| St. Clare's Girls' School Chinese: 聖嘉勒女書院 |
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| School Badge of St. Clare's Girls' School
Veritas Vincit or Truth Conquers
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| Location | |
| 50 Mount Davis Road Hong Kong |
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| Information | |
| School type | Aided Secondary School Grant School, Secondary |
| Denomination | Catholic |
| Established | 1927 |
| School district | Central and Western District |
| Principal | Mr. Cheung Ngai Hung |
| Grades | F.1-F.7 |
| Campus size | 11,000 m2 |
| Colour(s) | Navy Blue, White and Red
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| Website | www.stclare.edu.hk |
St. Clare's Girls' School (Chinese: 聖嘉勒女書院; abbr.: SCGS) is a renowned Catholic English girls' school located on Mount Davis Road, Hong Kong. It was founded in 1927 by the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of the Angels from Lennoxville, Quebec, Canada.
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The Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of the Angels had this vision when they chose St. Clare's as our patron. In meeting the Motto: "Veritas Vincit" or "Truth Conquers", our words and actions will reflect this beam around us!
To be this brightly shining light entails acquiring and practising the qualities of truth, honesty, loyalty, fidelity and simplicity. We believe that through giving the best of oneself, the best is achieved.
A solid academic preparation, together with a conscience imbued with the spirit and virtues of Christ, our Lady and St. Clare will lead every Clarian to grow into a responsible, loving and resourceful person and a truly mature individual who is prepared to meet the challenges ahead with confidence.
St. Clare’s Girls’ School has been established by the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of the Angels, for young girls to acquire a knowledge of what it means to go hand in hand with Jesus Christ and an education that develops the whole person. The School cherishes the vision that all Clarians will develop into mature and responsible persons possessing the qualities of simplicity, honesty and loyalty.
"Truth Conquers" is the School Motto.
The School seeks to fulfill its mission through the collaborative effort of dedicated teachers and close cooperation with parents and the community at large.
Our co-foundress, Mother Mary Garbriel and 3 other sisters arrived in Hong Kong in 1926.
They rented a flat in Nathan Road, one of the poorest parts of the community at that time and evaluated the possibility of the project.
On 7 Feb, 1927, an English Institute was set up with 7 students. The institute was named after St. Clare as suggested by Father Shak, and the school motto Veritas Vincit, which means Truth Conquers was adopted. It indicates that Christ is the foundation of the school as He is the way, the truth and the life.
At the end of Feb 1927, the sisters moved to 5 Peace Avenue in Homantin. With the increasing number of students, the house at Peace Avenue was too small both for the students and sisters’ quarters. At the end of October, 1927, they moved to 3 Argle Street at Homantin.
Having taken the advice of Bishop Enrico Valtorta, the sisters started to establish themselves in the Chinese district. Eventually, Kennedy Town was chosen to be the new site of the school. The new school was opened in Sands Street in 1930. In 1936, the school moved to Prospect Place, Bonham Road.
In 1945-46, the school was reorganized under a new educational system, with 2 sessions, the morning session for secondary and the afternoon session for primary.
Due to the increasing number of students, Sr. Elizabeth du Portugal, the head mistress, started applying for a new school building in 1952. The new site at Mount Davis Road was granted by the government and officially opened on November 28th, 1959 by the Director of Education Mr. Crozier, and blessed by Bishop Lawrence Bianchi.
A new annexe was added to the charming and spacious old building in 2005. Visitors are always amazed at our resourceful and comfortable library, our well-equipped CAL Room and Language Lab, our beautiful and relaxing roof-top garden, our colourful and joyful English Room, our spacious and energizing Student Activity Centre, as well as our multi-purpose Conference Room, R.E. Corner, Campus TV studio etc.
The congregation of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of the Angels is the sponsoring body of the School.
The Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of the Angels was founded by Sr. Mary of the Sacred Heart, a very young Canadian Missionary. In 1913, when Sr. Mary was in Canton, she decided to set up a novitiate for Chinese Girls. She returned to Canada to pray and work for the idea. Two years later, with a young Canadian girl, she returned to Swatow at the invitation of the Bishop there. After contracting a fever, her companion died. Alone and with the war on, the Bishop advised her to return to Canada and try to found a novitiate there. She then left Swatow in 1915, together with a young girl of 17 whom she had known as a pupil in Canton. That girl later became Sister Gabriel, the co-founder.
In June 1919, the first Novitiate was opened in Quebec, Canada. In 1922 five Sisters sailed for Kwei Yang in Kweichow. New groups continued to come to China until in 1949, when expelled from China, they had 14 houses, four of them in Canton.
Training of girls for the sisterhood was their first work and they did this in several dioceses, but they also had schools, hospitals and worked in leprosaria and in social work. Mother Mary Sacred Heart chose to follow the Franciscan rule due to coincidence. Their first house was near a Franciscan monastery, the Fathers there were her first mentors. So again she got what she wanted - to be a Franciscan with accent on poverty and humility, a badge that would distinguish the Sisters of Our Lady of the Angels to this day.
Today they have Missions In Japan, Tahiti, South America, Africa, Macau and Hong Kong besides a recruiting centre in Canada and the United States. Everywhere they have novitiates.
The Sisters of Our Lady of the Angels are strictly missionaries. Their Mother Foundress always said if God wanted the work to go on, He would send vocations. Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart died in 1979. Mother Gabriel died in 1974 in Canada, after long years of work in China and Canada and incidentally the opening of St. Clare's in Hong Kong.
The campus is well-equipped with various facilities, including 4 Laboratories, Student Activity Centre, Library, Conference room, Campus TV Room,R.E. Corner, etc. Apart from the classrooms, students can also have their lessons at Special rooms like English Room, Language Room, Interactive Learning Centre, Multi Media Learning Centre, Supportive Education Room,etc.
Annual Thanksgiving Mass, Variety Show, Talk, Seminar are mostly held in the School Hall.
The Chapel, which was one of the shooting sites for the romantic comedy All's Well, Ends Well, is located on the 1st floor.
The school song was written in 1947 by Sr. St. Raphael, Sr. Elizabeth of Portugal and Sr. St. Bertha. Sr. Elizabeth of Portugal was the Principal at that time while the other two were taking their drop in school on mission. Sr. St. Raphael chose the melody of a flower song as the backbone. Sr. St. Bertha, the musician, helped with some modifications and rearrangements while Sr. St. Raphael herself and Sr. Elizabeth of Portugal filled in the words. And the school song, which lasts for 5:10 minutes, is classified as the longest school song in Hong Kong.
| School Song Lyrics by: Sr. St. Raphael , Sr. Elizabeth of Portugal Melody by Sr. St. Raphael ,Sr. St. Bertha
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The school curriculum is designed to provide a rich diversity of formal and informal learning opportunities for students, who learn for many reasons: 1. to acquire knowledge for its own sake; 2. to prepare themselves to further their studies in universities, as well as for professional work and careers; and 3. to develop discipline-specific as well as generic skills to cope with the ever-changing world
To enable students to achieve the above-mentioned goals as well as to learn more effectively, besides passing judgment on the quality of their learning, appropriate means are also needed to assist them to identify strengths and weaknesses in their understanding, so that they may improve their understanding and enhance their learning. Thus, both formative and summative assessments are adopted, and the provision of appropriate supportive measures are stressed.
To cater to studetns' diverse learning needs, there are small split classes in F.1 English, F.1 & F.5 Chinese, F.5 Mathematics and F.1-F.2 Integrated Humanities. There are also remedial classes and enhancement programs for Chinese, Mathematives and English in various forms.