Diocesan Girls' School

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Diocesan Girls' School
Headmistress Mrs. Stella Lau
School type DSS, Grant School, Girls' School
Religious affiliation Anglican (Episcopal)
Founded 1860
Location Kowloon, Hong Kong
School colour(s) Blue
School motto Daily Giving Service

Diocesan Girls' School (DGS; 拔萃女書院), founded in 1860, is one of the earliest Anglican girls' schools in Hong Kong. DGS is currently located at 1 Jordan Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Administered under the Grant Code and using English as the medium of instruction ("EMI"). Academically, it is also one of the highest achieving schools in Hong Kong.

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[edit] Early history

It was originally Diocesan Native Female Training School in 1860, when it was founded at Bonham Road and Eastern Street on Hong Kong Island. The school was set up by Mrs. Smith, wife of Bishop Smith the first Bishop of Victoria who was sent by the Society for the Promotion of Female Education in the East, a sub-society of the London Missionary Society. At first, it took only girls. In 1866, it was renamed Diocesan Female School. In 1869 the School had to confine its service to orphans and destitute Chinese girls due to financial problems. Later, it became the Diocesan Home and Orphanage and accepted boys as well.

The School first received government financial assistance in 1878 and was placed under the Grant-in-aid scheme, officially limiting its intake to girls only. The boys were to continue their study at the newly founded Diocesan Boys' School.

In 1913, the School finally moved to its present site in Kowloon, formerly a rice paddy field. In the 1920s, the school motto, Daily Giving Service, was adopted. During the Japanese occupation in World War II, the School was taken over as headquarters of the Japanese gendarmerie until it was re-opened in September 1945 by Ms. Gibbins, then headmistress, who was interned at Stanley camp during the occupation. Immediately upon her release, Gibbins hurried back to reclaim the School premises despite difficulty in crossing the harbour, thus saving the building from being looted by angry residents.

[edit] Modern history

In the 1950s, with the closure of the adjacent town-gas depot, the school was able to expaned. The old Edwardian edifice was pulled down and three school blocks were constructed to accommodate the enlarged student body. The School embarked on a large scale school expansion project and two extension blocks were opened respectively in 1993 and 1996. A new phase of expansion is currently underway and a new gymnasium block has been added for the Secondary section.

Recently, the school celebrated her 145th Anniversary, and a musical production "The DGS Girl" was staged at the Shatin Town Hall, telling the history of a DGS through to life of a student-turned-teacher.

They go by the school motto, "Daily Giving Service" (an adaptation of the motto was coined by former Headmistress Dr. Joyce Symons for DGJS to be "Daily Giving Joyful Service".

DGS has most recently joined the Direct Subsidy Scheme in Hong Kong.

[edit] Academics

Diocesan Girls' School is an EMI school which is recognised for its high standard of English. It emphasizes the development of bilingual and triliterate abilities, and provides the girls with education in oral and written English, written Chinese. The school is locally known to be one of the highest-achieving girls' schools in academic terms, with students receiving top results in the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination (HKCEE) and the HKALE consistently throughout the years. One of the most notable achievements occurred in 1999, when 6 girls scored the record 10 A-grades in the HKCEE.

Students continued their tertiary education at local and overseas universities, such as The University of Hong Kong, Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Yale, etc.

[edit] Extra-curricular activities

The school places special emphasis not only on the intellectual growth of the students, but also on the character growth of students. Morning assemblies with Christian teachings are conducted every morning before lessons in both English and Putonghua. DGS girls are often regarded as formidable opponents in the choral, music and debating arena. The school is well known for her accomplishments in inter-school sports and music competitions. Their sports teams, choirs and orchestras are frequent recipients of outstanding results in the Hong Kong Schools Sports Federation Inter-school competitions and Hong Kong Schools Music Festival, as well as in the Hong Kong Schools Speech Festival. Among their students are Olympic swimmers, Inter-port runners and a Gold-medal recipient choir in the International Choir Olympics.

[edit] Music

The school possesses a wide range of musical groups, including the Junior, Intermediate, and Senior Choirs, the madrigal teams with their fraternal school Diocesan Boys' School (DBS), a Full Orchestra as well as a String Orchestra. Students also join with with DBS to form a Junior Mixed Choir and a Senior Mixed Choir within the Diocesan Schools Choral Society. These musical groups are well known locally as well as internationally for their accomplishments in local and international festivals.

DGS which also has a Chinese Orchestra, numerous Chinese ensembles.

[edit] Sports

The school has a wealth of school sports teams, including Athletics, Swimming, Life-saving, Orienteering, Tennis, Badminton, Table-tennis, Fencing, Netball and Hockey, which all frequently come top in the Hong Kong Inter-school competitions. They have captured a number of top awards, such as the Bank of China (Hong Kong) Bauhinia Bowl (previously known as the Omega Rose Bowl), as well as its associate - Bauhinia Bowl Sportsgirl of the Year. Arguably, the school's strongest sport is swimming. In the past 20 years, they have produced such well-known swimmers such as Robyn Lamsam (伍紹斌), Snowie Pang (彭蘊瑤), Katie Lau (劉敬亭), Sherry Tsai (蔡曉慧) and Sandy Chan (陳詠雪).

[edit] Donations controversy

In 1976, the school dispatched application forms for its Primary school together with a solicitation for "voluntary donation of HK$1,000" towards the construction of a new Primary School building. This caused a huge amount of consternation among the public, and fuelled the debate about the corrupt recruitment practices of elitist schools[1]. Symons had responded that the solicitation had been cleared by the ICAC, and in addition that the school had sent out the solicitations "inadvertently". The school was forced to dissociate the request for donations from applications.

The controversy also contributed to demands that the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, of which Symons was the sole representative of the education sector, be made more representative of the sector[2].

[edit] School hymn

Our Father, by whose servants
Our house was built of old,
Whose hand hath crowned her children
With blessings manifold,
For thine unfailing mercies
Far-strewn along our way,
With all who passed before us,
We praise thy name to-day.

The changeful years unresting
Their silent course have sped,
New comrades ever bringing
In comrades' steps to tread;
And some are long forgotten,
Long spent their hopes and fears;
Safe rest they in thy keeping,
Who changest not with years.

They reap not where they laboured,
We reap what they have sown;
Our harvest may be garnered
By ages yet unknown.
The days of old have dowered us
With gifts beyond all praise:
Our Father, make us faithful
To serve the coming days.

Before us and beside us,
Still holden in thine hand,
A cloud unseen of witness,
Our elder comrades stand:
One family unbroken,
We join, with one acclaim,
One heart, one voice uplifting,
To glorify thy name.

(Click here for a MIDI version of the school hymn.)

[edit] Houses

Houses are named after several headmistresses.

  • Gibbins (Yellow)
  • Hurrell (Red)
  • Sawyer (Green)
  • Skipton (Blue)
  • Symons (Pink) --created in 1990.

[edit] Other related associations

  • DGS has an Old Girl Association named Diocesan Old Girls Association (DOGA).
  • St. Andrews Church of the SKH West-Kowloon Diocese is the local parish church of DGS.

[edit] Well-known alumni

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Carroll, Millie (April 5, 1976). Mrs. Symons, donations, and the ICAC. Hong Kong Standard. Retrieved on February 23, 2007.
  2. ^ Education group calls for representative in Legco. Hong Kong Standard (March 16, 1976). Retrieved on February 23, 2007.

[edit] External links

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