St. Louis School, Hong Kong

This article is about the Catholic school in Hong Kong. For the Catholic school with the same name in Hawaii, see Saint Louis School.

St. Louis School
Chinese: 聖類斯中學
East Wing of St. Louis School at the corner of Third Street and Kwong Fung Lane.
Location
179 Third Street

Sai Ying Pun

Hong Kong
Information
School typeGrant-in-aid, Secondary school
MottoScientia et Pietas
("Knowledge and Piety")
Chinese: 學問與虔敬並重
Religious affiliationRoman Catholic
Patron saintSt Aloysius
Established1864 (1864) (as West Point Reformatory)
FounderFathers of the Catholic Mission
AuthoritySociety of St. Francis de Sales a.k.a. Salesians of Don Bosco
Chinese: 鮑思高慈幼會
PresidentRev. Fr. Dr. Matthew Chan Hung-Kee 陳鴻基神父, B.A. (Hons), B.T.(Hons), M.Ed., D.Ed. (Hons) (Supervisor)
PrincipalDr. Victor Yick Ho-Kuen (易浩權博士) (BSc, PGDE, MEd, MA, DEd)
Teaching staff55
GradesS.1 - S.6
GenderMale
Enrolment710 (2021 school year)
LanguageEnglish
Campus size10,000 m²
HousesRose, Tulip, Thistle, Shamrock, Lily
ColoursRed, blue, white
Song"All Hail, All Hail"
PublicationAloysians
Chinese: 博藝
Feeder schoolsSt Louis School (Primary Section)
Scout Group16th Hong Kong Group
Websitewww.stlouis.edu.hk

St. Louis School (Chinese: 聖類斯中學), in Sai Ying Pun (historically West Point, Hong Kong) is a private, Catholic primary and (government-subsidised) secondary English grammar school. There are about 800 secondary students and 350 primary school students.

History

Early history

During the 1840s, the present location of St. Louis School was the site of a small battery, called the West Point Battery or Elliot's Battery.[1]

St. Louis School was founded in 1864 by the Fathers of the Catholic Mission; St Aloysius was chosen as the patron of the school.[2] The school was initially known as the West Point Reformatory.[3] The Brothers of the Christian Schools (commonly known as the La Salle Brothers) succeeded the Fathers in the management of the school in 1875 and managed the school until 1893.

In 1921, Dominic Pozzoni, the ordinary of Hong Kong, asked the Maryknoll Fathers to take over. Some of the boys were orphans while the rest were remanded by the Hong Kong government, the government giving a small monthly grant for each student. The Maryknoll Fathers renamed the school St Louis Industrial School and equipped it with a printing press. The students became expert in this, and seven years later when the Paris Foreign Missions Society started their polyglot press at Nazareth in Pokfulam, they took into their employ many of these boys.

When Brother Albert Staubli arrived, he added manual training to its curriculum in the way of carpentry. The American Maryknoller Fr James Edward Walsh, who was one of the first four American missioners to arrive in China and the last Western missioner to be released by the Communist China in 1970, spent some time at the school too.[3]

Early in 1926, Maryknoll's father superior and one of the co-founders, Fr James Anthony Walsh, visited to his fledgling mission fields in South China and spent some weeks in Hong Kong before visiting Kongmoon (now called Jiangmen) and Kaying (in Meixian). In the course of his stay, the position of the industrial school was reviewed and it was eventually handed back to the diocese.[3]

Salesian Fathers

In 1927, the school was given to the Salesian Fathers and has been run by them since then.[4] The year 1927 is now regarded as the founding year of today's school.[2] The school was transformed from a vocational school to an English grammar school in 1948.[4]

Facilities

The school consists of four wings: East, North, Central and West. The oldest one is the East Wing (Block A), which was built in 1936. The North Wing was damaged by a typhoon in 1942, and a new building was subsequently erected.[4] The Central and West Wings were constructed and opened in 1941 and 1967, respectively.[2]

The school's sports facilities include a football playground (with a stand for about 1,100 people), a basketball court and a covered playground.

Principals and Rectors

  • 1927-1934: Fr Vincenzo Bernardini; 1st Rector and Principal
  • 1934-1937: Fr Teodor Wieczorek; 2nd Rector and Principal
  • 1937-1946: Fr John Guarona; 3rd Rector and Principal
  • 1946-1949: Fr Pietro Pomat; 4th Rector and Principal
  • 1949-1955: Fr John Clifford; 5th Rector and Principal
  • 1955-1958: Fr Bernard Tohill; 6th Rector and Principal
  • 1958-1964: Fr Lam Yum-ching; 7th Rector and Principal
  • 1964-1970: Fr John Foster; 8th Rector and Principal
  • 1970-1976: Fr Alexander Smith; 9th Rector and Principal
  • 1976-1982: Fr Giuliano Carpella; 10th Rector and Principal[5]
  • 1982-1988: Fr Luigi Rubini; 1st Supervisor[6]
  • 1982-1986: Fr Patrick Deane; 11th Rector and Principal
  • 1988-1994: Fr Clement Wong; 2nd Supervisor
  • 1986-2016: Fr Simon Lam; 12th Principal; 3rd Supervisor 1994–2016
  • 2000-2003: Fr Alphonsus Cheng; 14th Rector
  • 2001-2002: Fr Joseph So; 13th Principal
  • 2002-2012: Fr Peter Ng; 14th Principal
  • 2012–2016: Dr Yip Wai-Ming; 15th Principal
  • 2016–Present: Fr. Matthew CHAN Hung-Kee; 4th Supervisor 2016–present
  • 2016-2021: Mr Peter Yu Lap-Fun, 16th Principal
  • 2021–present: Dr Victor Yick Ho-Kuen; 17th Principal

Conservation

The East Wing of St. Louis School, built in 1936, is listed as a Grade II historic building, "Buildings of special merit; efforts should be made to selectively preserve".[7] St. Louis School is part of the Central and Western Heritage Trail, Western District and the Peak Route.[2]

References

  1. ^ Lau, Alfred Y.K. (1995). "An Outline of the Urban Development of Sai Ying Pun in the Ninetenth Century" (PDF). Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch. 35: 64. ISSN 1991-7295.
  2. ^ a b c d Antiquities and Monuments Office. Central and Western Heritage Trail. St. Louis School
  3. ^ a b c Smith, Jim; Downs, William (1978), Maryknoll Hong Kong Chronicle 1918 – 1975 (Chronicle), Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America
  4. ^ a b c Antiquities Advisory Board. Historic Building Appraisal. East Wing, St. Louis School, No. 179 Third Street, Sai Ying Pun
  5. ^ https://archives.catholic.org.hk/In%20Memoriam/Clergy-Brother/G-Carpella.htm
  6. ^ https://archives.catholic.org.hk/In%20Memoriam/Clergy-Brother/L-Rubini.htm
  7. ^ Antiquities Advisory Board. List of the 1,444 Historic Buildings with Assessment Results Archived 26 January 2020 at the Wayback Machine

Further reading

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