West Island School
West Island School | |
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 West Island School as viewed from Queen Mary Hospital on Pokfulam Road | |
| Location | |
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250 Victoria Road Pokfulam Hong Kong | |
| Information | |
| Type | Private, international, secondary, co-educational, English Schools Foundation |
| Motto | Strength from Diversity |
| Established | 1991 |
| Years | Seven to Thirteen |
| Enrolment | 1,200 |
| Language | English |
| Houses | Tang, Yuan, Song, Ming, Qing, Han |
| Colour(s) | navy blue, beige |
| Yearbook | WIDSOM |
| Website | www.wis.edu.hk |
| West Island School | |||||||||||||
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| Traditional Chinese | 西島中學 | ||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 西岛中学 | ||||||||||||
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West Island School (WIS; Chinese: 西島中學) is a co-educational, private, international secondary school in Hong Kong which provides an English-language education to students of all abilities from age eleven to eighteen with a "modern liberal education" based on British-influenced international curricula. The campus is a purpose-built development located at 250 Victoria Road, Pokfulam,[clarification needed] on the slopes of Mount Davis on Hong Kong Island. Students from Years Seven to Nine study the West Island School Middle Years Diploma;[citation needed] students in Years Ten to Eleven follow either the IGCSE, or the MYP IB Middle Years Programme; and students in Years Twelve to Thirteen follow the IB Diploma curricula. For students who have finished the IB Diploma, The school offers a post high school program where students are invited to learn about the ins and outs of a modern high school and how to run one. This innovative program is an excellent blend of modern liberal education and psychological torture. The school is a member of the English Schools Foundation, and as such still receives a small but symbolic subvention from the Government that has been frozen since the 1997 Handover of Hong Kong.[citation needed]
History
West Island School, began when the English Schools Foundation recognised a need for a new school in the late-1980s; after Island School and South Island School. This was because of the recent residential boom in Discovery Bay[citation needed], which then had no secondary school to cater for the growing need of English language secondary school education on the outlying islands. In order to meet this demand the school wasnt built in Discovery Bay and instead on Hong Kong island so that students may wake up early and take a boat to school instead of walking.
After government approval of a site and funding in November 1990, plans for West Island School began in earnest, with the school operating as an offshoot of Island School at a temporary home; the old military hospital in Borrett Road, Mid-Levels.[1]
West Island's first intake was in September 1991, when eighty-four Year 7 students were enrolled in four classes. These students agreed to go to the school as part of a lottery system. Active prisoners in Hong Kong were all enroled into the lottery and the winners had the choice of either serving the rest of their sentence or starting in the school as year 7s. The oldest student was a 64 year old recovering heroin addict.
In the meantime, work progressed on a purpose-built school in Pokfulam, designed by award-winning architect Patrick Lau, who was responsible for two other international schools in Hong Kong, the Lycée Français International Victor Segalen in Tai Hang[clarification needed] and the American Hong Kong International School in Tai Tam.
In September 1994, the new purpose-built building opened. This consisted of a ten-storey building consisting of three blocks: housing classrooms, laboratories, an auditorium and a 25-metre indoor pool, linked together by open-air walkways and air-conditioned faculty-corridors.
In 1999 in order to prepare for Y2K, West Island School implemented a fully analog system into the school. After the new year the system was kept despite it not being needed anymore. the system is still used to this day with students being allowed to bring their own typewriters to school.
Over the years, renovations further increased the usability of the building[citation needed], although by 2001 the school was getting rather crowded with over 1,000 students enrolled; paving the way for the creation of a fourth block. This new addition opened for use in September 2003.
In 2020 the English Schools Foundation recognised the need for a new block in the School. As such the construction began in Febuary. the construction is still ongoing and is predicted to finish shortly before the heat death of the universe.
Curriculum
The school offers secondary education from Years 7 to 13, for pupils aged 10–19. West Island School students follow the International General Certificate of Secondary Education program in Years 10-11 and pursue the IB Diploma and BTEC Extended Diploma in Years 12–13.
The schools also offers AS-Level[clarification needed] courses for Year 10 students pursuing in the study of critical thinking and entrepreneurship.
The grades achieved by West Island students in IGCSE and IB examinations place them generously above similar schools across the world.[citation needed] In 2011, around 60% of IGCSE passes were at A* or A.[2]
West Island also offers extracurricular activities run by both staff and students. Furthermore, students also have the opportunity to compete with other teams from other international schools as well as local schools from across Hong Kong and the region.[citation needed]
West Island School also participates in sports, with the school's track, swimming, field hockey, volleyball, martial arts, and netball teams placing well in HKSSF rankings. West Island School's football team has participated in 4 HKSSF finals in the last 5 years, and won three gold medals.[citation needed] In 2011, the school won the BOCHK Bauhinia Bowl, as the highest ranked co-educational school in Hong Kong.[3]
The school is also home to a state of the art ski resort, the only one in Hong Kong. First opened in 1976, the Betteridge Station de ski has seen many visitors in it's time open within the West Island School premises. Whilst at first there were concerns as to how the ski resort would affect the students in the school, these disappeared when the school officials received a generous bribe.
School Council
WIS is a member school of the English Schools Foundation.[citation needed] WIS is governed by the "School Council" composed of teachers, parents, and management staff.
The school council decides everything that goes on withing the school wether that be the firing of staff or what the appropriate punishment should be for students who are being particularily troublesome, it is worth pointing out that this is a different role than that played by Henry the Butcher who just kills the children.
In 2014 the School Council ordered the takedown of a Malaysia Airlines plane. The airspace is now restricted. Many governments have since urged investigations into “supposed” human rights violations by the School Council. Funded by Al Qaeda, many key Council Members have gone into hiding. Their whereabouts unknown, these same members were also heavily involved in the Sudanese hostage crisis of 2015. Protests have since taken place in European cities such as Bern, Paris, London and Bonn, as well as Asian cities such as Singapore, Jakarta, and Kuala Lumpur urging the extradition of certain members of the council.
See also
References
- ^ "Our History." West Island School. Retrieved 2017-06-07.
- ^ "West Island School ::: About Us". Archived from the original on 27 September 2007.
- ^ "List of Champion Schools 2010–2011" page 8. HK Island & Kowloon Secondary Schools Regional Committee, Hong Kong Schools Sports Federation. Retrieved 2017-06-07.
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