St. Mary's Canossian College

The school building near Chatham Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

St. Mary's Canossian College

Main Building of St. Mary's Canossian College

St. Mary's Canossian College (Chinese: 嘉諾撒聖瑪利書院;demonym: St. Marian) is a Catholic girls secondary school in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong. It was founded in 1900, and is situated at the junction of Austin Road and Chatham Road South. Other Catholic buildings, like the Rosary Church and the St. Mary's Canossian School, lie adjacent to the school.

The school, known as St Mary's School in the past, was originally aimed at educating the Portuguese girls living in Kowloon, Hong Kong. However, this gradually changed, and as of now, 98% of the students are Han Chinese.

Students are taught by Sisters and experienced teachers.

One of the building in St. Mary’s Canossian College, St. Michael Building, ( which also named as Old building) was listed as Grade II historic buildings in Hong Kong in 1991. In 2010, the Main building and St. Michael Building were both confirmed to be Grade I historic buildings in Hong Kong.

School sponsoring body

The Sisters of the Canossian Daughters of Charity, as missionaries, in the spirit of Magdalen of Canossa, their founder, was inspired to establish this school in 1900.

School motto

Cor Unum et Via Una. This Latin phrase means "One Heart and One Way". 'One Heart'. 'One Way' signifies the Gospel way of truth and fullness of life, which is envisaged in the Canossian education mission. St. Marians, all united in spirit and action, pledge to walk together in God's love along the way of Gospel truth.

School history

St. Mary's Canossian College was founded in 1900 by the Institute of the Canossian Daughters of Charity, a Catholic religious institute founded by Magdalen of Canossa of the ancient noble family of Verona, Italy. Magdalen was canonised on 2 October 1988 for her sanctity and is honoured by the Church as St. Magdalen of Canossa.

The school started with only two classrooms for boys and girls in response to the need for a school in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon. The small school admitted 30 pupils and was named St. Mary's School. The school developed rapidly as the population in Kowloon grew. In 1960 the enrolment was 2500 including the Primary Section. In the same year the Secondary Section was named "St. Mary's Canossian College", a grant-in-aid school for girls while the Primary Section was renamed "St. Mary's Canossian School".

School description

St. Mary's has a population of around 1400 students, from Form One to Form Six. When students reach F.4, they could choose between 3 arts classes with slightly different subjects and 3 science classes.

Most of St. Mary's students qualify for local universities, though a good number prefer to go abroad, mainly to UK, U.S.A., Canada and Australia, for further studies. St. Mary's Alumnae have been admitted to academic institutions such as Cambridge, Cornell, Columbia, Oxford, MIT, and Stanford. Most of them were or are scholarship holders, excelling in both curricular and extracurricular fields.

St. Mary's counts a total of 18 winners of the Hong Kong Outstanding Students Awards,^[1] ranking third among all secondary schools in Hong Kong.

The school continues to keep and preserve its monumental looks with its long spiral staircase in the entrance to the main building. New buildings are continued to be built for the school's facilities.

St. Mary's is also renowned for its drama productions- like the recent ones e.g. The Gift, Timeless, Persephone, Mrs. Baggins, PanDora, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Other Side, The Disenchanted Fairy, Nefertiti and Psyche- where their drama teacher Mr. Geoff Oliver directs the play and writes the script while the students build the set, compose the songs, produce the props and help with the choreography.

Alumni

• Fanny Law, politician
• Maggie Cheung Ho-yee, actress
• Sonija Kwok, actress
• Natalie Wong, actress
• Mandy Cho, actress
• Kearen Pang, director
• Gloria Chang
• Adrienne Lau, singer

References

1. ↑ Past Winners of the Hong Kong Outstanding Students Awards

Source

• School Homepage
• Primary School Homepage

Coordinates: 22°18′11″N 114°10′35″E / 22.30306°N 114.1763°E / 22.30306; 114.1763