West Island School
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| West Island School 西島中學 | |
| 'Strength from Diversity & "A Better School A Better World" | |
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| School type | Private, comprehensive, international, secondary, co-educational. |
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| Established | 1991 |
| Principal | Ms. Jane Foxcroft |
| Faculty | N/A |
| Students | approx. 1,250 |
| Years Publication |
Year 7-13 Vision |
| Location | 250 Victoria Road Pokfulam Hong Kong |
| 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 ; 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.
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[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. This was because of the recent residential boom in DB, which had no secondary school to cater for the growing need of secondary school education. 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.
West Island School is the recipient of nearby Kennedy School Year 6 graduates.
[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.
West Island is a diverse school that does extremely well in U.K Standards and the average grades for the school come in the top 1% of the UK School System.
In the years 2000-2004, over 50% of GCSE passes were at grades A* or A and over 95% A-Level passes at grades A-D. In 2006 they were 51.2% and 98% respectively. http://clc.esf.edu.hk/GroupRenderCustomPage.asp?GroupID=1888&ResourceId=19355
Most students go onto higher education in tertiary institutions around the world, including universities in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, United Kingdom and the United States. Many students graduating from West Island School go on to leading universities such as Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard.
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 extracurricular 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 Alex Ebeling and Yoyo Poon
- Yuan - Headed by Maddie Booth and Toby Smith
These Dynasties are led by Dynasty Captains 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 school (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. Many students travel for one and a half hours to get to the school every day.
[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), Creative Arts (Art, Drama, Music, Physical Education), Science (Biology, Chemistry and Physics), Design and Technology (Craft, Design and Technology, 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 includes the sub-faculties of Careers, concerning entry into higher education and similar prospects, Directed Study a type of self study with the assistance of certain intellectual resources, English as an Additional Language (EAL), Special Educational Needs and the school Library.
Upper School students are entitled to the use of the Upper School Area, which encompasses a common area, staff offices, a pantry, a conference room, a Directed Studies room and a Careers Room. This area almost always undergoes refurbishment at the end of the academic year.
The building also houses a refectory, indoor sports hall (basketball, volleyball, badminton, etc), multi-purpose hall, auditorium equipped with full scale lighting and audio sound system, 25-metre indoor heated swimming pool; and rooftops 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's Stanley Ho Sports Centre located at Sandy Bay, where outdoor astro-turf and natural grass pitches, athletics stadium, the 50-metre outdoor Henry Fok Swimming Pool and tennis courts are available for booking.
[edit] Extra-Curricular Activities & CAS
In West Island School, Extra-Curricular Activities are mandatory and are split up into 2 different types of Extra-Curricular Activities. One type is Horizon's Week Options. This is when the whole school must take part in a particular activity for a week. There are no lessons during this week. Many Options for Horizons Week include; - A visit to Kenya - A visit to China (either Shanghai or Beijing) - A visit to Barcelona - A week of Yacht Sailing - A week of Charity Work - A week of trail walking around Hong Kong - A week of creating a movie - A week of Horse Riding and many more These activities may vary due to the motivation or participation of Students and Teachers.
In West Island School, the other type of Extra-Curricular Activities is After School Activities which take place every week or numerous times a week. This type of Extra-Curricular Activity is mainly sports related activities. Some of these Activities include; - Rock School - Musical Instrument Lessons - Skate Club - Horse Riding - Sailing - Hockey - English Football - Netball - Basketball - Rock Climbing - Cross Country - Swimming - Karate - TaeKwonDo - Table Tennis - Volley Ball
CAS (Creativity, Action & Service) is the system in which Extra Curricular Activities are run on. The system is managed by Paul Bayne.
[edit] Management
The current principal of West Island School is Jane Foxcroft, the successor of Brian Driver at the end of the 2006 academic year. Driver joined West Island School in February 1999, succeeding the first principal, Miss Polly Graham.
WIS is a member school of the English Schools Foundation (ESF); although 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
[edit] External links
Kindergartens: Abacus International Kindergarten | Sheung Wan International Kindergarten | Tsing Yi International Kindergarten
Primary Schools: Bauhinia School | Beacon Hill School | Bradbury School | Clearwater Bay School | Discovery Bay School | Glenealy School | Jockey Club Sarah Roe School | Kennedy School | Kowloon Junior School | Peak School | Quarry Bay School | Renaissance College | Sha Tin Junior School
Secondary Schools: Discovery Bay School | Island School | Jockey Club Sarah Roe School | King George V School | Renaissance College | Sha Tin College | South Island School | West Island School
Special Needs Schools: Jockey Club Sarah Roe School
English Schools Foundation
