St Stephen's College (Hong Kong) Explained

St Stephen's College
Motto Translation:Faith is the Foundation of Fortitude
Address:22 Tung Tau Wan Road[1]
Country:Hong Kong, China
Type:DSS secondary school
Founders:[2]
President:Frederick Leung[3]
Principal:Julie Ma[4]
Staff:146[5]
Students:914 students in 30 classes (34 groups), 301 borders
(Academic year 2014-2015)
Medium Of Language:English, Cantonese Chinese, Mandarin Chinese
Publication:Chimes
Module:
Child:yes
Order:ts
T:聖士提反書院
S:圣士提反书院
J:sing3 si6 tai4 faan2 syu1 jyun6*2
P:Shèng Shìtífǎn Shūyuàn

St Stephen's College is a Christian Direct Subsidy Scheme co-educational secondary school in Stanley, Hong Kong. With an area of about 150,000 m2 (15 hectares), the college is the largest secondary school in Hong Kong, and is one of the very few boarding schools in the territory. Many buildings in the campus are listed in the list of historic Buildings and Declared Monuments by the Antiquities Advisory Board. When the college was founded in 1903, there were only six boarders and one day student; in the academic year 2014–2015, there were approximately 910 students studying in the college. The current principal is Mrs Julie Ma, commencing duty since 2023. St Stephen's College uses English as the medium of instruction except for Chinese-based subjects. St Stephen's College is the first school in the territory having its own Heritage Trail in the school campus. The college's oldest building, the School House, was declared a monument in 2011, being one of the few schools in Hong Kong to own a Declared Monument in its campus.

History

The establishment of the college dates back to 1901. A group of prominent Chinese businessmen approached the Church Missionary Society to administer a school for their sons. The inspiration came from Sun Yat-sen. The aim was to achieve a standard of teaching and level of equipment comparable to the best public schools in England. In 1903, St Stephen's College was officially established on Bonham Road in Western District. In the 1920s, the government granted the school 37acres on the Stanley Peninsula in recognition of outstanding contributions to education. The foundation stone was laid in April 1928 by the Governor of Hong Kong, Sir Cecil Clementi, and in May 1929, the college was fully functional in its new buildings, many of which are still in use today.

During the Battle of Hong Kong in the Second World War, heavy fighting took place around the college, which was among the last British strongholds to surrender to the Imperial Japanese Army. Shortly after the surrender, the Imperial Japanese Army broke into the college (which served as a military hospital during the battle) and murdered wounded soldiers of the Allied forces, in what would be known as the St. Stephen's College massacre. The Japanese later merged the college with part of Stanley Prison to form the Stanley Internment Camp.

The college reopened after the war and a chapel was built in 1950 to remember those who died during the Japanese occupation.

Originally a private school, St Stephen's College became a government-funded public school during the late 1900s. Since the 2008–2009 academic year, the college has become a Direct Subsidy Scheme (DSS) school, which is a historic change to the college as it freed the school from the centralised funding system that currently administers secondary education in Hong Kong. Students enrolled in the 2002 Primary 1 class at St Stephen's College Preparatory School, also based in Stanley, were the first group of students to enter the DSS system. In order to upgrade the school administrative level, this is the first secondary school in Hong Kong to employ a registered professional housing manager on its staff to manage and handle all property and facilities-related issues for and on behalf of the school.

School principal

Houses

St Stephen's College has a house system and divides its students into six houses with six different colors. Some names of the houses came from the names of the first few principals of the college:

Curriculum

Before the 2009–2010 academic year, as a local school in Hong Kong, the college had been providing three years of junior secondary, two years of senior secondary and two years of matriculation education under the English 3223 education system.

After the educational system reform was launched by the government, the college has started providing three years of senior secondary education from Form 4 since the 2009–2010 academic year under the New Senior Secondary 334 Scheme.Meanwhile, the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) had also commenced in the academic year of 2014–2015. The IBDP is a two-year curriculum and is monitored under the International Baccalaureate Organization rather than the Education Bureau of Hong Kong. Since IBDP is two years long, the college will provide a one-year IBDP bridging course to help student adapt to the essay and discussion emphasized IBDP education mode.

Publications

Many different publications are made by the college, including:

Preparatory school

St. Stephen's College Preparatory School is the preparatory primary school of St Stephen's College. St. Stephen's College Preparatory School was founded in 1938 with only one building for classrooms, boarding house and dining hall. During the Second World War, the preparatory school was used for guard quarter by the Japanese. The preparatory school re-opened in 1947, with a new building. Another building of dormitory was built in the 1950s. The preparatory school has started to give boarding places for girls in the 1960s. The preparatory school has 21 classes of more than 600 students.

Filming of TV shows and movies

St Stephen's College was used for filming advertisements, TV shows, movies and MVs.

TV shows

Movies

Notable alumni

Politics

Business

Entertainment

Sports

See also

Notes and References

  1. http://www.ssc.edu.hk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=35&Itemid=78 Contact Us
  2. http://www.ssc.edu.hk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=29&Itemid=72 History
  3. http://www.ssc.edu.hk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=27&Itemid=70 College Council
  4. http://www.ssc.edu.hk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=32&Itemid=75 Staff
  5. http://www.ssc.edu.hk/images/document/SchoolReport2013to14.pdf St Stephen's College Annual School Report (2013-2014)
  6. Web site: St Stephen's College Website . 18 February 2014 . 29 May 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200529193820/https://www.ssc.edu.hk/photoalbum/album223/1P1_VEN_ARCHDEACON_BARNETT . dead .
  7. Web site: St Stephen's College Website . 18 February 2014 . 29 May 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200529193824/https://www.ssc.edu.hk/photoalbum/album18/1914_1915_Rev_A_D_Stewart . dead .
  8. Web site: St Stephen's College Website . 18 February 2014 . 29 May 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200529193830/https://www.ssc.edu.hk/photoalbum/album18/1915_1928_Rev_W_H_Hewitt_MA_BD_Warden . dead .
  9. Web site: St Stephen's College Website . 18 February 2014 . 29 May 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200529193834/https://www.ssc.edu.hk/photoalbum/album18/1928_1953_Rev_Canon_E_W_L_Martin . dead .
  10. Web site: St Stephen's College Website . 18 February 2014 . 29 May 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200529193843/https://www.ssc.edu.hk/photoalbum/album18/1956_1958_Mr_C_T_Priestley . dead .
  11. Web site: St Stephen's College Website . 18 February 2014 . 29 May 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200529193848/https://www.ssc.edu.hk/photoalbum/album18/1958_1965_Mr_J_R_E_Melluish . dead .
  12. Web site: St Stephen's College Website . 18 February 2014 . 29 May 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200529193855/https://www.ssc.edu.hk/photoalbum/album18/1965_1973_Rev_R_B_Handforth . dead .
  13. Web site: St Stephen's College Website . 18 February 2014 . 29 May 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200529193920/https://www.ssc.edu.hk/photoalbum/album18/1974_1999_Mr_Luke_J_P_Yip . dead .
  14. Web site: St Stephen's College Website . 18 February 2014 . 29 May 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200529193902/https://www.ssc.edu.hk/photoalbum/album18/2000_present_Principal . dead .
  15. Web site: St Stephen's College Website . 18 February 2014 . 29 May 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200529193909/https://www.ssc.edu.hk/photoalbum/album18/2005_Speech_Day_044 . dead .
  16. Martin House used to use blue as the house's color. However, the House switched to white in the 1980s due to coloring problems of PE uniforms. Martin House has switched back to use blue as their house's color since 2013.
  17. College House is not named after any principal, they are however named after the College itself.
  18. Chimes Centennial Edition, 2003
  19. http://s07.ssc.edu.hk/pta/Newsletters.aspx Website of the Parent-Teacher Association
  20. Choi Choi (采茞) is the publication of Students' Association. "Choi" (茞) is a beautiful fragrant plant; and "Choi" (采) means "Choi" (採), meaning picking. "Choi Choi" (采茞) actually means the publication picked all the beautiful memories of the college. The name of the publication is normally but wrongly regarded as "Choi Tsz" (采茞 (coi2 zi2)), but the correct way in pronunciation of this phrase is "Choi Choi" (采茞(coi2 coi2)). The pronunciation of the character "Choi" (茞).

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "St Stephen's College (Hong Kong)".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.