La Salle College

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La Salle College (LSC)

School Badge of La Salle College
School Badge
Motto FIDES ET OPERA
(Faith and Works)
Established 1932
Supervisor Brother Thomas Lavin, FSC
Principal Mr. Wong, Yen-kit
Address 18 La Salle Road, Kowloon
Hong Kong
Students 1,800 total
Area Approx. 28000 sq. meters
Medium of Instruction English
Member of Brothers of the Christian Schools
School Colours Red, Purple and White
Homepage http://www.lasalle.edu.hk

Coordinates: 22°19′45.11″N, 114°10′56.93″ELa Salle College ( LSC; Chinese: 喇沙書院, Mandarin pinyin: Lǎshā Shūyuàn, Cantonese jyutping: laa3 sa1 syu1 jyun2 ) is a boys' secondary school in Kowloon, Hong Kong, China. It was established by the Brothers of the Christian Schools, a Roman Catholic religious-teaching order founded by St. John Baptist de La Salle.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Foundation

In 1917 the Brothers of the Christian Schools, who had recently founded St. Joseph's College, opened a junior school on Chatham Road near the Rosary Church. At this time Kowloon was expanding rapidly, demand for school places was rising and Brother Aimar Sauron, the Director of St. Joseph's, realized that a new school building was necessary. He acquired a piece of land on Boundary Street in the late 1920s as a site for the new La Salle College.

On November 5, 1930 Sir William Peel, the Governor of Hong Kong, laid the foundation stone of the new building. By December 3, 1931, the work on the building and the playgrounds was sufficiently advanced to allow the opening of eight classes for 303 pupils, under the management of five Brothers from St. Joseph's College and four Assistant Masters from the Chatham Road School.

The formal inauguration took place on January 6, 1932. Seven Brothers, headed by Rev. Brother Aimar as Director, took over and a few days later 40 boarders occupied their quarters to the west of the building. There were then 540 students in 14 classes. About one third of the students had a European (especially Portuguese) connection.

For seven years the College thrived under the guidance of Brother Aimar. The students achieved excellent results in the Matriculation Examinations, the laboratories were getting into shape, four tennis courts and a full-sized football pitch were built and the statue of St. John Baptist de La Salle that now stands in front of the College was erected. The number of students increased to 805 in 1935 and 1,060 in 1939.

[edit] World War II

The outbreak of World War II in 1939 brought great disruption to the life of the school. The HK Government requisitioned the buildings as an internment camp and later a hospital. The Brothers had to arrange for temporary classrooms to be built across the road and classes continued there. In the afternoons, Brothers helped in the hospital.

On Christmas Day 1941 the Crown Colony surrendered to the Japanese and, soon after, the Brothers were ousted from the College. The buildings were turned into a storage depot. The Japanese encouraged civilians to leave the Colony, as food was in short supply. A number of Brothers, traveled to Vietnam where they remained for the duration of the conflict. The founder and principal, Brother Aimar, died there in 1945.

Brother Cassian Brigant OBE energetically undertook restoration of the College after the war in 1946. Soon the College made a remarkable recovery and had about 600 pupils on her roll. The British Military Authorities, however, once again requisitioned the College in 1947 and she was turned into the 33rd General Hospital. Under the directorship of Brother Patrick Toner, the school was moved to temporary buildings in Perth Street, Homantin. Despite the considerable difficulties, few school activities suffered by this change.

Brothers Aimar and Cassian's contributions to the good of the school were recognised when new wing buildings were named after them, which were unveiled in 2005.

Main College Campus
Main College Campus

[edit] Post-war development

Brother Felix was appointed Director of the School in 1956 and re-acquired the College buildings from the military authorities on August 1, 1959. Student numbers grew steadily and this in turn led to a separation of primary and secondary divisions. La Salle Primary School was founded in 1957 and Brother Henry Pang was appointed Headmaster.

Towards the mid-1970s, the Brothers, under the directorship of Brother Raphael, decided the then aging building was functionally inadequate and would be too costly to refurbish. The old building with its distinctive Majestic Dome was knocked down to make way for progress. While classes were continuing, a portion of the school grounds were used to erect a new superstructure with modern facilities. The project was funded via the sale of part of the school grounds to various property corporations; therefore, the current College is notably smaller than that of the days of the Majestic Dome. The Governor of Hong Kong, Sir Murray MacLehose, officially opened the new school on February 19, 1982, in her Golden Jubilee year.

The current College building stands seven floors high from "field level" (5 floors above ground level, and 2 floors below ground level with the field at the very bottom) and has an enrollment of almost 1,800 students. Its four blocks surround two quadrangles, the lower dotted with benches and greenery and the upper containing a standard size basketball court. The four blocks are named the North, East, South and West Wings after their position on the two quadrangles. There is an extensive range of facilities for academic use and for extra-curricular activities, including sporting facilities. The new campus incorporates a standard size football field with artificial turf, a 400m all-weather track, a 50m (Olympic length) outdoor swimming pool with electronic timing and an air-conditioned gymnasium encompassing 6 badminton courts and a basketball court. In addition, there are two outdoor basketball courts, a tennis court, a volleyball court, and a squash court.

[edit] Recent years

Brother Cassian Wing
Brother Cassian Wing

To enhance communication between teachers and parents, a Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) was established in January 1995 and has become an integral part of the life of the school.

In September 1996, the track and field were in urgent need of resurfacing. The La Salle Foundation, with the help of the PTA, raised over five million Hong Kong dollars and the Hong Kong Jockey Club contributed the same amount. The project was completed in October 1998 and the facilities were renamed the La Salle College-Jockey Club Track and Field.

In December 1998, La Salle College hosted the 3rd gathering of the Asia-Pacific Lasallian Educators' Congress; about 130 delegates from the Asia-Pacific region took part. As a direct result, the Hong Kong Lasallian Family Office was established in April 1999 with Brother Thomas Lavin as Coordinator. This Office aims to draw together the various members of the Lasallian Family in Hong Kong.

In December 2004 more than 150 Brothers and young Lasallians joined together in Hong Kong for the Seventh Asia-Pacific Lasallian Youth Congress, chaired by Brother Thomas Lavin, under the theme "Together in Faith-Full Service".

During the summer of 2005, the construction work of the School Improvement Program (SIP) ended with the completion of two new wings, the Aimar Wing and the Cassian Wing, named after the first two principals of the school. The SIP provides an additional 32 rooms, with new facilities including computer rooms and a multi-media learning centre.

[edit] School Associations

The Old Boys' Association (OBA) is an organization that unifies old boys around the world, as well as contributing to the College by, for example, sponsoring scholarships, organizing career talks and supporting various school's events; its membership as of 7 June 2006 reached 5,367.

The Student Association (SA) represents current students, and its Executive Committee is chosen through elections open to students of Form 2 and higher every year. It consists of five boards, namely the Clubs Coordinating Board (CCB), the Discipline Board (DB), the Class Representatives' Board (CRB), the Publications Board (PB), and the Secretariat (Sec).

Since the majority of the school buildings are above standard, the Government is not responsible for their maintenance. Replacements of plant and machinery as well as the upkeeping of existing facilities require substantial sums of money. The Brothers, Principal Brother Francis, and some old boys initiated the idea of a Foundation whose sole aim was to provide sufficient funds to do just this. In early 1992, the La Salle Foundation was established with Mr. Michael Sze as the first Chairman.

Mr. Wong Yen-kit
Mr. Wong Yen-kit

[edit] The first layman principal

As Hong Kong education law requires school prinicipals to retire at 60 years old, Brother Thomas Lavin relinquished the position in 2004, and later flying to Bethlehem for ministerial works in 2005. Dr. Paul Lau (劉煒堅) then became the first secular principal of La Salle College. Lau had completed his primary and secondary education at La Salle Primary School and La Salle College respectively.

Lau resigned on June 27, 2006 with effect from August 31, 2006 for personal reasons, and was succeeded by Mr. Yen-kit Wong (王仁傑) as Acting Principal for the time being before the school recruits a new principal.

On March 15, 2007, Brother Thomas Lavin, the School Supervisor, announced that Mr. Wong Yen-kit will take up the position of the Principal with immediate effect, this announcement was subsequently posted on the school website the following day.

[edit] Achievements

[edit] Academic

In 1992/1993, the school produced the first ever Arts 10A in HKCEE history. The event was reported in SCMP in the article "Arts Student Makes History."

In 2001, four students of the school attained the top score of 10 A's in the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination (HKCEE). Two years later, the class of 2003 scored a record total of 501 A's in this examination. La Salle students have also won the coveted Charles Frankland Moore Scholarship (which is awarded each year to the candidate with the highest numerical score in the HKCEE) three times in 1986, 2001 and 2005.

La Salle Athletes
La Salle Athletes

[edit] Extra-curricular

The College has won various academic, cultural and sports competitions. She is an 8-time champion of the Joint School Chinese Debating Competition and 4-time School Grand Prize Winner of the Hong Kong Olympiad in Informatics, which are both records. Her students are also active in speech, dance and music competitions.

In sports, she conquered badminton champions in all grades (generally known as the Grand Slam title) in 1993-1994, 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 in the Kowloon Area. In addition, La Salle has won overall champions in athletics (Grand Slam in 1950-1951), badminton, basketball, cross country, fencing, football (2 Grand Slams in 1947-1949, 1 Grand Slam in 1972-1973 in the Kowloon Area and 3 Grand Slams in 1986-1989 in the Kowloon Area), hockey, squash, softball, swimming, table tennis, tennis and volleyball (Grand Slam in 1985-1986 in the Kowloon Area). The table tennis team has been named the Overall Champions every year since 2001.

The Omega Rose Bowl, and its successor the Bank of China (Hong Kong) Bauhinia Bowl, is awarded to the secondary school with the best all-round sporting performance in the Hong Kong Island and Kowloon region. The College has been the Boys School Champions 26 times, the highest number of victories in this category (1974-1991, 1993-1994, 1999-2007).

As part of the celebration of the College's 70th anniversary, students, old boys, parents and teachers, with a total number of 1932, organised a record-breaking event known as "The Biggest Hug" on February 3, 2002. This achievement was once chronicled in the Guinness World Records, but the record was broken in 2004. [dubious — see talk page]

[edit] Traditions

There are several traditions associated with the College.

[edit] Old Boys' tie

Students who are promoted to Form Six (Grade 12) are allowed to wear a black tie with a sparse pattern of school crests, the "Old Boys' Tie", instead of the normal black school tie with red and white diagonal stripes.

La Salle Students Cheering
La Salle Students Cheering

[edit] School cheers

At large sporting events, especially the Interschool Athletics Meet in March, students would need to leave the school and participate in large cheering teams organised by the Student Association (SA) to rally the athletes. Traditional cheers include one that shouts out "La Salle Spirit: never say die", and another that tells the sportsmen to "Be calm and do your best; that's all La Salle requests".

[edit] Prayers

Classes maintain the tradition of praying three times a day—before classes begin and after each recess or lunch break. The prayers are usually led by students on duty, catholic boys or sometimes the teacher, and commonly include Hail Mary, Apostles' Creed and The Lord's Prayer which end with the unique Lasallian lines: "St. John Baptist de La Salle - Pray for us; Live Jesus in our hearts - Forever".

[edit] Eminent Old Boys

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Business sector

Cultural sector

Legal sector

Medical sector

  • Dr. Choi Kin Gabriel, 蔡堅, 2004-2005 President of The Hong Kong Medical Association
  • Dr. Shih Tai Cho Louis, 史泰祖, 2004-2005 Vice-President of The Hong Kong Medical Association
  • Dr. Chan Wai Kai, Chairperson of The Hong Kong Ophthalmological Society during 1969-1971

Public Service sector

Sports sector

  • Stephen Xavier, JP, former Hong Kong record holder of men's 100m and 200m sprints, the only Hong Kong athletics medal winner in any Asian Games (a bronze medal in Men's 200m in Manila, 1954)
  • Philip Reis, 李菲臘, member of the Hong Kong National Football Team which beat China 2-1 in the "5.19" World Cup Asian Qualifier held on 19 May 1985

[edit] List of Principals

  • 1932-1945 : Rev. Bro. Aimar Pierre Sauron, FSC
  • 1945-1947 : Rev. Bro. Cassian Brigant, OBE, FSC
  • 1947-1956 : Rev. Bro. Patrick Toner, FSC
  • 1956-1965 : Rev. Bro. Felix Sheehan, FSC
  • 1965-1971 : Rev. Bro. Casimir Husarik, FSC
  • 1971-1984 : Rev. Bro. Raphael Egan, FSC
  • 1984-1990 : Rev. Bro. Alphonsus Chee, FSC
  • 1990-1998 : Rev. Bro. Francis O'Rourke, FSC
  • 1998-2000 : Rev. Bro. Patrick Tierney, FSC
  • 2000-2004 : Rev. Bro. Thomas Lavin, FSC
  • 2004-2006 : Dr. Paul Wai-keen Lau
  • 2006-2007 : Mr. Yen-kit Wong (Acting)
  • 2007-Present: Mr. Yen-kit Wong

[edit] External links

[edit] La Salle College

[edit] La Salle College Old Boys

[edit] Brothers of the Christian Schools

[edit] References

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    [edit] See also

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