West Island School

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West Island School 西島中學

'Strength from Diversity'
Established	1991
School type	Private, comprehensive, international, secondary, co-educational.
Principal	Ms. Jane Foxcroft
Faculty	N/A
Students	approx. 1,250
Years Publication	Year 7-13 Vision
Location	250 Victoria Road Pokfulam Hong Kong 22°16′21″N, 114°07′32″E
Information	(852) 2819 1962 wis@wis.edu.hk
Website	http://www.wis.edu.hk/

West Island School (西島中學, WIS) is a comprehensive, co-educational, international secondary school in Hong Kong. The campus is a purpose-built development located at 250 Victoria Road in Pokfulam at 22°16′21″N, 114°07′32″E; near Sandy Bay at the western part of Hong Kong Island. The school serves students along the western coast of Hong Kong Island, the Mid-Levels and the outlying islands and is the newest secondary school established by the English Schools Foundation.

Contents 1 History 2 Curriculum 3 Students 4 Facilities 5 Management 6 See also 7 External links

[edit] History

West Island School began when the English Schools Foundation recognized a need for a third secondary school on Hong Kong Island in the late-1980s; after Island School and South Island School. After government approval of a site and funding in November 1990, plans for West Island School began in earnest, with the school operating as an offshoot of Island School at a temporary home; the old military hospital in Borrett Road, Mid-Levels. [1]

West Island's first intake was in September 1991, when eighty-four Year 7 students were enrolled in four classes. In the meantime, work progressed on a purpose-built school in Pokfulam, designed by Patrick Lau, who was responsible for two other international schools in Hong Kong, the French International School in Tai Hang and the American Hong Kong International School in Tai Tam.

In September 1994, the state-of-the-art purpose-built new building opened. A ten-storey building consisting of three blocks, A, B and C, linked together by open-air walkways, and featuring air-conditioned work-corridors, it houses everything from classrooms to science laboratories, and an auditorium to a 25-metre swimming pool.

Over the years, renovations further increased the usability of the building, although by 2001 the school was getting rather crowded with over 1000 students enrolled; paving the way for the creation of a fourth block, Block D, located on the hillside between Block C and Victoria Road. This major new addition opened for use in September 2003.

[edit] Curriculum

The school offers secondary education from Years 7 to 13, for children aged 11-18. This corresponds to the United Kingdom's National Curriculum levels of Key Stage 3, 4 and 5. Although the curriculum is based on the British National Curriculum and leads to the British GCSE, IGCSE and GCE A/AS-Level and also IB qualifications, it is suitably and adequately localized for the needs of Hong Kong and the international student body.

Although West Island is a comprehensive, non-selective school where the only criteron is the ability to benefit from an English-language education, the school's has consistently achieved examination results that match independent and selective schools in the United Kingdom:

In the past five years (2000-2004), over 40% of GCSE passes were at grades A* or A and over 80% A-Level passes at grades A-C. In 2004, the figures were 48.8% and 87.6% respectively. [2]

Most students go onto higher education in tertiary institutions around the world, including universities in Australia, Canada, Mainland China, Hong Kong, United Kingdom and the United States.

Recognizing the changing needs of the education market, plans are currently in place to introduce the more internationally-recognized International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme as a substitute for the British examinations in 2007.

In addition to its academic record, West Island also offer a large selection of extra-curricular activities run by both staff and students. Such activities are also comprehensive, though internal competitions are also held; including an annual Sports Festival/Swimming Gala, Sports Day, Music Festival and Language Festival. Furthermore, students also have the opportunity to compete with other teams from other international schools as well as local schools from across Hong Kong and internationally.

West Island School also excels in sporting, with the school's track, swimming, field hockey, rugby, football, volleyball, martial arts, netball, mountain biking and basketball teams constantly dominating Hong Kong inter-school championship leaderboards. The West Island School physical education faculty invests heavily in the development of such sports and relevant equipment.

[edit] Students

The school currently has some 1250 students enrolled, coming from nearly forty different countries. The student body is led by the Head Boy (currently Justin Yeung), Head Girl (currently Jacqueline Fok), Deputy Head Boy (currently Tom Owens) and Deputy Head Girl (currently Nidhi Rathi). Students are separated into six houses, known as Dynasties:

• Han - Headed by Chris Davey and Jenny Hui
• Ming - Headed by Resham Daswani and Casey Messick
• Qing - Headed by Miane Ng and Nick Song
• Sung - Headed by Sabrina Hinchliffe and Sharon Chan.
• Tang - Headed by Anthony Haynes and Yoyo Poon
• Yuan - Headed by Toby Smith and Maddie

These Dynasty Captains are lead by Debbie Sin and Shamir Pasha.

Han, Ming, Sung and Tang were the original four dynasties. Yuan was introduced in 1994 when the school moved to its present premises and Qing was added in 2001 as the school reached a thousand pupils.

A Year 7 class in Tang dynasty (house) would be known "7T". . In upper cool (year 12-13), students are still assigned a dynasty but classes are mixed to reflect different needs.

The school uniform, mandatory for students in Years 7-11,. In year 12-13, students may wear casual to school as long as it conforms to the school's dress code under normal circumstances.

West Island School serves students living along the south and western coast of Hong Kong Island including Ap Lei Chau, Aberdeen, Pokfulam, the Mid-Levels, as well as the outlying islands such as Discovery Bay, Mui Wo on Lantau Island and Lamma Island.

[edit] Facilities

The four blocks that make up the West Island School building houses a range of academic departments and supporting facilities on its ten floors.

It houses a number of academic departments including English (English, Media Studies), Humanities (Geography, History, Psychology, Religious Studies, Sociology), ICT (Information and Communications Technology), Mathematics, Modern Languages (Chinese, French, Spanish), Expressive Arts (Art, Drama, Music, Physical Education), Science (Biology, Chemistry and Physics), Design and Technology (Craft, Design and Techology, Food Technology, Textiles Technology), Business and Vocational Education (Business Studies, Economics, GNVQ Leisure and Tourism, AVCE Leisure and Recreation, VCE Information and Communication Technology).

Furthermore, a support faculties exist, Learning Support, which deals with issues including Careers, Directed Study, English as an Additional Language (EAL), Special Educational Needs as well as run the School Library.

The building also houses a refectory, offices, indoor sports hall (basketball, volleyball, badminton, etc), muti-purpose hall, auditorium equipped with full scale lighting and audio sound system, 25-metre indoor heated swimming pool; and its rooftops are used as playgrounds and outdoor sports pitches.

The West Island School refectory is run by French-based caterer Sodexho, and charges high prices for food due to its monopoly within the area. Prices typically cost as much as HK$4 more than prices at local supermarkets and convenience stores. Sodexho in West Island School follows healthy-eating guidelines laid down by the staff committee, and this is characterised by the sale of unsalted potato chips and the withdrawal of chicken nuggets and criss-cut potato pieces from sale. There has initially been resistance and dissatisfaction from students during the time when Sodexho took over a more personally-run caterer, known amongst students and staff as 'Libby's', named after the owner of the catering business. Students complained that Sodexho sold food of lower quality at extortionate prices. However, as students leave the school to progress after completion of secondary education, few individuals remain that remember the long-running caterer before Sodexho, and so effectively profiting West Island School as a whole.

West Island School also makes use of the nearby Hong Kong University Stanley Ho Sports Centre at Sandy Bay, where outdoor astro-turf and natural grass pitches, athletics stadium, 50 metre outdoor swimming pool and tennis courts are available for booking.

[edit] Management

The current principal of West Island School is Ms Jane Foxcroft, who succeeded Mr Brian Driver in end of the 2006 school year, the latter who joined West Island School in February 1999 after the departure of the first and previous principal, Miss Polly Graham.

WIS is a member school of the English Schools Foundation (ESF); though the ESF is more akin to a governing body and does not directly run the school. Like all other ESF schools, WIS is governed by a School Council and receives funding through government subsidies as well as tuition fees.

[edit] See also

• English Schools Foundation
• Island School
• South Island School

[edit] External links

• West Island School
• English Schools Foundation