BookRags.com Literature Guides Literature
Guides		 Criticism & Essays Criticism &
Essays		 Questions & Answers Questions &
Answers		 Lesson Plans Lesson
Plans		 My Bibliography Periodic Table U.S. Presidents Shakespeare Sonnet Shake-Up
Research Anything:        
History | Encyclopedias | Films | News | Create a Bibliography | More... Login | Register | Help
Not What You Meant?  There are 146 definitions for Saint Paul.  Also try: SPCC.

St. Paul's Co-educational College

 Print-Friendly
About 11 pages (3,209 words)

Bookmark and Share Know this topic well? Help others and get FREE products!
St. Paul's Co-educational College 聖保羅男女中學
St. Paul's Co-ed.
Faith, Hope, Love
Location
33 Macdonnell Road
Mid-levels
Hong Kong
Information
Principal Dr Anissa Chan
Faculty Not applicable
Type Grant, DSS, secondary, co-educational.
Established 1915 (as St. Paul's Girls' College)
Enrollment approx. 1,200
Information (852) 2523 0910
info@spcc.edu.hk
Forms
Alumni		 Form 1 to Upper 6
Hong Kong Alumni Website
Homepage 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. It is operated under the Direct Subsidy Scheme (DSS), and was the first subsidised school to join the scheme. It 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). The motto of the school is 'Faith, Hope and Love'. Students perform very well academically and in inter-school competitions, making SPCC one of the most renowned schools in Hong Kong. Famous for its choirs, orchestra and harmonica orchestra, the school has a strong emphasis towards music, and is regarded as one of the best schools for students' musical development. Moreover, there are several bands formed by students. The college had an affiliated primary school: St. Paul's Co-educational College Primary School, which was for a time divided into two half-day schools, St. Paul's Co-educational (Kennedy Road) Primary School (former St. Paul's Co-educational P.M. Primary School) and St. Paul's Co-educational (MacDonnell Road) Primary School (former St. Paul's Co-educational A.M. Primary School) to cope with the demand for places, but resumed full-day education in 1999. The secondary school curriculum is taught in English, except for Chinese Language, Mandarin and Chinese History. On the other hand, its primary school teaches predominantly in Cantonese, apart from English, as it is harder for young children to learn in a language other than their mother tongue. The chairman of the School Council is Professor Sheung-Wai Tam. Once the new campus in Wong Chuk Hang is completed, the secondary school will expand into the existing primary school campus on MacDonnell Road.

Contents

Campus

Situated in the Mid-levels, the school campus is naturally deprived of space. The school 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. The lowest floor contains an outdoor irregular patch of ground affectionately named the triangular football pitch due to the roughly triangular shape, the gymnasium, a table tennis room, and a boys' changing room. One floor up and there is the girls' changing room as well as the Design and Technology Workshop. On the first floor, there is a staff room (Staff Room (D)), two music rooms, six Form One classrooms and a boys' lavatory. There is also an outdoor tiny playground for badminton. A White Champaca (or White Sandalwood, Michelia alba) tree grows from this playground through the open air, passing all the corridors to a point higher than the school's current highest point. The lower exit on this floor enters the Tramway Path between MacDonnell Road and Kennedy Road. The trail overlooks the aforementioned football pitch. On the second floor, there are the six Form Two classrooms, Special Room B, an Interview Room, a Supporting Service Office (SSO) (formerly named as stationery office/sick room), the Art room, the new Conference Room, the Special Room A (also known as the Needle Work Room, and has a door that leads to the basketball court of the primary school), the Integrated Science Laboratory, two girls' lavatories, and three new extra classrooms (1G, 2G and CP1) which was renovated from the old covered playground that used to contain table tennis tables, and overlooked the tiny ground floor playground and the slope, now steps with plants, between them. This playground used to hold game stalls on games days and club activity days before the transformation. A staircase links the covered playground to the tiny playground on the first floor, right outside the windows of Music Room A. There is also a Student Union Room beside the staircase. The backstage of the Hall on the third floor is also accessible from stairs between 2F and 2G classroom. On the third floor, there are two staff rooms (Staff Rooms (B) and (C)), six Form Three classrooms, a boys' and a girls' lavatories, The Sir Robert Kotewall Hall (aka "The Hall" or "School Hall"), the Biology and Advanced Biology Laboratories, the "red brick football playground" (yet another small playground, rectangular, that overlooks the primary school premises), and the canteen which is inside the primary school campus, but are for secondary school use only. Before arriving at the canteen, there are stairs which connect to the primary school building. On the fourth floor of the Old Wing (the red brick portion), there is a staffroom (Staff Room (A)), classrooms of Form Four and Five, A and B. A new reception area cum satellite library is also being built on this floor. Form Four Classrooms C to E, girls' lavatory and the IT-Learning Centre (ITLC) (which is also known as the computer room) are situated on the lower fourth floor of the New Wing while Form Five C to E, boys' lavatory and Lower Six Science C are on the upper fourth floor of the New Wing. A set of wooden stairs lead down to the third floor outside the Hall, and a concrete one up towards the roof of the Hall, where there is an outdoor basketball court. The gallery at the back of the Hall is accessed here. The MacDonnell Road entrance is also situated on this floor, near Staff Room (A). The core part of the school can be found on the fourth floor of the school as well, consisting of the Student Affairs Office (SAO), the Administration office and the Principal's office. On the fifth floor are the three Upper Sixth Science classrooms (A, B, C) and two Lower Sixth ones (A, B), one of which (Upper Six Science B) is isolated by the Chemistry and Advanced Chemistry Laboratories that take up a portion of the corridor. The classroom is isolated because safety regulations disallow students to enter or walk through the labs. Also on this floor are the Physics and Advanced Physics Laboratories, the girls' lavatory, and the basketball court on the top of the Hall. The Principal's Conference Room can be found next to the Advanced Physics Laboratory, and can alternatively be reached from a staircase on the fourth floor next the MacDonnell Road exit. Hence, students are disallowed from going up that staircase. The sixth floor houses the English Corner and the Dance Studio, reachable by staircases in the New Wing. Staircases in the Old Wing leads up to the roof, which is theoretically out of bounds for students. However, it is a tradition for Upper Sixth graduated to go up to the roof to celebrate their last day in school, and janitors would be tolerant of this rule-breaking on that particular day. The sixth floor in the Primary School building houses Form Five F, Lower and Upper Sixth Arts classrooms, two staff rooms (Staff Rooms (G) and (E)), with Staff Room G formerly known as the Old AV Room, and the Geography Room. On the seventh floor in the Primary School building, there is Form Four F, the school library, a staff room (Staff Room (F)), the Finance Office, the Community Relations Office and the Project Office. This portion in the primary school section is relatively remote from the main campus, and is nicknamed "Siberia" by students. The school's swimming pool is located at 1 Calder Path. The School Improvement Programme (SIP) Annex has been in use since September 2006. This annex is a small block behind the Hall which raises the building from ten up to 12 floors, including a few new classrooms, a computer room, a staff room (Staff Room (H)), and a multi-purpose room. Due to the height of the building, it is nicknamed 'High Mountain' by students. In 2008, the secondary school will undergo redevelopment when the primary school moves to its new campus in Wong Chuk Hang.

Assembly

Normally, there is an assembly every school day from 8:30 am to 8:45 am. Students start arriving the hall from 8:20 - 8:30 am. While waiting for all students to be seated, a student from the Pianist Chamber (different every day) plays a classical piece of music (except for once a pianist composed a piece in classical style). Assembly starts with hymn singing and the Lord's Prayer, which is then followed by performances, presentations, speeches etc. It usually ends with announcements of the school, clubs and interest groups.

When assembly is to include performances, presentations, speeches etc, there will be a 30-minute "Long assembly" instead. It ends with a reminder of a different timetable for morning lessons

Uniform

St. Paul's Co-educational College is renowned as the first secondary school that requires students to wear school uniforms in Hong Kong, thus beginning the culture. The uniforms of St. Paul's today are one of the typical styles of Hong Kong student uniforms. The idea behind the uniform is often cited as to be as simple and plain as possible. This implies no make-up and only a pair of simple ear studs (no earrings) for girls, and boys should not have hair that is long enough to touch the shirt's collar. Flamboyant hairstyles are not permitted. The male summer uniform is a white short-sleeved shirt, a metal school badge above the sole chest pocket on the left, with deep blue trousers, black shoes and white socks with no logos; The winter uniform is a long-sleeved white shirt with grey trousers, with a red school tie with tiny blue school badges on them (these are worn with the summer uniform for ceremonial purposes as well, and probably with a long-sleeved shirt if called for). The deep blue suit-jacket style blazer with a large silver-brimmed school badge sewn onto the chest pocket is compulsory. The female summer uniform is based on the traditional cheongsam, plain blue with darker blue rims, with white socks and black shoes. The school badge is positioned below the collar in the middle. The winter uniform is similar, except that the dress is long-sleeved, of a thick material, without different coloured brims and is navy blue. Again, the blazer is optional. The dress must be long enough to conceal the knees when standing up. At below 12 degrees Celsius or for specific health conditions, girls are allowed to wear a white long-sleeved shirt and long blue trousers.

Wool jumpers are optional for both the summer and winter. These must be dark blue. They can either be customised ones with the SPCC logo on it that are sold at school, or completely dark blue, where if the metal school badge is concealed, it must be replaced onto the jumper. The jumpers can be sleeveless, long sleeved, buttoned or unbuttoned. Sports wear is common for boys and girls: a white, short-sleeved top with a modernized school badge and 'SPCC' on the left side of the chest, with a pair of dark blue shorts, white socks and sports shoes that should be mostly white. However, the shorts for boys and girls are slightly different. Those for boys are looser (similar to basketball shorts) while those for girls are more tight-fitting (similar to volleyball shorts). Swimming gear: swimming trunks for boys and swimsuits for girls. They are of the same colour, the same red and white stripes running vertically, and the words 'SPCC' sewn onto them near the left hip.

Current policies

Language policy

The school adopts a "Language Policy". Students are required to speak only Putonghua and English on the campus. This policy is not producing results it intended. Students talk in Cantonese. The reason for its failure lies in the fact that the Language Captains, who were selected to promote this policy, were not supportive enough. Most of them do not carry out their duties. Students are required to do a peer assessment on the language policy twice a school year. Students are usually not fair when doing the assessment as they give higher marks to their friends. During the prize giving ceremony, Language Captains that are not very dutiful got awards too. N.B. Many school teachers speak English in lessons, while many also speak Cantonese.

Cleaning campaign

Cleaning Campaign intends to motivate students to keep their classrooms clean and tidy while the real intention is commonly believed to be 'saving manpower for the school'. There are inspections every week, classes with the lowest marks in cleanliness and tidiness will have to stay after school to clean up their classrooms. The three classes with the highest mark will be announced but no prizes will be awarded.

Cultural salon

The Cultural Salons are organized by a core group consisting of students from different forms. The core group organizes activities that elevate students' awareness and concern about the past, and current culture. Guests are often invited to give talk at school during Enrichment Programme Days. However, Cultural Salon does not prove to be successful due to the following reasons. First, the topics are not attractive enough and a substantial amount of students fell asleep during the talks. Second, the activities do not seem to attract a lot of students. For instance, there were only a handful of students who attended a talk by Miss Wong Ying Kei. Third, many students and teachers agree that it is a waste of resources. Despite all the inefficiencies, it is apparent that the Cultural Salons will continue to exist for a couple of years since the core group have been recruiting new members.

Future developments

International Baccalaureate

On 15th November, 2006, a press release was published. It introduced plans for an IB Diploma programme from the academic year of 2010. This will be accompanied by upgrading the campus to accommodate foreign exchange students and non-local staff/ students, giving students more exposure to the broader world, in a bid to make St. Paul's a world-class institution.

Alumni choir

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 1981, the Alumni Choir was also commissioned by Dr Kotewall to organise an annual Carol Service every December, to give the alumni an oasis of time and space amid their busy lives once a year to quiet down and focus on their relationship with God again. In addition to its regular appearances in the Carol Service, the Summer Concert and other significant functions of the School, the Alumni Choir also organises 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. Through the years, the Alumni Choir has performed under a long list of distinguished conductors, including Jimmy Chan, Carmen Koon, Angela Yeung, Gilbert Sak, Apollo Wong and Erica Lowe.

Alumni

Academics

Public services / professionals

Business

Artists

International liaison

Access

The school is currently on the route of Citybus route 12A from the Admiralty (Tamar Street) Bus Terminal and the Green Minibus route 1A from the Central City Hall. There are bus routes 3B, 12, 23, 23B, 40, 103, minibuses 9, 22, 22S, 28 at Kennedy Road, just below the school. The school is also accessible by taxi, or even on foot if the gradient is not too taxing for the individual. The school is not too far away from Hong Kong Park, and can be reached by exiting from Pacific Place and taking a short walk through the Park. School bus services are provided to students.

See also

External links

View More Summaries on St. Paul's Co-educational College
 
View all | View only answered questions | View only unanswered questions
Ask any question on St. Paul's Co-educational College and get it answered FAST!
Answer questions in BookRags Q&A and earn points toward
discounted or even FREE Study Guides and other BookRags products!
Learn more about BookRags Q&A
Copyrights
St. Paul's Co-educational College from Wíkipedia. ©2006 by Wíkipedia. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. View a list of authors or edit this article.

Article Navigation
Join BookRagslearn moreJoin BookRags
About BookRags | Customer Service | Report an Error | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy |