St. Paul's Co-educational College

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St. Paul's Co-educational College

聖保羅男女中學
St. Paul's Co-ed.
Faith, Hope, Love
Location
33 Macdonnell Road
Mid-levels
Hong Kong
Information
Principal Dr Anissa Chan
Enrollment

approx. 1,200
Faculty Not applicable
Type Grant, DSS, secondary, co-educational.
Established 1915 (as St. Paul's Girls' College)
Information (852) 2523 0910
info@spcc.edu.hk
Forms
Alumni		 Form 1 to Upper 6
Hong Kong Alumni Website
Homepage http://www.spcc.edu.hk/

St. Paul's Co-educational College (Traditional Chinese: 聖保羅男女中學), (often abbreviated as St. Paul's Co-ed., St. Paul's or SPCC) is located at 33 MacDonnell Road, Mid-levels, Hong Kong.

Contents

[edit] Background Information

The school was founded in 1915 as St. Paul's Girls' College by the Anglican church. It was the first school in Hong Kong to require students to wear uniforms (1918).

The chairman of the School Council is Professor Sheung-Wai Tam.

It is operated under the Direct Subsidy Scheme (DSS), and was the first subsidized school to join the scheme. Each student pays HK$48000 annually which is the maximum limit for a DSS school restricted by the HKSAR government.

[edit] Primary school

The college had an affiliated primary school: St. Paul's Co-educational College Primary School, which was once divided into two half-day schools, St. Paul's Co-educational (Kennedy Road) Primary School (former St. Paul's Co-educational P.M. Primary School) and St. Paul's Co-educational (MacDonnell Road) Primary School (former St. Paul's Co-educational A.M. Primary School) to cope with the demand for places, they resumed full-day education in 1999.

The secondary school curriculum is taught in English, except for Chinese Language, Chinese History and Mandarin. Furthermore, its primary school teaches predominantly in English with help of Cantonese, and some lessons are taught by native English Teachers.

[edit] Choirs

The choirs are the most prestigious school teams in SPCC. There are three choirs in the college, the Treble Choir, the Concert Choir and the Senior Mixed Voice Choir. The Treble Choir is the only junior choir in SPCC and the members are usually from Form 1-3. On the contrary, the Concert Choir and the Senior Mixed Voice Choir mainly consist of Form 3-7 members. There are about 120 members in CC and 80 members in SMVC. Talented members in the CC with good attendance can have the chance of being promoted to the SMVC and compete in the Hong Kong School Music Festival.

Comparing with other school teams and clubs, the senior choirs have the most complicated administrative structure. Each committee member have different roles in the senior choir. For instance, there is one chairman, one chairlady, 4 part leaders, 4 co-part leaders, 4 part coordinators, 3 secretaries, one treasurer and 3 librarians.

Starting from the era of Dr. Anissa Chan, the chairpersons and the part leaders of the senior choirs need to lead the singings of hymns on stage.

[edit] Alumni choir

The SPCC Alumni Choir was founded in 1980 at the initiative of the late former Principal Dr BM Kotewall, who wanted to preserve the tradition of musical excellence of the School. It made its debut at the 1980 Summer Concert under the founding conductor Geoffrey Ko, who passed on the baton to John Lowe and Barnabas Chung in 1982.

In addition to its regular appearances in the Carol Service, the Summer Concert and other significant functions of the School, the Alumni Choir also organizes public concerts on its own or with other performing groups, continuously providing a vital and precious musical and social link among different generations of graduates.

[edit] Campus

Situated in the Mid-levels, the school campus is naturally deprived of space. The school comprises currently 12 floors, including the roof structure, and two "underground" floors, which are only partially underground. Flooring system is based on the American style, which counts floors similarly to the Chinese style, to avoid confusion.

The lowest floor contains an outdoor irregular patch of ground named the triangular football pitch due to the roughly triangular shape, the gymnasium, a table tennis room, and a boys' changing room.

One floor up and there is the girls' changing room as well as the Design and Technology Workshop.

On the first floor, there is a staff room (Staff Room (D)), two music rooms, six Form One classrooms and a boys' lavatory. There is also an outdoor tiny playground for badminton. A White Champaca (or White Sandalwood, Michelia alba) tree grows from this playground through the open air, passing all the corridors to a point higher than the school's current highest point. The lower exit on this floor enters the Tramway Path between MacDonnell Road and Kennedy Road. The trail overlooks the aforementioned football pitch.

On the second floor, there are the six Form Two classrooms, Special Room B, an Interview Room, a Supporting Service Office (SSO) (formerly named as stationery office/sick room), the Art room, the new Conference Room, the Special Room A (also known as the Needle Work Room, and has a door that leads to the basketball court of the primary school), the Integrated Science Laboratory, two girls' lavatories, and three new extra classrooms (1G, 2G and CP1) which was renovated from the old covered playground that used to contain table tennis tables, and overlooked the tiny ground floor playground and the slope, now steps with plants, between them. This playground used to hold game stalls on games days and club activity days before the transformation. A staircase links the covered playground to the tiny playground on the first floor, right outside the windows of Music Room A. There is also a Student Union Room beside the staircase. The backstage of the Hall on the third floor is also accessible from stairs between 2F and 2G classroom.

On the third floor, there are two staff rooms (Staff Rooms (B) and (C)), six Form Three classrooms, a boys' and a girls' lavatories, The Sir Robert Kotewall Hall (aka "The Hall" or "School Hall"), the Biology and Advanced Biology Laboratories, the "red brick football playground" (yet another small playground, rectangular, that overlooks the primary school premises), and the canteen which is inside the primary school campus, but are for secondary school use only. Before arriving at the canteen, there are stairs which connect to the primary school building.

On the fourth floor of the Old Wing (the red brick portion), there is a staffroom (Staff Room (A)), classrooms of Form Four and Five, A and B. A new reception area cum satellite library is also being built on this floor. Form Four Classrooms C to E, girls' lavatory and the IT-Learning Centre (ITLC) (which is also known as the computer room) are situated on the lower fourth floor of the New Wing while Form Five C to E, boys' lavatory and Lower Six Science C are on the upper fourth floor of the New Wing. A set of wooden stairs lead down to the third floor outside the Hall, and a concrete one up towards the roof of the Hall, where there is an outdoor basketball court. The gallery at the back of the Hall is accessed here. The MacDonnell Road entrance is also situated on this floor, near Staff Room (A). The core part of the school can be found on the fourth floor of the school as well, consisting of the Student Affairs Office (SAO), the Administration office and the Principal's office.

On the fifth floor are the three Upper Sixth Science classrooms (A, B, C) and two Lower Sixth ones (A, B), one of which (Upper Six Science C,which is formely Upper Six Science B) is isolated by the Chemistry and Advanced Chemistry Laboratories that take up a portion of the corridor. The classroom is isolated because safety regulations disallow students to enter or walk through the labs. Also on this floor are the Physics and Advanced Physics Laboratories, the girls' lavatory, and the basketball court on the top of the Hall. The Principal's Conference Room can be found next to the Advanced Physics Laboratory, and can alternatively be reached from a staircase on the fourth floor next the MacDonnell Road exit. Hence, students are disallowed from going up that staircase.

The sixth floor houses the English Corner and the Dance Studio, reachable by staircases in the New Wing. Staircases in the Old Wing leads up to the roof, which is theoretically out of bounds for students. However, it is a tradition for Upper Sixth graduated to go up to the roof to celebrate their last day in school, and janitors would be tolerant of this rule-breaking on that particular day.

The sixth floor in the Primary School building houses Form Five F, Lower and Upper Sixth Arts classrooms, two staff rooms (Staff Rooms (G) and (E)), with Staff Room G formerly known as the Old AV Room, and the Geography Room. On the seventh floor in the Primary School building, there is Form Four F, the school library, a staff room (Staff Room (F)), the Finance Office, the Community Relations Office and the Project Office. This portion in the primary school section is relatively remote from the main campus, and is nicknamed "Siberia" by students.

The school's swimming pool is located at 1 Calder Path.

The School Improvement Programme (SIP) Annex has been in use since September 2006. This annex is a small block behind the Hall which raises the building from ten up to 12 floors, including a few new classrooms, a computer room, a staff room (Staff Room (H)), and a multi-purpose room. Due to the height of the building, it is nicknamed 'High Mountain' by students.

In 2008, the secondary school will undergo redevelopment when the primary school moves to its new campus in Wong Chuk Hang. Once the new campus of the primary school in Wong Chuk Hang is completed, the secondary school will expand into the existing primary school campus on MacDonnell Road.

[edit] Assembly

Normally, there is an assembly every school day from 8:30 am to 8:45 am. Students start arriving the hall from 8:20 - 8:30 am. While waiting for all students to be seated, a student from the Pianist Chamber (different every day) plays a classical piece of music. Assembly starts with hymn singing and the Lord's Prayer, which is then followed by performances, presentations, speeches etc. It usually ends with announcements of the school, clubs and interest groups.

When assembly is to include performances, presentations, speeches etc, there will be a 30-minute "Long assembly" instead. It ends with a reminder of a different timetable for morning lessons

[edit] Uniform

St. Paul's Co-educational College is remembered as the first secondary school that requires students to wear school uniforms in Hong Kong, thus beginning the culture.

The uniforms of St. Paul's today are one of the typical styles of Hong Kong student uniforms. The idea behind the uniform is often cited as to be as simple and plain as possible. This implies no make-up and only a pair of simple ear studs (no earrings) for girls, and boys should not have hair that is long enough to touch the shirt's collar. Flamboyant hairstyles are not permitted.

The male summer uniform is a white short-sleeved shirt, a metal school badge above the sole chest pocket on the left, with deep blue trousers, black shoes and white socks with no logos; The winter uniform is a long-sleeved white shirt with grey trousers, with a red school tie with tiny blue school badges on them (these are worn with the summer uniform for ceremonial purposes as well, and probably with a long-sleeved shirt if called for). The deep blue suit-jacket style blazer with a large silver-brimmed school badge sewn onto the chest pocket is compulsory.

The female summer uniform is based on the traditional cheongsam, plain blue with darker blue rims, with white socks and black shoes. The school badge is positioned below the collar in the middle. The winter uniform is similar, except that the dress is long-sleeved, of a thick material, without different coloured brims and is navy blue. Again, the blazer is optional. The dress must be long enough to conceal the knees when standing up. At below 12 degrees Celsius or for specific health conditions, girls are allowed to wear a white long-sleeved shirt and long blue trousers.

Wool jumpers are optional for both the summer and winter. These must be dark blue. They can either be customized ones with the SPCC logo on it that are sold at school, or completely dark blue, where if the metal school badge is concealed, it must be replaced onto the jumper. The jumpers can be sleeveless, long sleeved, buttoned or unbuttoned.

Sports wear is common for boys and girls: a white, short-sleeved top with a modernized school badge and 'SPCC' on the left side of the chest, with a pair of dark blue shorts, white socks and sports shoes that should be mostly white. However, the shorts for boys and girls are slightly different. Those for boys are looser (similar to basketball shorts) while those for girls are more tight-fitting (similar to volleyball shorts).

Swimming gear: swimming trunks for boys and swimsuits for girls. They are of the same colour, the same red and white stripes running vertically, and the words 'SPCC' sewn onto them near the left hip.

[edit] Current policies

[edit] Language policy

The school promotes a "Language Policy". Students are encouraged to speak Putonghua or English on the campus.

[edit] Cleaning campaign

Cleaning Campaign intends to motivate students to keep their classrooms clean and tidy while the real intention is commonly believed to be 'saving manpower for the school', due to the release of the result of how much electricity saved. The inspections are supposed to operate every week, and classes with the lowest marks in cleanliness and tidiness will have to stay after school to clean up their classrooms. The three classes with the highest and lowest marks will be announced respectively. Classes with highest scores will be awarded certificates.

[edit] Cultural salon

The Cultural Salons are organized by a core group consisting of students from different forms. The core group organizes activities that elevate students' awareness and concern about the past, and current culture. Guests are often invited to give talk at school during Enrichment Programme Days.

[edit] The Ugly Side

[edit] Ripping off students

In the past, there was a place called covered playground, which was located on the 2nd floor. Students used to relax, have fun and play table-tennis there. Despite of this, Anissa Chan decided to convert the playground into classrooms so as to earn more money. Although there were a lot of opinions against this proposal, Anissa Chan still continued this proposal.　Students now cannot enjoy their time in the playground while paying same amount of school fee.

[edit] Disgusting principal

Anissa Chan is very disgusting. For example, she doesn't reply when teachers greet her. As a result, a lot of teachers resigned from the school. Between Sep04 to Sep07, there were already 11teachers left the school because of her. Anissa Chan is not popular at all among students also. In May06, there was a student posting a letter to Apple Daily, a newspaper company, complaining about the school and the principal. This letter was finally disclosed to public.

[edit] Fund Raising Incident

Donation activities are often held in assembly. Most of them are reasonable donation activities. However, in Dec06, there was a ridiculous fund raising take place. The school asked students to donate money to them in return getting permission to wear casual wear for 1 day. As most of the students donated money, this add pressure to those who did not want to donate money to donate. The most ridiculous thing was that the school asked the students to donate money two times as they claimed they could not receive $HKD50000, their target, in the first donation. This fund raising incident causes the popularity of the principal declines.


[edit] Alumni

Academics

Public services / professionals

Business

Artists

[edit] International liaison

[edit] Access

The school is currently on the route of Citybus route 12A from the Admiralty (Tamar Street) Bus Terminal and the Green Minibus route 1A from the Central City Hall. There are bus routes 3B, 12, 23, 23B, 40, 103, minibuses 9, 22, 22S, 28 at Kennedy Road, just below the school. The school is also accessible by taxi, or even on foot if the gradient is not too taxing for the individual. The school is not too far away from Hong Kong Park, and can be reached by exiting from Pacific Place and taking a short walk through the Park. School bus services are provided to students.

[edit] Food

Students in SPCC have little variety choices of food. "The Mangrove", the tuck shop of SPCC supplies many snacks and lunch boxes. In the Kennedy Road , there are three shops which have been supplying lunch boxes for mainly the students from SPCC and St. Joseph's College. They are "King Shing", "Man Lee" and "Huen Kee".

[edit] References

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Languages