| St. Paul's Co-educational College
聖保羅男女中學 |
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|---|---|
| St. Paul's Co-ed.
Faith, Hope, Love
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| Location | |
| 33 MacDonnell Road Mid-levels Hong Kong |
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| Information | |
| Type | Grant, DSS, secondary, co-educational. |
| Established | 1915 (as St. Paul's Girls' College) |
| Principal | Dr. Anissa Chan |
| Enrollment | approx. 1,200 |
| Forms Alumni |
Form 1 to Upper 6 Hong Kong Alumni Website |
| Website | 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.
The School was founded in 1915. It became the first school in Hong Kong to enforce uniform dress code. Until after World War II, it was a girls-only college. Throughout the years, SPCC students have performed exceptionally well academically and in inter-school competitions, making SPCC one of the most renowned schools in Hong Kong. Eminent for its harmonica orchestra, choirs, and orchestra, the school has a strong emphasis towards music, and is regarded as one of the best schools for students' musical development in Hong Kong. Apart from the music groups mentioned above, the school also organizes wind band, pianist chamber and guitar ensemble. SPCC counts six winners of the Hong Kong Outstanding Students Awards,[1] ranking 12th (tied with Diocesan Boys' School, Marymount Secondary School and Shatin Government Secondary School) among all secondary schools in Hong Kong.
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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). In 1942, St. Paul's Girls' College was closed down. In 1945, the school re-opened, merging with St. Paul's College to become the first co-educational college in Hong Kong.
The chairman of the School Council is Professor Sheung-Wai Tam.
The school is operated under the Direct Subsidy Scheme (DSS), and was the first subsidized school to join the scheme. The school fee had been set at HK$48,000 per annum in 2002. It was increased to HK$52,000 starting from 2009–10. For students opting for the International Baccalaureate course, the fee will be no more than HK$80,000 per annum.[2]
The motto of the school is Faith, Hope and Love, derived from verse 13 of 1 Corinthians, Chapter 13.
Situated in the Mid-levels, the school campus is naturally deprived of space. The school split into two sections after the moving of the affiliated primary school, taking up the space of the ex-Kennedy Road campus of the primary school. The original school building is called MacDonnell Road Campus, while the one at 26 Kennedy Road is named the Kennedy Road Campus.
The Vice Principals are Miss Kok Kai Fong and Mr. Luk Wai Hi.
The MR Campus consists of the main building and the LCYM building (the east wing).
The main building 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. There has been a whole new classroom arrangements in the school year 2008-2009.
The LCYM building is a new wing which has been built at the original primary school site. It was completed in 2011. It comprises currently 12 floors. It includes the laboratories, the cafeteria, the lecture hall, the dormitory and other facilities.
The KR Campus is a temporary campus that comprises currently of 4 floors, including the roof structure. Flooring system as MR Campus. All F1 classes are housed there.
The school's swimming pool and library are located at 1 Calder Path, which is in between the two campuses.
St. Paul's Co-educational College is the first secondary school in Hong Kong that requires students to wear school uniforms. The uniforms of St. Paul's today are one of the typical styles of Hong Kong student uniforms. Boys wear white shirts and girls wear blue Cheongsam. The idea behind the uniform is often cited as to be as simple as possible.
The choirs are the 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, while 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 Schools Music Festival.
In 1979, the choir is invited to tour and perform in Thailand. In 1992, the choir participated in the International Music Festival in Sydney, Australia and won the highest Gold Award.
The Senior Mixed Voice Choir has been achieving excellent results in the Hong Kong Schools Music Festival and other international competitions since its establishment in 1949.
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 part coordinators, 3 secretaries, one treasurer and 2 librarians.
Starting from the era of Principal Dr. Anissa Chan, chairpersons and part leaders of the senior choirs are responsible for leading the singing of hymns on stage, instead of the teacher-in-charge of the event. At the same time, prefects take the role of announcing notices, rather than teachers.
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.
However, the Harmonica Orchestra is the most prestigious group in the school. In the past 20 years, the SPCCHO has accomplished the best results in the Schools Music Festival compared to other music group.
The St. Paul’s Co-educational College Harmonica Orchestra began as a harmonica class for enthusiastic students back in 1959.
Encouraging results in the Hong Kong Schools Music Festival soon drew more participants to the training class, and a Harmonica Band with more than thirty members was eventually born.
The first major achievement of this music school team was winning the coveted Horner’s Cup in the Music Festival in 1971.
Under the direction of the present conductor, the Harmonica Orchestra has attempted many tasteful arrangements of challenging orchestral pieces. This well-organized student-run musical group, as well as numerous combinations of duets and ensembles of members of the Harmonica Orchestra, has been awarded many prizes in the annual Music Festival, including 15 first prizes in the Harmonica Band (Secondary) class in the past 19 years.
In 1996, the Harmonica Orchestra went to Taiwan to take part in an international harmonica festival. Many members also participated in the 5th Asia Pacific Harmonica Festival in Hong Kong in 2004 and in Taipei in 2006 and won top prizes in the Harmonica Band, Ensemble, Solo and Duet classes.
In 2008, members participated in the 7th Asia Pacific Harmonica Festival in HangZhou and won the first prizes in harmonica orchestra and quartet.
In the 8th Asia Pacific Harmonica Festival in 2010 held in Singapore, the Harmonica Orchestra came first in the orchestra youth category.
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 and St. Paul's Co-educational (Macdonnell Road) Primary School to cope with the demand for places, they resumed full-day education in 1999. In 2006, the two schools merged again, then the Primary School moved to the new campus in Wong Chuk Hang in 2008.
The secondary school curriculum is taught in English, except for Chinese Language, Chinese History and Putonghua.
Most of the curriculum of primary school is taught in Cantonese or English, with some lessons being taught by native English teachers. In Primary 6, English, Mathematics, General Studies (including Science), Religious Studies, etc. are taught in English; and Chinese is mainly taught in Putonghua.
Academics
Public services / professionals
Business
Artists
To celebrate the 90th anniversary of SPCC, the school held the Extravaganza in the Asia World Arena in 2006. This act sets a record of being the first school holding an event that involves all students and the first school to use the Asia World Arena.
The School Choirs took part in the 5th and 6th World Choir Games in Graz, Austria and Shaoxing, China in 2008 & 2010 respectively. The Senior Mixed Voice Choir was the Winner of the Open Class in the Youth Mixed Voice category in Shaoxing, 2010.
The club and society promotion which is the most intriguing during assembly yearly in Mr. Henry Poon's era no longer exist under Dr Anissa Chan's regime. The promotion provided opportunities for student to have a chance to act, give presentation and promote the clubs during the assembly and it was part of the collective memories of the past SPCC. Still is the reminiscence of the alumni and some senior form students, the club and society promotion now survives only as the performances by the Music Society, including the choir, school orchestra, harmonica orchestra, wind band and pianist chamber.