The school is known as an
international school at affordable costs, i.e. a
local DSS college offering international learning environment and
international curriculum.[7][8][9][10] In the international atmosphere,[11] 73% of the students in the school are international students, who come from over 40 countries.[12][13] Over 40% of the school's teachers are from overseas.[14]
History
The school was established in September 2003.[2][15] It was the first directly subsidised
Christian secondary school sponsored by the
YMCA of Hong Kong since its establishment in 1901. It was the only
EMI school within Tung Chung.[5][6]
Mrs. Rosalind Chan served as Principal from 2004 to 2009. In 2009, the new artificial turf pitch,
running tracks and grass field were created.[16]
At the 2009–2011 school year Dr. Nick Miller, former supervisor of the school, succeeded to serve as the principal.[17] During the governing by Dr. Miller, the international curriculum was introduced to the school in 2010.[14][16][18][19] A school concert of large scale was held in 2011.[20][21][22]
Dr. Adrian Price took office as the new principal from the beginning of the 2012–2013 school year. But in May 2013, he suddenly resigned on private grounds. Starting from the school year 2013–2014, Mr.
Dion Chen took over as principal.[26][27][28][29] In May 2013, the school was visited by the
Secretary for Education who observed the international atmosphere and education style as the uniqueness of the school.[30][31][32] In June 2013, a new music block is dedicated during the graduation ceremony.[16][33]
During a sports meeting in the
Tsing Yi Sports Ground on 3 November 2014, some teachers learned that there were
rumors among the students that some
brownies and
cupcakes containing
marijuana were sold. The teachers later found two Form 4 female students of
Croatian and
British origin respectively in the stands. After the
police arrived, they found five brownies and 22 cupcakes in a plastic bag, and found that the two students had discussed the sale of marijuana-containing cakes in a
Facebook message. The government
laboratory technician detected a total of 0.38 grams of
cannabis derivatives in the cakes. The two have pleaded guilty to
drug trafficking, and one of them was fined $10,000 at
Tsuen Wan Magistrates' Courts.[34][35]
In September 2016, the school provided new
school uniform for boys and girls.[11]
In 2020, during the
COVID-19 pandemic, classes are suspended and students are confined to
distance education. Online learning was performed throughout the school period for all subjects.[50] During the suspension period, a video was created by the
Science Department of the school which explains the details of
Coronavirus disease 2019.[51] While the epidemic situation hinders parents' livelihood, the school helped bail out the tuition fees for next academic year.[52] The school has paid or promised to pay more than HK$700,000 deposits to
travel agencies for the purpose of organising study tours. When the government issued
red tourism warnings to all overseas countries, travel agencies and
airlines took the initiative to contact the school to discuss compensation arrangements.[53] The IGCSE and GCE examinations were cancelled, though the school claimed that they were not too worried about the impact on further education of students, as most of them have already obtained conditional offers by that time.[54] In February 2021, the school arranged for teachers to be forced
COVID-19 testing for the whole school to resume classes, as the
COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong has fallen. The principal told the entire school staff to be mentally prepared for testing.[55][56][57]
On 8 February 2021, Principal
Dion Chen announced he would be moving on to
Ying Wa College. On 23 April 2021, it was announced during a school assembly that Diana Lo would succeed as principal. As of 1 September 2021, Diana Lo officially succeeded to serve as the principal.[58][59][60][61][62][63]
Served at the school for 17 years upon departure. He resigned to become Principal of
Ying Wa College.
6
2021–
Diana Lo
In 2003, she joined the YMCA of Hong Kong Christian College as one of its founding
Science teachers. Since then, she has held the capacities of Head of Department, Head of Year, Head of the Pastoral Team, Head of Administration & Admissions, Assistant Principal, and Deputy Principal respectively.
The school covers an area of about 15,000 square meters.[3] The teaching building is eight stories high, with six
classrooms on each of 1/F to 5/F. General facilities include a
canteen currently operated by
Sodexo[64] on G/F, a
careers centre and a
reading corner on 1/F, an
assembly hall on 2/F, and a
library on 7/F.
There is an independent two-storey high building called Music Block which cost HK$26 million.[33] This building consists of two
studios.
Aside from the teaching building, there are many first-class sports facilities in the school,[29] such as a four-lane 100-metre
running track with a
long jump sand-pit, a
basketball court, an all-weather covered playground which is fully air-conditioned, and a multi-purpose turf pitch and grass field which usually serves as a
football pitch.[12]
All subjects at the school are
taught in English, except second languages.
Chinese language is for all students, in which the classes are divided into different level of difficulties according to the students' language background.[13][71][72] Other second languages in the regular curriculum include
Spanish language and
French language.
The school provides various learning activities outside classroom throughout the years,[73][74][75] as well as organising inter-school competitions.[76] With the large range of meaningful alternative learning profile, the school provides flexible homework to students.[11][77][78] Examples of activities include
experiential learning activities presented by the
science department were conducted at the campus outside the classrooms,[79] which include
physics corners,[80]chemistry corners,[81] science weeks[82] and annual science talks with guest speakers[83] etc. Innovative learning activities are also introduced to students to learn the latest technologies together with the theory.[84]
The school offers both the Hong Kong and British National Curriculum.[19][29][88] The Hong Kong curriculum consists the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE).[23] The British National Curriculum comprises the
International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) and
GCE A/AS-Level.[14] No more than half of the students take the GCE course, and the rest take the DSE course.[13][89] In the school, continuous assessments are adopted. Tests are given on a regular basis and examinations are held two times a year.[3]
There are Form 1 to 6 in the school, referring to grade 7 to grade 12 of international schools. There are six classes in every form. The classes are named as Y, M, C, A, H, and K. For examples, there exist 1A and 2K etc.[96] The class sizes of Form 1 to 4 are about 24–29, whereas that of Form 5 to 6 are 17–26.[97] School fees remains unchanged for Form 1 students for two years, and increases when they reaches Form 3 and again when they reaches Form 5.[98]
The school does not use Chinese or English classes to distinguish between local students and non-Chinese speaking students, but mixes all students. Each level will only be divided into small classes in Chinese, English and Mathematics according to the level of students.[13]
The Form 1 and 2 are of school-based curriculum. Students can study their own elective subjects starting from Form 3, in which it is the integrated curriculum of HKDSE and IGCSE. Students admitted to Hong Kong curriculum will have the HKDSE curriculum from Form 4 to 6. Students admitted to international curriculum will continue IGCSE in Form 4 for a public examination, then GCE AS-level at Form 5, and finally GCE A-level at Form 6.[14][97][99]
External competitions
Students in the school are encouraged to take challenges in inter-school competitions.[100] Students are awarded in different academic fields every year, for example
International Biology Olympiad.[101][102][103] Students of the school also perform well in debate and creative writings in both Chinese and English. Some of them were awarded championship.[104][105][106][107]
In the
STEM fields, STEM Club members were awarded in the EIE Robotic Challenge Junior 2018: Flying Robot and obtained First Class Awards and the Flying Robot Award (Advanced Group)[86][108] and the first runner-up of the A.I. Self-driving Best Design Award in the EIE Robotics Challenge Junior 2019 organised by the Department of Electronic and Information Engineering, the
Hong Kong Polytechnic University.[87][109] In October 2019, the students of STEM Club made an instrument using the principle of
electromagnetism, able to play the
YMCA song. As an additional feature, they added a
LEGOrobot that can perform the
YMCA hand gesture. In this competition, they won the second runner up in the music category, presented by Hong Kong Technology Education Association,
Chinese University of Hong Kong.[110]
Overseas events
Every year in late June, students can go overseas in the school's Enrichment Week since 2010. Students can join the Service Outreach Scheme[111][112][113] or Work placement.[114] The overseas placement is facilitated by the connection between the school and the
YMCA centres of every city worldwide.[115] Destinations include
China,[116]Taiwan,
Cambodia,
Philippines,
Thailand,[117]Vietnam[118] and
Malaysia.[119]
There are also academic trips in summer holidays. Every year students who preferably study
Physics can be selected to participate in the Future Pilot Training Programme organized by the Hong Kong Direct Subsidy Scheme Schools Council. The training venue is
Bankstown Airport,
Sydney,
Australia and the campus of the
University of New South Wales. Students could learn the
Aviation Theory, safety issues and careers in aviation industry,
navigation and map-reading,
flight simulator sessions, 6–7 hours flight experience, cross country flight to
Temora Aviation Museum, and an introduction to
Boeing 737. Students also have
university visits, cultural exchange and sightseeing.[120]
Top students studying
Science can be selected to join the London International Youth Science Forum which is held across late July and early August in
London.[122]
The Student Council is elected from two or more cabinets of students every year. The Prefect Team and Student Ambassadors are selected by teachers as student leader groups.[2]
The House system consists of four houses. Chambers House was named in commemoration of
Oswald Chambers for his contributions as a YMCA chaplain during
World War I. Morrison House and Taylor House were named in commemoration of
Robert Morrison and
Hudson Taylor respectively for their contributions to the promotion of
Christianity as well as their general education for people in ancient
China. Williams House was named in commemoration of
George Williams for his contributions as a founder of
YMCA on 6 June 1844.[139][140]
The school organises three-day-two-night Life-Wide-Learning camp for junior form students in every Autumn to replace one-day picnic as their other learning experience. Camping sites include
Sai Kung Peninsula etc.[180] However, in recent years, over-night camps have been cancelled due to
COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong.
Public events
Starting from 2012, the International Fun Fair (IFF) is held by the students and teachers at the school in every December,[16] which is succeeding the Family Fun Fair[181][182] and the International Night until 2011.[18][135][183][184][185] Visitors can enjoy
ethnic food,[186] a
bazaar, games,[187] bouncy castles and an art exhibition at the school.[188] Visitors can also catch talent shows in the afternoon and evening,[189] featuring the songs and dances of different countries worldwide.[190][191] More than 4,000 and up to 10,000 people visit each IFF.[192]
International connections
The school connects to the YMCA centres from all cities in the world. Many schools or organisations sponsored by different YMCA centres in the world come to visit Hong Kong with the accompaniment of the school.[38] Also, the school also make use of the YMCA facilities of other cities during its overseas events such as Service Outreach Scheme programme.
The school has many connections with organisations worldwide, such as
Watoto Children's Choir etc. These connections provide different learning opportunities to the students.[193]
Having a large number of international students, the school has built up connections and understandings with other educational institutes to strengthen the collaboration in providing articulation opportunities for non-Chinese speaking secondary school students.[194]
Andrea Maria Lagman: a Professional
indoor hockey player. National team athlete for the
Philippines. Andrea bagged a Bronze medal at her third international game representing the Philippines in the
2019 Southeast Asian Games. The pioneering team for the first medal for hockey in the Philippines.[168]
^
ab"港青学校: "川港同心F2F"第二届师生赴港交流". YMCA Jintang Primary School. Retrieved 12 April 2020. An article about the school being visited by YMCA Jintang Primary School in
Sichuan,
China.
^
ab"COVID 19 Video Science Department". YMCA of Hong Kong Christian College. Archived from the original on 22 June 2021. Retrieved 13 April 2020.{{
cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (
link)