A University-School Partnership Programme’ from February 2011 to June 2012. Funded by the CUHK Knowledge Transfer Project Fund, the programme involved 1,400 Secondary 2 students and 40 English teachers from 10 local schools.

The programme was aimed at developing teachers’ skills in teaching short-story writing and promoting a constructive, interactive and student-centred learning environment through collaborative writing. The participating teachers were trained at a workshop run by Prof. Barley Mak, director of CEELT, on how to motivate and guide their students through the process of writing short stories, while the students attended a workshop on the basic skills of short-story writing.

The highlight of the programme was a short-story writing competition held from February to March 2012. The competition received positive response with over one thousand students participating in the individual and collaborative categories. A prize presentation ceremony was held on 21 April.