New British school to enter what will become a very crowded Hong Kong primary sector
Historic Shrewsbury International School will offer kindergarten and primary education, but government forecasts a surplus of places from coming academic year
A prestigious British international school will open its doors to kindergarten and primary school students in Hong Kong next year,offering “state-of-the art” facilities dedicated to sports, performing arts, languages and science and technology.
The Hong Kong school will be the second branch to open in Asia. The first opened its doors in Bangkok in 2003.
It will accept applications from April 24. Open house sessions have been arranged for April and May.
“[I am] absolutely confident in our ability to deliver a unique, ground-breaking benchmarking proposition for the education of the youngest children in this fantastic city,” school principal Ben Keeling said.
The new institution is the latest international school to enter a highly competitive market, as the Education Bureau projects there will be a surplus of places in international primary schools from the coming academic year.
The school can handle at least 880 students aged from three to 11, with a curriculum focused on language development and extracurricular activities, with facilities such as an indoor running track, an aquatics centre and a music school.
Around 70 teaching staff will be hired to cater to classes of around 20 students.
The school will not ask for debentures, which often allow guaranteed admission at a hefty price. However, it will charge HK$169,000 in annual tuition fees and an annual capital levy of HK$45,000 or a lump sum of HK$200,000.
In comparison, another British institution, Harrow International School in Tuen Mun charges HK$160,261 for primary school students, but parents can also shell out up to HK$5 million in debentures.
Chinese International School in North Point charges HK$182,200 for tuition and requires the payment of HK$70,000 – of which HK$17,500 is an annual levy – to secure a place.
Parents and students will have the option of moving to a secondary school either in the UK or Hong Kong.
The school said the UK branch would not guarantee a place for its Hong Kong students and there was no reserved quota for the city’s pupils.Rather, staff would work with families on a one-on-one basis from Year 4 to ensure that students would find a suitable secondary school.
Some 10 per cent of current students enrolled in the UK are from Hong Kong, according to Stephen Holroyd, director of schools for Shrewsbury International Asia.
“We were well aware that [schooling from three to 18] was an option for us, but when we looked at the site and opportunity available, we saw a compromise, so we did not want to go in that direction,” Holroyd said.
The Education Bureau selected the school in 2015 to “ease the shortage of international school places”, the school said.
However, according to the latest government projections released last month, the current shortfall of 149 places for international primary schools will turn into a surplus in the coming academic year, with a forecast of an oversupply of 3,526 places by 2022.
Education sector lawmaker Ip Kin-yuen worried that international schools may struggle to recruit students in the future.
“If you look at the trend of new schools opening in Hong Kong for the past few years, they are all international schools and the market is becoming saturated. They may encounter problems with student recruitment,” Ip said.
Holroyd dismissed Ip’s concern, expressing confidence that their recruitment and retention of teachers would be attractive to Hong Kong parents.