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Wah Yan College, Hong Kong

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This article is about the Wah Yan College on Hong Kong Island. For Wah Yan College in Kowloon, see Wah Yan College, Kowloon.

Wah Yan College, Hong Kong (WYCHK ; demonym: Wahyanite, pl.: Wahyanites; is a grant-in-aid secondary school in Hong Kong. It was founded on December 16, 1919, by Tsui Yan Sau Peter (1889-1980). It is a Roman Catholic secondary school for boys run by the Society of Jesus, Ireland. Fully subsidized by the Government of Hong Kong, WYCHK is a grammar school using English as the medium of instruction. It has an enrolment of approximately 1,000 with about 50 teachers and Irish Jesuit Fathers. The present principal of the college is Mr. Tam Siu Ping, George.

Wah Yan College, Hong Kong
Chinese: 香港華仁書院
New annexe
Location
Map
Mount Parish, 281 Queens Road East

Hong Kong
Information
TypeGrant-in-aid
MottoIn Hoc Signo Vinces
("In this sign you shall conquer")
Established1919
FounderMr Tsui Yan Sau Peter
School districtWan Chai
PrincipalMr George S. P. Tam
GradesF.1 - F.7
Enrolment948 (Sep 2006)
NewspaperThe Starlet
YearbookThe Star
AffiliationRoman Catholic
Governing BodySociety of Jesus, Ireland
Brother schoolWah Yan College, Kowloon
Websitewww.wahyan.edu.hk

History

The beginnings

File:Wahyan robinson.jpg
Robinson Road campus

The College was founded by Mr Tsui Yan Sau Peter on December 16 1919 on the 2nd floor of 60 Hollywood Road. On the first day of lessons, there were only 4 students. In the few years that followed, the College had also used 54A Peel Street and 33 Mosque Junction as campuses. As the number of students continues to arise, the College moved to a new campus at 2 Robinson Road (the present site of Bishop Lei Int'l House and Raimondi College) after Lunar New Year, 1921. On October 1 1922, the College was listed as a Grant-in-aid school. In 1924, a new branch school of the College, now known as Wah Yan College, Kowloon, was established. A hostel in Wah Yan opened in 1927. In the same year, the first Irish Jesuit father, Fr John Neary, came to Wah Yan as a teacher of Religious Knowledge.

In the early days of Wah Yan, the grades were not named as Forms 1-7, but Classes 1-8 instead. The "classes" were numbered in reverse order: Class 1 was equivalent to present day's Form 6 (the equivalent for Form 7 did not exist at that time), Class 6 was equivalent to present day's Form 1 and Class 8 was equivalent to present day's Primary 5.

Wah Yan under the Irish Jesuits

In 1932 the College was gradually transferred to the Society of Jesus, after a long series of negotiations between the original administration and the Jesuit fathers. The transfer was completed on December 31, and Fr Gallagher, S.J. replaced Mr Lim Hoi Lan as the headmaster. The school was also given a new name: College of Christ the King.

In 1933, the College published its first volume of its yearbook, The Star. House system was introduced in 1934. In 1940 the hostel was closed down.

Wartime Wah Yan

Japanese troops invaded Hong Kong in December 1941. Classes were suspended as a result. Fr Gallagher and Fr McAsey were interned by the Japanese.

During the War, Wah Yan continued operations in Macau for a period of time.[1]

There was another Wah Yan set up during the occupation (called "Wah Yan Chung Hok", meaning Wah Yan middle school) which was closed down shortly before the War ended, due to the reason that the school "was the worst in the lack of teaching of the East Asia spirit".

Post-war development

After the Japanese troops surrendered, the College reopened on September 8 1945. Later in the year, Wah Yan Middle School was re-established as the Chinese stream of the College. In March 1946, the organization of the Wah Yan Dramatic Society, mainly consisted of alumni from the college and Wah Yan College, Kowloon, was commenced, and officially formed next year. Its first production was "The Thrice Promised Bride".

A night school was started by the College on February 17, 1948. In the next year, an afternoon school was also opened. In 1950 the Chinese stream of the College was closed down.

In 1951, the classes were renamed as forms: Class 1 into Form 6, Class 2 into Form 5, and so on. Class 7 and Class 8 were renamed as Primary 6 and 5 respectively.

In 1952 the afternoon school was also closed.

Queens Road East "Mount Parish" era

In 1954, construction for a new campus at Mount Parish, Wan Chai started. On September 27 1955 the new campus was formally opened by Sir Alexander Grantham, then Governor of Hong Kong.

The school newspaper, "Starlet", was established in 1964. In 1971, the Jesuits took over the then Pun U Primary School. The primary school was renamed Pun U Association Wah Yan Primary School, and was establishd as the primary branch of the College.[2] The night school was closed in 1984. The streaming to Arts and Science was started in Form 4 in 1986.

On April 12 1987, the Gordon Wu Hall to the north of the main building was opened. In the same year Wah Yan got its first "10 A" in the HKCEE.

On May 8 1992, heavy rainfall caused a severe landslide to occur at the junction of Kennedy Road and Queens Road East. It killed a driver passing by in his car. The landslide caused the Laboratory Block to sink. Cracks were all over the playground, and a worsening crack in the Classroom Block even had to be covered up with stainless steel plates. In the same year Wah Yan got 3 "10 As" in the HKCEE. Six classrooms (2H, 2K, 4H, 4K, 6S2, 7A) were demolished in 1993 due to the landslide. They were rebuilt and were reopened in 1998. [3]

The website of the school was first prepared by Dr Ashley Cheng in 1994. In 1997, the Parent-Teacher Association was established. In 1998, all classrooms were installed with air-conditioners.

School Development Project

As the campus of the College starts to age, there had been plans to redevelop the school since 1995. However, the initial plans were aborted due to lack of funds and local law restrictions on architecture. In 2001 the Education and Manpower Bureau planned to upgrade all existing schools in Hong Kong to millennium standard, and the College successfully applied for part of the necessary funds for redevelopment. The School Development Project (SDP) was formally launched on January 26 2003, and works were officially started on May 25 2003 with the demolition of the old music room block.

The original aims of the School Development Project were to:

  • Upgrade the school campus to millennium standards
  • Provide extra classrooms required by the "through-train" education mode (this had been proved unnecessary since the school has decided not to adopt the "through-train" mode, mainly because of the declining academic standards of the students entering the College directly from Pun U Association Wah Yan Primary School)
  • Construct a new assembly hall that can accommodate all students at the same time[4]

The total cost is estimated to be HK$103.72M. It consists of 3 phases:

  • Phase 1, which involves rebuilding the existing music room into a 6-storey multi-use complex. The cost was HK$38.9M.
  • Phase 2, which is an extension of Phase 1. The cost was HK$4.82M.
  • Phase 3, which involves rebuilding the hall. The cost is estimated to be HK$57M.

Funding for Phase 1 is by the Hong Kong Government's Quality Education Fund and the School Improvement Programme. Funding for Phases 2 and 3 are by fund-raising campaigns hosted by the school.

Phases 1 and 2 (New Annex) have already been completed and formally opened on January 31 2006 by Mr Donald Tsang, the Chief Executive of Hong Kong. Phase III consists of a new school hall annex with a much larger hall that can accommodate all the students in the school. The annex will also house five extra classrooms and a lecture theatre. Phase III was originally estimated to be completed by December 2006; however the lack of funds had greatly delayed the completion time. Works for Phase III had not started yet and fund-raising is still in progress.[5]

List of Principals since 1919

Name Period
Mr Tsui Yan Sau Peter 1919-1926
Mr Lim Hoy Lam Andrew 1926-1932
Fr Gallagher, S.J. 1932-1940
Fr Bourke, S.J. 1940-1948
Fr Cooney, S.J. 1948-1951
Fr Carroll, S.J. 1951-1956
Fr Barrett S.J. 1956-1962
Fr Foley, S.J. 1962-1968
Fr Alfred J Deignan, S.J. 1968-1970
Fr Barrett, S.J. (2nd time) 1970-1982
Fr Reid, S.J. 1982-1985
Fr Baptista, S.J. 1985-1988
Fr Coghlan, S.J. 1988-1996
Mr Tam Siu Ping George 1996-

Achievements

 
The Lunar New Year fair stall put up by students from the college
  • In 2007 the student organisation of the college participated in the Lunar New Year Stall Competition co-organized by Shell and the Hong Kong Youth Federation, and won the grand prize of $10,000.[6]
  • The Red Cross cadet group of the college has secured first place in the annual drill competition for 5 years consecutively since 2003.

Wah Yan College Hong Kong - St. Joseph College Rivalry Tradition

There has been rivalry since 1970's, both in academics and athletics between Wah Yan College Hong Kong and St. Joseph's College, Hong Kong, two prestigious Catholic boy schools on the Hong Kong Island side of Hong Kong. Both schools have rich histories of academic excellence, as well as athletic competition and school pride. The order of the names is by no means consistent; affiliates of either school will typically put their school's name first. WYCHK typically places higher in Hong Kong secondary school rankings. According to a recent Hong Kong Top 100 School rankings, WYCHK ranked at 5th and SJC ranked at 8th.

1st: Queen's College, Hong Kong

2nd: Diocesan Boys' School

3rd: La Salle College

4th: Diocesan Girls' School

5th: Wah Yan College, Hong Kong

6th: Wah Yan College, Kowloon

7th: St. Paul's Co-educational College

8th: St. Joseph's College, Hong Kong

Wah Yan Tradition

  • The Wah Yan Spirit -- "Men for and with others"
  • Once a Wahyanite, forever a Wahyanite.
  • Wah Yan Dramatic Society and the "English Chinese Opera" performing heritage
  • The strong Wahyanites bonding
  • Annual student exchange program with Wah Yan College, Kowloon and the school tie exchange tradition
  • WYCHK's "Unofficial" sister school - Marymount Secondary School

Campus

The current campus at 281 Queens Road East, Wan Chai has an area of about 20,000 m² (220,000 square feet, located on a small hill known as Mount Parish. It was originally designed by the late Professor Gordon Brown, the founder of the Architecture Faculty of Hong Kong University.

Completed in 1955, the school has 7 main buildings:

  • Classroom Block (partly reconstructed after a landslide in 1992)
  • Laboratory Block
  • Administration Wing
  • Chapel
  • Hall
  • Gordon Wu Hall (completed in 1987)
  • New Annex (completed in 2005 as phases I and II of the School Development Project)
 
Chapel (left) and Laboratory Block (right)

They contribute towards a total of 26 classrooms, 14 special rooms, a hall, a tuck shop, a chapel (previously 2, with one demolished prior to the school development project (SDP)), 3 playgrounds and 2 squash courts.

The Classroom Block, Laboratory Block and Administration Wing are linked together.

Since the campus' completion in 1955, it has undergone three major changes: the addition of Gordon Wu Hall in 1987, the reconstruction of six classrooms from 1992-98, and the School Development Project launched in 2003.

Classroom Block

The Classroom Block is a 3-storey building which was originally constructed using red bricks. However, replacements for red bricks became unavailable and gradually the red bricks were replaced with hand-painted bricks. The wooden window frames had also been gradually replaced with aluminium ones.

In 1992, a severe landslide caused a part of the block to be reconstructed, and was reconstructed with concrete. Brick wall patterns were painted on the walls to blend in with the original parts of the building.

The Classroom Block houses 24 classrooms (all classes except 7S1 and 7S2) and 4 toilets (3 male, plus one female for guests).

Laboratory Block

The Laboratory Block is also a 3-storey building which is linked to the Classroom Block. It houses the classrooms of 7S1 (a physics lectural theatre) and 7S2 (a chemistry lectural theatre), the physics, chemistry, biology and integrated science laboratories, geography room, an integrated humanity centre (IHC), sports office, a canteen, a tuck shop, a prefects' room, and a scout room. It also houses a prayer room, a Multimedia Learning Centre (MMLC), an English corner, and 2 store rooms in the basement.

Administration Wing

The Administration Wing is dedicated to Mr Wu Jieh Yee by Patrick Wu who donated HK$5,000,000 for the School Development Project. It houses the principal's room, the rooms for the two assistant principals, the supervisor's room, a store room, the school office, the reception (which is rumored to be haunted), 4 meeting rooms, a Parent-Teacher Association room, three toilets (2 for the staff, 1 for the disabled), the school secretary's office, an archives corner, and a Father's Quarters.

Chapel

Like the Classroom Block, the chapel was originally built with red bricks but gradually replaced with hand-painted ones. The Stations of the Cross in the chapel, unlike most other churches, are made with mosaic tiled on the brick walls. It belongs to the St. Magarets Parish.[7] There are daily mass for students who are interested, and there are also Sunday mass for the general public.[8]

Hall

 
Hall and lawn

The hall is a concrete building which is painted in yellow. There are seats for about 500 people. Due to its current capacity, the hall is unable to accommodate all the students at the same time, and monthly assemblies had to be done twice, one for senior forms and one for junior. The school is planning to rebuild the hall into a multi-storey complex, with a much larger hall which will be able to hold all the students at the same time.

Gordon Wu Hall

The building is named after Sir Gordon Wu who donated a sum of money to the school in the 1980s. It has 5 storeys. It was completed in 1987, and houses a transformer room, a squash court, a store room, a Past Students' Association room, a Campus TV room, an art room, a kiln room, a ceramics studio, a visual arts office, two computer rooms, a Careers and Further Studies room, a Moral and Civic Education Working Committee room, 4 Interactive Learning Rooms, a Discipline Board room, the education psychologist's room, the social worker's room, a counselling room and two gent toilets for the staff. It also houses the Wah Yan College Cats' cathouse on the roof.

New Annex

The New Annex was built as Phases 1 and 2 of the School Development Project. It was officially opened in 2006, though part of its facilities were used starting from September 2005. It is a 6-storey building which houses a conference room, a staff room, a library, a staff common room, a creativity laboratory, a Computer Assisted Learning Room, a music room, a music training area, a Student Association room, a student activity centre (SAC), and 10 toilets (3 gents, 2 ladies and 5 disabled).

The music room was a replacement for the original music room which has once been burnt and torn down in 2003. During the construction of the New Annex it was temporarily placed at today's prayer room.

The library was dedicated to Mr Ma Ying, who sponsored renovation works completed in 1974. Before the New Annex was built, the library was situated at the present day's geography room and the IHC.

Class Structure

There are a total of 26 classes in Wah Yan College, Hong Kong.

There are 4 classes each of Form 1 to Form 5, they are named "W", "Y", "H", "K", which stand for "Wah", "Yan", "Hong" and "Kong" respectively. There are 3 classes each in Forms 6 and 7, two 'Science' (1 & 2), and one 'Arts'.

Curriculum

Forms 1-2

English, Chinese, Mathematics, Art & Design, Chinese History, History, Integrated Science, Geography, Music, Computer Literacy, Physical Education, Putonghua, Religious Studies.

There is no streaming in Forms 1 and 2. Students are equally allocated into W, Y, H and K classes.

Form 3

English, Chinese, Mathematics, Art & Design, Chinese History, History, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geography, Music, Computer Literacy, Physical Education, Religious Studies.

There is also no streaming in Form 3. The top 40 students are placed in one class (3K as of 2006), and the other students are equally distributed among the other three classes.

Forms 4-5

Students are streamed into either science or arts streams. English, Chinese, Mathematics, & Religious Studies are common core subjects, Computer and IT, Geography, History, Economics are common option subjects.

Arts students will take Chinese History, Economics, Principle of Accounts as core subjects, while Science students will take Physics, Chemistry, Biology

Students may also take Music, Physical Education (as HKCEE subject), Putonghua or Visual Arts as an extra subject.

Forms 6-7

6S1/7S1 (Science) 6S2/7S2 (Science) 6A/7A (Arts)
Core Use of English (AS)
Chinese Language & Culture (AS)
Ethics
Physical Education (non-HKAL)
Options (choose one from each row) Physics (AL) Physics (AL)
  • Principle of Accounts
  • Chinese History (AL)
Chemistry (AL)
  • Chemistry (AL)
  • Economics (AL)
  • Economics (AL)
  • Geography (AL)
  • Biology (AL)
  • Pure Mathematics (AL)
  • Pure Mathematics (AL)
  • Computer Applications (AS)
  • Liberal Studies (AS)
  • Mathematics & Statistics (AS)
  • L.S. + M&S
  • C.A. + M&S
  • Computer Applications (AS)
  • Liberal Studies (AS)
  • Mathematics & Statistics (AS)
  • L.S. + M&S
  • C.A. + M&S

Houses

As of 2006 there are 4 houses in Wah Yan. Each house has their own representative colour.

House Representative Colour
Berchmans Red
Xavier Green
Kostka Blue
Loyola White

Students entering Wah Yan College, Hong Kong are allocated into the 4 houses equally.

Extracurricular Activities

In Wah Yan College, Hong Kong, extracurricular activities (ECAs) are divided into two main groups: A and B. Group A contains school organizations and clubs/societies operated by students. Group B contains Catholic organizations, sport teams and other unclassified organizations.

Each student may participate 4 Group A activities at most. The maximum number of Group B activities that a student may join is left to the discretion of the teacher advisers and parents concerned.

School Song

The school song was composed in about 1960 by a Filipino, Sister Carmeia, one of the best musicians in Hong Kong of the time. The lyrics were written by Fr. Patrick McGovern S.J. who was a teacher in Wah Yan and a member of the Legislative Council at that time.[9]

Notable Alumni

Politics/Civil Service


Health

Entertainment

Commerce

Others

Transportation

  • By bus: (get off at "Li Chi Ho Primary School" station for eastbound, or "Wah Yan College Hong Kong" station for westbound)
  • By Green Minibus (GMB) service:
    • 28
    • 35M
    • 56
  • By MTR: 10 minutes walk from Wan Chai MTR station

References

  1. ^ Wah Yan History Review 1
  2. ^ Pun U Association Wah Yan Primary School
  3. ^ History of Wah Yan - Timeline
  4. ^ SDP Brochure
  5. ^ Wah Yan College Hong Kong School Development Project
  6. ^ Mingpao, 營「宵」有道 華仁生奪獎, 19 March 2007 (From Yahoo! News)
  7. ^ St. Magaret's Church
  8. ^ Index of Sunday Mass
  9. ^ School Song (Wah Yan College Hong Kong)

See also

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wah Yan College, Hong Kong.
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