“Dedicating our minds to inquiry, our hearts to compassion, and our livers to service and global understanding
An American style education grounded in the Christian faith and respecting the spiritual lives of all – Hong Kong International School’s Mission Statement”
Hong Kong International School (HKIS), a leading private co-educational college preparatory school for students from kindergarten to grade 12 has been focusing on the advancement of every child. The school encourages its students to soar high at every point of their lives while offering an inspiring environment. HKIS offers a warm and inclusive learning environment for over 2,800 students of 40 nationalities and diverse religious backgrounds.
Since its inception in 1966 the school’s vision has been to be the leading platform of learning that inspires a socially engaged community of collaborative, resilient and creative learners dedicated to realizing their full potential. With the passing of its 50th anniversary, beyond the shadow of doubt one can say that HKIS is a well-established school which sets its students into the path of success. HKIS is an East Asia Regional Council of Schools member and is fully accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.
HKIS provides an American-style education grounded in the Christian faith and respecting the spiritual lives of all. The school’s position is “not to convert children to a particular religious point of view. [but to] teach students the basic tenets of the Christian faith and the ways of living that follow with from it, [along with] other world religions” Its programs reflect the rich multi-cultural and international character of its student body. “We are committed to delivering exceptional teaching, and continually evolve our programs and facilities to enhance our student experience”, comments one of the authorities of the school.
Teaching for Understanding
HKIS follows a comprehensive standard-based curriculum. It challenges and inspires its students to be lifelong learners and global citizens. The graduates of the school attend the top universities around the world, with close to 85% attending American institutions.
HKIS seeks to structure teaching for understanding while guiding it in the formulation of its written curriculum. The school aligns curriculum, instruction, and assessment to allow students to demonstrate by developing enduring understandings and their knowledge from previous learning experiences and skills. The expert pools of teachers of HKIS regularly updates and revises the curricula to reflect the current best practice and research.
HKIS believes that the purpose of assessment is to promote learning. A robust system of assessment is relevant and accurate, ongoing, informative and timely, and understandable to all. The school also uses multiple forms of assessment that allows students to demonstrate their understanding; formative assessments; used to guide instruction and student goal-setting and summative assessments; summarizes the mastery of content, knowledge or skills at a particular point in time. The academic year of HKIS is divided into two semesters; August – Mid-Jauaary and January to June.
Lower and Upper Primary
In Lower Primary School, for children aged four to seven years old, students are in a hands-on-environment wherein they get actively involved in exploring, experimenting and talking. The also focuses on improving literature, maths, while specialized teachers offer classes in Chinese, technology, library, music, PE and art. Here the students learn about Christianity through bible stories, songs and prayers while also gaining an insight into other religions by sharing celebrations, visiting temples, shrines, mosques, and also through studying religious and cultural books.
Children aged from eight to ten years attend the Upper Primary School. The curriculum of this school includes learning language arts (reading, writing, speaking and listening), maths, Christianity and other religions, science, social science and Mandarin. Students take specialist classes in PE, Chinese studies, music and technology. The main highlight of this curriculum is an off-campus overnight trip (camp) that gives students a learning experience beyond.
Middle and High School
The Middle School teaches students from sixth to eight grades. The curriculum of this school includes maths, science, language arts, music, social science, religion, PE, modern languages and Mandarin. The school day is begun with an advisory or Pastoral Care Group. The students also take part in a five-day adventurous program, with programs ranging from trips staying in Hong Kong to service in Cambodia.
The voyage of education at Hong Kong International School ends at High School wherein the students from 9th to12 grade are taught. The High School of HKIS resembles American schools in the U.S. with homerooms, a comprehensive counselling program, and the Advanced Placement program. Over 25 advanced placement subjects are available to the high school students. The subject courses undertaken here are Chinese, performing arts, social studies, religion, visual arts, design, and PE. Each student is assigned a counselor who advises them on what course to take.
The school also offers interim programs every year wherein the students can take part in community service and outdoor adventure trips to countries including Europe, Australia, India, South East Asia, China, Hong Kong, and Africa.
Be it lower and upper primary, middle and high school, the credit courses of HKIS prepares all its students for a global platform. Giving more focus on the highschoolers, the courses prepare them for US universities. The students of 11th and 12th grades are given an opportunity to choose from AP courses. They also can gain additional points by signing up to 40 and more courses offered by Global Online Academy (GOA).
Beyond Academics
The educational experience of HKIS is not solely focused on academic efforts, it also includes making a difference in the lives of its students while emphasizing on compassion and community service.
The students are encouraged to help each other’s during the PEAK and Interim programs. The seventh and eighth grade students are asked to organize and deliver a ‘compassion project’, in order to aid anyone who is in need. Similarly, the high school students can sign up to a service club. This club conducts annual events like St. Baldrick’s Day wherein students, parents and even teachers raise funds for childhood cancer researches. The school even has an active Parent Faculty Organization (PFO) which raises funds for the school, helps in mentoring 1-1 new families, and also helps in organizing events such as Pumpkin Festival, World Fair and Chinese New Year
HKIS has not limited its exceptional advocacy and offerings to just few students. Encouraging every student to achieve their highest potential, the enriched specialists of HKIS also work with gifted students and nurture their talent for national competitions such as Math Olympiad, Knowledge Master Open and Hong Kong Young Writers.
Focusing on over-all development of students the school also offers many extra-curricular activities too. The school offers music and sports events for all grades both during weekdays and weekends. 60% of the entire school population is involved in different sports events while a total of 96% of students have involved themselves in community service activities. The sports activities conducted by the school include; Basketball, field hockey (girls), track and field, badminton, crew rugby (boys), volleyball, cross country, sailing, softball, squash, swimming, soccer(boys), table tennis and tennis. The school also has various clubs for the students to choose from. Starting from journalism, cooking, drama, public speaking, dance, school year book, music are some of the clubs the school has. Apart from this the school also has attractive offerings for summer programs for all HKIS students.
