| International Christian School | |
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Instruction for Life; Commitment to Christ; Service to the Community
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| Location | |
| Shek Mun (main) and Fotan (Kindergarten), Hong Kong Hong Kong, China |
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| Information | |
| Type | Private School |
| Religious affiliation(s) | Christian |
| Established | 1992 |
| Principal | Brian Van Tassel (High School) |
| Principal | Bryan Thompson (Middle School) |
| Principal | Keith Welch (Upper Elementary), Tim Wong (Lower Elementary) |
| Principal | Tim Wong (Kindergarten) |
| Headmaster | Ben Norton |
| Grades | K-12 |
| Number of students | 1079 |
| Medium of language | English |
| Tuition | Kindergarten: Half day class HK$44,100 Elementary School: $80,500 |
| Affiliation | Non-denominational Christian |
| Website | http://www.ics.edu.hk/ |
International Christian School is an English language, Christian school in Hong Kong located in the Shek Mun neighborhood. It was founded in 1992.[1]
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International Christian School is based on an American curriculum. Students up to Grade 9 take the Standford Achievement Tests yearly, and high schools students take the SAT. In elementary, they use MAPAll classes until High School are mandatory. In high school, students have gradually increasing freedom in choosing their courses. However, like all high schools, students must still have a required number of credits each year. Likewise, students must have a minimum number of credit in certain core disciplines in order to graduate. Advanced Placement International Christin School offers (AP) courses in art, various areas of science, various areas in mathematics, English language and literature, and in Chinese.[2]
Music and art classes are taught to elementary students. Sports, art, and drama classes are offered throughout middle and high school.
General music classes are taken up to Grade 4, whereas, in Grade 5, they are replaced with band and choir. Both are then compulsory until high school, where students can then choose to take both on alternating days, take either band or choir every day, or only take one class of either band or choir every other day and have a study hall on their off day.[3]
All middle school students take art and drama classes. Students take either art or drama in the first semester and the other one in the second semester. In high school, students can choose to take art or drama; however, they are not mandatory, although students need three fine and performing arts credits to graduate.
Until Grade 9, classes in Mandarin are mandatory. Upon entering high school, students can either continue taking courses in Mandarin or take classes in French.[4] However, the vast majority of students take Chinese in high school. Starting in middle school, ICS offers a wide variety of Mandarin class to cater to the wide variety of student language proficiency.
Bible classes at ICS are compulsory in all grade levels.[4] Grade 6-7 students study the Old Testament in their Bible classes. Grade 8 students study the Gospels.
Student attendance at weekly chapels is mandatory. Chapel is held on Tuesdays for the middle school, Wednesdays for the high school, and Thursdays for the elementary school. All-school chapels occur a few times every academic year. In middle and high school, worship service is led by student worship teams. Each chapel session lasts for 45 minutes.
International Christian School was originally located in Kowloon City. After a few years, a new campus was opened in Lai Yu. In the 2001-2002 school year, all elementary grade levels moved to a new campus in Fotan, which is in Shatin, and the secondary grade levels moved entirely to the Kowloon City campus. Until the 2007-2008 academic year, the Secondary campus, which consists of Middle and High school, was in Kowloon City, and the Kindergarten and Elementary campuses were in Fotan. In the 2007-2008 school year, the elementary and secondary campuses moved into a new building in Shek Mun, which is part of Shatin. One of the goals of this is said to be to provided an environment with more unity.
The kindergarten is still located on the Fotan Campus, which is in the 7th floor of Jubilee Court, which is a shopping mall in Fotan, a part of Shatin.[5] The P1 grade, which serves as the final year of kindergarten, is located in Shek Mun. The elementary school, which contains grades 1-5, is located in Shek Mun, as well as the middle school, which consists of grades 6-8, and finally, the high school, which consists of grades 9-12.[5]
The Shek Mun Campus, was constructed to represent God's hands spread out. The building is divided into two wings. The Elementary Wing (P1- Grade 5) is on the left side of the photograph, and the Secondary Wing, which consists of Middle and High school, is on the right side of the photograph. The first three floors of the building are shared by both the elementary and the secondary. These floors contain most of the music rooms, the two gymnasiums, and various rooms used by the administration. The next four floors consist of general classrooms, computer labs, labs, the libraries, and the art rooms. Finally, the eighth floor is used to house new teachers and their families for their first year at the school. The building's floor numbers start at the ground floor, following the British system commonly used in Hong Kong. (Since the ground floor should also be counted in the number of floors, there are actually eight floors to the building. Thus, the first three floors are shared, not the first two.)
Tim Wong is the principal in charge of the kindergarten.[6] There are two assistant principals who are charge of the elementary - Tim Wong and Keith Welch.[7] The middle school principal is Bryan Thompson.[8] Finally, Brian Van Tassel is the principal who is in charge of the high school.[9] The school's headmaster is Ben Norton.[1]
According to the IS website,[10] the faculty is a mix of different nationalities, with 0 from Hong Kong, 50.5% from the US, 15.5% from Canada, 7% from UK, 14 from Australia/New Zealand, 3% from Korea, 2% Malaysia, 2% from Singapore, 1% from Japan, 1% from Other Asia, 0.90% from Other, and 1.5% from other locations, as of the 2009-2010 school year.